So Close • Hacker News Board

Re: So Close

#251

Post by ClassyJacket » Tue, Jan 02, 2018, 9:49 PM UTC

adamweld wrote: post #91

twblalock wrote: post #10

If I understand the sequence of events properly, the company entered acquisition negotiations and agreed not to solicit other bids during that time. When the acquisition fell apart, the company was out of money and had to stop operations. If that's correct, it seems to me like it's something they should have known in advance -- if they knew they would be out of money by the end of the year, why would they enter acqui…

From the blog post: >I define startups as companies that don’t have control of their own destiny because they rely on investor cash infusions to operate. When asked, “How’s business?”, I always replied “I don’t have a business yet, we’re still a startup.” I despise this definition. I have grown my hardware startup sustainably while pursuing an engineering degree and maintaining full control of the company. I may soon…

> I have grown my hardware startup sustainably while pursuing an engineering degree and maintaining full control of the company.

Can I ask how you had time? And what was your source of income and funding while you were doing that?

And engineering degree alone is a huge workload, no?

Re: So Close

#252

Post by username223 » Tue, Jan 02, 2018, 9:52 PM UTC

retreatguru wrote: post #198

twblalock wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It reminds me of Juicero. The mechanism was total overkill -- it was actually very well engineered and machined as though cost was no object. They would have taken a loss selling them even at $699. The mechanism of a deadbolt is pretty simple. Other smart lock companies do fine with simple mechanisms. The way to differentiate a product in that space is ease of use and battery life, not by needlessly over-complicating…

From their website: “Freed of keys, you might just have more time and opportunity to explore life’s possibilities.” C’mon really? Similar to Juicero they could have gone to market with a simpler and less over engineered product and have a viable company but leadership had their heads in the clouds. He even starts the article with how amazing the Swiss watch engineer respected their work - as if that matters in the do…

> From the article: “... our customers would fall in love with the way they engaged the product and actually experience joy as they used it.”

He doesn't seem to have literally copy-and-pasted that palaver from somewhere else, but the first page of these search results suggests a malfunctioning robot stringing together memorized phrases at random:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=our+customers+would+fall+in+love+w...

Re: So Close

#253

Post by jsgo » Tue, Jan 02, 2018, 10:17 PM UTC

brucephillips wrote: post #202

amazingman wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This question makes it hard to believe you’re of adult age. Just about any adult should be able to imagine reasonable circumstances in which they could make “six figures” and still struggle to (e.g.) make rent.

This is almost the definition of bad adulting. If you make six figures, there's so many ways to live in the US within your means. Of course you can create difficult circumstances for yourself by paying 4k in rent as the sole provider, but this is irresponsible.

Location, location, location.

Now, if you can get into a remote position, awesome, but I could see living in SV or NYC or similar and feeling middle class pangs at low 6 figures.

Re: So Close

#254

Post by megy » Tue, Jan 02, 2018, 10:26 PM UTC

nkkollaw wrote: post #38

twblalock wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't even have a proximity sensor -- you have to touch it to make it work. Might as well stick a key in at the same time. If I paid that kind of money I would expect my door to unlock for me when I approached it. It also has no manual override with a key like some smart locks -- it just has some backup batteries that last an unspecified amount of time. Because it has no key, it can't be re-keyed, so good luck c…

It's so awesome when people create problems to fix non-problems. I never once thought my life would be better if I didn't need to put up with those nasty keys...

Really? I would love to not have to carry keys, or worry about losing keys. If my phone could unlock my door like I can pay for stuff with it, it would be great.

Re: So Close

#255

Post by atombender » Tue, Jan 02, 2018, 10:35 PM UTC

nkkollaw wrote: post #78

lobster_johnson wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many cases where a virtual lock beats a physical one. Most of them involve scenarios where the main occupant is absent, but needs to give access remotely; for example, let's say I went on vacation, then realized I left one of the windows of my apartment open. Not everyone has access to trustworthy people (friendly neighbours, friends, relatives, colleagues) who are also guaranteed to be around and willing t…

Sure, but is that actually an actual problem? I and my mom while I was little have given keys to the house to maids and similar and nothing ever happened in 40 years. I know most people do the same. I would be more afraid of actual problems like a malfunction of some kind (no battery, money in the house so that I can't buy batteries, etc. etc.), and I can't enter the house. Or, I lock myself out and no one can open t…

Of course it's a problem. I just outlined a use case. I don't want to leave my keys in a supermarket. The other scenarios (traveling and needing to grant someone access, for example) don't really have a good solution.

If you can afford a maid, then I doubt any of this would count as a problem, though.

Re: So Close

#256

Post by milkmilklemon » Tue, Jan 02, 2018, 11:19 PM UTC

State filings pointing to the same entities make it look like the CEO might still have a dog in the great lock race: https://www.wedgetls.com

Wonder why it's not full of bluetooths and clouds since that's clearly the way of the future.

Re: So Close

#257

Post by anonfunction » Tue, Jan 02, 2018, 11:26 PM UTC

DanBC wrote: post #222

anonfunction wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I guess you don't believe in "unconditional love"? I just can't imagine not loving my kids even if I knew I could not trust them. Another example would be family with mental illness to such a degree you may actually fear they will kill you in your sleep, but hopefully they would be placed in a safer environment and still have their families love and support.

Drug and alcohol.dependency are the things you need to worry about, not mental illness. http://research.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/cmhs/research/centrefor... Page 5: > xx. In all four UK countries, most patients convicted of homicide also have a history of alcohol or drug misuse, between 88% in England and 100% in N Ireland. In other words it is unusual for mental health patients to commit homicide unless there is a coexis…

There is a strong correlation between mental illness and substance abuse.

https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/como...

Re: So Close

#258

Post by rickycook » Tue, Jan 02, 2018, 11:32 PM UTC

dfcowell wrote: post #236

adamweld wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the blog post: >I define startups as companies that don’t have control of their own destiny because they rely on investor cash infusions to operate. When asked, “How’s business?”, I always replied “I don’t have a business yet, we’re still a startup.” I despise this definition. I have grown my hardware startup sustainably while pursuing an engineering degree and maintaining full control of the company. I may soon…

Why is what you have not a "small business?" Is that phrase just not sexy enough? Being a stable bootstrapped small business is more worthy of respect than being an unstable underfunded startup, in my opinion.

certainly more respect than an unstable, overfunded startup too!

Re: So Close

#259

Post by spondyl » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 12:24 AM UTC

kevinburke wrote: post #226

spondyl wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I swear I've seen your site before. I'd consider that good but hopefully it wasn't due to a similar scenario in the past. Anyway, best of luck!

Fortunately (depending on your perspective) this is the first and only time a company has not made good on their invoices. I have great relations with every company that has paid me! And every company I’ve worked with has been satisfied with what I’ve built for them

That is fortunate! I'm glad to hear it's just a slight bump in the road. Best of luck going forward!

Re: So Close

#260

Post by milkmilklemon » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 2:34 AM UTC

kevinburke wrote: post #130

I worked on Otto's server side software as a contractor for five months. The company had some servers written in C and exchanging messages using a custom binary protocol, designed for millions of transactions per second, when they needed only 2-3tps, readability, and the ability to make fast changes. We rewrote those servers in Go, found and fixed consistency errors in them, and actually got to the point where you co…

Even if we assume that your code is infallible and that Go is a good choice for this purpose, a ground-up rewrite of the core service by an outside contractor with ~4 years of experience five months prior to launch is a pretty clear sign of absolute desperation amongst the upper echelons. It truly, truly sucks that you got bit at such a horrible time and it's virtually impossible that any part of it was your fault, but I don't think you can say there were NO signs trouble was brewing. The fact that they were bringing contractors on board that late in the game to bail them out of the holes they spent 3 years digging is one big flashing "DANGER" sign. Then there's everything else about the product...

My absolute sincerest condolences, but it sounds like you might have made a couple rookie mistakes, too. As entertaining as hearing these insider tales might be, please don't add getting sued for breaking an NDA to that pile. Talk all the smack you want, but things like timelines, architectures and languages used are not public information at this point and we can be pretty sure these are not the most ethical people in the world.