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Ask Tom Preston-Werner, cofounder of GitHub, anything Today, Mon 18 Oct 2010.

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Re: Ask Tom Preston-Werner, cofounder of GitHub, anything Today, Mon 18 Oct 2010.

#91
post #77

Have you thought about having people working for GitHub on other countries - telecommuting -, I mean, there are really smart guys all over the world, that's one of the lessons I've learned from opensource, so being GH mostly driven and built by opensource hackers, any chance GH will be open for that kind of work?.

Our lead sysadmin is in Australia and we have a support person in Greece. So yes, we're open to it!

Re: Ask Tom Preston-Werner, cofounder of GitHub, anything Today, Mon 18 Oct 2010.

#92
post #57

The smartest people I know want to do their own startups. It is getting easier, so more people are doing it. How do you hire in the face of this issue?

You do it by building a company so compelling that those people would rather join your company than start their own. You do this by optimizing for happiness and creating a culture that can't be ignored.

Are you recruiting at the moment? I couldn't see anything on github jobs...

Re: Ask Tom Preston-Werner, cofounder of GitHub, anything Today, Mon 18 Oct 2010.

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

280 North + Notifo + X + Y + Z Drinkups.. I like it. Though 280 could probably pull off their own drinkup ;) If there is enough interest in this from other local startups, I'll setup some google group where we can discuss logistics/planning.

We need a name. "Startups" + "drinks" = DRINKUP!

you startuppers drink a lot :-P Joking, wish I was in SF ;-)

Re: Ask Tom Preston-Werner, cofounder of GitHub, anything Today, Mon 18 Oct 2010.

#95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We need a name. "Startups" + "drinks" = DRINKUP!

you startuppers drink a lot :-P Joking, wish I was in SF ;-)

Well, there's no reason you can't have the same kind of event in other cities. In fact this model of batching a bunch of startups/projects together would be perfect for areas with a lower density of startups...

Re: Ask Tom Preston-Werner, cofounder of GitHub, anything Today, Mon 18 Oct 2010.

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

280 North + Notifo + X + Y + Z Drinkups.. I like it. Though 280 could probably pull off their own drinkup ;) If there is enough interest in this from other local startups, I'll setup some google group where we can discuss logistics/planning.

We need a name. "Startups" + "drinks" = DRINKUP!

There's already a loose association of events called "Startup Drinks"... we've got a fairly popular one here in Pittsburgh.

Re: Ask Tom Preston-Werner, cofounder of GitHub, anything Today, Mon 18 Oct 2010.

#97
To what extent to you implement ROWE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROWE

It sounds like you have a few of these qualities... choosing your work hours, for example... but what about measuring results. Do you have any specific tips on how to measure results without getting too confused or attached to the a new incorrect metric?

Re: Ask Tom Preston-Werner, cofounder of GitHub, anything Today, Mon 18 Oct 2010.

#98
You mentioned below that all employees get equity, but it also sounds like you guys are quite happy with the growth you're having and are in it for the long-haul. (Incorrect?)

Do you expect to ever have a liquidity event (sell the company), or is there some proportionate profit-sharing plan with the equity?

Re: Ask Tom Preston-Werner, cofounder of GitHub, anything Today, Mon 18 Oct 2010.

#99
post #64

How essential to your success do you feel the freemium model was?

I don't know that I'd classify us as a traditional freemium offering. The only difference between the free and paid accounts is privacy. In any case, this has worked out extremely well for us. In exchange for free access to the site for open source we get a tremendous amount of exposure. In essence we are trading free accounts for free advertising. I think this approach has been critical to the rate of our growth, both for free and paid accounts.

Virality couples well with certain types of freemium models, as long as you're getting significant exposure from the free accounts to make the cost worthwhile.

Re: Ask Tom Preston-Werner, cofounder of GitHub, anything Today, Mon 18 Oct 2010.

#100

You mentioned below that all employees get equity, but it also sounds like you guys are quite happy with the growth you're having and are in it for the long-haul. (Incorrect?) Do you expect to ever have a liquidity event (sell the company), or is there some proportionate profit-sharing plan with the equity?

Right now we're focused on building the best team and making the best product we can. If this should lead to an attractive acquisition offer at some point in the future then we will surely consider it as a company and weight the benefits and drawbacks. We don't currently have a profit-sharing plan in place, but depending on the future direction of the company, it may be appropriate to put one in place. All of these things are too nuanced to make general predictions at the moment.
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