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A two-person startup already uses twenty-eight other tools

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Re: A two-person startup already uses twenty-eight other tools

#161

Post by emj »

goatherders wrote: post #149
Ididntdothis wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Conversely, if you are a developer and you have time to be shopping for video conferencing solutions, what’s the point in having you?” I am often forced to spend a ton of time dealing with tools that don’t work. At my company a lot of meetings start with 10 minutes trying to make the phone conference work. So it’s good use of time to look for tools that work. Same with Jira. IT bought it and promised to customize it…

Every conferencing solution shares one trait: at least one person on a call of N+1 people will have trouble joining and getting everything to work. I have been making the same "joke" for years on calls that everyone on the call should join me in quitting our jobs to create a teleconference solution that works. Hardyharhar. (The practical solution for teleconferencing issues is to get people to join a couple minutes e…

If the host has at least tried the conference solution before the meeting it is usually ok for us, but that quickly become a specialized task that only one person care about, when s/he is away there is a high chance of wasted time.

Re: A two-person startup already uses twenty-eight other tools

#162

Post by war1025 »

krapp wrote: post #121
76543210 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm starting to think we need a 10%er collition. Our taxes went up under Trump. Healthcare got worse under Obama. The billionaire class uses the 90 percent to win elections. They have stopped pandering to us.

You're not entirely wrong, but Trump did nothing but pander, and it's arguable that the Democrats biggest problem (apart from the email leaks) was Clinton not pandering enough.

Said another way: Trump worked to earn votes, Clinton just felt like she deserved them.

Re: A two-person startup already uses twenty-eight other tools

#163

Post by sheeshkebab »

apk-d wrote: post #63
crubier wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True but you don’t pay subscription for your chairs. You do pay rent, but in many case the sum of SaaS subscription is in the same order of magnitude as the rent.

Is this only true for US-based companies? Where I'm from, I rarely see use of subscription services (especially ones that incur per-seat costs). Developers here tend to earn roughly the same number , but in a different currency , which makes all software and services several times more expensive. This results in preference of OSS alternatives and free tiers whenever possible. We use Discord for communication, Gitlab…

In US, I’m seeing the culture of hacking your own hardware dying. Everyone wants to use stuff that takes 5 mins setup (long term rent costs don’t matter), doesn’t need any wires or screws, or maintenance - only what is in my wallet. That applies to most startups, and now started also propagating up to larger companies (although those have more stringent controls).

In terms of developing software - it’s the same there as hardware - noone wants to deal with their own databases or servers anymore, so it’s all cloud/aws, and now they don’t want to deal with OS anymore, so it’s all dynamo/cloud functions/lambdas etc. Try developing software for all this offline, without being wired into a giant cloud company infra.

Re: A two-person startup already uses twenty-eight other tools

#164

Post by radlad »

goatherders wrote: post #149
Ididntdothis wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Conversely, if you are a developer and you have time to be shopping for video conferencing solutions, what’s the point in having you?” I am often forced to spend a ton of time dealing with tools that don’t work. At my company a lot of meetings start with 10 minutes trying to make the phone conference work. So it’s good use of time to look for tools that work. Same with Jira. IT bought it and promised to customize it…

Every conferencing solution shares one trait: at least one person on a call of N+1 people will have trouble joining and getting everything to work. I have been making the same "joke" for years on calls that everyone on the call should join me in quitting our jobs to create a teleconference solution that works. Hardyharhar. (The practical solution for teleconferencing issues is to get people to join a couple minutes e…

FWIW, our company used and loved Zoom for many years. We switched to Webex and it has been far more difficult to use.

I wouldn't discount the parent's post so quickly.

Re: A two-person startup already uses twenty-eight other tools

#165

Post by noelsusman »

pjc50 wrote: post #73

SoftBank invested something like $24bn in WeWork, which went to the real estate bubble plus free beer for techies. There is an astonishing amount of money out there. In the case of the Saudi investment through SoftBank, it's practically a moral imperative to relieve them of it. Enjoy it while it lasts. Voluntary redistribution through loss making startups is the comfortable alternative to wealth taxes.

It can be tempting to ride the train of startups whose main innovation is being willing to sell their product at a loss, but doing so hurts other businesses who are unfortunate enough to have to make some money to keep the lights on. Lots of perfectly fine companies have gone out of business because a startup disrupted their industry by setting money on fire.

I still ride the train, but it does give me pause sometimes.

Re: A two-person startup already uses twenty-eight other tools

#166

Post by chirau »

xwdv wrote: post #140
Hnrobert42 wrote: post #33

I am the CIO of a mostly remote, cybersecurity startup (50 FTEs). I balance between not single-threading all choices through me and not letting things get too out of hand. That means no one is every really happy. E.g., we use Uberconference for videoconferencing. We thoroughly looked at a bunch of others and chose UC for its functionality, price, and simplicity (every conference gets a simple phone number, no stupid…

Do you mind sharing the name of your startup?

Lol. I doubt they'd be careless enough to do that. As soon as they do, you can then put names to all the people mentioned. Which is obviously not their intention otherwise they'd have done so.

Re: A two-person startup already uses twenty-eight other tools

#167

Post by iKlsR »

bad_user wrote: post #151

IMO many people end up with a tool fetish, but some of these tools aren't worth it in a small startup: 1. You don't need Slack ($13 / month) as a two person startup — just do email and Skype 2. Notion ($16 / month) — this sounds like a glorified shared note taking app — just use Google Docs, or Dropbox Paper, or text files in a Dropbox folder 3. Sentry ($26 / month) — OK, this might be worth it, but if you have a hig…

7. Github ($7 / month) — has unlimited private repos for a while now up to 3 collaborators.

Re: A two-person startup already uses twenty-eight other tools

#169

Post by chrisweekly »

Hnrobert42 wrote: post #33

I am the CIO of a mostly remote, cybersecurity startup (50 FTEs). I balance between not single-threading all choices through me and not letting things get too out of hand. That means no one is every really happy. E.g., we use Uberconference for videoconferencing. We thoroughly looked at a bunch of others and chose UC for its functionality, price, and simplicity (every conference gets a simple phone number, no stupid…

Thank you v much for sharing this first-hand perspective. V helpful.

Re: A two-person startup already uses twenty-eight other tools

#170

Post by tinza123 »

IMO startups, especially small ones should use as many tools as possible, because it is way cheaper than having to develop and maintain a similar thing in house, OR hiring a new person just to cover that. $200 a month is really very small cost compared to the alternative of hiring and spending many hours on that. You can always come back and replace the vendor once the company gets funded and has more resources.
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