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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

#361

Post by cmroanirgo »

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…

> no matter how smart you folks are as individuals, in the aggregate you are like toddlers. You dump all your toys on the floor and then chase after some other kid’s shinier toy

You made my day. Quote of the year so far!

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

#362

Post by golergka »

gumby wrote: post #197
golergka wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many otherwise crappy countries, especially in Eastern Europe, have excellent ISPs for some reason.

Because they didn’t have a functional telecom monopoly at the end of the Cold War, so built all new infrastructure, not just wiring plant but organizationally as well. While the old western countries had strong monopolies or cartels with regulatory capture. Of course not every one of the eastern states got this, and some “entrenched” systems worked out fine too (e.g. South Korea and Singapore). But in the case of Eas…

> neoliberal ideology gripped most of the newly independent states

I wish. There was a great liberal leap forward in the 90s, but now it's state-run economy all over again.

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

#363

Post by sircastor »

hliyan wrote: post #104
moksly wrote: post #41

I’d personally drop gsuite, trello and slack and get a office365 essentials plan. I know, because I did, and it’s so much easier to manage and it’s also cheaper. I’m not going to say the tools are better with Microsoft, because to me it’s really much of the same where I genuinely don’t really like any of the options. But because it’s not worse either, you kind of get used to it. I think if you got the full teams/one-…

A counterpoint (also based on personal experience): recently moved from a company that uses Office365 to a one that uses GSuite. Communications and document sharing feels far more simpler and productive. I can't quite put my finger on why, but working on GSuite just feels faster and less clunkier.

I share this experience. My company switched to Office365 from GSuite. It feels universally like a step down. The workers who all used MS desktop products liked it, but everyone I work with it had expressed nothing but disdain.

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

#364

Post by PopeDotNinja »

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…

> It’s because no matter how smart you folks are as individuals, in the aggregate you are like toddlers.

That's a great line, and it's only funny because it's true.

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

#365

Post by outside1234 »

calmworm wrote: post #155
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…

Your CFO got sold ... twice. Concur and NetSuite are both enterprise level software that a company with 50 FTEs does not need. NetSuite is a never ending money pit with varying results. I dealt with a very similar situation, in which a project manager("VP") talked our owner into using NS, but it was over $100k/year and commitments were 2 years per seat at something like $5k. He ALSO wanted to do the roll out himself.…

This reminds me of something someone told me about "build vs. buy" for SAP. When you build, you can solve for your business model. When you buy, you have to fit your business model to what you buy.

The insinuation was that trying to buy and customize SAP to your business was a fools errand.

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

#366

Post by bagacrap »

jhrf wrote: post #302
Shacklz wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Voluntary redistribution through loss making startups is the comfortable alternative to wealth taxes. That's just a little bit of redistribution from the top 1% to the top 10%, at best. Tech startups and their new fancy apps aren't putting food on the table or paying the health care bill for the bottom 90%.

What about services like Uber which are used extensively by lower income people and only exist due to VC subsidy?

Is there evidence that low income people spend less on transportation bc of Uber? It's still hyper expensive compared to public transit and car ownership (if driving daily).

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

#367

Post by pbreit »

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…

That’s a lot of dysfunction for such a small company and you don’t seem too solution-oriented. Why would a 50 person company even have a CIO?

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

#368

Post by tomhallett »

acwan93 wrote: post #286
calmworm wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your CFO got sold ... twice. Concur and NetSuite are both enterprise level software that a company with 50 FTEs does not need. NetSuite is a never ending money pit with varying results. I dealt with a very similar situation, in which a project manager("VP") talked our owner into using NS, but it was over $100k/year and commitments were 2 years per seat at something like $5k. He ALSO wanted to do the roll out himself.…

Unsurprisingly this is a similar story from our customers who switch away from us, and then come crawling back due to the implementation nightmare from NetSuite/SAP. Usually it's a high level executive who wants the name recognition and the "no one got fired for picking X" mindset.

Where do you work?

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

#369

Post by danielvinson »

nojvek wrote: post #341
danielvinson wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a frontend dev, this really pains me. I’ve worked at many places with the same problems - first of all, pushing back on the designer is incredibly important if something is hard to develop. Most designers are doing their best to make things easy to code, but aren’t developers, so they just don’t know. It’s the engineers job to tell them no when things are exceptionally difficult. If they understand that the style…

Writing data tables isn’t easy. Deffo not a 1-2 week thing and you call it done. The trail of bug fixes and browser edge cases are what slowly get you at the end. +1 on not letting design dictate. Just gotta sit in the room and weigh pros and cons.

1-2 sprints, which for most teams is 4-6 weeks. It really depends on use cases... generally startups don't have any need to support old browsers and can enforce current Chrome+Firefox only.

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

#370

Post by greendestiny_re »

Ididntdothis wrote: post #124
Spooky23 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If IT is too helpless to pick Zoom vs Ubeeconference vs whatever, what’s the point in having them? Conversely, if you are a developer and you have time to be shopping for video conferencing solutions, what’s the point in having you?

“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…

>At my company a lot of meetings start with 10 minutes trying to make the phone conference work.

You are most certainly not alone. In one Joshua Fluke's video, he accurately describes the feeling [1].

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELrQyUIQkiY#t=7m55s

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