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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

#441

Post by asdff »

knolax wrote: post #375
mcintyre1994 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to think this every time I downloaded a free mobile game. Probably 90%+ of ads in mobile games were for other free mobile games that presumably also have the same ad-supported model and the same sort of advertisers. It feels like there's a few games making heaps from IAPs and everyone else is just advertising in a pyramid toward them while also using IAPs in a way that makes their own game basically unplayable…

Similarly, web comic ads seem to consist entirely of ads for other web comics.

This one isn't so bad. You like web comics, you probably would like other web comics.

What is boneheaded is advertising shovels to me because I was tracked while buying another shovel online. I already have my damn shovel for the next 50 years I do not care anymore at all about shovels. Now if I were served a wheelbarrow ad...

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

#442

Post by asdff »

robenkleene wrote: post #194
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…

I agree with your point in principle, and it's my natural tendency to optimize out dependencies on recurring charges for services. But I actually think this perspective is wrong, or more precisely, focusing on this type of optimization will make your business less likely to succeed. The problem is ROI, $227 a month adds up to $2724 a year, which, assuming you're in the US (or similar cost of living area), is just suc…

Cost aside, it just complicates your workplace and makes your success dependent on the continued performance of other companies. What if slack pushes an update that everyone in your office hates, or shuts down as a company one day? In the words of Bane, it would be extremely painful, for you.

However, if you were old school and used IRC, you would have 40 years of documentation to help you solve any issues, and you probably won't have very much issues to begin with since people have been publicly using the protocol for 40 years and improving the experience. Plus it would be free and you wouldn't be dependent on anyone but yourselves staying in business.

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

#443

Post by asdff »

teach wrote: post #313
krilly wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is Discord always ignored in discussions of slack alternatives? It's literally a slack clone. Are you all just put off by the marketing or the fact that it's not exclusively used by 'professionals'?

Discord doesn't have threads. That's a deal-breaker for us.

If you need threads, there's always email. No need to reinvent the wheel solely because the app is written in electron and gives off pleasing beeps.

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

#444

Post by asdff »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #355
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.

> True but you don’t pay subscription for your chairs. But in reality you kind of do - chairs are still a depreciating asset that require upkeep and maintenance. I recall at my last medium-sized company (500ish people) that every quarter they had guys come in to fix the broken chairs. I don't think the chairs were bad quality, it's just that in a company that size where the chairs got a ton of use that every quarter…

500 people damaging 10-20 chairs per quarter is absurd, to the point of hiring a specific chair guy to come in and repair sounds like satire. My fraternity didn't even break that many chairs from people getting hammered and throwing them off the roof, and I oversaw the budget.

If I had to guess, it's people gaming the chair replacement system. This might seem surprising but its really not, employees love to do this if at all possible at any company.

My friend was just gloating to me how he finessed an $1600 standing desk and got the company to pay for it. $1600 to do what a stack of books does under your keyboard. They ordered that ridiculous desk the day he emailed the office manager about it without question, because standing desks are so hot right now in the office paraphernalia world.

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

#445

Post by asdff »

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.

Spending much time in gsuite sucks compared to native 365 apps running on your machine synced to onedrive. Really smooth experience even on macos which was a surprise for me.

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

#446

Post by asdff »

tinza123 wrote: post #170

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.

I think there is something to be said about companies jumping on to sexy software like Slack et al just because other lemmings have jumped off the cliff. If I worked in a two person startup I would be using SMS/IRC and email before paying for a slack subscription.

If I had any more people I would still be taking a hard look at existing, well-understood, open technologies before signing my soul to a private company in business solely due to shackling other companies to their proprietary software, and dealing with their lock in when they inevitably fail me and my needs at a random date in the future.

Then again, I'm also not one of those people who believe the world changed when slack was released, so maybe I'm a little biased.

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

#448

Post by dang »

dennis_jeeves wrote: post #425
Talanes wrote: post #416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>When you have the govt doing central planning, there is no way to get rid of them when they under perform. All Democratic governments include a way to do exactly that - by definition. There's room for debate over how effective it actually is at removing underperformers compared to the free market, but saying it has no way to get rid of them is just untrue.

>All Democratic governments include a way to do exactly that - by definition. There's room for debate over how effective it actually is at removing underperformers compared to the free market, but saying it has no way to get rid of them is just untrue. You are either young and naive, or an idiot. Sorry, name calling is the only way to call out ignorance. Things simply don't work the way you think it does. In theory '…

You've broken several the site guidelines in this thread. Would you please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here?

Crossing into making an argument personal is especially not ok, and we have had to ask you about this before: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21797575.

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

#449

Post by hnick »

tptacek wrote: post #304
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 would be beyond weird for an IT department to have any say whatsoever in whether a development team used Postgres or Mariadb.

Exactly, it's always MS SQL Server no questions asked :)

After all it's the "approved" solution around here.

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

#450

Post by hnick »

kminehart wrote: post #222
krilly wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is Discord always ignored in discussions of slack alternatives? It's literally a slack clone. Are you all just put off by the marketing or the fact that it's not exclusively used by 'professionals'?

Honestly, it's probably because it's marketed towards gamers. It's a really useful product for sure but the gamer marketing definitely affects people's perception.

I think in the past they did make a point of saying they don't support business use. As in, it's fine if you want to, but don't pin your daily success on it and complain if it breaks.

I use it at home and it does occasionally go a bit weird and need a reboot, or stop sending notifications on my phone. Not a big deal for me.

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