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Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

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Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#401

Post by fxtentacle »

raghava wrote: post #341
blaser-waffle wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our experience with Indian firms during COVID has been rocky. Most of the big firms (Tata, CTS, CapGemini) have big offices or call centers, with VPNs or private connections to western infrastructure -- otherwise you would have random Indian IPs logging into your systems, and that would make my security team lose their minds. But with COVID they can't congregate in those offices, and the logistics of getting addition…

> some of the admins don't have internet at home means they're not able to support anything Yes, this is the reality. Most of these shops do not believe in issuing a laptop along with a secure connectivity option, simply because they deem all of that as a sap on procurements. And they still use shitty 2005 era desktop since work gets done on VDIs (citing info sec and DLP) and desktops are mere dumb terminals. But eve…

And the lack of good tools and beefy desktop machines is precisely why they cannot grep the code themselves, which is why those outsourced coders will fail unless you micro-manage them with design specifications.

Living in Singapore, I met some people who trained India and then used their own good equipment and their productivity was on par with US or EU employees. I was also unfortunate enough to manage some people using '95 equipment, and they were basically dead weights for the project.

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#402

Post by londons_explore »

gjmacd wrote: post #388

Not naming the company, but I know of a startup that's got a round of $10M (not much but enough) who just applied for relief because their burn rate is $200K+ a month. They have no customers, have been in the red for 2 years and have been slowly building their product out -- like most early funded startups -- they are building potential without revenue (yet). Their theory is, get some free money and treat it like 6 m…

In an exchange between a government and a company, it's all a matter of policy and law. "We can survive without it so give it to someone more in need" isn't the way it's done, nor should it be in a capitalist society.

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#403

Post by londons_explore »

gjmacd wrote: post #388

Not naming the company, but I know of a startup that's got a round of $10M (not much but enough) who just applied for relief because their burn rate is $200K+ a month. They have no customers, have been in the red for 2 years and have been slowly building their product out -- like most early funded startups -- they are building potential without revenue (yet). Their theory is, get some free money and treat it like 6 m…

This is the government's fault for not attaching more strings to the money.

It should have been a loan at favourable interest rates with a fixed term.

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#404

Post by aivatra »

FIRST FACTORY (company link: https://firstfactory.com/)

Hello fellow HN readers. Here's the short version of the story:

So I was working at X SF startup company (with a subsidiary office in Costa Rica) and decided to give it a try at First Factory, an outsourcing shop based in NY and Costa Rica, they handed me a contract (March 5th, 2020) to start working with them effective March 30th, 2020.

So I quit my job and was ready to jump on board. Then on March 25th, 2020 I get a call (the lady pretty much laughably telling me all this) stating that they were in financial trouble and couldn't onboard me at all, and the contract was voided.

I know this happens, but you get a feeling of how shocked I was hearing this. I couldn't believe my ears. And now I'm unemployed pretty much. I've applied to a few positions through "Who's Hiring" at HN tough, let's see how it goes -_-

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#406

Post by Spooky23 »

wpietri wrote: post #212
McMini wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What did the site show?

In form, it was a pretty simple discussion site. But it had a lot of insider info and an enormous amount of snark, and it really captured the spirit of the popping of Bubble 1.0 (and the post 9/11 downturn). I remember one where a CEO made a big deal about the tech staff working through the holidays to finish vital new products. And then the CEO went on vacation to Hawai'i, leaving the nerds to grind it out. The memo…

We all got hooked on the forum when waiting for news of the inevitable for our company, which ironically didn't fail, and we actually ended up cashing out in an acquisition.

IIRC, some of Howard Stern's wack pack people were regular posters on the forum as well. It was a pretty awesome message board for that era, until ruined by nazis and other lowlifes.

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#408

Post by bitcurious »

sudosysgen wrote: post #376
areyousure wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just out of curiosity, is your comment about "for-profit hospitals" a non sequitur? Your parent comment refers to the Mayo Clinic, which is neither "for-profit" nor "a stain on the American healthcare system".

The existence of for-profit healthcare is reasonably why hospitals have to shut departments in the middle of a pandemic to handle balance sheets. If for-profit healthcare didn't exist, I really don't see how the total amount of money going into a hospital would decrease right now.

You are conflating “for profit” with private. Most good hospitals are non profit, but private institutions.

To help you understand how this could decrease revenue - my annual checkup is postponed by 6 months. This is true for everyone who had an annual checkup scheduled.

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#409

Post by latortuga »

londons_explore wrote: post #403
gjmacd wrote: post #388

Not naming the company, but I know of a startup that's got a round of $10M (not much but enough) who just applied for relief because their burn rate is $200K+ a month. They have no customers, have been in the red for 2 years and have been slowly building their product out -- like most early funded startups -- they are building potential without revenue (yet). Their theory is, get some free money and treat it like 6 m…

This is the government's fault for not attaching more strings to the money. It should have been a loan at favourable interest rates with a fixed term.

The PPP program is a loan at favorable interest rates (1%) and a fixed term (2 years). The loan can be entirely forgiven as well, provided certain requirements are met. There is no collateral requirement but you do have to affirm that you are affected by the pandemic, so it sounds like the startup mentioned by OP possibly committed fraud.

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#410

Post by lostcolony »

londons_explore wrote: post #402
gjmacd wrote: post #388

Not naming the company, but I know of a startup that's got a round of $10M (not much but enough) who just applied for relief because their burn rate is $200K+ a month. They have no customers, have been in the red for 2 years and have been slowly building their product out -- like most early funded startups -- they are building potential without revenue (yet). Their theory is, get some free money and treat it like 6 m…

In an exchange between a government and a company, it's all a matter of policy and law. "We can survive without it so give it to someone more in need" isn't the way it's done, nor should it be in a capitalist society.

You just made a very compelling argument for more socialism.
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