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Strapped startup declines acquihire, Apple poaches key engineers; NP, says court [pdf]

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Re: Strapped startup declines acquihire, Apple poaches key engineers; NP, says court [pdf]

#211

Post by kamaal »

cycomanic wrote: post #205
travisjungroth wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment reminds me of this tweet: https://mobile.twitter.com/zackkanter/status/130493861651941... The cognitive dissonance humans are capable of is amazing. To actually say “We would never allow that in our town.” in the pejorative while flying back from a trip specifically meant to learn how to be like another town . If you’re not going to act on an author’s central point, don’t try to do any of the other parts…

If it really was great weather, great colleagues, weak nocompetes why has Australia not managed to create the same culture. AFAIK nocompetes are pretty much unenforceable in Australia, they have better weather than california and lots of people like to live there, so what is missing? Honest question.

Its not just those three. Its also local demand, diversity, merit, culture and acceptance and many other things. Plus existing inertia matters too. It takes tons of effort to get the ball rolling.

Im sure there are lots of other reasons too, any 1-1 comparison would be unfair given the differences in culture and overall direction of the societies.

Re: Strapped startup declines acquihire, Apple poaches key engineers; NP, says court [pdf]

#212

Post by pnw_hazor »

DenisM wrote: post #193

A man in charge of small acquisitions at a large company told me once that’s the first thing he looks at - would that be cheaper to steal few key engineers, and will anything stand in the way? A small number of patents would usually dissuade him, iirc because fighting over the patents is more work than doing a proper small acquisition.

Yep small companies often under estimate the value of a couple of good patents.

Spending a few million to stand up a product w/o having a few patents that might cost $50,000 each to protect the company leaves them wide open for all kinds of bad.

Re: Strapped startup declines acquihire, Apple poaches key engineers; NP, says court [pdf]

#213

Post by jlokier »

ry454 wrote: post #52
emteycz wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why there is no Silicon Valley in Europe then

I believe Europe can create its own SV by following the USA's route: the Europe's equivalent of DoD (which has access to unlimited funds, tens of trillions of euros), needs to come up with a grand multi-decade project and invest into companies that are going to work on related sub-projects. For USA it was the worldwide surveillance system, but for Europe it may be something else, like ITER (but on a bigger scale) or…

There are some science and technology investment projects like this in the EU.

For example:

> Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme ever with nearly €80 billion of funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020) – in addition to the private investment that this money will attract. It promises more breakthroughs, discoveries and world-firsts by taking great ideas from the lab to the market.

Horizon is much bigger than ITER, and like the DoD it covers a wide range of R&D areas with industrial collaboration, and says what its main areas of interest are.

Re: Strapped startup declines acquihire, Apple poaches key engineers; NP, says court [pdf]

#214

Post by travisjungroth »

cycomanic wrote: post #205
travisjungroth wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment reminds me of this tweet: https://mobile.twitter.com/zackkanter/status/130493861651941... The cognitive dissonance humans are capable of is amazing. To actually say “We would never allow that in our town.” in the pejorative while flying back from a trip specifically meant to learn how to be like another town . If you’re not going to act on an author’s central point, don’t try to do any of the other parts…

If it really was great weather, great colleagues, weak nocompetes why has Australia not managed to create the same culture. AFAIK nocompetes are pretty much unenforceable in Australia, they have better weather than california and lots of people like to live there, so what is missing? Honest question.

Density, first off. You’re comparing Australia to an area of like 100 square kilometers.

My description of why Silicon Valley happened was also based on it being in the US. I don’t think Silicon Valley happens without the rest of the US (obviously this would be so different it’s hard to compare).

I guess my point is that I was saying why the apple grew on this particular branch, and you’re asking why this other tree didn’t grow any apples at all.

Re: Strapped startup declines acquihire, Apple poaches key engineers; NP, says court [pdf]

#215

Post by garbagetime »

jlokier wrote: post #198
garbagetime wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>UK is trying hard not to be a part of Europe it seems In what sense?

Brexit. It's not just an amicable separation of bureaucracies. If you're in the UK (as I am), the kinds of headlines coming up regularly make it really clear the UK government is trying to not be part of Europe in all sorts of bizarre ways. For example the most recent big deal was the UK has formally decided to break international law by reneging on the UK-EU withdrawal treaty it signed up to less than a year ago. Th…

The European Union is a political and economic union. Europe is a continent. It seems strange to refer to wanting to leave the European Union as wanting to leave Europe.

Of course, I'm sure those who support the European Union are generally also very much in favour of it being treated as synonymous with Europe. But it sounds like nothing short of absurd rhetoric to me.

Re: Strapped startup declines acquihire, Apple poaches key engineers; NP, says court [pdf]

#216

Post by donw »

donor20 wrote: post #166
donw wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly think something like this makes a lot more sense. First year or so, you're in a probationary period. Unemployment benefits will kick in, but you and the company are still feeling each other out. After that, you get certain protections, whereby firing you becomes a more lengthy (3-6 month) process with specific regulatory milestones. Speaking from a management perspective, if I have had an employee that has…

But it is part of the reason these countries don't have startup cultures. In the US you can just try stuff out including hiring someone who may not be a perfect fit. In the US you can pivot your startup if something isn't working, roll off 20% of your staff and you don't have to talk to a govt tribunal or go through appeals. You can make your own management calls on who you want to work with - you don't have to justi…

The takeaway here is that businesses below a certain size should face less regulation. This makes sense, both because regulatory capture is a real problem, and because smaller businesses have far less legal and economic leverage.

Modulo EBITDA per employee.

Of course, those regulations should step in gradually -- sharp cliffs are pretty much always antipatterns when it comes to regulation, law, and government services.

Yes, I know in France that companies try and get around this by splitting into lots of smaller firms, but that's an issue for the regulators and the specific legal framework.

Nobody ever said these things are easy.

Re: Strapped startup declines acquihire, Apple poaches key engineers; NP, says court [pdf]

#217

Post by tonyedgecombe »

runako wrote: post #138
golergka wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Developers work in many different companies, and most of them don't make products that can, or could in even in theory make enough money to make paying as much worthwhile. It's a chicken and egg problem.

In my experience, the "Software is Eating the World" thesis is looking largely correct. The number of software developers at modern non-tech companies can be surprising. Even in my limited experience, I have seen big, well-funded software teams in companies doing retail, manufacturing, transportation, shipping, food service, etc. Those developers do not typically make SV wages (and generally have better work-life bal…

That was traditionally the case, it was only when the outsourcing fad came along that these companies started to shed developers.

Re: Strapped startup declines acquihire, Apple poaches key engineers; NP, says court [pdf]

#218

Post by paxys »

> The CEO settled on a newplan: Hooked would “sell” three engineers to Apple [...] and continue operating the less technical aspect of its business, relating to advertising

This part is hilarious. These engineers aren't your property buddy. There is nothing for you to "sell". They can choose to work for Apple on their own, which is exactly what Apple let them do.

Re: Strapped startup declines acquihire, Apple poaches key engineers; NP, says court [pdf]

#219

Post by russelg »

cycomanic wrote: post #205
travisjungroth wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment reminds me of this tweet: https://mobile.twitter.com/zackkanter/status/130493861651941... The cognitive dissonance humans are capable of is amazing. To actually say “We would never allow that in our town.” in the pejorative while flying back from a trip specifically meant to learn how to be like another town . If you’re not going to act on an author’s central point, don’t try to do any of the other parts…

If it really was great weather, great colleagues, weak nocompetes why has Australia not managed to create the same culture. AFAIK nocompetes are pretty much unenforceable in Australia, they have better weather than california and lots of people like to live there, so what is missing? Honest question.

2 year no-compete clauses are common at Australian software companies. If they're enforceable or not I do not know, but they are in place.

Re: Strapped startup declines acquihire, Apple poaches key engineers; NP, says court [pdf]

#220

Post by kamaal »

cscurmudgeon wrote: post #79
donor20 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Labor mobility is really low in Europe. In france you can be tied up in litigation (tribunel through appeals) for 10 years easily on an employment termination (my info is from 2016 time frame so may be dated). There is no such thing as at-will employment. Also, noncompete's are weird. If someone is receiving full pay on gardening leave they can work for someone else. If you instead have them work till end of notice p…

And then, you have Indian government jobs. Indian civil servant finally fired after epic 24-year absence https://money.cnn.com/2015/01/09/news/india-civil-servant-fi...

Indian government jobs are just something else altogether, there is literally no accountability, or reward/punishment for good/bad performance. Promotions are almost always based on seniority, nepotism and political influence. The whole system runs on insane levels of corruption at nearly every level. And on top of these are there cream pensions.

Its really like the stuff of the dreams/nightmares based on what you get.

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