What happened to Pippin / Rent the Backyard • Hacker News Board

Re: What happened to Pippin / Rent the Backyard

#31

Post by nibbleshifter » Sat, Jan 07, 2023, 4:47 PM UTC

aliqot wrote: post #29

nibbleshifter wrote: post #24

Jesus Christ, this almost physically hurt to read. Its exactly the kind of thing I expect from when people in tech go try do something in other sectors without an adult in the room. Thoughts on the "lessons" (out of order, deliberately). Lesson 2: Word salad that basically means "we hired people who didn't know what they were doing, and expected the performance of professional tradesmen to just magically happen". Les…

I've never wished ill on HN, but I'm glad they failed at this approach. People can get hurt, physically, financially, beyond repair by groups that take the software mentality into physical products. Skilled laborers cost money not for what they're doing for you, but for the years and sweat they put into knowing safety practices, codes, and proper workmanship.

> People can get hurt, physically, financially, beyond repair by groups that take the software mentality into physical products.

Exactly. And in this case, the physical product was to be housing. We have building codes for a reason...

Re: What happened to Pippin / Rent the Backyard

#32

Post by nibbleshifter » Sat, Jan 07, 2023, 4:49 PM UTC

porcheetoh wrote: post #30

nibbleshifter wrote: post #24

Jesus Christ, this almost physically hurt to read. Its exactly the kind of thing I expect from when people in tech go try do something in other sectors without an adult in the room. Thoughts on the "lessons" (out of order, deliberately). Lesson 2: Word salad that basically means "we hired people who didn't know what they were doing, and expected the performance of professional tradesmen to just magically happen". Les…

Businesses fail all the time. Very often because the founders are inexperienced and underestimate just how much knowledge and skill it takes to run something seemingly simple. This is not unusual, it should not “physically hurt” to read. There but for the grace of god etc. The hyperbole and disdain is unappealing.

"Move fast, break things" works fine with webshit.

It doesn't work when you are building houses for people to live in, where mistakes (say, electrical, structural, or plumbing wise) can lead to fatal incidents.

This lot were the absolute definition of fucking cowboys.

Re: What happened to Pippin / Rent the Backyard

#33

Post by CraigRo » Sat, Jan 07, 2023, 5:23 PM UTC

The idea is good. But there are already plenty of companies building modular homes in factories, and rvs in factories. They have been doing this for 60 years.

This startup could have focused on design sales permitting etc and built a couple as test, but it seems vastly more efficient to contract with an existing player than to try to everything from first principles

Re: What happened to Pippin / Rent the Backyard

#34

Post by UncleEntity » Sat, Jan 07, 2023, 5:43 PM UTC

saalweachter wrote: post #25

UncleEntity wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I could personally build ten little backyard houses in four years all by myself. —edit— Did some reading on this project and it seems they intended to do 10 units as a test run, just wondering if they get to keep them or if the homeowners have to buy them out?

> I am proud to share that all of Rent the Backyard’s customers either received their home from us or received a 100% refund. That makes it sound like the customers are renting their back yards to third parties, and the company was just selling a product.

It’s very confusing, some of the times they were saying they rented out the backyard and provided the house (plus a lien) and other times were talking about people taking out a second mortgage to pay for the little houses.

Re: What happened to Pippin / Rent the Backyard

#35

Post by gumby » Sat, Jan 07, 2023, 5:52 PM UTC

I am astonished they got any funding at all.

I have worked outside "my domain" multiple times through my life but I was willing to spend a year or years learning about the new domain before raising money. Really needed to make the case that I knew what I was talking about to investors who knew more about the domain than I did.

Re: What happened to Pippin / Rent the Backyard

#36

Post by throwawaybbq1 » Sat, Jan 07, 2023, 6:05 PM UTC

I thought the article was written in a very humble manner. The lessons shared were honest and heartfelt.

I spent my life in corporate. Lesson 6 (Planning is often the highest leverage work) touched something inside me. In a large corp, I have complained how slow we move, how things are planned to a ridiculous level, how there are people whose job it is to just to this function (or something related like strategy). It is interesting to see a start-up that follows the hacker ethos, but then gets in trouble due to lack of such functions.

Re: What happened to Pippin / Rent the Backyard

#37

Post by turtlebits » Sat, Jan 07, 2023, 6:46 PM UTC

aliqot wrote: post #29

nibbleshifter wrote: post #24

Jesus Christ, this almost physically hurt to read. Its exactly the kind of thing I expect from when people in tech go try do something in other sectors without an adult in the room. Thoughts on the "lessons" (out of order, deliberately). Lesson 2: Word salad that basically means "we hired people who didn't know what they were doing, and expected the performance of professional tradesmen to just magically happen". Les…

I've never wished ill on HN, but I'm glad they failed at this approach. People can get hurt, physically, financially, beyond repair by groups that take the software mentality into physical products. Skilled laborers cost money not for what they're doing for you, but for the years and sweat they put into knowing safety practices, codes, and proper workmanship.

This is why inspections, engineered plans and structural calculations are required.

Home owners who aren’t experts should be able to build their own house.

Re: What happened to Pippin / Rent the Backyard

#38

Post by nibbleshifter » Sat, Jan 07, 2023, 6:49 PM UTC

turtlebits wrote: post #37

aliqot wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never wished ill on HN, but I'm glad they failed at this approach. People can get hurt, physically, financially, beyond repair by groups that take the software mentality into physical products. Skilled laborers cost money not for what they're doing for you, but for the years and sweat they put into knowing safety practices, codes, and proper workmanship.

This is why inspections, engineered plans and structural calculations are required. Home owners who aren’t experts should be able to build their own house.

> Home owners who aren’t experts should be able to build their own house.

They can.

There's a massive difference though between self building for yourself, to live in, and building commercially for other, paying people to live in.

While both need to be at least compliant with minimum standards of some form, commercial builders must be held to a higher standard given the third parties they are putting at risk.

Re: What happened to Pippin / Rent the Backyard

#39

Post by cprecioso » Sun, Jan 08, 2023, 2:31 AM UTC

nibbleshifter wrote: post #24

Jesus Christ, this almost physically hurt to read. Its exactly the kind of thing I expect from when people in tech go try do something in other sectors without an adult in the room. Thoughts on the "lessons" (out of order, deliberately). Lesson 2: Word salad that basically means "we hired people who didn't know what they were doing, and expected the performance of professional tradesmen to just magically happen". Les…

Reading “incorrecting” made me remember I miss n-gate