"We thought when we started Y Combinator that the most important quality would be intelligence. That's the myth in the Valley. And certainly you don't want founders to be stupid. But as long as you're over a certain threshold of intelligence, what matters most is determination. You're going to hit a lot of obstacles. You can't be the sort of person who gets demoralized easily."
Big Cuts at Airy Labs, Ex-Employees Blame Management
11–20 of 83 posts
Re: Big Cuts at Airy Labs, Ex-Employees Blame Management
#12This speaks to me against Peter Thiel's "20 under 20" program as it all seems to come down to lack of maturity and experience (and inflated ego).
I think this says more about entrepreneurs in the education space than it does about the program. For whatever reason this space seems to consistently attract shady and/or underqualified people. I think the reason is that education is an area where you can't really contribute anything of value unless you are well versed in the science. Because of this it's really easy to snow virtually everyone, from investors and th…
I think that's a pretty broad and unfair generalization about entrepreneurs in the education space. It's not exactly a common skillset to be well versed in the science of education and technology, so I won't back down from the unqualified statement. That being said, I've yet to meet these "shady" characters you claim are attracted to the space.
Re: Big Cuts at Airy Labs, Ex-Employees Blame Management
#13I have a deep interest in educational games. When I found out about Airy Labs, I applied and interviewed with them in August 2011. I got the impression the engineers were very smart, and very overworked. When we got to discussing numbers, Hsu was interested in a low five-figure salary. I sent him a few emails asking about things like revenue model. I was concerned that IAP corrupts the incentive structure around educ…
I'm a co-founder of a profitable 11-person educational gaming company called MindSnacks, so I have a pretty solid perspective on what works in this space.
The key to making IAP work in an educational gaming company is keeping things really simple. We give away one lesson for free and then offer the remaining 49 for a one-time $5.00 fee. If you get greedy and try to squeeze payments out of your user at every turn, you might make a tiny bit more money, but you're certain to lose a long-term customer that might buy multiple apps.
We pay a lot of attention to our cross-use (users with more than one app) and retention numbers. We've found that the more you try to monetize like a traditional social games company, the more these numbers start to drop.
Re: Big Cuts at Airy Labs, Ex-Employees Blame Management
#14This speaks to me against Peter Thiel's "20 under 20" program as it all seems to come down to lack of maturity and experience (and inflated ego).
I think this says more about entrepreneurs in the education space than it does about the program. For whatever reason this space seems to consistently attract shady and/or underqualified people. I think the reason is that education is an area where you can't really contribute anything of value unless you are well versed in the science. Because of this it's really easy to snow virtually everyone, from investors and th…
I've admittedly seen a lot of 'why' type companies in the education space, but I think it's more the lack of familiarity than an intent to snow people. At KinderTown we do have actual teachers working for us, and even though I've been reading a ton on education topics myself there's an amazing amount of things to learn. It's a much harder space than it looks like at first.
Re: Big Cuts at Airy Labs, Ex-Employees Blame Management
#15I have a deep interest in educational games. When I found out about Airy Labs, I applied and interviewed with them in August 2011. I got the impression the engineers were very smart, and very overworked. When we got to discussing numbers, Hsu was interested in a low five-figure salary. I sent him a few emails asking about things like revenue model. I was concerned that IAP corrupts the incentive structure around educ…
Unfortunately this is unsurprising. Making things is only 1 out of (at least) 12 skills needed on a startup[1]. Not being aware of these is probably one of the reasons that explains the hard transitions for engineers to become founders, and again for founders to become CEOs (as pointed out by Guy Kawasaki[2]).
[1] http://swombat.com/2012/1/23/startup-skill-set
[2] http://video.svb.com/video/12-Lessons-Steve-Jobs-Taught-Gu
Re: Big Cuts at Airy Labs, Ex-Employees Blame Management
#16"Employees were warned against socializing or discussing their compensation with other members of the team."
People working in the US really need to know about the National Labor Relations Act and what it means in terms of discussing salaries. Not having this kind of information out there is a bad thing for employees and lovely for conniving bosses.
Re: Big Cuts at Airy Labs, Ex-Employees Blame Management
#17This speaks to me against Peter Thiel's "20 under 20" program as it all seems to come down to lack of maturity and experience (and inflated ego).
I think this says more about entrepreneurs in the education space than it does about the program. For whatever reason this space seems to consistently attract shady and/or underqualified people. I think the reason is that education is an area where you can't really contribute anything of value unless you are well versed in the science. Because of this it's really easy to snow virtually everyone, from investors and th…
I think the reason is that education is an area where you can't really contribute anything of value unless you are well versed in the science.
As far as I'm aware, the #1 education startup was created by someone who was poorly versed in the "science" of education.
He seems to be improving things with science now, but that's a fairly recent thing.
Re: Big Cuts at Airy Labs, Ex-Employees Blame Management
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
That must have been the most awkward workplace ever. Working for two asian parents...that's probably a recipe for disaster
Perhaps you could take your racist stereotypes elsewhere?
I don't condone racist stereotypes but at the same time this isn't the first, second, third, or fourth time something like this had happened specifically with a typical traditional Chinese family-run business.
Same patterns, similar "cut the oxygen" strategy, same outcome.
Re: Big Cuts at Airy Labs, Ex-Employees Blame Management
#19This sounds like a culture clash. Asian cultures (Korean and Chinese specifically) have a really unique family dynamic which you could describe as boundaryless; I worked for a Korean entrepreneur for a while and he said it's a foregone conclusion that if the business strikes it big his family members get to come share in the success.
Hsu should have tried harder to understand the cultural dynamic in the US.
Re: Big Cuts at Airy Labs, Ex-Employees Blame Management
#20This sounds like a culture clash. Asian cultures (Korean and Chinese specifically) have a really unique family dynamic which you could describe as boundaryless; I worked for a Korean entrepreneur for a while and he said it's a foregone conclusion that if the business strikes it big his family members get to come share in the success. Hsu should have tried harder to understand the cultural dynamic in the US.
Not that I know for a fact, but I'd think he was born in the US.