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My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

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Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#171

Post by aapl88889 »

jen20 wrote: post #169
lotsofmoney wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An insane amount of money, world hegemony, and a very high standard of living. I’m not sure the average European appreciates just how comfortable life in the US is. And the average American doesn’t know that things they take fir granted are luxuries even to Western Europeans. Outside of a handful of small countries with specialized economies, European income per capita is at or below per capita income in even the poo…

> Outside of a handful of small countries with specialized economies, European income per capita is at or below per capita income in even the poorest US state. And yet the quality of life doesn’t even begin to compare.

My friend has a huge 4,000 sq foot brand new house in the South for 1/3 the average price in London. You cannot find that type of house even in the richest areas in Europe.

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#172

Post by aapl88889 »

injb wrote: post #145
sneak wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

High quality food delivery (at any time, but especially after 22:00). 24 hour pharmacies. 24 hour grocery stores. Air conditioning. Cheap gas. Road trips where you have a personal vehicle when you arrive. Hot water in 100% of all handwashing sinks. Urgent care centers. Whole Foods. You're 100% wrong about not needing air conditioning in Germany. Many of the last 45 days here have been above 24C. You're just used to b…

The food comment is frankly bizarre. The food you get in Whole Foods is at best similar to what you find in a petrol station in Europe. The US has the worst food in the developed world.

That is not remotely true. Petrol stations in Europe do not sell grass-fed beef, acai bowls and organic produce. They're like 7-11 not Whole Foods. The US has more variety by far.

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#173

Post by speleding »

jacquesm wrote: post #54
spaceman_2020 wrote: post #40

Are all VCs like this or did OP strike out with some bad apples?

I don't think the VCs are to blame at all. This is a one sided story but that side already gives off so many signals of not being cut out for the job that it isn't surprising to see them heaping the blame on another party. If you're the CEO and you are looking for capital you don't do that whilst giving the capital providers a mandate to run your company by proxy. That's on him. If VCs tell you to do 'X' and you don'…

> I don't think the VCs are to blame at all

It's probably more reasonable to say "Not all the blame is on the VC". I've seen VCs, rich guys in their fifties with a lot of swagger, put unreasonable pressure on young padawan entrepreneurs to take more capital to grow faster than necessary. Then they over extended and it started failing apart. The entrepreneurs are ultimately responsible for taking the cash, but the power dynamic is such that the VCs surely deserve some blame for pressuring inexperienced entrepreneurs into biting off more than they could swallow.

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#174

Post by SideQuark »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #84
jamesaurichs wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We get more rockets (literally), faster. We get Tesla, SpaceX, Google, Facebook, AirBnB, Stripe, etc...

Said another way, America is the sandbox for the rich to experiment on the poor, with technology that may or may not be good for the poor but ultimately doesn’t matter because the ultimate winner is always the one funding them. It’s the test and staging servers for global capitalism

The poor in America are richer than the poor in just about any other country. The US poverty line is around the top 15% of world incomes, and that's pre tax transfers. Post tax transfers puts them much higher.

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#175

Post by DoughnutHole »

sneak wrote: post #103
adwn wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> * And the average American doesn’t know that things they take fir granted are luxuries even to Western Europeans.* Such as? Name three examples, please. "smartphones and cars" doesn't cut it, those are pretty common even for low income citizens here in Germany at least, and we don't really need air conditioners on account of being located in higher latitudes – everyone has heating, though.

High quality food delivery (at any time, but especially after 22:00). 24 hour pharmacies. 24 hour grocery stores. Air conditioning. Cheap gas. Road trips where you have a personal vehicle when you arrive. Hot water in 100% of all handwashing sinks. Urgent care centers. Whole Foods. You're 100% wrong about not needing air conditioning in Germany. Many of the last 45 days here have been above 24C. You're just used to b…

Most of these are cultural/political choices, not a result of some lack of prosperity.

Less cheap gas is a result of taxing the negative externalities of fossil fuels. Air con is rarer because intense summer heat (while it happens) is less pervasive and extreme than in most of the US. Personal vehicles are less common because public transport is great. No “Whole Foods” because good produce is common in regular supermarkets.

“Road trips” is the most hilarious point. I can hop on a train and be in one of several countries with a different culture and language in an hour.

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#176

Post by fho »

alex_lav wrote: post #143
ethbr0 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I interviewed a guy the other day. CS degree. "I have a proven track record of building and leading amazing engineering teams." "Okay. What's the difference between a character and a string?" *crickets* We all have our specialities, but jesus ¢@&#ing christ: if you're interviewing for an engineering role, of any sort, you should be able to answer basic questions.

I interviewed an ex-FAANG (developer) currently working as a software executive for a director role at a previous company. This person included 5 years-ish of Haskell experience on their resume. I don't know Haskell at all, but am aware of the language and its design principles, so I figured a lot of my technical questions would be pretty easy for him Boy was I wrong. My first question was "Name the most common data…

That's interesting ... Might be my specific view on Haskell, but there is a lot of emphasis on using the right data structure for the right job. That's probably because due to Haskell being immutable you have to rethink which standard data structures you can reasonable use.

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#177

Post by allarm »

Gunnerhead wrote: post #168
allarm wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> High quality food delivery… Funny thing is that you’ve described Moscow here. > You're 100% wrong about not needing air conditioning in Germany. I realize that for an average American Germany is just a point on the map, but here in the north we had only a couple of hot days this summer. Otherwise - a truly horrifying story.

> Funny thing is that you’ve described Moscow here. Please do tell more. I’m curious to learn.

[note: I'm writing this from the perspective of Moscow and Russia 10 years ago] Basically, Moscow has (had?) everything that op mentioned - cheap gas, cheap (and fast) Internet, relatively cheap and quality medicine, huge variety of food delivery (very fast and quite cheap), etc. On top of that Moscow has an incredible subway system, multiple car sharing options, it is clean and relatively safe. I've traveled a lot and lived in multiple countries during my life, and the services they had in Moscow were better than i.e. in Germany or Singapore. Having said that I don't miss Moscow a little bit. Everything comes with a cost and the price of living standards in Moscow is being paid by the rest of Russia.

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#178

Post by [deleted] »

alex_lav wrote: post #143
ethbr0 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I interviewed a guy the other day. CS degree. "I have a proven track record of building and leading amazing engineering teams." "Okay. What's the difference between a character and a string?" *crickets* We all have our specialities, but jesus ¢@&#ing christ: if you're interviewing for an engineering role, of any sort, you should be able to answer basic questions.

I interviewed an ex-FAANG (developer) currently working as a software executive for a director role at a previous company. This person included 5 years-ish of Haskell experience on their resume. I don't know Haskell at all, but am aware of the language and its design principles, so I figured a lot of my technical questions would be pretty easy for him Boy was I wrong. My first question was "Name the most common data…

[deleted]

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#179

Post by randomdata »

alex_lav wrote: post #143
ethbr0 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I interviewed a guy the other day. CS degree. "I have a proven track record of building and leading amazing engineering teams." "Okay. What's the difference between a character and a string?" *crickets* We all have our specialities, but jesus ¢@&#ing christ: if you're interviewing for an engineering role, of any sort, you should be able to answer basic questions.

I interviewed an ex-FAANG (developer) currently working as a software executive for a director role at a previous company. This person included 5 years-ish of Haskell experience on their resume. I don't know Haskell at all, but am aware of the language and its design principles, so I figured a lot of my technical questions would be pretty easy for him Boy was I wrong. My first question was "Name the most common data…

I write code every day and I still had to ponder your question for quite a while before I could think of a data structure I use regularly by name.

It is not exactly useful knowledge to keep top of mind. It is not like you need to look up how to use daily data structures. I had an easier time remembering the names of data structures I almost never use, or even have never used, as retaining their names actually has some usefulness.

In an interview situation, I expect I would also give up with stating I could not recall any to save the awkwardness of sitting there silent for half an hour racking my brain.

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#180

Post by PhilipRoman »

SideQuark wrote: post #174
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Said another way, America is the sandbox for the rich to experiment on the poor, with technology that may or may not be good for the poor but ultimately doesn’t matter because the ultimate winner is always the one funding them. It’s the test and staging servers for global capitalism

The poor in America are richer than the poor in just about any other country. The US poverty line is around the top 15% of world incomes, and that's pre tax transfers. Post tax transfers puts them much higher.

But is that before or after adjusting for cost of living?
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