Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

old.reddit.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 224 posts

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

#191

Post by hyperman1 »

mufti_menk wrote: post #134
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Insane amount of money: Of the 10 countries with the highest median income, 7 of them are European. By some measures, the USA is-midpack, with Norway/Canada very similar to us, but missing most of the entrepeneurial/VC culture of the USA. World hegemony: mostly a function of the post-WWII situation, combined with our willingness to spend absolutely insane amounts on our military and use it to impose or at minimum enc…

[flagged]

At least the Netherlands has higher population than Belgium, about 17 or 18 mio.

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

#192

Post by Kinrany »

xwdv wrote: post #83
seizethecheese wrote: post #33

I’m a VC backed founder. The VCs will give you lots of advice, but generally are removed enough from the business that it’s obviously up to you to make final strategic decisions. This story is remarkable in one sense: the founder removes all of his own agency from the story. The vast majority of initial financing rounds leave the founders in control of companies these days… Finally, a VC backed company is always like…

A nice small SaaS will also almost always die quick. IMO, it is foolish to hinge the decision of taking VC money or not based on potential lifespan alone. VC money could kill your startup quickly, but you could potentially make a lot of stable money in that short period of time, and end up better off than collecting smaller profit from your small SaaS that lives for a longer period of time. And yea most of the time y…

Money is never destroyed unless you literally destroy it physically.

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

#193

Post by pajko »

matrix_overload wrote: post #90
optymizer wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not in the know. What's the kickbacks-and-favors game? I understand the words, but how does it work?

You hire useless people and pay them bloated salaries using investors' money. Then they order something from a consulting firm ran by your wife, or just remember the favor, and hire you into an overpaid useless role next time they secure a round. On paper it looks like money is being spent on product development. In practice, it's a network of friends using buzzwords to direct VC money into their pockets. Investors d…

That. And investors usually don't invst their own money, but others' money via a fund or similar, and if something does not go well, they might not lose anything from their own and just tell the losers that IT investments have a high risk.

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

#194

Post by 40yearoldman »

Shaanie wrote: post #187
randomdata wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 som…

I'm sorry, but what? If you can't even remember what list/set/map whatever is called, how are you going to use them? We're not talking about exact syntax here, just what data structures you use...

I think the part of the question that throws people is “most common”. It begins to sounds like a trick question, because it hat is the most common? Its going to very from code base to code base.

Maybe id the question was name 3 data structures, any 3 it might sit well.

But even so. The question did devolve into list of things somebody should know as a ex developer.

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

#195

Post by alex_lav »

40yearoldman wrote: post #194
Shaanie wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, but what? If you can't even remember what list/set/map whatever is called, how are you going to use them? We're not talking about exact syntax here, just what data structures you use...

I think the part of the question that throws people is “most common”. It begins to sounds like a trick question, because it hat is the most common? Its going to very from code base to code base. Maybe id the question was name 3 data structures, any 3 it might sit well. But even so. The question did devolve into list of things somebody should know as a ex developer.

> I think the part of the question that throws people is “most common”. It begins to sounds like a trick question, because it hat is the most common? Its going to very from code base to code base

That’s pretty textbook overthinking for an interview. The point is that it varies from codebase to codebase. Tell me about what you normally use and I’ll ask questions.

> Maybe id the question was name 3 data structures, any 3 it might sit well.

Trying to get every human to agree on the wording for an extremely easy and general question isn’t a worthwhile use of time though.

> But even so. The question did devolve into list of things somebody should know as a ex developer.

Interesting use of “devolve”. An an interviewer for a technical role, am I not allowed to have a set of required skills? And is a basic understanding of common data structures not allowed to be in that set?

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

#196

Post by [deleted] »

game_the0ry wrote: post #19
raincom wrote: post #11

Lessons learned from that post: (1) "I was told to hire a lot of people. Put fuel on the fire they said. Bring industry experts who can move the needle. All this BS you hear all day. All failed. I hired VPs and bloated my payroll. Ultimately I ended up with a bunch of highly paid employees who don’t know how to do anything but to “build and lead amazing teams.” Imagine you hire someone to scale an area and their solu…

This is too real in big corp as well as the VC funded start up world. A bunch of bourgeoisie over-educated idiots, usually with MBAs, who don't know how to do anything except take credit for work that other people do.

[deleted]

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

#197

Post by novok »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #109
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…

> High quality food delivery (at any time...) In the largest cities, perhaps. Don't try that in Santa Fe. For that matter, don't try it in Philadelphia, at least not after 23:00) > 24 hour [...] An unusual feature of western US grocery stores (not generally replicated in the midwest or east coast as a whole, though it is spreading). Not common in smaller cities or towns. 24 pharmacies are useful, but many large citie…

Walmart is effectively that for US camper travelers. Maybe not free water & electricity, but I don't think that is anywhere, you have to pay for that.

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

#198

Post by randomdata »

Shaanie wrote: post #187
randomdata wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 som…

I'm sorry, but what? If you can't even remember what list/set/map whatever is called, how are you going to use them? We're not talking about exact syntax here, just what data structures you use...

> If you can't even remember what list/set/map whatever is called, how are you going to use them?

Certainly not by dictating their names to my coworker. Why would I need to know their names? I suppose some languages require you to know their names in order to use built-in implementations, but lots of languages use other syntax – often void of natural language (e.g. [], {}, etc.) – to do the same.

I eventually got there, but it took awhile to remember. That's great if you have prioritized trivia to occupy your mind's space, but I have found no reason to.

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

#199

Post by LordDragonfang »

yourapostasy wrote: post #151
jemmyw wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People building projects don't tend to argue about tech debt and security unless they've had a leader make decisions that compromised their comfort levels. Quorum decision making in those circumstances keeps those things in check.

> Quorum decision making in those circumstances keeps those things in check. Depends upon the composition of the quorum. If the quorum is mostly "eh it works, just ship it", jugaad , chabuduo , corner cutting engineers, then I've witnessed adverse results. Conscientious engineering that delicately balances trade-offs is difficult to teach, and poorly discerned by most casual observers (even other conscientious engine…

>jugaad, chabuduo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jugaad

I love seeing other culture's words for the universal engineering concepts of "hack", "kludge" and "bodge"

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

#200

Post by alex_lav »

randomdata wrote: post #198
Shaanie wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, but what? If you can't even remember what list/set/map whatever is called, how are you going to use them? We're not talking about exact syntax here, just what data structures you use...

> If you can't even remember what list/set/map whatever is called, how are you going to use them? Certainly not by dictating their names to my coworker. Why would I need to know their names? I suppose some languages require you to know their names in order to use built-in implementations, but lots of languages use other syntax – often void of natural language (e.g. [], {}, etc.) – to do the same. I eventually got the…

> Why would I need to know their names?

Why would you need to _communicate about programming_? Because it's a core part of your job...

> That's great if you have prioritized trivia

Every interview question can be characterized as trivia if you squint hard enough.

Post reply on HN