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Ask HN: Can I visit your startup in SF?

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Re: Ask HN: Can I visit your startup in SF?

#71

There have been quite a few threads like this on HN over the years (including one I made :-)). I wonder if there's some way of formalizing or aggregating the concept of visiting other companies, it seems there's an audience for it.

Hm. I'd be interested in helping with this if anyone else would want to brainstorm. Having it be formalized is important as most companies aren't that interested in having random people wander in every day - even with appointments.

I'd be in too. I wonder if that's necessarily true, startups in SF seem to be relatively open to devs wandering in, but I think you have a good point.

Re: Ask HN: Can I visit your startup in SF?

#72
I find this entire approach fascinating.

That someone can post this on HN and get a bunch of invites back.

Does doing something like this scale? What if everybody just decided to post "hey I'm coming to SF is there a place for me to crash" or "hey I'm coming to NYC anyone want to have coffee?" or "I have a problem writing perl..."

Since there are companies that you are trying to reach, and you must have some idea of the type of company you want to reach, why not put some effort into doing something other than the obvious easiest thing which is to post an "Ask HN" and see who bites?

(For the record I wouldn't feel the same way if a top commenter who spends much time on HN made a similar request because at least they have put time and effort into HN (and I don't consider my karma as anywhere near that point for the record.)

Re: Ask HN: Can I visit your startup in SF?

#73
post #72

I find this entire approach fascinating. That someone can post this on HN and get a bunch of invites back. Does doing something like this scale? What if everybody just decided to post "hey I'm coming to SF is there a place for me to crash" or "hey I'm coming to NYC anyone want to have coffee?" or "I have a problem writing perl..." Since there are companies that you are trying to reach, and you must have some idea of…

well, looks like this just got bumped off from the frontpage.

Re: Ask HN: Can I visit your startup in SF?

#74
post #19

There have been quite a few threads like this on HN over the years (including one I made :-)). I wonder if there's some way of formalizing or aggregating the concept of visiting other companies, it seems there's an audience for it.

Peter, aren't you exactly the type of man for this job? =)

;-) I have an "OK" level of connections but I imagine something like this would be SF/SV focused and I have no real feet on the ground there. Thanks for the vote of confidence though!

Re: Ask HN: Can I visit your startup in SF?

#75
post #72

I find this entire approach fascinating. That someone can post this on HN and get a bunch of invites back. Does doing something like this scale? What if everybody just decided to post "hey I'm coming to SF is there a place for me to crash" or "hey I'm coming to NYC anyone want to have coffee?" or "I have a problem writing perl..." Since there are companies that you are trying to reach, and you must have some idea of…

This is definitely valid and I don't think our approach scales. It was something a friend recommended and we tried it. HN has an upvote system for a reason.

Re: Ask HN: Can I visit your startup in SF?

#77

There have been quite a few threads like this on HN over the years (including one I made :-)). I wonder if there's some way of formalizing or aggregating the concept of visiting other companies, it seems there's an audience for it.

I worked in high-end restaurants for a number of years where where there is a practice known as staging. Many restaurants allow cooks to come work for a few days to a few months, generally without pay. One of the biggest advantages of this system is that cooks can gain high-level experience from a restaurant they might be unqualified to work in. It would be cool to this kind of casual system in this industry.

Yeah, that'd be awesome to do a placement at a scaling startup.
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