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

Wanelo: The First Million Users

slideshare.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 161 posts

Re: Wanelo: The First Million Users

#91

Post by ashray »

downandout wrote: post #82
chasing wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was the technical cofounder of a company that was later acquired, but never received the $12.8 million check I was supposed to and didn't have the resources to fight back against a maniacal cofounder flush with $60+ million in new cash from the acquisition. Not to derail, but let's hear that story. Seems like hiring a lawyer would be a no-brainer if you were due $12.8m.

It's a long story, but I am still in the process of pursuing it legally. When I first learned of the acquisition, I didn't have the resources to pursue it, and even today don't have millions sitting around to pay attorneys. I sent a letter to the acquiring company explaining the situation and demanding that I receive my cut, and they actually responded with an extortionate threat in writing. We are now pursuing a civ…

I don't understand. Did you not have company equity in your name? As far as I understand, it would be impossible to acquire the company, its patents, and associated technology without proper paperwork?

Re: Wanelo: The First Million Users

#92

Post by gus_massa »

matthewmacleod wrote: post #53
[deleted] wrote: post #37

[deleted]

No, and fuck you. Stupid shit like this is one of the biggest reasons we are struggling to get women into tech.

Very agresive tone. I almost downvoted you because I thought it was a comment to the article, until I realize it was a reply to a deleted comment. Do you have a copy of the original comment?

Re: Wanelo: The First Million Users

#93

Post by bdcravens »

cfontes wrote: post #8

Non-tech and the first site was made using what? Her mind power? Wordpress?

As referenced elsewhere, she did have a technical co-founder.

Even if that wasn't the case, could easily have gone the oDesk route. (Personally I think the idea of doing this and keeping all equity is a bit of a pipe dream, but I hear enough folks pimping courses that advocate this, so surely it works, right?)

Re: Wanelo: The First Million Users

#94

Post by downandout »

ashray wrote: post #91
downandout wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a long story, but I am still in the process of pursuing it legally. When I first learned of the acquisition, I didn't have the resources to pursue it, and even today don't have millions sitting around to pay attorneys. I sent a letter to the acquiring company explaining the situation and demanding that I receive my cut, and they actually responded with an extortionate threat in writing. We are now pursuing a civ…

I don't understand. Did you not have company equity in your name? As far as I understand, it would be impossible to acquire the company, its patents, and associated technology without proper paperwork?

We believe what happened is that he tore up my contract without telling me, established a new, clean corporate entity after pushing me out (though my contract was supposedly still valid, it was with the old entity), and simply transferred all intellectual property to the new entity. He kept the name the same but changed it from LLC to a corporation. The acquiring company claims never to have heard my name, other than seeing it on the company's primary patent. It's a big legal mess.

Re: Wanelo: The First Million Users

#95

Post by mtrimpe »

epistasis wrote: post #79
sosuke wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think HN has a very low tolerance for bullshit, no matter what your background or situation is. If you had a tech co-founder, then parted ways with them before getting funding, then advertise yourself has being solo with no co-founder people are going to call you on it.

She says "no tech cofounder" when she was looking around for funding, and mentions it only to the extent that it makes it more difficult to get funding. The next slides are all about the technical team. Plenty of "co-founders" disappear in early stage startups that take a long time to get going, and at that point they're no longer co-founders, they were just associated people. I think that HN has a very low tolerance…

It's a sad, sad state of affairs. Especially seeing the points for my comment cycle up and down as rapidly as they are. 12,4,7,4,7,1 so far :(

After reading Sam's last two blog posts I just decided to reconsider and apply to YC after all; but the atmosphere here is so toxic that I can't help but feel that I'd spend more energy on dealing with YC misogyny than actually participating.

Re: Wanelo: The First Million Users

#96

Post by eddd »

poweribo wrote: post #62
eddd wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw a few projects where "developers" were not religious about tech.. they still using ftp for php files deployment, "BUT HEY! THE SHIT IS DONE!" :). I don't want be sarcastic, but i think every startup team should have at least one engineer who will know what to do, at every iteration of the project.

whats the "preferred" way nowadays? commit source using git to server and let it autodeploy?

If you can deploy: fast, atomically, without downtime and can revert your changes at any given moment, then it is not that important :)

Re: Wanelo: The First Million Users

#97

Post by MicroBerto »

Seems like a cool tool for people who like to shop for visually appealing stuff, but I don't think it's really "fixed" any problems or truly modernized e-commerce.

It's basically a clever front for a ton of affiliate programs, which interests me because my startup does something similar. I just wouldn't go so far as to consider it the "YouTube of Shopping" (slide 5).

If anything, Amazon Prime belongs in that position on slide 5.

Re: Wanelo: The First Million Users

#98

Post by xux »

downandout wrote: post #82
chasing wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was the technical cofounder of a company that was later acquired, but never received the $12.8 million check I was supposed to and didn't have the resources to fight back against a maniacal cofounder flush with $60+ million in new cash from the acquisition. Not to derail, but let's hear that story. Seems like hiring a lawyer would be a no-brainer if you were due $12.8m.

It's a long story, but I am still in the process of pursuing it legally. When I first learned of the acquisition, I didn't have the resources to pursue it, and even today don't have millions sitting around to pay attorneys. I sent a letter to the acquiring company explaining the situation and demanding that I receive my cut, and they actually responded with an extortionate threat in writing. We are now pursuing a civ…

Just a word of caution, if you're pursuing legal actions, you might consider not posting about any details publicly. Talk to your lawyer before you do anything...

Re: Wanelo: The First Million Users

#99

Post by downandout »

xux wrote: post #98
downandout wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a long story, but I am still in the process of pursuing it legally. When I first learned of the acquisition, I didn't have the resources to pursue it, and even today don't have millions sitting around to pay attorneys. I sent a letter to the acquiring company explaining the situation and demanding that I receive my cut, and they actually responded with an extortionate threat in writing. We are now pursuing a civ…

Just a word of caution, if you're pursuing legal actions, you might consider not posting about any details publicly. Talk to your lawyer before you do anything...

I thought about that, but I've said nothing here that would hinder my case. They outright stole from me, and then when I called them on it, they responded with extortion. They aren't in a great legal position.

Re: Wanelo: The First Million Users

#100

Post by antr »

wiradikusuma wrote: post #75

Call me skeptical, but it reminds me of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO5sxLapAts Like other commenters have said, how did she, being a non-technical founder with no team, could set up the (what appears to be custom-made) website? It's like going to a hackathon and claim that you build an app within 24 hours, but actually have implemented majority of it beforehand and making it a "library". Anyway, looking at the po…

at the presentation (not the doc, but the video) she is pretty clear that she didn't built the thing. she says this a couple of times at least
Post reply on HN