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

Failing the startup game at Unbabel

esoteric-code.blogspot.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 241 posts

Re: Failing the startup game at Unbabel

#141

Post by SeoxyS »

vasco_ wrote: post #131

For the record I am a co-founder and CEO of Unbabel. I feel that I should respond to these allegations. 1 - The contract we had with Andreas was full time employee contract. The first three months were "at will" which means that either one was free to terminate the relation at any time. We have a signed contract to prove it and I am happy to share a sample of the contract to anyone that wants. When we fired him, we n…

Firing someone is 10 times harder than hiring them. I've seen startups almost die due to putting off firing people until the very last minute. If it's not a fit, it's inevitable and will happen eventually, but in 6 months when he is eventually fired anyways, irreparable damage will have been made to the company, both in terms of culture, and it terms of wasted time, energy, and money.

All that to say, props on making the difficult decision early.

Re: Failing the startup game at Unbabel

#142

Post by GFK_of_xmaspast »

teraflop wrote: post #116

Is this a good place to ask why the title of this link was changed? It was originally the same as the title of the blog post, including "(YC/2014)". I've noticed this kind of alteration a number of times on stories about YC-backed companies, and I don't recall ever seeing it when the story was positive. EDIT: And now the post is getting rapidly demoted on the front page, below links that are older and have fewer vote…

Makes YC look bad, that's why.

Re: Failing the startup game at Unbabel

#143

Post by pcbo »

vasco_ wrote: post #131

For the record I am a co-founder and CEO of Unbabel. I feel that I should respond to these allegations. 1 - The contract we had with Andreas was full time employee contract. The first three months were "at will" which means that either one was free to terminate the relation at any time. We have a signed contract to prove it and I am happy to share a sample of the contract to anyone that wants. When we fired him, we n…

Red flag. Copy-paste from another comment: "37 old Java professional from Sweden spends all of his savings in two months? You have 5 kids or something?"

Re: Failing the startup game at Unbabel

#144

Post by teraflop »

dang wrote: post #135
teraflop wrote: post #116

Is this a good place to ask why the title of this link was changed? It was originally the same as the title of the blog post, including "(YC/2014)". I've noticed this kind of alteration a number of times on stories about YC-backed companies, and I don't recall ever seeing it when the story was positive. EDIT: And now the post is getting rapidly demoted on the front page, below links that are older and have fewer vote…

The (YC XYZ) tags are for major third-party articles and launches. We take them out of the titles of blog posts. I'm not sure exactly why, but it's been the convention for a long time. This, however: > I don't recall ever seeing it when the story was positive ... is just sample bias. By far most cases of this are positive stories. Indeed most are blog posts written by the companies themselves. Sometimes they even com…

Fair enough, thanks for the explanation.

Re: Failing the startup game at Unbabel

#145

Post by enraged_camel »

Turukawa wrote: post #130
enraged_camel wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>"Run your small business as if it was a large business" So basically, several layers of approvals for every $10 expense report? :)

Nope, small companies with bad processes grow up to be big companies with terrible processes. Precisely because you hope to be a big company (or mature into a profitable one), get your processes right from the beginning. I'm definitely not saying "run your small company like the big companies you hate" ... I am saying, start as you mean to go on.

>>Nope, small companies with bad processes grow up to be big companies with terrible processes.

Yes, but it's not just small companies with bad processes that grow up to be big companies with terrible processes.

Sometimes, small companies with good processes turn those processes into terrible ones because they think that's what it takes to become a big company. In other words, they observe the terrible processes at big companies and emulate them.

Expense reports are a classic example. Small companies have informal procedures that are built on trust (good). Large companies have formal procedures that are built on pages and pages of policies that dictate what kinds of things can be expensed and under what conditions (terrible). It's very common for the former to turn into the latter as companies grow.

Re: Failing the startup game at Unbabel

#146

Post by kawsper »

bhouston wrote: post #23
malanj wrote: post #11

It seems that given Andreas' move to join the startup - if his explanation is accurate and complete - the level of responsibility of the founders does increase. I've been a founder asking people to move before and I've always felt that it adds a significant extra responsibility. You need to be quite a lot more certain it'll be a good fit before asking someone to move to join your company. In my mind "culture fit" is…

As a company founder, I have never had someone move to take a job at my company. The reasons are #1, it is a lot more expensive to hire because most people want you to cover moving costs, and #2, if the person doesn't work out during the three months probationary period (this is standard in Ontario, Canada) I would be screwing them over if I laid them off (and if I didn't lay them off, it would be screwing over the c…

Have you considered having remote employees?

Re: Failing the startup game at Unbabel

#147

Post by schnable »

kenjackson wrote: post #55
jprince wrote: post #52

As terrible as this experience was, what's most alarming is that you're 37, have been working for nearly 20 years in this field, and don't have enough savings to tide you over even two months without work. You really need to learn to save your income and cut your lifestyle. I hope that if it turns out your story is true, that these guys are in some way brought to justice, karmic or otherwise. Best of luck.

You don't know what the OP has been through it done. I'd avoid giving financial advice without knowing more about their situation.

That's fair but then I would ask why take the risk of working for a startup and moving across the continent?

Re: Failing the startup game at Unbabel

#148

Post by 7Figures2Commas »

vasco_ wrote: post #131

For the record I am a co-founder and CEO of Unbabel. I feel that I should respond to these allegations. 1 - The contract we had with Andreas was full time employee contract. The first three months were "at will" which means that either one was free to terminate the relation at any time. We have a signed contract to prove it and I am happy to share a sample of the contract to anyone that wants. When we fired him, we n…

I'm always surprised when a company is so quick to publicly comment on a sensitive personnel matter, but that said, it's interesting to note what this response doesn't contain.

The OP basically called into question the quality and stability of Unbabel's platform ("The code was a tangled mess of mindless duplication, half-implemented features and misleading comments. Of the few automated tests that existed, most didn't even run anymore") and the competence of the people behind it ("The team lead was the only one who knew anything about the system and he was either busy trying to patch things up by himself or working with the other person they had hired for my position before I got there"). The subtle implication of the post: the OP may have been terminated because he recognized these things.

Are the OP's claims true? Who knows, but the response here doesn't directly address them at all. Instead, there's ambiguous language like "terrible fit", corporate-speak like "we believe that the culture of the company is extremely important" and a poorly-timed "A position just opened up :)"

Frankly, if I was the founder of a tech company and I made the decision to respond publicly to a situation like this, the claims about my platform and the competence of my team would be my focus and I'd address them head on. After all, such claims could become very harmful when encountered by prospective employees, customers and partners. Given that, it's curious they were completely ignored.

Re: Failing the startup game at Unbabel

#149

Post by potatolicious »

seestheday wrote: post #138
potatolicious wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on where you are. Developers are in demand in major US tech hubs (read: SFBay, NYC, Seattle, Austin), they are not nearly as hotly fought over everywhere else, particularly in Europe and Asia. It's important to remember that the "companies prostrating themselves at your front door offering you bonuses and perks and lavishing dining you" is an American Tech Hub phenomenon. While I doubt UK coders are doing bad…

I still think that this is very limiting. I'm in Canada (Waterloo, Ontario) and I just can't see trying out at a company for a month. That said, I'm "old" (36), and have family responsibilities. If I were a naive recent grad I might have entertained doing this.

I went to Waterloo and still have friends there - the job market may be pretty good for Canada, but it's a far, far cry from what you'd see in an American tech hub.

Trying out at a company for a month isn't really that bad when the demand is so intense you can literally line up 3-4 competing offers in under a week if things don't work out. There is sadly no place in Canada where the demand is that high.

Re: Failing the startup game at Unbabel

#150

Post by parennoob »

stretchwithme wrote: post #139
parennoob wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Everyone in Unbabel is expected to participate actively in the company Meaning that they are part of the planning, and encouraged to be autonomous in creating the best products possible. We truly enjoy working with each other and spending time together. For example, every week we go surfing on Wednesday morning in the beautiful beaches of Lisbon. It is not mandatory, but every one has loved it so far. It is an amazi…

They say its not mandatory, right there in your quote.

De facto and de jure are two different things. Mandatory is "De jure", when you say (for example), ”Surfing with the team every weekend is part of your contract. Otherwise, you will be let go.”

What I'm asking about is ”De facto”. If practically, you are letting go of people who can't or won't surf with you on the weekends because of ”culture fit issues”, surfing becomes a de facto (but not de jure) requirement of the job. And the reason I'm asking about it is that it has been mentioned as one of the four points related to letting this employee go. Otherwise, why is it even in the response? Notice that it is not part of the advertisement (which comes later, outside the points).

Post reply on HN