Read about Sit/Lie and how SF voted to criminalize homelessness in 2010, and you'll see why these "hostels" for tech workers are needed now more than ever.
HackerSurfing: Free Housing and Food for Engineers Visiting SF
31–40 of 198 posts
Re: HackerSurfing: Free Housing and Food for Engineers Visiting SF
#32This is brilliant! You could even get the hiring companies to pay your rent for the month if they get a hire :) Also, I imagine it will be interesting how pre-qualify the guest to make sure they are worthy candidates.
That's usually called a relocation bonus.
Re: HackerSurfing: Free Housing and Food for Engineers Visiting SF
#33There's a (small) issue with the application form. I linked my linkedin profile, but didn't include the http[s]://, and it threw an error, but then continued submitting the form anyways. Everything I submitted was kosher, but just in case you're getting any incomplete forms and wondering why.
Thanks!
Re: HackerSurfing: Free Housing and Food for Engineers Visiting SF
#34Great idea! How are you about startup founders visiting? Coz I just applied for a couple of days next week! (ps: Anyone else going to the SaaStr Annual in San Francisco on Feb 5? I'm stupidly excited about it! I live in Minnesota and we don't get cool stuff like that here.)
Also, if anyone else in the SF/Silicon Valley area feels like hosting an out-of-town founder in the enterprise space for a few days in early February... hey, hotels are expensive, I'm poor, and I ain't too proud to beg.
If you have a guitar lying around, I can even play a tune or three.
Re: HackerSurfing: Free Housing and Food for Engineers Visiting SF
#35So can I use this as an alternative to crashing on the couch at noisebridge?
/s
I'm planning on making a trip to SF in the next couple of months to hang out there for a while, and while I'm not really looking to move there (Phoenix actually has a pretty cool tech scene right now if you know where to look), if the right offer came my way, I wouldn't be against it.
Can I stay at your house?
Re: HackerSurfing: Free Housing and Food for Engineers Visiting SF
#36Cool, commendable effort. One frustration I have is the (possibly soft) requirement for showing your work ala github profile or something else. I've noticed quite a few job postings where they ask you for a github profile. All my code belongs to my employer and I can't put stuff up on github. Not sure how people who are in this stupid situation deal with the new reality that github is your resume these days?
I've been on the same boat (NDA's and stuff) .. my best recomendation is to get involved on opensource and contribute.. I've got tons of good feedback from doing that.
Re: HackerSurfing: Free Housing and Food for Engineers Visiting SF
#37Only slightly related, but something I've always wondered.. can a residential house the founders live in, and employees work in, be claimed as a legitimate business expense? I see this quite a lot in the US. I looked into it here in the UK and it doesn't work out particularly well tax-wise.
Re: HackerSurfing: Free Housing and Food for Engineers Visiting SF
#38Cool, commendable effort. One frustration I have is the (possibly soft) requirement for showing your work ala github profile or something else. I've noticed quite a few job postings where they ask you for a github profile. All my code belongs to my employer and I can't put stuff up on github. Not sure how people who are in this stupid situation deal with the new reality that github is your resume these days?
I've been on the same boat (NDA's and stuff) .. my best recomendation is to get involved on opensource and contribute.. I've got tons of good feedback from doing that.
I've got plenty of open source code in my github, and the irony is that I don't know if anybody I've interviewed with has ever really looked at it.
They might want to know it exists, but it's not like they do code reviews.
Re: HackerSurfing: Free Housing and Food for Engineers Visiting SF
#39This marketing approach comes from the time-sharing vacation condo industry. It's common to offer a free weekend in a vacation condo in exchange for two days of listening to high-pressure sales talks.
Thankfully, I can guarantee that no one who visits will be subjected to high-pressure sales tactics. Because that would be just lame on both sides - founders want to hire people who are excited to work for their startup.
Yeah, it's easy to see how you monetize something like this (hiring a good programmer has $$$ attached to it) and you don't need a hard sell to make it work. It seems like it'd be more like speed dating, where there's an intense sell from both sides but it's low pressure because either side can back out easily.
Re: HackerSurfing: Free Housing and Food for Engineers Visiting SF
#40What is an equivalent service in NYC?
Do you have plans to extend to NYC?