Take the Money and Run • Hacker News Board

Re: Take the Money and Run

#11

Post by sg_gabriel » Fri, May 08, 2015, 2:17 PM UTC

Hi Nate, thanks for sharing your story. I think it's interesting because my co-founder is also my wife. And it's an interesting dynamic to say the least. If you don't mind me asking, what are the roles that you play individually? Just curious ;)

For myself, I'm the backend engineer and devops, while my wife does the design and front-end engineering.

Re: Take the Money and Run

#12

Post by jameshk » Fri, May 08, 2015, 2:18 PM UTC

Interesting and well-written. Thanks.

Re: Take the Money and Run

#13

Post by Navarr » Fri, May 08, 2015, 2:19 PM UTC

nkohari wrote: post #5

bsenftner wrote: post #2

Chapter 2 please.

It's coming soon, I promise. :)

I would very much like not to miss it, so I've subscribed via RSS.... however....

Your RSS file is completely blank! I'd fix that if I were you ;)

Re: Take the Money and Run

#14

Post by maxerickson » Fri, May 08, 2015, 2:19 PM UTC

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #6

I'm probably being petulant or don't understand American culture, but: > To avoid spending money, we'd been subsisting on a diet consisting largely of soup. [...] But now, we'd gradually started to feel like we might be able to afford to eat at restaurants again. No middle ground?

You are just making an extrapolation from minimal information. You seem to be aware of this, so maybe the best way to describe your post is "being cute".

Plenty of Americans barely know how to fry an egg, plenty of others cook everything they eat.

Re: Take the Money and Run

#15

Post by [deleted] » Fri, May 08, 2015, 2:20 PM UTC

lbotos wrote: post #9

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #6

I'm probably being petulant or don't understand American culture, but: > To avoid spending money, we'd been subsisting on a diet consisting largely of soup. [...] But now, we'd gradually started to feel like we might be able to afford to eat at restaurants again. No middle ground?

I assume he was alluding to "ramen profitable": http://www.paulgraham.com/ramenprofitable.html Some people actually try and live off of Ramen.

[deleted]

Re: Take the Money and Run

#16

Post by giulianob » Fri, May 08, 2015, 2:21 PM UTC

When did you guys get acquired? I used AgileZen a couple of years ago at a large company and I'm curious if it was before or after the acquisition.

Re: Take the Money and Run

#17

Post by klink008 » Fri, May 08, 2015, 2:22 PM UTC

I currently live in Columbus and actually attended CodeMash this past year. Its great to hear about people in my own back yard, so to speak, that have a successful start up. Typically you only hear about them in silicon valley. Great story and i'm looking forward to the next installment.

Re: Take the Money and Run

#18

Post by nkohari » Fri, May 08, 2015, 2:23 PM UTC

sg_gabriel wrote: post #11

Hi Nate, thanks for sharing your story. I think it's interesting because my co-founder is also my wife. And it's an interesting dynamic to say the least. If you don't mind me asking, what are the roles that you play individually? Just curious ;) For myself, I'm the backend engineer and devops, while my wife does the design and front-end engineering.

Roughly speaking, with Zen (and now again with our new startup TaskTorch), I was in charge of the technical side of the business, and she was in charge of anything non-technical (finance, marketing, support, etc.)

Niki is an industrial-organizational psychologist, so her viewpoint is completely different from mine as a software engineer. As a developer it can be hard for me to see past the software sometimes, and Niki's perspective helps quite a bit.

Re: Take the Money and Run

#19

Post by nkohari » Fri, May 08, 2015, 2:24 PM UTC

giulianob wrote: post #16

When did you guys get acquired? I used AgileZen a couple of years ago at a large company and I'm curious if it was before or after the acquisition.

We joined Rally on April 1st, 2010.

Re: Take the Money and Run

#20

Post by adaml_623 » Fri, May 08, 2015, 2:25 PM UTC

maxerickson wrote: post #14

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #6

I'm probably being petulant or don't understand American culture, but: > To avoid spending money, we'd been subsisting on a diet consisting largely of soup. [...] But now, we'd gradually started to feel like we might be able to afford to eat at restaurants again. No middle ground?

You are just making an extrapolation from minimal information. You seem to be aware of this, so maybe the best way to describe your post is "being cute". Plenty of Americans barely know how to fry an egg, plenty of others cook everything they eat.

I think the question about food is valid since the article talks a bit about lifestyle in Ohio with all the snow and not leaving the house.

HN also has lots of articles about nutrition and exercise, etc. So I think some of us would love to know if these guys were head down coding surviving on soup for months because they were in the zone.