Honest question: Is it normal for SV companies to be taking "beer breaks" during the work day? I found that a bit strange.
They're going for the Ballmer Peak:
Famo.us pivots, fires 20 employees
111–120 of 154 posts
Re: Famo.us pivots, fires 20 employees
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not really sure why investors shouldn't be expected to be able to do due diligence on the startups they invest in.
UI development is so specialized now that I bet you could sell enough snake oil to lots of investors who would have a hard time verifying if your idea has profit potential or not. I also think it's deplorable that Steve Newcomb went straight to investors for this without putting any of his own money into paying employees. It's one thing to sell snake oil, it's another not to even try to build a working snake oil prot…
You could say that about literally anything, at these prices investors should be able to find their own experts in the field to evaluate these kinds of things.
Almost none of the comments I saw on HN were positive about this, which should be more of a red flag than usual given that developers are their target audience.
But whatever, I have no sympathy for VCs who have no idea what they're doing.
Re: Famo.us pivots, fires 20 employees
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Perhaps more importantly, Apple and Google aren't particularly interested in cross-platform technology either. Ah, the problem with generalizations about large companies. http://flutter.io/ , by Google.
The fact that flutter exists doesn't really change my view that I don't believe that Google is pushing it. Flutter to me seems much more of a "Hey, let's get some brilliant people at Google on a fun, hard project" than something Google sees as the future. I agree, though, that Google has somewhat more of an incentive to build stuff cross platform than Apple does. Google wants you to access their services from any dev…
I think Android is also still a second class citizen when it comes to app development and if they can get some people who would have started with an iOS app to start with Flutter they might even the playing field.
Though that's probably not really worth that much since they're a close second, unlike everyone else.
It mostly sounds like they got sick of writing the same app twice internally though, which I could definitely see happening to people who just want to ship product and aren't platform partisans (it would be a bit weird to me for iOS partisans to go work at google?).
Re: Famo.us pivots, fires 20 employees
#114I am quite baffled by all this. I heard of Famo.us, but didn't give it more than 1 thought. I thought it was just another framework, I would have never thought that they had employees, let alone that many and raising that much money. I watched the video in the article, and I can't believe that people are throwing money at someone with a pitch like that. I feel like everything about Famo.us is all the wrong things tha…
When it was first announced there was huge hype here on HN. I myself signed up. We were all really hoping that somebody had finally solved the cross-platform development pain. I was excited to see what the platform was going to do because at my company we really do feel the pain of developing for multiple platforms. So the investment isn't a surprise to me considering a CEO with a previous exit success and all the hy…
I missed the first round of hype; was it originally all about 3D? Because that part definitely seemed crazy.
Re: Famo.us pivots, fires 20 employees
#115Re: Famo.us pivots, fires 20 employees
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
UI development is so specialized now that I bet you could sell enough snake oil to lots of investors who would have a hard time verifying if your idea has profit potential or not. I also think it's deplorable that Steve Newcomb went straight to investors for this without putting any of his own money into paying employees. It's one thing to sell snake oil, it's another not to even try to build a working snake oil prot…
Do you have inside information we don't know about? You know for sure he didn't put his own money into the venture?
No, I have no more information than is in the article, but I have no reason to believe otherwise.
Re: Famo.us pivots, fires 20 employees
#117I will never understand how startups like this get money with such incompetent leadership. Look at how this Famo.us office tour showcases the waste: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imc1p_laIt4
I've always disliked Techcrunch but I'm starting to realize how valuable their "Cribs" series is. They have the very best documentation of a dying culture of spoiled founders aimlessly running startups like a daycare for adults. I wonder how much longer people are going to be pulling this off for. Investors need to wise up and start giving their money to people who are mature enough to be modest and efficient with th…
I seriously get the feeling people are just looking for any excuse to criticize Famous. I don't see what's wrong with their office. What's objectionable? A couple of $5 nerf guns? A cheap Lego board for project tracking? Or is it the fact that people aren't packed in as tight as they are at a place like Facebook (which is ironically something people on HN love to criticize)? The crappy makeshift studio they have? Seriously. Their office seems pretty normal.
The only thing you might find objectionable is the expensive SF location, which the article notes they got on the cheap at below-market rates, or the printer (the printer is probably only 1-2 thousand dollars, less than a Macbook).
Re: Famo.us pivots, fires 20 employees
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you have inside information we don't know about? You know for sure he didn't put his own money into the venture?
No, I have no more information than is in the article, but I have no reason to believe otherwise.
If you don't know whether or not the founder put his own money into it, then don't say things like: "I also think it's deplorable that Steve Newcomb went straight to investors for this without putting any of his own money into paying employees."
Re: Famo.us pivots, fires 20 employees
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've always disliked Techcrunch but I'm starting to realize how valuable their "Cribs" series is. They have the very best documentation of a dying culture of spoiled founders aimlessly running startups like a daycare for adults. I wonder how much longer people are going to be pulling this off for. Investors need to wise up and start giving their money to people who are mature enough to be modest and efficient with th…
I seriously get the feeling people are just looking for any excuse to criticize Famous. I don't see what's wrong with their office. What's objectionable? A couple of $5 nerf guns? A cheap Lego board for project tracking? Or is it the fact that people aren't packed in as tight as they are at a place like Facebook (which is ironically something people on HN love to criticize)? The crappy makeshift studio they have? Ser…
Yeah, I don't see what's wrong either. The CEO is a fantastic interior designer. And his LinkedIn self-summary[1] is a real piece of art in its own right.
I find it hard to believe any of what this former employee wrote[2].
[1] https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenewcomb
[2] http://techcrunch.com/2015/11/06/nopen-source/?fb_comment_id...
Re: Famo.us pivots, fires 20 employees
#120> What makes our product offering unique is that our apps can be built without coding Oooh... that's going to be a tough argument to sell to people.
I think most of us remember the DreamWeaver days of WYSIWYG editors. Products like squarespace have been hugely influential, I'm the type who would normally nope out of using such a product but I've recently become an advocate for the better ones in a number of situations. Will it take over like they said it would ten years ago? Hell no. Will it gain more market shares as people apply it to the right problems? I thin…
True, I think there's been a trend towards less programming for specialized applications. But in a way you're making my case for me anyway: If what you are saying is true then the fabulo.us claim of being "the first" is false regardless.