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

MailChimp’s founders built the company slowly by anticipating customers’ needs

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 267 posts

Re: MailChimp’s founders built the company slowly by anticipating customers’ needs

#241

Post by lgleason »

atlstartup404 wrote: post #233
lgleason wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in Atlanta. It's a great place to work for a non-tech corporation, but the startup scene is so so. Most of the "tech" startups fall in to one of two categories. First, ones that will not get traction and are doing something that someone else is already doing or two high tech boiler room operations where they hire a few tech people and an army of sales types to try to sell it. Sadly tech people in Atlanta are seco…

You obviously don't know what you're talking about. Look up the Atlanta Tech Village and the buildings around it. Atlanta has it's own "Silicon Valley" and the startup / tech industry is pretty booming here. Atlanta Tech Village http://atlantatechvillage.com/ Venture Atlanta (for up and coming startups to get funded) http://ventureatlanta.org/ Nearby there's companies like BitPay https://bitpay.com/ Terminus http://t…

Ah a troll account....but... Atlanta has it's own "Silicon Valley". Sorry, not true. I am VERY aware ATV and the companies surrounding it. Lots of marketing focused products where the teams often have more business/sales/marketing people than actual engineers. In Silicon Valley they automate these things, in Atlanta they throw more bodies at it.

Re: MailChimp’s founders built the company slowly by anticipating customers’ needs

#242

Post by lgleason »

atlstartup404 wrote: post #236
lgleason wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is common with Atlanta (and I'm sure other cities). It is a big marketing town. Coke for example, which mastered the ability to sell overpriced sugar water, was started there. The old over-stating things....if you say it enough, maybe you and everyone else will believe it.

> if you say it enough, maybe you and everyone else will believe it. Sounds like you all up and down this comment section

trolling I see..

Re: MailChimp’s founders built the company slowly by anticipating customers’ needs

#243

Post by lgleason »

atlstartup404 wrote: post #234
zeendo wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's (a little) more meaningful than your example-free claim. Your description of the startup scene here is literally the startup scene everywhere.

That person obviously has no idea what they are talking about.

Both myself and others who have been involved in the community share this sentiment. Straight up if you have a startup and want to get funding, getting funding in Atlanta will mean a less favorable term sheet and not as many connections to help you grow your startup.

Re: MailChimp’s founders built the company slowly by anticipating customers’ needs

#244

Post by piptastic »

cglace wrote: post #155
piptastic wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I have to fly into Atlanta from the West Coast 3-4 times a year and it is also my least favorite major American city. There are nice places there (Top Golf, Bourbon Bar, tons of good restaurants)... But there are nice places everywhere and they certainly don't make up for Atlanta's other shortcomings. I can't articulate all the reasons for my distaste, but it just looks dirty and depressing. The traffic is ho…

Dirty? What parts of Atlanta? One of my favorite things about Atlanta is how green it is. After living on the west coast for awhile it felt amazing to come back and actually see something green.

Dirty is probably the wrong word... maybe run down? Roads are in poor condition, abandoned warehouses/factories everywhere, it looks like people don't care about the area. Probably nearby the airport, because that's where I fly in and drive out from there. But even inside the city, it doesn't look much better... I still get that same feeling.

Re: MailChimp’s founders built the company slowly by anticipating customers’ needs

#245

Post by piptastic »

michaelcampbell wrote: post #154
piptastic wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I have to fly into Atlanta from the West Coast 3-4 times a year and it is also my least favorite major American city. There are nice places there (Top Golf, Bourbon Bar, tons of good restaurants)... But there are nice places everywhere and they certainly don't make up for Atlanta's other shortcomings. I can't articulate all the reasons for my distaste, but it just looks dirty and depressing. The traffic is ho…

> We refer to it as Shitlanta clever. Come up with that all on your own?

I didn't, no, someone in my family came up with it.

And I'm guessing you're being sarcastic, which is fine as a response. It's a strong word, and I'm sure plenty of people love that area. We just emphatically do not.

Re: MailChimp’s founders built the company slowly by anticipating customers’ needs

#246

Post by lgleason »

atlstartup404 wrote: post #237
quantumhobbit wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to live in Atlanta. It felt like the city had so much potential for tech but just wasn't there yet. There were so many smart and driven people at Georgia Tech and other places. And there seemed to be a business community that would be capable of supporting those people but those two communities hadn't figured out how to deal with each other yet. This was in 2011. I would love for Atlanta to become a real hub a…

Check out the Atlanta Tech Village and surrounding area. http://atlantatechvillage.com/ Tons of opportunity

Ah, ATV. I know a lot of tech people in town who will not touch that place with a 10 foot pole. Might partially be because it is in Buckhead which is a very pretentious neighborhood. Lots of men buttoned up shirts, suits, women in pencil skirts, people getting cosmetic surgery etc. and everything is about image. ATV has a similar vibe, and if you look at who gets the majority of the press it's not the tech people, it's the marketing and business ones.

Hell the non-tech founder of it said at one point that Ruby is really easy and with a small amount of training a founder should have the skills necessary to create a startup. That is not someone who values tech or the skills that go into it. So if your an engineer why would you go somewhere where there is a good chance that a marketing/business type will take the credit for your work and ideas, probably try to take more of your equity than they would in Silicon Valley? And with all of that Atlanta companies do not have exits that are even close to what we see in the valley.

Re: MailChimp’s founders built the company slowly by anticipating customers’ needs

#247

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

55555 wrote: post #73
adekok wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unless you have a revolutionary product, the bigger competition will likely stomp over you unless you have resources to grow your team and product and marketing. Or if you are comfortable with a small market share but a profitable one. Case in point, me. I started FreeRADIUS in 1999. Started making money in 2007. Incorporated in 2008. I now have multiple offices, multiple employees, and good growth. No investment.…

> I started FreeRADIUS in 1999. Started making money in 2007. It sounds like you did essentially take venture capital, and you were the investor.

"Making money" could also refer to profit. Perhaps all revenue up to that point was re-invested back into the business?

Re: MailChimp’s founders built the company slowly by anticipating customers’ needs

#248

Post by t4nkd »

lgleason wrote: post #241
atlstartup404 wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You obviously don't know what you're talking about. Look up the Atlanta Tech Village and the buildings around it. Atlanta has it's own "Silicon Valley" and the startup / tech industry is pretty booming here. Atlanta Tech Village http://atlantatechvillage.com/ Venture Atlanta (for up and coming startups to get funded) http://ventureatlanta.org/ Nearby there's companies like BitPay https://bitpay.com/ Terminus http://t…

Ah a troll account....but... Atlanta has it's own "Silicon Valley". Sorry, not true. I am VERY aware ATV and the companies surrounding it. Lots of marketing focused products where the teams often have more business/sales/marketing people than actual engineers. In Silicon Valley they automate these things, in Atlanta they throw more bodies at it.

This seems to be the thing people ignore, as the Tampa region has a fairly bustling tech scene, and due to proximity with SOCOM at MacDill AFB, more seem to be coming all the time. You could say, "Wow look at all this tech activity, 100 head engineering offices are opening and such-and-such acquisition was so huge, blah blah" but, this is all strictly within the scope of people who are local. I've never met anyone from the Valley area who has come into Tampa and said, "Holy shit you guys are like a tiny Silicon Valley!" -- though sometimes they are somewhat surprised to find out companies like Chase, AmEx, or Neilsen have large engineering offices here.

There's intentionally nothing like Silicon Valley because the Valley has a literal firehose of the most brilliant engineers constantly flowing into it. When Atlanta, or Tampa, ends up with a brilliant engineer with vision and drive, it's mostly out of luck or coincidence.

Re: MailChimp’s founders built the company slowly by anticipating customers’ needs

#249

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

sametmax wrote: post #4

Then it's not called a start up, but a normal company. How is that a revelation?

As someone running and growing a traditional bootstrapped business the overall tone of the article did make me smile.

"You mean to say that it's possible to build a business without millions in VC investment!?"

Re: MailChimp’s founders built the company slowly by anticipating customers’ needs

#250

Post by Natanael_L »

chatmasta wrote: post #99
mazeway wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it then bears the question that if the so called "network effect" companies has any real value (that is to generate profit in the future) or are manifestations of a bubble?

It's pretty clear that they have value, or the entire VC industry would not exist. At least, enough of them have value to pay for the ones that don't. This is basic economics.

You're mixing up long term probabilities with short term variance and uncertainty. People can make very big bad choices and not see the consequences for years, because not everything unfolds rapidly.

"The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent".

Post reply on HN