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A two-person startup already uses twenty-eight other tools

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Re: A two-person startup already uses twenty-eight other tools

#281

Post by BowBun »

CameronBanga wrote: post #203
bad_user wrote: post #151

IMO many people end up with a tool fetish, but some of these tools aren't worth it in a small startup: 1. You don't need Slack ($13 / month) as a two person startup — just do email and Skype 2. Notion ($16 / month) — this sounds like a glorified shared note taking app — just use Google Docs, or Dropbox Paper, or text files in a Dropbox folder 3. Sentry ($26 / month) — OK, this might be worth it, but if you have a hig…

Their product is built on the Slack platform. They probably need (and want) to be paid users if not for anything more than having a better understanding of their customer. Why you’d start (and fund?!) a business built entirely on a “hip” chat client, in a world where we’ve seen how walled gardens have ruined business models overnight (mobile app stores) is the real question. But it’s not my money (or apparently the b…

The reason is simple: Because there is a demand and multiple companies have already built successful products through this. Companies born from platforms is nothing new and makes plenty of sense.

Re: A two-person startup already uses twenty-eight other tools

#282

Post by pm90 »

zbentley wrote: post #267
marcinzm wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>A few month later, sales went out and bought 10 mf’ing Zoom licenses without consulting anyone because some client hadn’t heard of UC and asked if it was the budget solution. They have a point, the more things you need a client to do out of the ordinary the more friction you will get selling them. New UI for them to figure out, new permissions, etc. Depending on your business model as a startup that can be a bad thi…

> Employees have the most view into what would make their job more efficient or engaging. Employees in aggregate know the true answers to those things. Employees individually sometimes do, but often do not. For example, if you have a stone-aged development process on an ancient revision of an unsupported language, and you poll your employees, they'll all want change. They'll all want ... different changes/processes/p…

Sure but when the decision is left to employees, they will organically choose solutions that makes the most sense for them rather than what makes sense only to an individual. Treat the employees as autonomous responsible individuals; give them the freedom on how to best solve their problem and they will solve it.

Seen another way, as a manager who is not involved in the day to day you don’t deal with the same problems that they do. Quite presumptive of you to think that you know what will solve their problems.

Re: A two-person startup already uses twenty-eight other tools

#285

Post by erikpukinskis »

QuelqueChose wrote: post #201
bad_user wrote: post #151

IMO many people end up with a tool fetish, but some of these tools aren't worth it in a small startup: 1. You don't need Slack ($13 / month) as a two person startup — just do email and Skype 2. Notion ($16 / month) — this sounds like a glorified shared note taking app — just use Google Docs, or Dropbox Paper, or text files in a Dropbox folder 3. Sentry ($26 / month) — OK, this might be worth it, but if you have a hig…

> Internal communication and supporting customers in shared Slack channels If you're using Slack solely for the purpose of talking to your co-founder over a few categorized channels then the price is definitely not worth it over using email etc. IMO - unless you're willing to pay $13 a month to click on reaction emojis. However Slack's ability to be used as a sort of centralized dashboard for most if not all of the o…

Emojis are like coffee. They make doing a tedious thing more exciting.

There are parts of work that are intrinsically exciting. But there are also parts of work that are just tedious, and you just need to get through them.

Re: A two-person startup already uses twenty-eight other tools

#286

Post by acwan93 »

calmworm wrote: post #155
Hnrobert42 wrote: post #33

I am the CIO of a mostly remote, cybersecurity startup (50 FTEs). I balance between not single-threading all choices through me and not letting things get too out of hand. That means no one is every really happy. E.g., we use Uberconference for videoconferencing. We thoroughly looked at a bunch of others and chose UC for its functionality, price, and simplicity (every conference gets a simple phone number, no stupid…

Your CFO got sold ... twice. Concur and NetSuite are both enterprise level software that a company with 50 FTEs does not need. NetSuite is a never ending money pit with varying results. I dealt with a very similar situation, in which a project manager("VP") talked our owner into using NS, but it was over $100k/year and commitments were 2 years per seat at something like $5k. He ALSO wanted to do the roll out himself.…

Unsurprisingly this is a similar story from our customers who switch away from us, and then come crawling back due to the implementation nightmare from NetSuite/SAP. Usually it's a high level executive who wants the name recognition and the "no one got fired for picking X" mindset.

Re: A two-person startup already uses twenty-eight other tools

#287

Post by marcinzm »

zbentley wrote: post #267
marcinzm wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>A few month later, sales went out and bought 10 mf’ing Zoom licenses without consulting anyone because some client hadn’t heard of UC and asked if it was the budget solution. They have a point, the more things you need a client to do out of the ordinary the more friction you will get selling them. New UI for them to figure out, new permissions, etc. Depending on your business model as a startup that can be a bad thi…

> Employees have the most view into what would make their job more efficient or engaging. Employees in aggregate know the true answers to those things. Employees individually sometimes do, but often do not. For example, if you have a stone-aged development process on an ancient revision of an unsupported language, and you poll your employees, they'll all want change. They'll all want ... different changes/processes/p…

Sure but then you create a process for the change and delegate the information gathering and decision aggregation to people. Then implement whatever that process comes back with as the result.

Or in other words, rather than doing all the cost-benefit analysis yourself you teach other people to do it. That way in the future they can just do it and you can review.

edit: It's the difference between seeing your employees as toddlers versus intelligent individuals no different from yourself.

Re: A two-person startup already uses twenty-eight other tools

#288

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

alharith wrote: post #159
Shacklz wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Voluntary redistribution through loss making startups is the comfortable alternative to wealth taxes. That's just a little bit of redistribution from the top 1% to the top 10%, at best. Tech startups and their new fancy apps aren't putting food on the table or paying the health care bill for the bottom 90%.

This “berniespeak” needs to go away. It’s divisive and further entrenched people into polarization. There have been plenty of people from the “bottom 90%” that entered a new income bracket thanks to technology. Let’s celebrate it instead of generalizing it to conform to a politicians ideological battle against the “wealthy”

It seems you are not aware that economic mobility (i.e. ending up in a different income (or wealth) quintile/decile than you were born into is at an all-time low in the United States.

Re: A two-person startup already uses twenty-eight other tools

#289

Post by [deleted] »

alharith wrote: post #159
Shacklz wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Voluntary redistribution through loss making startups is the comfortable alternative to wealth taxes. That's just a little bit of redistribution from the top 1% to the top 10%, at best. Tech startups and their new fancy apps aren't putting food on the table or paying the health care bill for the bottom 90%.

This “berniespeak” needs to go away. It’s divisive and further entrenched people into polarization. There have been plenty of people from the “bottom 90%” that entered a new income bracket thanks to technology. Let’s celebrate it instead of generalizing it to conform to a politicians ideological battle against the “wealthy”

[deleted]

Re: A two-person startup already uses twenty-eight other tools

#290

Post by wbl »

wpietri wrote: post #250
ibeckermayer wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve seen another user on HN who grew up in the USSR call it “soviet capitalism”. A friend of mine also recognized it in this 2015 article (see footnote 1): https://reasonandliberty.com/articles/obamacare

That's a good description. I'll also talk about "corporate feudalism", where you have the Duke of Engineering fighting with the Duke of Product, and the King/CEO must mediate the conflicts. The peasants, of course, are basically property of their various nobles. But I really like "soviet capitalism", as it points at a key contradiction. Somehow, fans of capitalism, which maximizes surplus value by freeing individuals…

Theory of the Firm is a huge topic in microeconomics.
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