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An Email got us $5k in AWS Credits

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Re: An Email got us $5k in AWS Credits

#31

Post by TheAdamAndChe »

nrmitchi wrote: post #24
TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trouble with the post wasn't the information, but the way it was presented. The HN guidelines state "Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive." "Just a reminder" isn't a good way to start such a conversation. It implies that there is already a consensus on the issue when there isn't.

While I agree with your first point, I think you are giving an uncharitable reading of the comment. "Just a reminder", to me, sounds like it is trying to append a relevant point, rather than disagree with/discredit the original point. A version of the comment excluding that ("Acknowledge how exceedingly well this works for white guys and the uphill battle faced by others.") sounds like an aggressive accusation.

Your second paragraph proves my point that it's a rather contentious statement. "Just a reminder," beyond implying that it is already known, is partly just an introduction to the main point. And the main point is an aggressive accusation.

Re: An Email got us $5k in AWS Credits

#32

Post by xenospn »

weka wrote: post #30
xenospn wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got $20k in AWS credits just by insisting. I was bootstrapped at the time.

How?

My friend is a solutions architect at AWS. He put me in touch with whoever is responsible for the plan. Had a 5 minute phone call with them and got approved for the credits.

Judging by how big AWS is, I'm sure everyone knows someone who works there.

Re: An Email got us $5k in AWS Credits

#33

Post by ihaveajob »

benrbray wrote: post #16
paulcole wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Over and over in my career I was amazed at what happened when I just bothered showing up. Just remember to acknowledge how exceedingly well this works for white guys and the uphill battle faced by others.

In my experience, I think the biggest problem is that due to structural and historical racism, race is correlated with economic status in the United States. It sucks to be poor, no matter what color you are. If you're not surrounded by people who have had success in their careers / education, it's hard to know which opportunities are available to you. Often, you only know about your parents and their career choices.…

Correlation is definitely an important factor, but there are multitude of studies demonstrating an important inherent race/gender/origin bias in many important decisions, from hiring to housing to financing and more.

It comes to mind an experiment carried in France where they sent fake housing applications where the only difference between two sets of applicants was a Muslim-sounding name vs a Christian one. The results showed a much higher response rate for the latter, despite everything else being equal. I can't find the original, but found this similar one working with job applications (https://www.pnas.org/content/107/52/22384).

Not to negate the main point about "showing up", but there's more to it. When I've had the chance to hire someone and there are two similar candidates, I preferred to choose the one with the lower ranked school credentials. My thinking is that if this person has reached the same level of achievements with less environmental help, they probably have more grit and get-it-done in them than the candidate from the top school. Much more than that can be done in a systemic way, but it's a start.

Re: An Email got us $5k in AWS Credits

#34

Post by ihaveajob »

bluedevil2k wrote: post #28
paulcole wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Over and over in my career I was amazed at what happened when I just bothered showing up. Just remember to acknowledge how exceedingly well this works for white guys and the uphill battle faced by others.

"Cold calling" emails are color blind. A good product is a good product, no matter the color of the email sender. The OP's point was to "get out there and sell", which also is a color blind message.

Except it's been shown over and over again that even something as innocuous as your name can invoke inherent bias. For example, see https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/5494/black-sound... for a study comparing certain names and how they suggest a more or less muscular/aggressive person.

Re: An Email got us $5k in AWS Credits

#35

Post by manigandham »

nate wrote: post #3

An important takeaway is to "send out any email at all". Like the time with our first startup in YC W06. Our first client was the result of me just cold emailing a CEO of a startup I saw featured in Wired magazine. "Hey I like what you're doing. Maybe we can find something to do together." Short. Not expecting much. No pitch. Just genuine appreciation and interest in brainstorming a collaboration. And it unexpectedly…

Showing up is half the battle. Even more true today.

Re: An Email got us $5k in AWS Credits

#36

Post by chickenpotpie »

vincentmarle wrote: post #20
cactus2093 wrote: post #18

In case anyone doesn't know this, for just about any venture-backed company that has gone through YC or another incubator or raised from an early-stage VC, you can pretty much automatically get $100k of credits from Google or AWS. Good on Stripe and Atlas for making this more available to more bootstrapped companies like the one in this post, but there's certainly a huge difference between $1k or $5k and $100k. On th…

> In case anyone doesn't know this, for just about any venture-backed company that has gone through YC or another incubator or raised from an early-stage VC, you can pretty much automatically get $100k of credits from Google or AWS. This seems very backward, because you also don’t really need those credits anymore at that point.

$100k is another employee for free. That's a significant sum for an early stage startup.

Re: An Email got us $5k in AWS Credits

#37

Post by jessaustin »

TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #31
nrmitchi wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree with your first point, I think you are giving an uncharitable reading of the comment. "Just a reminder", to me, sounds like it is trying to append a relevant point, rather than disagree with/discredit the original point. A version of the comment excluding that ("Acknowledge how exceedingly well this works for white guys and the uphill battle faced by others.") sounds like an aggressive accusation.

Your second paragraph proves my point that it's a rather contentious statement. "Just a reminder," beyond implying that it is already known, is partly just an introduction to the main point. And the main point is an aggressive accusation.

Who is being accused? Of what?

ISTM a general statement about the world accuses no one in particular of anything.

Re: An Email got us $5k in AWS Credits

#38

Post by riffic »

bluedevil2k wrote: post #28
paulcole wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Over and over in my career I was amazed at what happened when I just bothered showing up. Just remember to acknowledge how exceedingly well this works for white guys and the uphill battle faced by others.

"Cold calling" emails are color blind. A good product is a good product, no matter the color of the email sender. The OP's point was to "get out there and sell", which also is a color blind message.

People make all sorts of impressions on a person just by their name, or many other signals (such as email address, the time of day it was received, et cetera).

Re: An Email got us $5k in AWS Credits

#39

Post by paulcole »

TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #17
gamblor956 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's sad that this comment is down voted to oblivion but it's very true. Just showing up doesn't work for everyone, and I've personally seen it not work at all for black and Latino founders.

The trouble with the post wasn't the information, but the way it was presented. The HN guidelines state "Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive." "Just a reminder" isn't a good way to start such a conversation. It implies that there is already a consensus on the issue when there isn't.

> It implies that there is already a consensus on the issue when there isn't

Jeez wow, I didn't realize that the existence of white privilege was so hotly controversial here on HN.

Re: An Email got us $5k in AWS Credits

#40

Post by bluedevil2k »

ihaveajob wrote: post #34
bluedevil2k wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Cold calling" emails are color blind. A good product is a good product, no matter the color of the email sender. The OP's point was to "get out there and sell", which also is a color blind message.

Except it's been shown over and over again that even something as innocuous as your name can invoke inherent bias. For example, see https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/5494/black-sound... for a study comparing certain names and how they suggest a more or less muscular/aggressive person.

Then change the name in your email. You're missing the point of the OP though - NOT emailing people will lead to 0 sales. Emailing people MAY lead to unexpected sales.
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