A two-person startup already uses twenty-eight other tools • Hacker News Board

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

#341

Post by nojvek » Sat, Feb 29, 2020, 7:29 PM UTC

danielvinson wrote: post #314

erikpukinskis wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the flip side of that, we use three react libraries at my job: react-table, react-dates, and react-select. If we had been OK just using whatever styles they gave us, it would have been fine. But we have a designer who designs how everything is supposed to look. And even the "style-less" react components have been a nightmare. Just a constant train of bugs to fix, and they still barely function. It would have been…

As a frontend dev, this really pains me. I’ve worked at many places with the same problems - first of all, pushing back on the designer is incredibly important if something is hard to develop. Most designers are doing their best to make things easy to code, but aren’t developers, so they just don’t know. It’s the engineers job to tell them no when things are exceptionally difficult. If they understand that the style…

Writing data tables isn’t easy. Deffo not a 1-2 week thing and you call it done. The trail of bug fixes and browser edge cases are what slowly get you at the end.

+1 on not letting design dictate. Just gotta sit in the room and weigh pros and cons.

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

#342

Post by hombre_fatal » Sat, Feb 29, 2020, 7:34 PM UTC

judge2020 wrote: post #186

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…

4. Cloudflare - maybe better safe than sorry since you need Pro for the WAF.

The $20/mo upgrade has more than that: https://www.cloudflare.com/plans/#compare-features

You need to pay it just for Cloudflare SSL to work in all browsers which is pretty necessary if you use that feature at all. But the plan has various other goodies like more page rules, the "Polish" image compression, and rate limit rules.

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

#343

Post by cosmodisk » Sat, Feb 29, 2020, 7:35 PM UTC

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…

Without going into too much detail I can say that I've got very similar situation at work.It looks like THAT next piece of software will solve it all for everybody. The number of various apps we've got is absurd. In your case,the most interesting part is how CFO manages to get to the point where he's responsible for getting NetSuite...

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

#344

Post by dasil003 » Sat, Feb 29, 2020, 7:36 PM UTC

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…

I agree with the point about tool fetishization: it could be just another form of "playing house". That said, optimizing these sums of money is also not going to make you successful. If the tools are providing value then use them and don't fret over $0 vs $10 vs $20 a month. The more important thing is keeping cognitive load low by using simple systems and driving mental focus on the right things.

To take an example: I wouldn't bat an eye at paying for Slack for a two-person startup because A) the integrations means I get centralized notifications and search for updates to all the tools I'm using essentially for free with no ops overhead, B) the mobile push notifications and per-channel settings are nicely tunable to ensure I'm on top of things without getting notification fatigue, and C) I'm already on 10 other Slacks, so it's not adding much overhead to my life overall.

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

#345

Post by nojvek » Sat, Feb 29, 2020, 7:36 PM UTC

Jare wrote: post #55

I believe the attention cost of using and keeping up with so many great tools is underappreciated. Maybe it's just me, but I'd rather use Github Projects than Trello not because GHP is better (it is not) but because I'm already using Github, and the mental and workflow cost of adding Trello to the mix is (I feel) higher than its additional value. Notion in particular drives me nuts. I mean it's very very well done, b…

Agreed. Notion feels quite a bit complex. May be I just don’t understand it yet. I understand AirTable’s value prop. It’s pretty straightforward.

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

#346

Post by hombre_fatal » Sat, Feb 29, 2020, 7:45 PM UTC

OOPMan wrote: post #326

fnord77 wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

nothing to do with "cool". I could never go back to email after using slack-like software. It's so much more efficient.

That is debatable. For sending IMs, sure. For a lot of other stuff it's pretty noisy and even with search is still less organisable than email.

It's debatable which is why the snark of "guess email isn't cool anymore :(" is such tired commentary, suggesting everyone is just an idiot lemming for not having email enlightenment.

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

#347

Post by cosmodisk » Sat, Feb 29, 2020, 7:46 PM UTC

wpietri wrote: post #231

calmworm wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.…

Weirdly, almost exactly 20 years ago, I sat next to somebody at a wedding who had an almost-identical story about cleaning up after an SAP rollout, but all of the numbers had an extra zero or two. It amazes me that what the SaaS shift appears to have achieved is that now much smaller companies can get stuck in the same "solve everything" money pit. But I guess the fundamental problem hasn't changed: executives want t…

Some years ago, shortly before my manager asked me to join the company he was working for, they embarked on a mission to find an implementation partner to get their Salesforce system off th ground into a new level. So the business owners and him discussing how they'll pick the right consultancy. My manager says: we'll take those who will tell us that we talk nonsense instead of nodding head after every single word we say. I then joined the company and ended up in the meeting,where initial plans were discussed. My manager says: we want x,y,z,etc. The consultant says: OK, let's be realistic first: let's learn how to walk and then we may discuss whether you should be launching rockets to space. All these SAP, NetSuite and other corporate software get bad name because of poor implementations and not because the software itself is bad.

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

#348

Post by bhl » Sat, Feb 29, 2020, 7:47 PM UTC

krilly wrote: post #208

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…

Why is Discord always ignored in discussions of slack alternatives? It's literally a slack clone. Are you all just put off by the marketing or the fact that it's not exclusively used by 'professionals'?

It’s part marketing, part functionality. For example, with Slack you can filter sign ups based on email. That being said, I would still love a discord for work where chat and invites overlays on top of a working document.

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

#349

Post by omnimus » Sat, Feb 29, 2020, 7:52 PM UTC

enumjorge wrote: post #221

omnimus wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny and here i am trying to save 5 usd/month because my VPS is overpowered. It really depends on where you live. 227usd is certainly not peanuts.

Is that for a personal or commercial project?

Both actualy i am freelancer and these two are sort of interchangeable.

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

#350

Post by 5kyn3t » Sat, Feb 29, 2020, 7:53 PM UTC

What is the value of Figma ($24 / month for Designing product mocks..) Why not just get the Adobe Suite with Illustrator, Photoshop,... I am really curious, as I am trying to create a design tool too. What is so great about it? Is there some USP?