Anyone who holds up Nick D’Aloisio and Andrew Hsu as examples of people who are not the real deal is going to look very very silly in a few years.
19 Year Old Flees America and Skips College to Bootstrap a Startup in Bosnia
71–80 of 84 posts
Re: 19 Year Old Flees America and Skips College to Bootstrap a Startup in Bosnia
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of the less literal definitions is "one who succeeds in a competitive or highly difficult field or profession at an early age"[0] [0] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wunderkind
19 doesn't seem particularly young though. Even some people who explore post-secondary educations after high school will be out in the workforce by that age.
I don't mean this as snarkily as it's probably going to sound.
How old are you?
Re: 19 Year Old Flees America and Skips College to Bootstrap a Startup in Bosnia
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
Then you should be directing your criticism at the media, not the startup scene.
Why not both? The media are part of the hype machine but they aren't responsible for investing in companies like Summly, holding demo days, running weekend hackathons, acqui-hiring or bringing on board token celebrity investors... are they?
I just heard of Summly for the first time yesterday, it seems like their recent fame has come greatly as a result of the purchase by Yahoo!
But I can't judge as I haven't been closely following the story. Is there any general consensus on the funding as a good or bad idea?
For the record I really like their promo video. It shows off the product with a bit of witty comedy. I just couldn't find myself using it, and I don't know how it'll fit into Yahoo, but definitely a fun app.
Re: 19 Year Old Flees America and Skips College to Bootstrap a Startup in Bosnia
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Creepy"? How can it be "creepy" to make a business-related call to people whose names were publicized in a business context? Creepy is showing up unannounced and unintroduced at the front door of an actor or actress you have a crush on. I understand that you may not like to be cold called, but it is not creepy - it's the way much of business is done.
Maybe this varies by area, but professional etiquette everywhere I've been is that you ask before taking an online conversation to the phone. If you're having a forum or email discussion with someone, it's not typical practice to look up their phone number and call them up. For example, I think it would be at least somewhat weird to call someone who posted a StackOverflow question or response, rather than responding…
> at least somewhat weird to call someone who posted a StackOverflow question or response
I think that's just straight-up weird
Re: 19 Year Old Flees America and Skips College to Bootstrap a Startup in Bosnia
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
Funny; all this time I thought the goal of entrepreneurship was to build a sustainable business.
Sustainability is a waste of time when your only goal is to cash out as big as you can with as little investment as possible. You are mixing up "entrepreneur" with "wanting to create lasting value." A lot of what I see on HN is not the latter.
I think I would classify myself and most of my startup-knowledgable friends in the latter crowd.
Is that a particularly bad thing to not be motivated by large cashouts, and instead by creating a company with long-term value?
Re: 19 Year Old Flees America and Skips College to Bootstrap a Startup in Bosnia
#76His name is Emil Hajric. A few years back, when Joel Spolsky's "Business of Software" discussion forum was at its peak, he used whois records to find the phone numbers of some of the most frequent contributors and to call us personally. I found this rather creepy.
"Creepy"? How can it be "creepy" to make a business-related call to people whose names were publicized in a business context? Creepy is showing up unannounced and unintroduced at the front door of an actor or actress you have a crush on. I understand that you may not like to be cold called, but it is not creepy - it's the way much of business is done.
It depends a lot on the nature of the call (especially as in this case the forum maybe provided an obvious alternative method of initiating contact - but even then calls can sometimes be more appropriate).
I think people can be forgiven for misjudging their cold-calling timing and technique in their mid-teens too.
And grabbing the numbers from WHOIS itself simply shows initiative
Re: 19 Year Old Flees America and Skips College to Bootstrap a Startup in Bosnia
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
19 doesn't seem particularly young though. Even some people who explore post-secondary educations after high school will be out in the workforce by that age.
I don't mean this as snarkily as it's probably going to sound. How old are you?
Old enough to have been 19 many years ago. Its young on the timescale of the human lifespan, certainly, but by 19 one has the opportunity to be already fully established in society and industry. You expect people to be working on amazing things by that time. Any greatness that may come from that work does not seem particularly unusual to me.
I am actually quite surprised that there has been such negative reaction to my comment. When does one age beyond the "wonder years" if not by 19?
Re: 19 Year Old Flees America and Skips College to Bootstrap a Startup in Bosnia
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
19 doesn't seem particularly young though. Even some people who explore post-secondary educations after high school will be out in the workforce by that age.
I don't mean this as snarkily as it's probably going to sound. How old are you?
That hardly seems relevant. I'm far older than most figure skaters, but I still feel quite confident in the fact that 19 is not a particularly young age for a woman to become a figure skating champion. In fact, doing it 10 years later would actually be more noteworthy.
Re: 19 Year Old Flees America and Skips College to Bootstrap a Startup in Bosnia
#79Emil- I am glad you're finding success, but please make sure you give back to Bosnia by keeping employees there or doing some community outreach. It would be unfair and kind of crummy to use the country and bail.
Not that I am accusing you of doing so, just hoping you keep in mind who was there for you in your time of need!
Re: 19 Year Old Flees America and Skips College to Bootstrap a Startup in Bosnia
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why not both? The media are part of the hype machine but they aren't responsible for investing in companies like Summly, holding demo days, running weekend hackathons, acqui-hiring or bringing on board token celebrity investors... are they?
I just heard of Summly for the first time yesterday, it seems like their recent fame has come greatly as a result of the purchase by Yahoo! But I can't judge as I haven't been closely following the story. Is there any general consensus on the funding as a good or bad idea? For the record I really like their promo video. It shows off the product with a bit of witty comedy. I just couldn't find myself using it, and I d…
Summly discussion over the past few days:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5442290