brettvallis

13년 전discuss

I was an anarchist in high school too. I was an over-achieving individualist who took personal affront to the norms and rules imposed on all school kids, and people in general. I researched anarchy philosophy and policy as it presented itself over the years. It worked for me: I felt that people could be trusted to behave correctly without the imposition of external rules and laws and the violent enforcement thereof. Obviously I was wrong. But I remain basically committed to my original ideals: an ethically motivated individual does not need to be ruled by fear and force. What, however, does that same individual do when confronted by the violent - or even not so violent but still evil - application of the rule of law?

brettvallis

14년 전discuss

Personally, I mostly got the feeling that he was just publically congratulating himself - showing off.

I live in Cape Town, none of my alumni could put me in contact with any SV VC's, even in 24 days. He reinforced the idea of 'it's who you know in the v(V)alley'.

Due to the success of his application, the OP is applauded for his tenacity, his unwillingness to give up. If he had failed though, he would've seemed a little more like the annoying guy who just doesn't get the message. His post, and process isn't particularly helpful to most others.

But I appreciate the insight given by YC, or those connected with the process. My take-away (play intended) from the post and comments is: 1.) If you believe in your product, and you feel it's commercially viable, build it before you even start asking for money, and 2.) Use your product as the pitch. Yeah, everyone demos their product during a sales call, but using it directly on the client even before an introduction seems like a nice differentiator. Not very easy in the Enterprise, or if your clients are anonymous, but a targeted start might work - warrants further thought.

Anyway, good luck to the OP!

brettvallis

14년 전discuss

I get what the OP is hassled about. He committed time and energy on developing a product, time and energy he wasn't paid for, but it didn't matter because he believed in the product. He was going to prove that Windows apps could look good, and he was tieing it into an existing, loved brand. In other words, he was doing good, for people who appreciated it. That was enough for him.

However, since it's been bought out by Google, he's lost all the passion for the application. It's just going to get swallowed up by the shark, and no-one really cares. So, what is the point of releasing an awesome version for it?

Obviously, he's got plenty of options at this time. But, the motivation, the passion, the brand recognition, the love, it's all disappeared. Take the magic out of the cauldron and you're just left with boiled, icky bits.

I don't know enough about the application, or the platform, etc, but open-source it, and make it a client that can connect to multiple platforms. Sounds good?

brettvallis

14년 전discuss

OK, we so need one of these in Cape Town!!!

That place really does look awesome. And space for hardware hacking too, great. I live in an apartment nowadays and really miss going out to the 'barn' and working with power tools until 3AM, seriously.

Looks pretty busy too...

Good luck.

brettvallis

14년 전discuss

I developed on enterprise PM application on the SharePoint platform (V2, WSS3.0). Over the past year, I have done 3.8% support, and the rest development. I'm quite happy with that.

I've recently been aquired by a larger company who develops a similar product, same windows stack but without the SharePoint flavour. They do an inordinate amount of support. But they do it to themselves - they give their clients the means to beat them up about support: multiple support channels, nd aaggressive SLA's. They have a team of 12 developers and they're always under pressure to maintain their support processes.

Sounds like you need some strategic architecting input: which products are important; what functionality can (needs to) be reeingineered; what's profitable and what isn't; what is a realistic support process, timeframe, etc? Then once you've been through all this, you realise how important it is to design simple, reliable products.

brettvallis

15년 전discuss

I don't usually talk about this, but your post speaks to something that most opinions on the subject never do.

22 years ago I went through a fairly strange time: I was depressed, disconnected, and feeling deeply alone. It culminated in a very violent suicide attempt. Despite all my plans and precautions I was found still alive and hospitalised. Being young and antisocial I never went back to therapy and for a few months afterwards I kept going back to the idea of trying it again.

The turning point for me was realising that suicide was in fact an option. Admittedly a pretty drastic option, but one nonetheless. Neither was it 'the easy way out', or 'for the weak'. Destroying one's own life isn't a spur of the moment decision, similar to deciding which tart one should have for tea, etc. Driven by desperation, or severe pain, it is a momentous decision and the consequences are irreversible - no one who really makes the decision does so lightly.

The understanding that it was an option, gave me a feeling of control. Since it was an option and one that I could take at any time, I had some level of control over my situation. If that was an option, then perhaps there were other options. I decided to explore other options. I haven't been there in 18 years but I still know what it feels like.

We are adults. At your worst times, don't be intimidated by ignorant misconceptions about suicide. It is your mind, you have the right to explore it, and you have the right to make whatever decision you feel is correct for you. Just remember that if there is one way of resolving an issue there may just be another way, one that is less violent, less irreversible; one that may just provide further options, one that may eventually lead to happiness, however remote that may appear at the moment.

brettvallis

15년 전discuss

SEEKING WORK - Cape Town, South Africa, remote and travel as required. Enterprise Product Manager with experience in managing teams, and full product lifecycle development. Primary stack is Windows, ASP.NET, and major commercial software platform for the last 8 years has been SharePoint (2003 - 2010). Experience includes working as SharePoint Product Manager for Microsoft Consulting Services (Reading, UK), and working with 100+ local, and regional government, parastatal, and private enterprise-sized organisations. Looking to develop as a private freelancer with the view to establishing small ISV. contact: brettvallis [at] hotmail [dot] com

brettvallis

15년 전discuss

Muscle memory, or engrams? How about: off CPU EEPROM with very slow burn in rate. The computation is handled remotely, or distally, but the computation only becomes overriding after a certain number of like computations. Can be unlearnt: erased.

brettvallis

15년 전discuss

Not childish, on the contrary: quite mature, accurate, articulate and insightful.

Mostly we fear ourselves, what we are, what we aren't, etc. Whether the dialogue is accurate or not, well, that's up to us individually, and so is what we do with it.

Situations and experiences can hold a mirror up to us - so to speak - wherein we're forced to confront these fears of ourselves. It's interesting that the Steve persona did that to you. I doubt it was intentional on his part, just part of who he was, a part of the legacy he had created and you.

brettvallis

15년 전discuss

In my experience - admittedly, I haven't been keeping detailed notes - 99.9% of the elevator close buttons that I have pushed have done absolutely nothing: the doors just wait the default interval before closing. The open buttons always stop the doors closing, but the close buttons: no response. Perhaps it's country specific, or company specific. But most people know this, and don't press them. The button is irrelevant and ignored. Unfortunately, the same can't be said about airport security: irrelevant but unfortunately cannot be ignored.

brettvallis

15년 전discuss

When we're young (varsity age) we're unstoppable. I worked 18 - 20 hour days for about 2 years! But, we're not really. It takes its toll on the body (and the brain), slowly, without you realizing it, so you don't have an opportunity to rectify it before it takes you out completely. Balance. Work hard, sure, it's fun, but exercise, eat well, and sleep. You have to fill up the tank once in awhile too...

brettvallis

15년 전discuss

VC money, a good team, or a great product won't guarantee success. One (or two) factors alone won't ensure success. It's a sum-of-all-the-parts thing. I think an important question to ask yourself is: how committed are you? Not so much: then spent your time, money and energy elsewhere. Very: then do a detailed (honest) analysis on your product and theirs and if it still makes business sense, keep at it. Sometimes it how much pain you're prepared to endure... or is that running? :)

brettvallis

15년 전discuss

Your father may be retired but he's not yet braindead. He is a person, he has needs, friends, interests and he moves in a different circles to you. It would be in your interest to tap this information - find out what the pain points in his circles are and develop products for those. As a rule of thumb older people tend to spend a lot of time and money on procuring chronic medication. There are many other opportunities which you may not be aware of, but your father may be aware of. Try that first...