I know it's just an anecdote, but my biggest problem with Google's Bard/Gemini is that the moment I tried to ask a question about something - I started getting ads all over the internet and social media related to that.
Doing this with ChatGPT 4.0 for months and months did not cause this type of behavior.
I was about to comment on the trademark issue but then I saw this top comment. I think you're making a mistake with your approach of 'crossing that bridge'. Trademark violation is no joke and it's so much easier to change the name early on rather than when you have some brand recognition and thousands of users. Learn from other people's mistake, don't make your own.
Personal story time. Back in 2005 I came to the US for the first time through the Work and Travel program. I was working as a lifeguard and had a lot of free time while nobody was in the pool. I decided to take a Zend Certified Engineer certification - back then it was PHP 4 - thinking it might help me get a CS internship in the US next summer. I passed it and 3 months later Zend offered me to take a PHP 5 certification for free. I was already back in my home country and of course I agreed. After passing the exam it turned out I was #8 overall and #1 in my country to pass it. I put it on my resume.
6 months later I found a job and moved to Boston. After working at that company for a few months me and my boss went out for drinks and I asked him why he decided to hire me. He said that my certification was basically a deal-maker. He thought it was a sign that I was at the top of my profession. I thought it was funny, but, hey, it worked.
Super fast forward - a few years later I Fat FIREd at the age of 33 and I'm absolutely sure that the initial certification set a certain chain of reaction that led to it. So even though I think in most cases the certifications are absolutely useless, I'm absolutely sure that when you have to stand out from the crowd, especially at the junior level - they are super useful.
>> soon after Halcourt’s toddler entered the SUV through the open back door and crawled into the driver’s seat, he first pressed the brake pedal then shifted the gear selector to Drive
How is it even possible for a 2 year old? The whole story is just really hard to believe
Well that's the beauty about Tesla - it's the most fun car to drive. I feel like 99% of people who don't like Tesla have never takes a test drive - it's just very different from all the other cars out there. Software is just the icing on the cake (but also a strong competitive advantage in the future).
Not just older cities. I live in San Diego and we have exactly the same problem here. Can't swim or surf after the rain. Not exactly sure why it was done this way - maybe because it rains very rarely and they just did not design the sewage system to handle rare (but sometimes heavy) rains.
Scenario A - it's a startup: I strongly discourage you from taking "I have another offer" approach first if you really like your current job. I've been on the other side of the table so many times and I can tell you that by doing this you immediately destroy all emotional capital and sense of loyalty with your employer. If you really like your job - I'd simply talk to your manager and say something like "I really enjoy working here and I've done X, Y and Z since my last raise. I think my current salary is below the market. What can I do to get a raise?".
If you're valued there - you'll get a raise. If not - time to start looking for a new job.
Scenario B - it's a big company: Just find another job. In most cases they have BS rules like "3% salary increase per year maximum", but it depends on the company.
>> I think the biggest difference between today and 20 years ago when I first go into Silicon Valley is that most founders are generally already planning their exit. There are a lot of startups whose mentality is "get big quick enough so that we can get bought out by Google/Facebook/Amazon/etc".
Exactly the same mentality 20 years ago, except back then it was mostly about the IPO.
For the past 10 months I've been travelling constantly staying at hotels, AirBnb's etc and in a lot of cases not having the permanent physical address is very inconvenient. I've tried multiple solutions but none of them work well. Yes, there are companies that offer "virtual mailboxes", but I can't ship any packages to them.
Solo technical founder. Hired my first sales employee long after I established a product-market fit, got a few paying customers and $300K in annual revenue. I gave him a co-founder title, but we were never equal. It was one of the best decision that I have made. The company would not have been able to survive if 2 of us were equal - we would have gone out of business. Instead, 1 year after I pushed him out we had a moderately successful exit (8 figure).
I think that having a solo founder is beneficial AS LONG AS that one person is great. Otherwise you, as a VC, kind of bet that at least 1 of them will be great and it will all work out.