Ask HN: How many of you founders are girls ?
Well, I am one, about to quit my job tomorrow and planning to go full time on my iPhone development company (www.meraiphone.com). Just wondering what's the startup-girl-scene is like.
22 comments
The founder of Oneforty Laura Fitton was an individual female founder. I particularly enjoyed that interview on Mixergy. http://mixergy.com/oneforty-laura-fitton/
Maybe it's just me, but I'd be more concerned with kicking ass than how many other girls there are doing what you do.
Hey, don't give away the secret of the patriarchy!
Maybe she feels that having an understanding of the demographics of the industry she's working in (and possibly making contacts with whom she can discuss issues she imagines they will have experienced) will help her to kick ass.
Echoing a the grandparent post, I'd spend time worrying about the demographics of my customers, not the industry.
I dunno. I spend almost all of my social and work time with men. It's a side effect of what I do and what my hobbies are. But man is it fun sometimes to kick it with some other girls.
I'm sure she has enough time to kick ass and also see what other girls are up to.
I'm sure she has enough time to kick ass and also see what other girls are up to.
Yep. I have enough time now :)
Congrats on quitting your job!
clickable link http://www.meraiphone.com
My friend Seema is CEO of a robotics/toy startup in Pittsburgh, which she co-founded with other students from her grad program at CMU:
http://www.interbots.com/
http://www.interbots.com/
Good luck!
What does 'masala' mean in the context of an application?
What does 'masala' mean in the context of an application?
"Masala" is a Hindi work, which directly translated means "spice", like those that you would add when cooking. It can also refer to a mixture of various spices, with the mixture designed for a particular recipe in mind - like Tandoori Chicken masala. Here it's not one, but a mix of spices that make up the masala.
In this case, I think it applies in the same vein as the spice in "Spice Girls" does. Another way to look at it to look at it a an interesting mix that add flavor to something. For example, a common phrase you hear a lot in Bollywood movies is "masala film" which essentially translates to a film with a little of everything - humor, romance, musical.
In this regards, it would think it would be one or both of the above. Dunno if that helped you or not ;-)
In this case, I think it applies in the same vein as the spice in "Spice Girls" does. Another way to look at it to look at it a an interesting mix that add flavor to something. For example, a common phrase you hear a lot in Bollywood movies is "masala film" which essentially translates to a film with a little of everything - humor, romance, musical.
In this regards, it would think it would be one or both of the above. Dunno if that helped you or not ;-)
"she who controls the masala"?
Mera = mine => "my"iphone.com
Masala = mixture of spices => cool spicy applications for the iphone?
Its not quite "spicy" but hopefully you get the picture.
Masala = mixture of spices => cool spicy applications for the iphone?
Its not quite "spicy" but hopefully you get the picture.
I made a loosely related poll a while ago:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=749617
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=749617
Call me silly, but self-proclaimed hotness (your sig*) might work very well in WoW, but I imagine less so here.
If I were you I'd change it.
(sig: Hot + Geek = me)
If I were you I'd change it.
(sig: Hot + Geek = me)
I never intended for this comment to get to this level of ugliness. It doesn't really matter now, but my intention with it was merely meant as a piece of advice rather than an attack on OP's persona.
I realize this is bordering towards something that might still be slightly taboo, but over the years online I have developed a slight allergy towards women (or others pretending to be women) who use the very fact that they are a woman as a leverage to get something rather than by merit. And hold on before you judge me. My comment came from the fact that OP might not want to come across as that type of person here or anywhere, in my eyes, or anyone elses. So it was a friendly advice.
But when all is said and done, this got way off topic + a bit nasty and for that I apologize.
I realize this is bordering towards something that might still be slightly taboo, but over the years online I have developed a slight allergy towards women (or others pretending to be women) who use the very fact that they are a woman as a leverage to get something rather than by merit. And hold on before you judge me. My comment came from the fact that OP might not want to come across as that type of person here or anywhere, in my eyes, or anyone elses. So it was a friendly advice.
But when all is said and done, this got way off topic + a bit nasty and for that I apologize.
I do not think you should apologize. I didn't think much before filling that section.
It would indeed hurt me if I come across as that type of women. So, thanks for the advice.
It would indeed hurt me if I come across as that type of women. So, thanks for the advice.
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Ok, you asked for it: you're being silly. As far as I'm concerned, she can post whatever she wants in her sig, including how hot and geeky she is.
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Her sig? Really??? You're entitled to your opinion, but I see no reason to take this thread in that direction based on her posting. It wasn't even a COMMENT that she made; it's just her sig.
Perhaps her real name is kinda hard to use as a handle.
Hint: whois query.
All the best, woman.
All the best, woman.
Agree. If you are going to make a claim like that at least post a photo. Or preferably don't make that claim.
Well, a simple search turns this out:
http://tinyurl.com/yljrtuc
So it's fair to say the signature may be correct.
So it's fair to say the signature may be correct.
There are reasons plenty of women on HN keep their gender 'to themselves', one of them is that it is all to easy to get stalkers giving you a 'certain kind of attention' as one phrased it.
If someone does not go out of their way to post their picture, why would you ?
Private stuff should be revealed by the person themselves, unless they're scamming or something like that, then I have absolutely no problem with it. But even then, a picture ?
If someone does not go out of their way to post their picture, why would you ?
Private stuff should be revealed by the person themselves, unless they're scamming or something like that, then I have absolutely no problem with it. But even then, a picture ?
I fully agree with the sentiment that inspires your statement.
However, this thread highlights a fundamental property of a networked life: privacy is dead, there is only identity management.
You only need whois and google/facebook to find the data in this case. Both are instances of seemingly disconnected and "local" data points (as in nobody without a real interest would ever look for these things), which, chained, intersected, etc. can reveal a ton of information about a person, all of which was volunteered by the person in question.
The NYT had a piece on "human-flesh search" recently, and 4chan raids have been well-known for a while. The point being, that once you release something in the wild, it's there, and accessible. Ethically, is it fair game to mine it (like people search engines, for example, do)?
It should give us collective pause to think - why do we get all those web services like facebook, gmail, twitter, etc. for free? Without even noticing it we are whoring out our privacy and intimate patterns. Google has two customer groups: users and advertisers - and advertisers bring in the money, users are there to maximize advertiser and google ROI - e.g. Google allows pure-ad parked pages, they give tips on "blending" ads to increase CTRs etc.
If harnessed properly, these things can be useful, but it requires a mindset and workflow not entirely dissimilar to those of spies or high-end criminals - controlling information by selective disclosure, identity segmentation, disinformation, anonymization, etc. - not for sinister purposes, mind you, but simply to guard what we traditionally call privacy.
written with a one time account
However, this thread highlights a fundamental property of a networked life: privacy is dead, there is only identity management.
You only need whois and google/facebook to find the data in this case. Both are instances of seemingly disconnected and "local" data points (as in nobody without a real interest would ever look for these things), which, chained, intersected, etc. can reveal a ton of information about a person, all of which was volunteered by the person in question.
The NYT had a piece on "human-flesh search" recently, and 4chan raids have been well-known for a while. The point being, that once you release something in the wild, it's there, and accessible. Ethically, is it fair game to mine it (like people search engines, for example, do)?
It should give us collective pause to think - why do we get all those web services like facebook, gmail, twitter, etc. for free? Without even noticing it we are whoring out our privacy and intimate patterns. Google has two customer groups: users and advertisers - and advertisers bring in the money, users are there to maximize advertiser and google ROI - e.g. Google allows pure-ad parked pages, they give tips on "blending" ads to increase CTRs etc.
If harnessed properly, these things can be useful, but it requires a mindset and workflow not entirely dissimilar to those of spies or high-end criminals - controlling information by selective disclosure, identity segmentation, disinformation, anonymization, etc. - not for sinister purposes, mind you, but simply to guard what we traditionally call privacy.
written with a one time account
> written with a one time account
Smart move, but I'll bet you I can still identify you.
One really big eye opener for me how subtle this problem really is was this article, I've just posted it as a separate submission:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1197072
Smart move, but I'll bet you I can still identify you.
One really big eye opener for me how subtle this problem really is was this article, I've just posted it as a separate submission:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1197072
I was just trying to empasize my point. Just out of curiosity, how would you go about identifying me?
Thanks for the linked article. Interesting indeed.
Thanks for the linked article. Interesting indeed.
By taking the vocabulary (with frequency) of your comment and matching it against the vocabulary of all HN users.
It's a pretty large sample of text and I'm fairly sure that it is large enough that the match will be a close one.
Then there is 'stylistic' analysis, another angle of attack, mostly to do with the way you write, not just the words themselves.
It's a pretty large sample of text and I'm fairly sure that it is large enough that the match will be a close one.
Then there is 'stylistic' analysis, another angle of attack, mostly to do with the way you write, not just the words themselves.
Thanks, that would be my first angle of attack as well. The assumption that I have at least one other hn account is reasonable enough. Even when I wrote my first post, I was considering faking a different style/vocabulary (which is harder than it seems), but obviously, I was just using a throwaway account as a rhetorical device for emphasis.
Thanks for the exchange. :)
Thanks for the exchange. :)
Ok, so I've run my analysis, my first guess was wrong, we'll see how many it takes to get it, if ever.
Quirks I noticed in the text to help with identification:
"fully agree"
comma followed by etc with a period in middle of sentence , etc. can
use of e.g. with a period after each letter.
well-known with a hyphen high-end with a hyphen likes to use colons correctly.
no misspellings. odd. proper use of punctuation. strange. I'd say the writer fails the Turing test and is a robot.
"fully agree"
comma followed by etc with a period in middle of sentence , etc. can
use of e.g. with a period after each letter.
well-known with a hyphen high-end with a hyphen likes to use colons correctly.
no misspellings. odd. proper use of punctuation. strange. I'd say the writer fails the Turing test and is a robot.
Also, odds are that someone wouldn't bother logging out and in between two accounts. I'd weight your search against people who commented in between the time that the throwaway account posted.
People who commented shortly before the throwaway account are also good candidates, as are people who seem to comment around the same time on other days.
People who commented shortly before the throwaway account are also good candidates, as are people who seem to comment around the same time on other days.
Well I fully agree with this comment i.e. I recognize the "quirks" too. It looks to me like the results of a U.K. education. As a Brit-born male, in my past I have had some non-Brit ladies comment about the robot...
> no misspellings. odd. proper use of punctuation. strange. I'd say the writer fails the Turing test
That's depressing.
Meanwhile, "[space]-[space]" rather than "--" for "—" is idiosyncratic, and since HN preserves original spaces in comments, ".[space]" rather than ".[space][space]" rules a few more of us out.
That's depressing.
Meanwhile, "[space]-[space]" rather than "--" for "—" is idiosyncratic, and since HN preserves original spaces in comments, ".[space]" rather than ".[space][space]" rules a few more of us out.
Except for "fully agree" and the hyphen bit, that would generally characterize my writing, if only because bad grammar & spelling bug me. But it sure ain't me :-)
I had an interesting HN corpus a while back but is there something newer/cooler you're using? Or did you just put it together yourself?
BTW, I strongly suspect stylistic analysis would work a lot better given the small corpus available for each user, though that idea goes out the window when someone deliberately tries to mask themselves.
BTW, I strongly suspect stylistic analysis would work a lot better given the small corpus available for each user, though that idea goes out the window when someone deliberately tries to mask themselves.
I am not playing the devil's advocate here, but I think that as the internet matures it is the way to go.
Imagine buying groceries on Safeway. People does not seem to have trouble with that. However if a PE/police/ex-GF/stalker come there and wanted to track you down, they could. The cashier would remembered what you are like. The security would point out what you wore. Fellow shoppers can be interogated for your presence. And people do not have any problem with that.
Now, why can't I track a flamer on the message board, neo-nazis on twitter, hate-sayers on IRCs, perverts on dating sites, and paedophiles on MMORPGs?
Animosity does make the internet go round, but it also encourages stupid and illegal behaviour. It also destroys the credibility of the web as a trusted source of information, which is why you can't quote random sites or rants for an academic paper.
I believe the future of the internet is one which identity is not publicly shown, but managed. We'll finally be able to find out which company edited their own Wikipedia article.
Imagine buying groceries on Safeway. People does not seem to have trouble with that. However if a PE/police/ex-GF/stalker come there and wanted to track you down, they could. The cashier would remembered what you are like. The security would point out what you wore. Fellow shoppers can be interogated for your presence. And people do not have any problem with that.
Now, why can't I track a flamer on the message board, neo-nazis on twitter, hate-sayers on IRCs, perverts on dating sites, and paedophiles on MMORPGs?
Animosity does make the internet go round, but it also encourages stupid and illegal behaviour. It also destroys the credibility of the web as a trusted source of information, which is why you can't quote random sites or rants for an academic paper.
I believe the future of the internet is one which identity is not publicly shown, but managed. We'll finally be able to find out which company edited their own Wikipedia article.
Yeah, that was WAY more appropriate. I'm sure all the women around here (and hopefully most of the men) are just shaking their heads right now. Unbelievable.
how did you get hold of that?
Check signature, do a whois, do a search on the persons name, take image of matching name from Facebook.
Not that hard but pretty tasteless to post it.
On HN you might as well wear your identity out front, most people here have graduated in the 'basic internet tool use', unless you make a real effort at staying incognito it is very hard to not drop little bits of information, the best way to stay anonymous is to be very quiet.
Not that hard but pretty tasteless to post it.
On HN you might as well wear your identity out front, most people here have graduated in the 'basic internet tool use', unless you make a real effort at staying incognito it is very hard to not drop little bits of information, the best way to stay anonymous is to be very quiet.
Exactly. It is much better to just write things that you are proud of and then sign them with your real name.
I'm in a start up of three, I'm the only girl. None of my friends in other start ups are girls.
the start up girl scene is nonexistent, which is why it's awesome, it gives me the advantage ( and the confidence) to talk to any venture capitalist, and know am definitely making more of an impression than the next techie guy
Love the landing page.
Thanks. There were several friends who helped in designing though, I am still learning.
Congrats. I'm not a girl, but my co-founder for my startup was (I say "was" because I've since bought her out).
You guys got married?
just curious, do you live in India? I wonder this because I'm curious how the process is in making iphone apps from there. Do you get the same profit as us developers from apple? Is it easier to make a living off of iphone development due to lower cost of living there?
I guess the profit sharing is the same.
I can live pretty comfortably @ 300$ per month. That would mean no savings, ofcourse. As of now, my apps aren't making that much. However, I have hardly put any effort yet. Most apps are naive, unpolished and non-internationalized.
Now having quit my job, my first goal is to reach there.
I can live pretty comfortably @ 300$ per month. That would mean no savings, ofcourse. As of now, my apps aren't making that much. However, I have hardly put any effort yet. Most apps are naive, unpolished and non-internationalized.
Now having quit my job, my first goal is to reach there.
Wouldn't it make more sense if your tagline was "hot masala applications?"
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I thought chicks prefer to be called women.
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