One of the commenters on the NY Times site said it best:
"My experience is that a lot depends on your boss. I always got my work done quickly and thoroughly, but I've had bosses who made you sit in your chair even when there was nothing to do, I've had other bosses who were much more accommodating. It is about the culture of the department. My best job was in a very hard working engineering department, when we were on deadline we worked killer hours, but when things were slack, we went home. Everyone had kids, family outings were encouraged and our boss took us to lunch and treated us like humans. I worked my butt off for that boss. When I have had a boss who treats me like a child, I act like one. If you treat people with dignity and respect and give them time off when they need it, they will work harder."
I'd recommend looking at Pipedrive -- you can do pretty much everything you listed and they integrate with many other services, too:
https://www.pipedrive.com/en-US/features
The Techweek drama aside, what do you think of Sean's post? I admire and applaud his bravery in admitting he hasn't done enough in the past and will do better in the future.
Whether you realize it or not, the US competes with many countries for top talent, including Australia, New Zealand and the UK (which have all done more to encourage skilled migration than our country). If this passes, it's a solid step to making us more competitive.
Experienced Web Developer - San Francisco, remote ok
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We’re not picky about particular technologies, but we’d like you to have the ability to quickly learn whatever languages and frameworks we throw at you (that said, python skills are a plus). Ideally you live in either San Francisco, where our dev team is based, or Los Angeles, where the rest of the crew works from a pretty sweet studio overlooking Venice Beach. And if you have a solid track record and great references, we’re cool with having you work remotely.
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Hi T,
What you're doing sounds similar to Skweal, which allows customers to reach management privately rather than complaining publicly, though not anonymously -- see http://skweal.com/
With complainator, I'd like to know how you inform the business of the complaint so they can fix it?
We've just posted a story about this on the LAUNCH blog -- Google PR person said this was not in response to any incident (and yes, the notification is temporary).
CellScope, based in Berkeley, came up with a way to attach a smartphone to a microscope a few years ago in order to test for TB in remote places and have doctors elsewhere analyze results [ BBC story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8161775.stm ].
Their next device is an otoscope that attaches to the iPhone so you can take pictures of ear infections [ see the CellScope profile on LAUNCH: http://lnch.is/qTqQK0 ].
Whether the malaria app works or not, I have no doubt we'll see more health-related hardware and apps for mobile phones.
Good point about drain of intellectual capital -- legal issues could well be a turn-off for new talent, too. Do engineers still see Google as a cool place to work? Microsoft lost the cool factor ages ago.
I say steal the Priceline model-- you can get your deal but only if it's reasonable enough for the retailer. I could go back and change one element of my ask if it gets rejected.
Martin, you hit on a key point that doesn't get enough attention:
"When we talk to YC, no matter whether we have good news or bad news, chances are that they’ve seen the situation before, and their pattern-matching will enable them to make good predictions."
YC created the accelerator model that many others are adapting/imitating. YC's experience with all kinds of situations gives it yet another advantage over its young competitors (alumni network and support being the top one IMO).
I completely get why people love Netflix. But if Hulu can't be a serious competitor, who will be? I don't want Netflix to be my only appealing streaming option, and I don't want to pay cable operators a ton of money for stuff I don't watch.
In the research process we also found an interesting program called FastTrac from the Kauffman Foundation (http://fasttrac.org/), known for its dedication to entrepreneurship. The program has been around since the late 1980s/early 1990s.
Now, there is a cost ($700 to $1200), but FastTrac is available in 49 states and Puerto Rico, making it a much more realistic option for folks of all ages who want to get their own business launched.
The FastTrac TechVenture program, which started in 2006 and is meant for tech and science-oriented businesses, is in 25 states. FastTrac President Alana Muller shared the following in an email to me:
<<FastTrac TechVenture is not a competitor to incubators/accelerators. Instead, it is complementary to incubators/accelerators and provides the requisite ecosystem – information, resources, networking contacts, frameworks, etc. that an entrepreneur needs in order to know how to get a business started.>>
Great piece that brings home just how important internal communication is for a startup. Bless those founders who know how to do it well and set up a culture from the get-go that encourages openness.
So how many bootstrappers have spouses and families? Seems to me like the kind of risk that's easier to take for those who are younger and/or have fewer responsibilities.
Also, how many boostrappers make lifestyle changes months before they leave their day job for the uncertainty of boostrapping? I would imagine you'd want to have enough saved for 6 months of expenses (the general rule of thumb for anyone actually) and an idea of what your new life is really going to be like.
A related point: if you know someone big/important is going to be at the event you're attending and you want to meet this person for whatever reason, it's well worth researching him/her beforehand so you can ask an intelligent question that shows you've done some homework and are not just out for yourself.
Be interesting, be memorable, do not be desperate (never attractive). And don't wear out your welcome, especially if you know other people are hovering (so they can make their own move on cool person) or if cool person clearly wants to duck out/away.
This chance to prepare, btw, is a key difference between meeting a big shot and hitting on a hot woman you happen to see at a bar.
"My experience is that a lot depends on your boss. I always got my work done quickly and thoroughly, but I've had bosses who made you sit in your chair even when there was nothing to do, I've had other bosses who were much more accommodating. It is about the culture of the department. My best job was in a very hard working engineering department, when we were on deadline we worked killer hours, but when things were slack, we went home. Everyone had kids, family outings were encouraged and our boss took us to lunch and treated us like humans. I worked my butt off for that boss. When I have had a boss who treats me like a child, I act like one. If you treat people with dignity and respect and give them time off when they need it, they will work harder."