I have been working with Chef for a handful of years now and heavily at Quid. Finally put together a few of my many thoughts on Chef. Hoping to touch on a few other topics in the near future.
Quid (quid.com) - San Francisco - H1B/VISA welcome
Our product combines mathematical models with advanced data visualizations to help turn the world's information into high value intelligence. With a still small development team, every developer's contributions matter a lot (seriously).
We just rose a round of $39 million and have some series momentum with clients such as Hyundai, Microsoft, Samsung and the Boston Consulting Group.
I've been working at Quid for the last two and half years. The momentum here is getting really exciting. Let me know if you have any questions! We're (of course) hiring and also just completed a solid round (http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/19/quid-series-d/)!
This place has so much potential and great momentum with huge clients like Microsoft, Samsung, Visa, etc...
Our product combines advanced data visualizations, mathematical models, and data processing techniques to generate valuable insight for our customers. With only 12 developers, every developer's contributions matter a lot (seriously).
Good question and obviously not an optimal situation.
Since I'm a small shop going through a third party printer, I am last in line for raw t-shirt supply. Mix in color and size availability, and it gets pretty tricky to rely on one brand. So for now, I am using a few high quality brands to make sure t-shirts get out in a timely manner.
The subscription suggestion is great and might be a better fit for Nifty. I'll have to give some thought.
Another direction I am thinking of going is more clearly separating the purchase from the pick. So you pick your shirt to buy and then make a separate pick for the least popular. I worry the additional UI may complicate things, but it is probably worth testing.
Below in the comments, I mention I am very curious to find out if people will take buying the least popular t-shirt as a positive (I'm unique) or negative (Why would I want a trash shirt). You clearly fall in the latter category, which is very reasonable. I am very open to tweaking the game mechanics so it is perceived as a win win by everybody while still a sustainable site.
The shirt and printing style are of high quality. I need to do a better job on the site emphasizing that.
Sorry you did not like this week's designs. Maybe next week (or not based on your comment =p)
As a very frequent t-shirt purchaser myself, the reason sites like TeeFury (which I love) do not sell at $25 is because their t-shirt quality, design, and printing style is not anywhere near as nice as Threadless or DesignByHumans. I am hoping Nifty will earn a reputation more like the latter sites than the former.
With that in mind, I will definitely test price points and appreciate the perspective from a fellow t-shirt buyer.
I had this idea rolling around in my head for the last couple of years, and I finally decided to build the damned thing just to get idea relief.
The backend is a typical LAMP stack with the Symfony2 framework backing the P. Varnish sits in front of all the Chef managed Linode boxes. The site will work without Javascript (up until the checkout), and the style degrades really nicely depending on your viewport (try it out by resizing your browser).
I'm open to all comments and critiques, so let me hear them. And if you are into graphic t-shirts, here is a code for a Hacker News 20% discount: 4803-7940-0816-5604!
I'm a full-time freelancer with about 10-15 off-hours a week of availability. I'm primarily a backend/web developer with strengths in PHP, Java and C++. My background consists of stints in the video game industry, co-founding a new media advertising startup, and a collection of client work.
