The Day our investors came to see the office (2011)

http://thedayseries.tumblr.com/post/963728807/the-day-our-investors-came-to-see-the-office

by treester • 13 years ago

174 64 13 years ago

thedayseries.tumblr.com

pseudometa• 13 years ago

The story had the exact oposite ending as I was expecting given the lead-up.

jakejake4• 13 years ago

Yea I find investors are not primarily concerned about my happiness - except how my happiness may effect the business.

It's not at all that they're heartless & they certainly don't want me to be unhappy. They just didn't give me money so that I would use it to have fun and be happy. Happiness is hopefully a side effect of a successful venture.

danielweber• 13 years ago

I even more expected that the investor was going to see the slightest bit of waver in his voice and use that as an excuse to yank all the money back.

joosters• 13 years ago

There's definitely more than a little heartlessness in it, though. Both the investor & the developer are/will be invested in the business, and yet it's the developer making all the sacrifices.

The investor could decide to invest more and spend it on improving working conditions, but they choose not to - after all, the suckers have confirmed that they are happy with the conditions!

Stranger2013• 13 years ago

I thought it was about making a very risky investment in a hope for a really high return.

austenallred6• 13 years ago

This is exactly how I feel. The circumstances I live in are much worse than I could be the ones I could be living in (I'm currently living in the back of my Honda Civic, parking somewhere in Palo Alto or Redwood City), but I don't care. I've honestly never been happier. I'm doing what I love, building something I feel is sorely needed, and that's all that really matters.

I sleep better now on the air mattress in the trunk of my car now than I did working a mind-numbing job and sleeping in a king-sized bed.

dreamdu5t• 13 years ago

How long have you been doing this?

austenallred6• 13 years ago

So far one week in Silicon Valley, but I honestly feel it's sustainable. Park your car and sleep in it wherever there are other cars (no one notices you), work in the Hacker Dojo, shower at the Gold's Gym down the street in Mountain View. Total burn rate per month? $200-ish. http://www.austenallred.com/voluntarily-homeless-in-silicon-...

shin_lao• 13 years ago

How do you go to the toilets?

austenallred6• 13 years ago

In the Hacker Dojo

joonix2• 13 years ago

I'm not the Parent but if I'm ever a transient I'll hold onto my $30/mo 24-Hour Fitness membership for dear life. Toilets and hot showers all over the country.

jeffasinger• 13 years ago

I imagine the parent has access to a coworking space during the day, and a 24 hour or similar fitness place for showers, bathrooms and exercise.

jsonne3• 13 years ago

Good lord why? There are so many other tech hubs where housing is reasonable. How are you supposed to do your most inspired work if you can't get a decent night's sleep.

brudgers3• 13 years ago

There are theatre people in Milwaukee and Houston and DC. But if you want to be on Broadway, you gotta' bite the big apple. Des Moines is for sleeping.

jlongster2• 13 years ago

The main problem I have with this is that it would put so much pressure on your startup. You need to be built to resist failure, and if you've literally invested everything, you're in for a hard time.

Not to say that you shouldn't invest almost everything, and this is a cool hack, but it's not sustainable, at least emotionally.

blazespin2• 13 years ago

Cool. So instead of a hacker house, we need a hacker parking lot. Or even better, a hacker parkade. Like in RPO, but maybe constructed a little better so you can drive in and out.

mjmahone17• 13 years ago

You mean a trailer park? Like the ones that have been torn down to make room for luxury buildings?

blazespin2• 13 years ago

And this is why VC loves young people.

mitchelllc• 13 years ago

yep, because they are living a dream, and hope.

angilly• 13 years ago

Wow I wrote this two years ago! I saw a few comments coming in this morning and had no idea what was going on. Gotta love Google Analytics :) I'm glad you enjoyed the story. I enjoyed the experience :)

dopamean• 13 years ago

Where are you now? How are things? Are you still happy?

MicahWedemeyer• 13 years ago

From the bio:

signalgenius.com [founder & growing] fourthsegment.com [founded & failed] ryanangilly.com [blog] mypunchbowl.com [employee & still going] messagesling.com [founded & failed]

I'd really like to hear how things ended and if the relationship with the investors remained so positive all the way to the end.

bconway• 13 years ago

I enjoyed seeing all the WPI and other local references from my (long) time in MA.

prawn2• 13 years ago

Really liked your story. All the lead-up had me thinking there would be a horrible reaction to the plain office but it was such a sweet finale. People just being left to focus on what they're creating, and having some appreciation shown for their opinion, state of well-being, etc.

quackerhacker• 13 years ago

I ENVY your experience with your investors.

I had an experience with an angel investor, where she said: "You need my money, what's stopping me from just hiring some programmers from India and making what you have." I told her, "passion," and I walked away from the deal .

This taught me to take advice from others and NEVER deal with family. It also taught me that if my pitch is a website/app/service get my users and growth rate manageable, so leverage is in my favor.

gscott2• 13 years ago

Rather then walking away I would suggest telling the person they can try but it is unlikely because the cost of an actual good overseas programmer is comperable to here if you factor in the miscommunication, time difference, and the cost of the time to communicate exactly what is needed.

You might want to go back to the person, ask if they have had it built yet, and ask if they want to get started now but don't let this person take advantage of your passion.

spitfire• 13 years ago

If they've already tried the "I can hire an Indian." line, then they've already ended the relationship.

If you want to be cruel, you can point them to places like elance or rentacoder.

rhizome• 13 years ago

Likely they were just playing Industrialist by repeating some received wisdom about Indian programmers being a magical outsourcing technique, to which you call their bluff and say, "Nothing, go for it. Wanna race?" and sit there silently.

msutherl2• 13 years ago

This sounds awful and I hope never to find myself in a situation where I am thankful for ugly living conditions, for that would mean I had become insensitive to the world.

prawn2• 13 years ago

They weren't dirty or unsafe conditions. They were just plain, leaving the team to focus on their well-being and their work.

I would find a really showy office somewhat distracting.

msutherl2• 13 years ago

Without windows under office-quality fluorescent lights is bleak and awful. Sure, it's 'safe', but it drains the soul.

The Day our investors came to see the office (2011)

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