bartozone

I worked for Famo.us back when it was an open source framework, and I know intimately well how hard it was to create something like this. Incredibly powerful if this reaches it's full potential, and kudos to you for embarking on this path to try! I keep waiting to see if this ever comes to be.

I just ordered this book based of this description. I've had a unique work history with this type of leader.

I think think really depends on your business. Are you selling hardware, or SaaS? B2B can be $400 or $500,000 / yr per deal.

I've done half million dollar deals that take 8 months from first contact to close, and I have had deals of $30k / yr close without me ever talking to the customer. I sell Software and services to SMBs and Enterprise accounts.

The larger deal (with a F500 company) had contract negotiations with multiple levels of executives and stakeholders on their end. They decided our solution was right for them after about 3 months, and spend 5 on contract and implementation. This probably could have gone smoother, but would be impossible to automate IMHO.

We have a fairly low level of sales automation. It works for SMBs, but not for the larger clients. A lead, at this point, stays with the sales person until it's closed when it's handed off to an account manager.

The most tedious parts are the back and forth, waiting on legal to approve and redline a contract version.

Oil is taxed quite a bit there, along with higher property taxes (some of the highest in the nation). But you'll also notice the roads aren't stellar, and many areas have issues with public education. Lack of state tax is reflected in all of this.

Being completely honest about your intentions is the best approach. For instance, tell them you're working on a new product and you think it could be helpful to someone who owns a business similar to his/hers. Say you know they're busy (all SMBs are), and ask for a couple minutes of their time to just explain what you're hoping to build and if they would give you any feedback. If you have a BETA product, offer to give it to them for free with no commitment to buy. Just make it really easy for them to say yes and make it OK for them to say no, or not even respond.

Showing up at their work is likely not going to get you what you want because their day is probably already scheduled and it could be a pretty big inconvenience. Or likely a major waste of your time. Let them schedule through email. I'd be willing to bed if you get 10 - 20 email address or companies, you'd get a couple responses agreeing to a phone call or company.

Make your first interaction short (5 - 10 mins) and work to develop that relationship as they could maybe even become your first customer.

Just talk to the VP before it becomes anything significant and get clearance. If you want to start something and they say no, then you know in advance and you can decide if you want to leave or not. If you start a serious side business and they find out without you having told them, then it's problematic. You signed a contract when you started.

If you didn't sign anything then you are free to do as you like. But this is probably an unlikely scenario.

Don't do this ...

If you build a side project without your employers knowledge, especially if it's in a similar space, and you are successful ... your ex-employer and their investors will make your life very very difficult. In my experience, companies don't care if you're working on a non-competing idea. Just get clearance before hand.

No need to take a risk here.

I found this post on HN (and ensuing comments) maybe the most ironic of all time.

There's a huge difference in return to investors between skilled data scientists doing one-offs, and an engine that does the work on its own

This is kind of the crux, right? If the investors believe that there is a future roadmap to essentially automate what the team is doing ... That's one thing. If they are investing today because the CEO is saying "Look! It's automated!", then that's pretty much on them.

That said, these investors have literally millions of dollars to complete due diligence, and if they miss on something like that, it's on them. Investors are putting so much money into these companies on "demos" and without really looking under the hood. So if they complete their due dilligence, their essentially saying "we are investing in your current product and our current understanding of it". I don't think there's going to be a fraud lawsuit here.

Theranos was changing the output data that the investors saw, not just saying "we do blood tests better!". That was straight up fraud because the data reviewed in due diligence was false.

I'd KILL for this. (Also, I live in SF).

Everything he said ... Also really think about what it would take to actually grow it some over the next 10 years. Could you hit $500k next year? maybe $1M in 3 - 5 years? What is the long term potential?

A growing company is worth a lot more to BigCo than a flat company.

Just to add on to this, Huntsville, AL is the fastest growing market in the United States for technology jobs.

http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/facebook/facebook-build-7...

Average rent for a 2br is somewhere around $800, and about 3 hours from Nashville and Atlanta.

If your apartment in Oakland was built before 1976, it's rent controlled and that's definitely illegal. Even if there wasn't a former lease, they can't raise the rent by more than a certain amount, often less than 1%.

The biggest problem that I find with programs like mint is that they aren't real time. Even my bank accounts aren't current. They often lag 24 hours, so when I look it may seem like I have more than what I do ... so I guess (often wrong, or forget something) what I spent the day before and try to mentally assign that amount to different categories (like groceries, Transportation, restaurants, etc).

Does anyone know software that can keep real time accounting of my personal expenses?

Elon did come across very Trumpian on the call, which, in the longer term may serve his interests well. He's pretty upfront about not caring about what the public markets think of him (or Tesla), and acts accordingly. Maybe if he can devalue analysts, and their questions, in the long run these calls will have less impact on value of the company.

I mean ... if I were an institutional investor in Tesla, I'd really wish he would have answered those questions. He must have known what the outcome would be.

"For people with ADHD, they grow bored when results are not achieved at the desired time"

This is really well articulated. At least in my case, this hit the nail on the head. The difference between me being bought in vs not is almost out of my hands. If results aren't happening at the rate at which is expect, I feel like I can enter an "autopilot" mode. Where I get things done, but I become overly complacent.

On the opposite end, when growth/results are exceeding my expectations, I feel an overwhelming urgency to push even hard, and more frequently.

In both instances I can feel like I get burnt out. Burnt from boredom or burnt from overworking. On some level, I think this contributes to a bit of anxiety (especially as it relates to work), but it's something I feel like I've learned to manage better over the past couple years.

Did you put any kind of NDA in place before sharing confidential information? If so, you can politely remind him that it's appropriate to destroy the data. If not ... well, he sounds like a dick.

I understand not wanting to out this investor too, the truth is, he is more powerful than you and it sucks. The best advice is take it as a lesson, and focus on your startup. You know not to do business with him, and later when he wants in on one of your oversubscribed funding rounds, you can politely point him to earlier conversations when he was not interested. :)

Don't make this into something more than it is. This will not break your business, but making it a big deal when you don't have the power/resources to do so could.

I worked for an open source company about 4 years ago. It was quite popular, venture backed, and had all the interest in the world. We launched with a lot of fanfare, and adoption was quite strong. We raised a series B just before our official launch and had the backing of great investors. The problem with open source isn't that someone else is going to come and take your code and use it to compete against you. It's that it's nearly impossible to monetize something that you give away for free otherwise.

We experimented with a lot of different business models, but the reality was ... no engineer was willing to pay us for something like "analytics" ... or "hosting" ... They were just going to keep using the code.

It's also incredibly difficult to track actual usage. There was no way to enforce the use of it on our CDN, so people were likely using our product, and we didn't know about it at all. When you open source, you just give up a lot of control. When you're end user are engineers, they won't pay unless it's something they can't do themselves, or aren't already using another service.

If you look at a company like SugarCRM (open source CRM product), businesses will pay. Granted, they aren't salesforce, but they have a legitimate business model that works for them. So while it can work, before making a decision, I would talk to your customers about what they would be willing to pay for, and how much.

Well, it's not THEIR money. :)

Do you see yourself picking up another cryptocurrency in the future? One that isn't just an asset to be held but was accepted as a form of payment on a larger scale?

I once worked for a company that didn't track their expenses too well, and we found out the maid was getting over 10K a month for working 2 hours 5 days a week. The maid.

I did the hourly break down and realized she was the highest paid person in the company (CEO included) for about a year and a half.

I couldn't believe it.

I'm 100% sure that any of these influencers making money most definitely have agents, producers and most likely deals with record labels (or similar). The entertainment machine is way too powerful. The large agencies have entire departments dedicated to finding these influencers and boosting their visibility through deals/partnerships/etc. While the path to fame may be changing, or has changed, the people controlling them are, and will, continue to be the same.

Just to piggy back on this, many of these companies are skipping IPO's because there's enough private equity to give them the funds they needs. Previously this wasn't the case.

In technology it is VERY common as these exec recruiters are paid handsomely. 100K+ to find the right executive and place him/her at a company. These are not the low level recruiters spamming your inbox.

These people have a network, and know who has been where and for how long. After that 3/4/5 year mark, they start pinging people to let them know of interesting opportunities. That said, you DO want a good recruiter who's well respected.

I'd do your research on who some of the best are, and target them to work with. Perhaps people here can make suggestions?

Yeah, anytime I take more than 10 days off in a year, I know that I'm pushing above the average. And that counts days around the holidays too. Every year I plan to take one vacation in the summer for a long weekend, or a full 5 days off in a row if I can.

Also ... Facebook owns Instagram

Yeah! How was the interview?! Interesting that they are only 5 mins.

Not just Instagram, but Occulus Rift, and WhatsApp. They aren't afraid to spend for leaders in an area they aren't as strong in. They are a very exciting company that could see massive growth over the next 5 - 10 years as they become more than just the newsfeed people know them for.

Quite possibly he's retained a lawyer and has been advised to stop communicating with you. Do you have a clear outline of ownership through contracts?

Also, is your meeting on July 4th...?

Hahahahahahah I got CERN labs in Switzerland. I'm pretty excited about that actually.

@bartozone