jjolis

Matrix Partners | Investment Partner | Boston or SF | Onsite | VISA | https://www.matrixpartners.com/

We are a VC firm looking to grow our investing team. Our preference is to hire folks with technical or product builder backgrounds. All of us have been founders and operators in the past -- we aren't your typical finance types. In an effort to find more applicants from underrepresented backgrounds, we are posting public job openings for the first time (in 40+ years).

https://viewpoints.matrixpartners.com/were-hiring-5b05fd193e...

Matrix Partners | Investment Partner | Boston or SF | Onsite | VISA | https://www.matrixpartners.com/

We are a VC firm looking to grow our investing team. Our preference is to hire folks with technical or product builder backgrounds. All of us have been founders and operators in the past -- we aren't your typical finance types. In an effort to diversify our hiring pipeline, we are posting public job openings for the first time (in 40+ years).

https://viewpoints.matrixpartners.com/were-hiring-5b05fd193e...

We're looking for someone who wants to learn the venture business and actually practice the craft for a long time. This is a full-time long-term investor role. We just have an affinity for builder types that have themselves been in the trenches and shipped product prior to investing.

Matrix Partners | Investment Partner | Boston or SF | Onsite | VISA | https://www.matrixpartners.com/

We are a VC firm looking for someone with a technical / product builder background to come invest in technical projects. All of us have been founders and operators in the past -- we aren't your typical finance types.

https://jobs.lever.co/matrixpartners

Verbling | San Francisco | Senior-level growth marketing person & React Engineer | VISA | ONSITE

Verbling’s mission is to empower people all over the world to become fluent in a foreign language. While our core team is based in San Francisco, the teachers and students who make our mission possible are spread across six continents.

Our interview process includes an assignment that can be completed from home. The assignment is either marketing or coding depending on which job is sought.

https://jobs.lever.co/verbling

Verbling • San Francisco • Full Time • ONSITE • VISA

Verbling is a San Francisco startup helping the world learn foreign languages. https://www.verbling.com/jobs

• Full-Stack Javascript Generalist Javascript is crucial to Verbling. We use Node.js on the backend and a Backbone/React-based framework on the front-end. We are looking for someone who's excited about getting their hands dirty in all part of the stack. You are a experienced Javascript developer who wants to get in on building the future of ed-tech from the bottom up. You want to be an integral part in inventing new ways for students to learn foreign languages. You love to learn, and equally love to share your knowledge with others. You’re both a listener and contributor. You are a great communicator and you take care to understand before making yourself understood. Your code is architected for scalability, re-use, and testability. Your operators are always === and you are a master of closures. You have strong opinions on code structure and modularization. You're pretty darn excited about react, isomorphic flux, generators, and FRP.

• Responsibilities Own and drive projects from idea spec to production. Work closely with product and design teams. Continually iterate on product features using analytics and user feedback.

• Requirements Experience with Node.js. Experience in front-end JS development, and preferably in a framework like Backbone, Angular, etc. Always thinking about scalability and performance bottlenecks. A test-driven mindset.

Verbling • San Francisco • Full Time • ONSITE • VISA

Verbling is a San Francisco startup helping the world learn foreign languages. https://www.verbling.com/jobs

• Full-Stack Javascript Generalist

Javascript is crucial to Verbling. We use Node.js on the backend and a Backbone/React-based framework on the front-end. We are looking for someone who's excited about getting their hands dirty in all part of the stack.

You are a experienced Javascript developer who wants to get in on building the future of ed-tech from the bottom up. You want to be an integral part in inventing new ways for students to learn foreign languages.

You love to learn, and equally love to share your knowledge with others. You’re both a listener and contributor. You are a great communicator and you take care to understand before making yourself understood.

Your code is architected for scalability, re-use, and testability. Your operators are always === and you are a master of closures. You have strong opinions on code structure and modularization. You're pretty darn excited about react, isomorphic flux, generators, and FRP.

• Responsibilities

Own and drive projects from idea spec to production. Work closely with product and design teams. Continually iterate on product features using analytics and user feedback.

• Requirements

Experience with Node.js. Experience in front-end JS development, and preferably in a framework like Backbone, Angular, etc. Always thinking about scalability and performance bottlenecks. A test-driven mindset.

Verbling | San Francisco | Engineering (Node.js, React, iOS)

Full listings at https://www.verbling.com/jobs (summary below)

Verbling (Y Combinator) is helping the world learn foreign languages.

FULL-STACK JAVASCRIPT GENERALIST

Javascript is crucial to Verbling. We use Node.js on the backend and a Backbone/React-based framework on the front-end. Looking for someone who's excited about getting their hands dirty in all part of the stack.

Requirements: Experience in Node.js; front-end JS development, preferably in a framework like Backbone, Angular, etc. Bonus: interest in spoken languages, open-source contributions, experience in NoSQL; MongoDB, Couch, redis, or similar; React.

iOS ENGINEER

We’re looking for someone who is not only well versed in iOS development, but also has a strong understanding of good UX and isn’t afraid to get their hands dirty in backend code.

Requirements: Experience developing, releasing, and maintaining native iOS applications in both the App Store and Enterprise Distribution; Deep knowledge of Objective-C, Cocoa, and Xcode; Experience collaborating on software projects and working in a team environment; i18n experience; Strong debugging skills; Knowledge of algorithms and data structures Bonus: Open-source contributions; Experience in Android development. VISA ok

DEVOPS Part-time contractor. See our jobs page above.

Verbling | San Francisco | Full-time | Engineering (Node.js, React, iOS)

Full listings at https://www.verbling.com/jobs (summary below)

Verbling (Y Combinator) is helping the world learn foreign languages.

FULL-STACK JAVASCRIPT GENERALIST

Javascript is crucial to Verbling. We use Node.js on the backend and a Backbone/React-based framework on the front-end. Looking for someone who's excited about getting their hands dirty in all part of the stack.

Requirements: Experience in Node.js; front-end JS development, preferably in a framework like Backbone, Angular, etc. Bonus: interest in spoken languages, open-source contributions, experience in NoSQL; MongoDB, Couch, redis, or similar; React.

iOS ENGINEER

We’re looking for someone who is not only well versed in iOS development, but also has a strong understanding of good UX and isn’t afraid to get their hands dirty in backend code.

Requirements: Experience developing, releasing, and maintaining native iOS applications in both the App Store and Enterprise Distribution; Deep knowledge of Objective-C, Cocoa, and Xcode; Experience collaborating on software projects and working in a team environment; i18n experience; Strong debugging skills; Knowledge of algorithms and data structures Bonus: Open-source contributions; Experience in Android development. VISA ok

We’ve known Qasar since PG first introduced us to him during our YC summer 2011 batch. Qasar had just sold Talkbin to Google.

Though it wasn’t stated outright from the start, I believe we were used as guinea pigs to test Qasar’s potential as a future target for the YC partnership. We must’ve been one of the first such companies, though there were likely other guinea pigs in our batch as well.

Qasar’s sincere, direct, no-BS attitude blew us away from the start, and we came to understand that he genuinely wanted us to succeed. We had strategy sessions on Castro Street in Mountain View, at Qasar’s own house, and even at Google lunch when scheduling was tight.

Having provided seriously powerful insights and introductions that helped get us off the ground back then, Qasar continues to be supportive through all phases to this day - rain or shine.

I’m proud to call Qasar an advisor and couldn’t be more excited to congratulate him on becoming YC partner.

Amazing, Sam. Congratulations.

My uncle Jack Jolis, a diamond dealer/consultant who has worked for forty years in every part of the globe where diamonds are mined, bought, sold and cut, written for WSJ and testified to congress on diamonds, had this comment. His words: 'Well, one man's "bullshit" is another man's "eye of the beholder" sort of thing.

It is true that of the three aspects that originally made diamonds "above the rest" and therefore desirable, i.e., their rarity, unparalleled hardness, and beauty, the first two don't really apply anymore and the third is increasingly iffy as technology marches on -- but the same could be said of other objects to which we ascribe great value, i.e., "fine" art, which began as sublime and evocative interpretation of life, divinity and transcendence, but which these days more often than not is just a hodgepodge of "Emperor has no clothes" random splotches, un-made beds and (literally) piles of shit, but to which we nevertheless still ascribe great value. So go know.

In any case, the "death" of diamonds has been predicted before, and by better writers and more thorough reporters than Mr. Dhar, here, c.f.: Edward Jay Epstein "The Rise And Fall Of Diamonds", 1982, -- and yet Cecil Rhodes' babies are still going, stronger and more lucrative than ever.

There is certainly nothing intrinsically valuable about diamonds -- but then what does have "intrinsic" value? Even gold is largely "valuable" because of a near-universal belief and agreement that it should have value, and has done so since the dawn of recorded time. If everyone in the world suddenly decided that gold (or diamonds, come to that), no longer had any value, well, that "value" would certainly disappear -- it has happened before, to other "valuable" commodities, such as tulips in the early 17th century and other evanescent enthusiasms throughout history. But some consensuses seem to be more permanent and on solid ground than others -- and I suspect that diamonds and other precious stones are more in the "gold" class than in the "tulip" and "piles of arty shit" class....

So are diamonds really "forever"? Maybe not, but probably so. They've survived the emergence of synthetics without so much as a hiccup, and they've even survived the disappearance of DeBeers as a controlling agent (DeBeers, although still an important factor, no longer has anything like any monopolistic control -- it is just one of 4 or 5 other "important players" in the business), and the diamond industry even laughed off (with my, ahem, small contribution) the "blood diamond" non-scandal, so I'm pretty confident that they (diamonds) will carry on through such iconoclastic pinpricks and nitpicks as may appear on W's "Interwebs".

So, "bullshit" diamonds well may be, but tell me -- when did being "bullshit" ever stop (or even slow down) anybody or anything, especially in these days of ascendancy of the likes of Justin Bieber and Dennis Rodman? Nevah hotchee, GI -- in fact, I'd say that bullshit is one of our great growth industries as we move heedlessly into the 21st Century, so if diamonds really are "bullshit", then this article can only constitute yet another boost for the industry.'

Jake/Verbling here. Thanks for this.

1. The reason you have to register is because the people you talk to have the option of adding you to "My Verblings" and thereby increasing your reputation on the site.

2. Thanks for your input on the Asian market.

We haven't seen any serious abuse yet. If we get any report, we look at what type of abuse was reported, whether other users have reported the same potential abuser, and follow up with each of the users involved individually in Verbling itself and/or by email.

For a quick demo, Verbling was tried out on local TV in Texas http://www.the33tv.com/about/station/newsteam/kdaf-verbling-...

Jake from Verbling here. Thanks for this feedback. Really appreciate it. Many users are reporting switching from other sites once they've gotten the first few phrases down and want to practice with real native speakers. Talking to real people seems to serve as an extra injection of motivation.

Re. abuse: Verblings make accounts and that carry a crowdsourced reputation. We can see how well-liked our users are based on how their conversation partners rate them. Users with serious abuse reports filed against them are investigated and, if substantiated, kicked out.

Aha, in the beginning as we grow our user base, we're scheduling sessions--three times per day now. You'll see the session times announced in your local time to the left of the video screen.

Just log on during the next session, which is at 9 PM in Spain. Just to make sure, would you mind shooting me an email at jake@verbling.com from the email account you signed up with? That way, I can take a look to make sure everything's the way it should be.

And thanks for the kind words!

Jake from Verbling here. Beginner/intermediate/advanced refer to the different levels of conversation topics available to users. You can click through all of them while you're in a conversation, so you're never "stuck" in any of the categories. Specifically, at the beginner level, you're exposed to mostly the present tense and beginner's vocab. At the advanced level, you'll see some conditional tense and more advanced vocabulary, for example re. politics, culture, technology.

Re. ratings: We simply ask you, "How was your conversation?" Based on whether you superlike/like/dislike, we can pair you up with that same native speaker more often, at the same rate, or never again.

Hope this helps!

Jake from Verbling here. So far, most of our users are at the intermediate to advanced level, though we've got a bunch of beginners as well.

For beginners, we've built beginners conversation topics to provide some initial Spanish context to get you started. Click the "Beginner" button once you've got a native speaker on the other end.

My co-founder Mikael actually knew zero Spanish before the summer but just started using Verbling to learn (and get feedback). He's now very conversant, at the stage where I can hear him use phrases that real Spanish speakers would use in everyday life, which is often very different from what they put in textbooks.

Hi, I'm Jake, one of the Verbling founders. Thanks for this feedback! We are planning to launch more language combinations in the future, though Spanish-English is the only one currently active. As we scale, we can allow users to impose filters such as "I want to talk to advanced speakers only."

I'm Jake Jolis, one of the Verbling founders. Happy you found a good place to practice Spanish!

Just for reference, biggest countries right now are USA, Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, and U.K.