Hacker News: VeilEm

New comment by VeilEm in "Why YC"

VeilEm — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 22:56:43 +0000

Sure, I'm not saying YC is bad, it's immensely helpful in many ways. I'm just sharing some lessons that were very expensive and painful to learn.

New comment by VeilEm in "Why YC"

VeilEm — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 22:11:48 +0000

The products were already useful, there just wasn't a viable enough market for them. It's hard to know that this is a problem when you have 5% growth for a few months and think you've gotten something that works only to see it slowly trickle to flat growth over time that may end up paying your bills in 10 years from now.

If you are able to have growth before getting into YC you will be better off than depending on YC to jump start your growth. Do you not think that lots of people are signing up to YC to get that jump start in growth?

New comment by VeilEm in "Why YC"

VeilEm — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 21:08:36 +0000

As a 3 time early employee of a YC funded startup I'm going to go ahead and say that the first customers benefit is as much a problem as a benefit because it presents the illusion of having a viable business. A lot of early customers only joined because of my startup's ties to YC and it always hid a problem with acquiring new customers. In 2 out of 3 experiences it took years of our lives wasted to figure out that the company couldn't be a success all the while trying to replicate whatever growth we had initially when that really was just from that first YC based TC article.

Basically you need to know if you can be viable without YC before you want get those early YC customers because eventually you're going to need customers that come to you who don't know what YC is.

New comment by VeilEm in "Uber losing $1B a year to compete in China"

VeilEm — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 19:11:24 +0000

On HN every day brings some new event that completely changes everything forever and deserves all our attention and capacity for outrage. Don't you ever find this exhausting?

New comment by VeilEm in "Issue and Pull Request templates"

VeilEm — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 18:31:23 +0000

Doesn't seem to work on enterprise github yet. :(

New comment by VeilEm in "Introducing GIF search on Twitter"

VeilEm — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 18:10:02 +0000

It's analogous to building a 30+ person company around MS Office clip art circa 1995 or Print Shop banner designs circa 1985, only now the company is valued at $300m with $50m funding. For gif search. Because I need those memes and I need them fast?

New comment by VeilEm in "Neutrinos continue run of odd behavior at Daya Bay"

VeilEm — Tue, 16 Feb 2016 20:43:23 +0000

Would it be possible to create a nuclear power plant detector by trying to detect neutrinos?

New comment by VeilEm in "Uber's Design Meltdown"

VeilEm — Tue, 16 Feb 2016 18:37:21 +0000

It's not insignficant. For one, the app icon looks completely different now. I had thought for a moment that I had uninstalled uber inadvertently before remembering their brand redesign in the tech press. For those not following the tech press, they probably had a harder time figuring out how to call an uber app.

They destroyed their brand in one fell swoop their new logo is entirely new. The good news for Uber is though that they are so essential and ubiquitous there's no danger of this impacting their business.

New comment by VeilEm in "Palantir acquires Kimono"

VeilEm — Mon, 15 Feb 2016 23:23:59 +0000

> we couldn’t be happier to announce

The tone of the announcement is in bad taste given the bad news for their customers.

New comment by VeilEm in "Silicon Valley startups rein in spending and prepare for layoffs"

VeilEm — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 19:25:12 +0000

Good recruiters are essential for building a good team. I have been happy to know many of the great recruiters I have had the pleasure to be on the same team on. Hiring is a complex topic involving marketing the company, searching for candidates, understanding the needs of the company and the legal terrain and helping everyone through the process.

New comment by VeilEm in "Silicon Valley startups rein in spending and prepare for layoffs"

VeilEm — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 07:30:44 +0000

I like "black swan"

New comment by VeilEm in "Silicon Valley startups rein in spending and prepare for layoffs"

VeilEm — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 07:25:49 +0000

Given how hard hiring has been, I doubt it. The current talent shortage could absorb a huge number of engineers. A lot of startups are well funded for many years anyway. People are predicting doom and gloom but I really don't see it. Home prices falling is also probably not a terrible thing, even on an engineer's salary homes are hard to come by, and rents are extreme. A small correction is probably a good thing. I bought my house at the bottom of the housing market in 2011 and its value has nearly doubled since then which is ridiculous to me. I also have enough savings to last me years. Lots of companies are also doing just fine. This really isn't the earth shattering dot com bust some of you want it to be.

New comment by VeilEm in "Silicon Valley startups rein in spending and prepare for layoffs"

VeilEm — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 07:08:41 +0000

Any kind of JavaScript, iOS or Android engineer getting laid of will get a job within a month if they want. Competent backend developers, devops, ML engineers also will have no problems finding a job. I recently went through a job search in the bay area and only applied at places I wanted to work and got a job at the first place I applied with phone interviews and in person interviews scheduled at other places.

The job market is really great right now. If you're getting laid off, now is a good time.

New comment by VeilEm in "Bacterial cells are small 'eyeballs', scientists discover"

VeilEm — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 02:23:16 +0000

Eyes don't process information, they're a sensor. In an animal its brain, a multi-celled organ, processes the information.

New comment by VeilEm in "Meatier – A Meteor alternative"

VeilEm — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 21:10:57 +0000

Oh I misread. That's a really good point and it's too late to edit my comment. Thank you.

New comment by VeilEm in "Meatier – A Meteor alternative"

VeilEm — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 17:24:23 +0000

Makes a point of Meteor's age and then proceeds to say that they're using 0.10 node with a bit about not upgrading anytime soon. Seems legit.

New comment by VeilEm in "Olbers’ Paradox: Why Is the Sky Dark at Night? (2000)"

VeilEm — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 21:08:36 +0000

> The underlying question is: When we say in general relativity that particles can't travel faster than light, what is that speed measured relative to?

It's based on the observation of two points of references moving a different speeds shining light and the light from each traveling at the same speed. So the speed of light is measured relative to other light. The speed of light is constant, and it is so regardless of point of reference. Flashlights pointed in opposite directions has nothing to do with the speed of light. The light is traveling at the same speed in opposite directions.

New comment by VeilEm in "Olbers’ Paradox: Why Is the Sky Dark at Night? (2000)"

VeilEm — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 19:30:19 +0000

This didn't mention the expansion of space at all. The universe may be infinite in size but we'll never see the light of stars that exist so far from us that they are beyond the distance at which space expands faster than light can travel. That's why we have a dark sky and it will just get darker as more things we see now eventually expand beyond that barrier. One suggested end to the universe is the Big Rip in which all matter eventually separates in this way such that the distance between all matter is infinite:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Rip

New comment by VeilEm in "How Would You Do on the New SAT?"

VeilEm — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 18:36:07 +0000

SAT testing takes place while in high school, so test taking starts at age 15, but it's probably mostly 16 and 17 year olds who take the test I'd think.

New comment by VeilEm in "SpaceX seeks to accelerate Falcon 9 production and launch rates this year"

VeilEm — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 18:20:37 +0000

> which is intended for their Mars project

Space X is a for profit company right? What's the profit incentive of going to Mars? A marketing ploy? Does SpaceX not have any investors besides Elon Musk to answer to about spending?