Hacker News: bspear

New comment by bspear in "Ask HN: How did you become one of the first 50 at a major tech company?"

bspear — Mon, 18 Jul 2022 04:39:43 +0000

How I got in: referral from friend who found the startup through another friend.

Why I joined: Was tired of big tech and wanted to learn faster. Founders were smart. Ran a surprisingly tight interview process.

Advice: if I were to reverse-engineer this, I would follow Seed-Series A investments from Tier 1 firms. These are the highest-signal companies.

New comment by bspear in "Ev Williams to step down from Medium"

bspear — Tue, 12 Jul 2022 18:33:49 +0000

Individual writers control their own email lists

New comment by bspear in "Sequoia, Y Combinator, AZ16 Under Scrutiny in Congress over ‘Tech Bro’ Culture"

bspear — Tue, 28 Jun 2022 20:00:37 +0000

Right, you'd think they have bigger fish to fry

New comment by bspear in "Show HN: We used investor tools to find the best startups to work at"

bspear — Tue, 28 Jun 2022 19:56:32 +0000

+1 to your landing page design. Very fun and engaging.

Some feedback:

- Onboarding is too long: incentivizes fake sign-ups just to see the jobs

- None of the investors listed seem that impressive, which makes me think this is just limited supply rather than higher-quality supply

- Card design looks like Otta, made me wonder what makes this site unique?

Your site feels like a twist on https://topstartups.io/ except I prefer the open format of being able to see everything. Maybe it's instant gratification

New comment by bspear in "Ask HN: How to get job without technical interview?"

bspear — Mon, 27 Jun 2022 20:34:40 +0000

http://angel.co/ is a common one, although some of the startups are a bit sketch, so you gotta do your research. https://topstartups.io/ filters for higher-quality startups

New comment by bspear in "Ask HN: Having trouble getting senior applicants, wondering what to do about it"

bspear — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 22:19:42 +0000

Yes, valuations have gone through the roof, but the equity grants have not kept pace. This is a huge disservice to candidates. Got especially bad in 2021. Really important for people to research startup pay before signing: https://topstartups.io/startup-salary-equity-database/

To the OP: if you believe your comp bands are competitive, why not share in the posting itself?

New comment by bspear in "Show HN: My Side Project Rocks – Share and discover side projects"

bspear — Tue, 14 Jun 2022 21:57:20 +0000

Same!

Writing is a single-player game

bspear — Tue, 14 Jun 2022 00:47:23 +0000

Article URL: https://www.otherlife.co/singleplayer/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31733513

Points: 137

# Comments: 41

Rallies to the Bottom

bspear — Sun, 05 Jun 2022 19:52:45 +0000

Article URL: https://ofdollarsanddata.com/rallies-to-the-bottom/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31634274

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Revenge Is Easy

bspear — Sat, 04 Jun 2022 21:04:15 +0000

Article URL: https://ofdollarsanddata.com/revenge-is-easy-kindness-is-hard/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31625044

Points: 2

# Comments: 1

History of Digital Nomads

bspear — Sat, 04 Jun 2022 20:45:51 +0000

Article URL: https://every.to/p/a-brief-history-of-digital-nomads-58563d58-9d69-423f-b6a5-0c06de1d3787

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31624877

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by bspear in "Crypto has crashed – can it bounce back?"

bspear — Sat, 04 Jun 2022 20:44:25 +0000

The growing demand for currency not controlled by the government is undeniable. Only a matter of time. But this time, hopefully less irrational exuberance for alt-coins that serve no purpose besides speculation

New comment by bspear in "Coinbase is rescinding already-accepted job offers"

bspear — Sat, 04 Jun 2022 20:42:41 +0000

dumpster fire sounds right. their support team is also basically non-existent, so if you ever have questions about your account, expect multiple days of waiting

Trying Too Hard

bspear — Sat, 04 Jun 2022 20:38:44 +0000

Article URL: https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/trying-too-hard/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31624819

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Rallies to the Bottom

bspear — Sat, 04 Jun 2022 20:37:47 +0000

Article URL: https://ofdollarsanddata.com/rallies-to-the-bottom/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31624813

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by bspear in "Ask HN: Website listing interesting pre-IPO startups that are hiring"

bspear — Sat, 04 Jun 2022 19:59:18 +0000

Do you mean this: https://topstartups.io/

New comment by bspear in "Questions candidates can ask about equity compensation"

bspear — Sat, 04 Jun 2022 19:57:18 +0000

Diligence on the startup so you know what you're getting into. Also prevents early employee churn because people feel duped once they look under the hood.

The greatest frustration is usually around: 1. feeling like your equity cut is not enough once you know what other people are paid; 2. not knowing how much you pay in exercise cost / taxes / exercise window until it's too late

On 1, there's a growing DB of startup comp here: https://topstartups.io/startup-salary-equity-database/

New comment by bspear in "Ask HN: How do you find meaningful jobs?"

bspear — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 20:18:11 +0000

TBH, I've stopped believing that a job will give me meaning. I have to give meaning to the right job.

Learned that this is easier when: - company is small enough for me to be in direct contact with customers vs. seeing quotes from user research - time is spent mostly to help customers vs. show how smart we are to leadership - everyone can challenge each other to improve vs. stay stagnant - we have enough funding / cashflow to be able to look forward vs. worry about surviving today

Also a growing number of companies focused on sustainability, which is easier to project meaning onto: https://topstartups.io/?industries=Sustainability

New comment by bspear in "Sheryl Sandberg stepping down as Facebook COO"

bspear — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 20:01:04 +0000

I'm usually skeptical of corporate BS, but I imagine they did have a strong relationship. 14-year stints are very rare, esp. for people that have plenty of options knocking on the door

New comment by bspear in "Ask HN: Need help in understanding private equity offer"

bspear — Mon, 30 May 2022 19:16:45 +0000

Think OP meant $70M not $70B if they just raised $17M in funding.

To calculate your gross $ value today, you need to know your # of shares (10K) divided by total fully diluted outstanding shares (607,500,000) multiplied by the valuation (probably $70M).

Strike price is your cost to exercise the options, which should be deducted from your gross value. You will likely also incur taxes unless you exercise right away via 83B election