happyfeet

Born on March 22, 2011•241 Karma

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happyfeet•

on Dec 25, 2011

•on: Thanks HN for the Christmas colors and Merry Chris...

Merry Christmas to all. :)

happyfeet•

on Dec 20, 2011

•on: Good news: Mozilla fixed their damn browser

Absolutely. Most often I catch myself do private browsing in Chrome and 'feel' safer with Firefox. May be my fears are unfounded and yet I do it often.

pyre•

on Dec 20, 2011

I like Chrome's "private browsing" mode better than Firefox's though. Mostly because I can have private and non-private windows open at the same time (and they're properly sandboxed from each other).

gruturo•

on Dec 21, 2011

./firefox -P someotherprofile -no-remote

(assuming you created someotherprofile via Profile Manager - it's dead easy)

(Works on Windows, too)

pyre•

on Dec 21, 2011

Right, but in Chrome it's as easy as Ctrl + Shift + n from another Chrome window.

edit: I'll note that I don't believe that the parent to this post should be down-voted. It was informative and on-topic.

gruturo•

on Dec 22, 2011

Maybe I would have deserved a downvote for forgetting to mention that after opening the second Firefox session you still have to switch it to Private Browsing :-))))

happyfeet•

on Dec 20, 2011

•on: The ‘Gowalla Situation’

Excellent points. Interesting to note that most startup businesses that go through traditional investor route exit via acquisitions or getting acquired to get returns for investors (or IPO).

I had this conversation with an angel investor with our team, when we said we are interested in staying in business for a long time and build our user base & let them speak for us. The investor said you need to take a call whether you want a 'lifestyle' business or you want to take the other route to build scale fast. Haven't heard from him yet. :) We were not convinced that we should throw lot of advertisement money, get lot of eyeballs, convert 1 or 2% into sales & just grow.

So, the question is: what kind of commitment can we give to our customers to assure them that a B2B business here is to stay & serve them. The purpose is to "exist" not to get acquired.

Would love to hear examples & stories of businesses that have managed to do the balancing act.

happyfeet•

on Dec 10, 2011

•on: At the End of a Procrastinated Day

Thanks. Yes, that was a very interesting passage in the book.

When asked to write about something the tendency is to think: "oh, everything about that topic has already been written." Or "There is nothing original or new to write about".

Instead focussing on the smallest of objects & start with it, brings along a flood of original thoughts to write about.

Very interesting perspective indeed.

happyfeet•

on Dec 8, 2011

•on: Why I’d Rather Err on the Side of Direct Feedback ...

One gives constructive feedback only if they really care and do not mind spending some time explaining why you think there are flaws that need to be corrected.

Several of the managers in companies have the habit of saying "well done" to top performers with top rating during performance review & have nothing constructive to say. Does that mean they have nothing to improve in current position & they should just vacate the place so their direct report can take his/her place?

As Mark says in the article, it is the difficult path. To take a stance, have a point of view & explain why it is so. The easier option is to say "great work" & just run away. I am learning this more often in areas that are new to me - say in appreciating designs & colors that I am not so good at in web design & so on.

happyfeet•

on Dec 6, 2011

•on: Looking for a Job? Learn Ruby, Python and be a Tea...

That would be like hiring designers based on whether they know photoshop or coreldraw.

happyfeet•

on Dec 1, 2011

•on: You'll be dead soon - Carpe Diem

Powerful words. Just the brutal truth in those phrases. Thanks for sharing. I should watch that movie.

happyfeet•

on Nov 4, 2011

•on: Ask HN: How do I know if I'm ready to launch?

As most people say, you can launch a half-feature not a half-assed one. If you think you have the minimum features necessary to make your app 'useful' for your initial customers you should just launch.

I do not see a blog link on your webpage. If not, start doing it soon. Start talking about your app, use cases, problems and how you are solving them. Anything that you think is relevant for your broader audience.

And iterate based on feedback from your initial customer base. Don't worry right now about scaling. If you have that many hits on your app that is a good problem to have. The worst is indifference.

Good luck with you app and I am sure you'll do well.

happyfeet•

on Nov 2, 2011

•on: Be nice. It's a fscking gift

Good point. My thought is that, the $5 budget apps are actually paid for by the person using it whereas the big budget items (say $2000 software) are paid for (or negotiated) by the indirect purchasing departments. The end users don't actually pay it themselves which could also be part of the psychology as to why they aren't so 'demanding' so to say.

tintin•

on Nov 2, 2011

True, but there is another thing. With big deals you normally define support very clear in the contract. With smaller deals companies don't feel the urge to do this.

But it's very simple to say: "This product is cheap because it lacks quick response times for support". Most customers won't have a problem with that.

happyfeet•

on Oct 24, 2011

•on: Ask HN: Best way to locate a partner?

First of all Congratulations on launching your first version. Looks neat.

The development partner, need not necessarily be a "partner". You should give yourself considerable time to get to know someone before you take them in as partners. My suggestion would be to identify someone who can develop it for you even for a pay. And as you build the rapport & find yourself trusting that person more, you could engage as partners later.

The big positive in your case is that you already have a version out.

Your constraint seems to be finding time. Is it possible for you to pay & get the work done? It may be much easier to find specialists for specific features (say, mobile) than finding a partner straight away.

Go to conferences whenever time permits & interact with folks. Give yourself at least 3 months to find someone you would trust. Till such time consider hiring freelancers for specific work.

Just my views based on what I have experienced & read.

I really liked the advice by Mark Suster => http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2011/05/09/the-co-founder...

And this essay from pg => http://www.paulgraham.com/really.html

Good luck with your venture.

sjd•

on Oct 24, 2011

Thanks for the feedback and links. Both provide some very good points to think about.

You are correct about the time constraint and perhaps I could pay for some of the work and perhaps that is the only way, but then I need to get into finding the correct person and are they really going to be able to do the work and such.

Having the right partner would simply things but finding one will probably not be so easy.