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bretthellman

1,092 karma · joined September 15, 2010

CEO at Matter, @MatterApp • Former Founder/CEO of Hall (acquired by Atlassian).

https://matterapp.com

submissionscomments
bretthellman··on Covid-19 Fast Grants recipients
This is fantastic - thank you Fast Grants!

Mental health is an area that could really use your support in the next round of grants.

Spikes in post-traumatic stress disorder are being documented among vulnerable populations, health workers and other front-line personnel.

- https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/04/17/covid-19-mental-health-...

- https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/16/grocery-store-workers-need-f...

- https://www.newyorker.com/culture/video-dept/the-mental-heal...

Sadly, no one appears to be funding the COVID-19 mental health crisis. This would be a great opportunity for Fast Grants to be proactive. I personally know clinical psychologists and researches desperately looking for funding to get ahead of this next wave. LMK if you're interested in helping.

bretthellman··on Show HN: Fantasy stock market (w/shorting!) of 2020 Democratic candidates
Nice work @kofman and team!
bretthellman··on Decision Disagreement Framework
While researching, I found this inspiring post by Gokul Rajaram who is someone I respect tremendously. If you haven't heard of Gokul, he's considered the Godfather of Google AdSense, creator of FB's ad platform and now a leader at Square. It's worth at least considering his advice :-)

Here's the article where Gokul recommends this approach: https://firstround.com/review/square-defangs-difficult-decis...

"After a decision is made, each participant must commit support out loud. Pledging support aloud binds you to the greater good."

To my surprise, this technique is highly effective. Might be worth giving it a try?

bretthellman··on Decision Disagreement Framework
I respectfully disagree. Steve Jobs used to talk about how a great team is like the Beatles. They were four really talented people that balanced each other and the total was greater than the sum of the parts. It's hard to imagine the Beatles didn't disagree with one another and I would bet they eventually learned how to have productive disagreements. This is our attempt to define that best practice and help new hires be successful as we grow the team.

The sooner a company establishes how to have productive conversations and unlock everyone's potential the better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QfK9UokAIo

bretthellman··on Decision Disagreement Framework
Author of the post here! Just wanted to say I really appreciate this comment. Why would anyone hire someone and not listen to them?
bretthellman··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (June 2019)
Matter | ProductHunt's Social Impact Product of year 2019

Join our team! We’re building the best next-generation app for professionals, teams and organizations to empower growth and personal betterment on their skills.

Open roles:

- Head of Engineering

- Full Stack Engineer

- Lead Product Designer

- Product Designer

- Head of Content

- Lead Recruiter

Learn More: https://matterapp.com/careers/

How To Apply

- Sound like a good fit for you? Please email us at hello@matterapp.com and:

- Include the role’s title in your subject line.

- Send along links that best showcase the work that you’re proud of, e.g. your portfolio, Dribbble, LinkedIn, Github, writing samples.

- Bonus: We love feedback ️. Include a brief piece of feedback on how we can improve Matter.

bretthellman··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (May 2019)
Matter: Awarded Product Hunt's Social Impact Product of the Year What we are all about -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsdjrW8jCbA

We are growing the team from 4 to 10 people. Here are a few of the roles we're excited to add to the team:

- Backend Engineer: (lambdas serverless node, you love heavy lifting and system ownership)

- Full Stack Engineer: (graphql, node, react, you love working e2e within the stack)

- Frontend Engineer: (react/css, you love building delightful experiences that make customers smile.)

Apply by visiting this link (nope). Please say hello at brett@matterapp.com

bretthellman··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (March 2019)
Hi, I'm Brett at Matter https://matterapp.com

Awarded Product Hunt's Social Impact Product of the Year

We are looking for a Full-Stack Engineer (React, GraphQL, TypeScript)

the details: https://slackatwork.com/job/matter-san-francisco-california-...

Say hello! Email brett [at] matterapp.com to start the conversation.

bretthellman··on 12-Year-Old Claims to Have Achieved Nuclear Fusion at Home (2018)
or husband
bretthellman··on Show HN: Fill common PDF forms on the web with Anvil
This is the slickest, least sexy thing I've seen in a while.
bretthellman··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (January 2019)
Full-Stack Engineer (all levels) at Matter in San Francisco, California

Do you love: React GraphQL 🧙‍️Craftsmanship

Matter is creating the next great employee experience application.

Matter is looking for a talented, friendly and thoughtful full-stack engineer who shares our passion for building products that truly delight users.

As one of the first 10 employees at Matter, you must feel comfortable working in a fast-paced environment.

Here’s what we’re looking for:

You’ve been building web applications professionally for 3+ years. You have experience with front-end programming languages — e.g., React, Angular or Ember. You can lead technical architecture discussions and help drive technical decisions. You write understandable, testable code with an eye towards maintainability. You have a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent work experience. Learn More https://matterapp.com/careers

bretthellman··on Show HN: Matter
@egfx what version of FF and Chrome are you using?
bretthellman··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (November 2018)
Full-Stack Engineer @ Matter(https://matterapp.com)

Learn more: https://matterapp.com/careers

Matter is looking for a talented, friendly and thoughtful full-stack engineer who shares our passion for building products that truly delight users.

As one of the first 10 employees at Matter, you must feel comfortable working in a fast-paced environment.

= Bonus Points: =

  * Experience with Node.js
  * Experience with React
  * Experience with TypeScript
  * Experience in small start­up environments
Feel free to email me directly at brett [at] matterapp.com
bretthellman··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (October 2018)
Lead Engineer @ Matter

Apply: https://slackatwork.com/job/matter-san-francisco-california-... Learn More: https://matterapp.com

= About this position =

  Matter is creating the next great employee experience application.

  Matter is looking for a talented, friendly and thoughtful full-stack engineer who shares our passion for building products that truly delight users.

  As one of the first 10 employees at Matter, you must feel comfortable working in a fast-paced environment.
= Here’s what we’re looking for: =

  * You’ve been building web applications professionally for 3+ years.
  * You have experience with front-end programming languages — e.g., React, Angular or Ember.
  * You have experience with functional or imperative programming languages — e.g., PHP, Python, Ruby, Go, C, or Java.
  * You can lead technical architecture discussions and help drive technical decisions.
  * You write understandable, testable code with an eye towards maintainability.
= Bonus Points: =

  * Experience with Node.js
  * Experience with React
  * Experience with TypeScript
  * Experience in small start­up environments
Learn More: https://matterapp.com

Feel free to email me directly at brett [at] matterapp.com

bretthellman··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (August 2018)
Hello... I'm Brett, the ceo/founder @ Matter - http://matterapp.com)

Matter is creating the next great workplace software company! We're looking to hire a Full-Stack Engineer (all levels) in San Francisco...

Learn More: https://slackatwork.com/job/matter-san-francisco-california-...

bretthellman··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (July 2018)
Matter: Be Amazing: Matter helps you receive feedback from your peers so you can grow and reach your career ambitions. Location: San Francisco Full-Time, Onsite | https://matterapp.com

We're hiring for:

    - Matter | Lead Designer | FULL TIME

    - Matter | Product Designer | FULL TIME

    - Matter | Full Stack Engineer (node, GraphQL, React) | FULL TIME
To apply email me directly at brett [at] matterapp.com
bretthellman··on Performance Reviews Are a Waste of Time
To paraphrase from Google...

A "Shadow Belief" is an assumption we make without even knowing it's an assumption.

Thinking you can only hear peer feedback from your boss or during an annual formal review is a shadow belief.

You don't need your boss or some stupid process! Ask the people who work with who you respect and do it often.

bretthellman··on Performance Reviews Are a Waste of Time
That's the problem!

Companies are using performance reviews to try to tackle two things: Compensation (bonuses, promotions) & feedback.

Compensation and feedback should not be lumped into one event.

bretthellman··on Performance Reviews Are a Waste of Time
Thanks for calling this out... In my career, I've seen some reviews be a complete waste of time and others provide value. It depends on the company and how seriously your manager takes the process.

During my time at Yahoo the process was an absolute joke as leadership was changing on the daily. When I was a PM at Intuit, I received feedback which I still leverage years after the fact.

People shouldn't feel like performance reviews are the only way to receive feedback. Feedback needs to happen regularly, not on an annual basis. Feedback should also come from people you respect, not the people your boss tells you to listen to at work.

Coincidentally, this is an area I have a lot of passion for given I was a HORRIBLE boss at my last company (acquired by Atlassian): https://medium.com/matter-app/you-matter-d7a0b07d078b

I'm also working to fix this problem, if anyone's interested in chatting on the topic or interested in fixing the problem... brett@matterapp.com

bretthellman··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (November 2017)
At a high-level, there are two kinds of people in SV. Those that want to join the Airbnb, Slack, Github, Facebooks of the world (which is awesome) and those that want to create them (also awesome). If you are the latter version, I would love to chat!

--

Hello from Sherthng (codename)!

I'm the founder/ceo. I previously founded HALL.com which was acquired by Atlassian in 2015.

I started Sherthng (codename) ~2 weeks ago so if you like early, lets connect soon! We are a well funded team of two working to craft the next great workplace application.

Roles Open in SF/SOMA:

  * Front-End Engineer (react/redux/node)
  * Back-End Engineer (node/javascript)
  * Full-Stack Engineer
  * Product Designer
Link to learn more: http://www.sherthng.com/

If interested, email me at brett@sherthng.com or dm @bretthellman http://www.sherthng.com/

bretthellman··on Seed funding slows in Silicon Valley
"slow down" = great time to start a company
bretthellman··on VR/AR/MR Predictions for the Future of Communications
Let me know if I’m missing a product category or if you know of any companies that should be listed. I’ll update the list!
bretthellman··on Twilio Video – Real-time WebRTC video infrastructure
"up to 4-way calling" .. If it said up to 16 that would be more of a game changer.
bretthellman··on Hall for Android Watch
fyi, the android wear app comes with our android app - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hall.andro...
bretthellman··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (February 2015)
Hello! I'm the ceo here at Hall. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me directly at brett@hall-inc.com
bretthellman··on Win $120,000 in Hall's Developer Integration Fund
Love it! Please apply!!!
bretthellman··on Win $120,000 in Hall's Developer Integration Fund
All 600M Knowledge workers. People in marketing, sales, engineering, etc...
bretthellman··on Win $120,000 in Hall's Developer Integration Fund
No restrictions. What would make your life amazing? Tell us! Lets build something amazing
bretthellman··on Win $120,000 in Hall's Developer Integration Fund
An amazing integration is one where you couldn't imagine your life without it :)
bretthellman··on Win $120,000 in Hall's Developer Integration Fund
The total is $120k. If we wanted more we'd have to talk to our board :)
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