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davroson STFU About What Women Want

There seems to be an assumption that people (specifically women but same logic applies to men) can either be entrepreneurs or take care of young children, but not both.

I believe that startups can provide the flexible environment that bigger corporations really struggle with. Focus on results not attendence, telecommuting, flexible hours, etc. Maybe some VCs would struggle with the concept, but I know it can work because I've seen it done.

davroson Space Station time lapse

Reflection of the moon?

davroson Diaspora Co-Founder Ilya Zhitomirskiy Passes Away At 21

When's the last time you asked someone how their startup was doing to get a reply "not so good", founders are expected to be eternal optimists and this expectation can make it harder for those struggling or suffering to ask for help from their friends (who are often from the startup world themselves).

So true, the need to keep that positive projection can really eat people up. It can even be really hard to complain or talk about the downside with friends and family. A mentor who's been through it themselves [1] may be one of the best ways to not only get advice but also release the stress by being really open about problems.

[1] best if they don't have a financial interst.

davroson In defense of the Google chef

That's the best way to look at it. All the talk of what is 'fair' misses the point - remuneration is not inherently fair, never has been. You can point to market forces or regulations or whatever, but there's no real and fair basis for most differences in income.

What we can be fair about is how we treat people, if we give them shares and later we wish we hadn't we should live with that gracefully. We can give them bonuses for both self-interested (motivate employees) or altruistic reasons (it happens!).

davroson Occupy George

Detailed charts presented clearly. Take the time to read this and you'll see the problem. The solution is not so clear...

davroson Stripe: instant payment processing for developers

However, I feel the need to point out that no one can get a 1% rate on eCommerce transactions from their bank or anyone else.

I didn't mention 1% as idle guesswork, I have direct knowledge of several businesses paying close to 1% on online (card not present, no signature) transactions. I'm not saying its easy to negotiate good rates, but its possible, even for fairly early stage startups. I got 1.6% for a startup turning over only about $20k per month, no track record and 'non standard' business model.

So feel free to push your bank, get quotes from their competitors, they can almost certainly do better for you.

EDIT: I just notice that stripe is planning to introduce volume discounts - that would make a very nice product!

davroson Stripe: instant payment processing for developers

We scale up pretty well. Everything that you get with a merchant account (correct statement text, money held in your name), you get with Stripe.

Key scaling issue is pricing. 2.9% is fine for low volumes and no risk validation, but once you're turning over large volumes and have a track record of no chargebacks etc the comparison looks much worse. If you can offer businesses a pricing that 'scales' with substantial reductions in transaction fee by volume then there is a growth path, otherwise any business would be crazy to stick with you no matter how good your service and APIs, etc because 2.9% could be half their gross margin and they can get 1% by dealing with the bank direct.

davroson Richard Dawkins: A Knack for Bashing Orthodoxy

He was rightly slammed by many for this, but the guy sounds like a dick to me.

Irrelevant, and a logical falacy to boot: if Dawkins is wrong on one thing does not show he is wrong on other things.

davroson Richard Dawkins: A Knack for Bashing Orthodoxy

This is akin to saying that human sexuality is wrong and harmful, or male competition is wrong and harmful.

logical falacy: is != ought

As scientists, we cannot make value judgements on these natural phenomena.

The evolutionary explanations for the origin of religious behaviour is entirely irrelevant to the question of whether the claims made by religions are true. Religions make testable claims like the existence of miracles, science can be applied to these claims. More broadly, Dawkins uses a scientific approach to make a very strong argument that religions are not accurate descriptions of reality.

davroson Google Plus: Tagging automatically shares private photos

I don't want that somebody starts taging me on some photos and then sharing these photos with others without me having chance to untag myself.

If someone has photos of you and emails them to their friends you have no right nor expectation of notification. Maybe they might make rude comments behind your back. Not nice, but its a private conversation and they should be allowed to be rude in private.

On the other hand, if Google suddenly and unexpectedly makes my private photo album public just because I tag some people, that makes their service useless for non-public sharing of photos. I will therefore not use it and go back to sharing the photos by some other service.

The whole point of Google+ is that I can keep interaction with different circles separate. Unlike facebook I (thought I could) load photos that my friends would see but not my work colleagues. This sharing from tagging breaks that.

We are not talking about public albums. If you tag someone in a public album, then its fine to notify them. But for a private album making is effectively entirely public just because I tag one person is completely unacceptable. I have uploaded those photos with a reasonable expectation that they not be made public nor shared beyond the friends I want to share them with. If G+

davroson Why Business Schools Struggle to Teach Entrepreneurship

They struggle to teach entrepreneurship for the same reason they struggle to teach leadership, teamwork, business management (no an MBA doesn't mean you'll be a good manager in a large business), etc.

Taught courses can help in all the above areas but only to a limited extent, entrepreneurship is no different.

davroson Google+ is Growing Like Crazy

Thanks mate : ) Gmail added to my HN profile

davroson Google+ is Growing Like Crazy

where are all these people getting their invites? Dropping hints with my Google contacts hasn't worked...

davroson A New Name for Stack Overflow (with surprise ending)

So, what is the valuation of stack exchange?

davroson How Facebook is Killing Your Authenticity

Facebook is making you act like the authentic you all the time. If you are unwilling to stick to your principles because of what your friends will think, are they really your principles?

I am authentic in front of my friends, but I certainly act differently if I am also in front of everybody else.

The other really important thing people forget is that not only are you in front of either the whole internet or (merely) every acquaintance you ever had, but you are there permanently. Imagine chatting to your friends - now consider that you know the conversation is recorded and going to be stored where it could be held against you at any time. Would that alter your words? It certainly would affect mine. The non-recorded conversation is the authentic me, the recorded conversation is the careful, on-the-record me. That is why for me this sort of online conversation is never going to replace the real thing.

davroson Tell HN: Our VC turned the process of getting acquired into a nightmare

It all depends on the exact details of any contracts with the VC such as your shareholder agreement. Is there a drag-along right? What board representation does the VC have? Do you have the ability to call a shareholder meeting and get them voted off the board?

You need to work through with your lawyer and ask him or her in great detail what options you have in terms of forcing the VC to cooperate. Can you wind up the company without his/her agreement? What non-compete clauses apply? Can they be worked around?

Do you have the right to make a share issue in a way that would dilute the VC below a control threshold (while satisfying all legal and fiduciary obligations)?

Others in this thread have suggested you 'out' the VC - do not do this without legal advice, and I would recommend you not do it at all. You need to be 100% in compliance with the law of libel etc. Even if a staff member leaks information without your consent that places you in a weaker position not a stronger position.

If you have strong options, then pursue them. This may lead to the VC showing willingness to compromise. In which case, do genuinely consider compromise.

davroson Google May Kill Chrome URL Bar

They'll have to pry my url from my cold dead hands!

Seriously, no always-visible url and I go back to firefox.

davroson New Chrome extension: block sites from Google’s web search results

+1 to a report in WMT - to detect problems in our sites and also potentially abuse.

davroson Nokia admits it rejected Android; eyes "billions" in revenue from WP7 deal

I think Nokia wants to be a major player in the WP7 ecosystem rather than a minor player in the Android ecosystem. In an Android/Apple 'duopoly' every hardware maker except Apple has basically the same OS/app offering and Nokia would be playing catch-up against established android offerings - that is very scary to Nokia. The alternative is to partner with Microsoft and aim to be a major player in a 'third way' ecosystem. Really this isn't about how many ecosystems, its about the size of Nokia's slice of the ecosystem they chose. So they're taking the risk that WP7 will become a viable platform over the risk that they'd be a bit player in an Android world.

davroson Quora Raises Questions

It amazes me that this site has any users at all! There is no path from the home page to browse the content - its sign up or go away. I think very few people will sign up to a site without seeing its content, I know I won't! Quora marketing must be really good to have overcome this barrier to achieve the success they clearly have had...

davroson White House: What's Blocking Innovation in America? My Answer: IP Laws

The problem in all this is not with the concept of patents or copyright but that the way it works in practice is to enable the powerful to squash small innovators who are actually doing useful stuff.

Exactly. I think very few people understand the magnitude of the risks and costs to a small innovator when faced with legal claims of any sort from a big business. Its not a level playing field.

Even if you have an essentially watertight case, the laser-eye lawyers against you will inevitably find some weakness or loophole to attack you. They will jurisdiction-shop. They will limit your ability to do business and drag out the fight over years. The huge cost of paying your lawyers will be tiny compared to the impact on your business. Don't underestimate the distraction to your founders and staff of such a fight. And of course investors will run a mile.

Most importantly, no mater how clearly you are in the right you will find that there is a substantial risk that you will lose anyway. In practice the legal system can't be relied on to give a fair result. Even when you win, they can appeal and extend the process further. With another chance you might lose.

davroson Nokia Confirms Microsoft Partnership, New Leadership Team

Nokia says they will still run symbian on entry level phones. Increasingly these will compete with cheap android phones like huawei ideos. Nokia's advantage will be battery life, but the android phones will have the features that consumers want.

davroson Nokia Confirms Microsoft Partnership, New Leadership Team

Yes, this is confirmation of the demise of meego and qt (in the phone space at least), which is sad and disappointing.

But Nokia is in a very different position to SGi and is doing this deal for different reasons. Nokia urgently needs a decent OS - Symbian is the main reason Nokia has such a weak market position in smartphones. You can debate the merits of WP7 but its better than Symbian.

The next issue is apps and ecosystem. This might not work out, but a Nokia-supported WP7 market place has some chance of reaching critical mass and fighting it out with RIM and HP for third position after itunes and android.

davroson Nokia CEO: Nokia is "standing on a burning platform"

What about Meego? If they actually gave it some resources, rather than treat it as an afterthought, it could be great. To date Symbian has sucked all the resources from Meego, but one of the clearest messages was finally admitting reality on Symbian - 'if we continue like before, we will get further and further behind'.

davroson Why Stack Overflow Sucks and Participating There is Impossible

That sounds like a great idea to me

davroson IPv6 is here

None of the first four urls I randomly tried slashdot, ibm, dell, ycombinator have AAAA records.

IPv6 is not here and won't be for a long time. While v6 may be better in some circumstances, it is worse in others. I'll be keeping my offices behind NAT routers thank you!

davroson [dead]

re point 2 - don't make a counter offer, get an offer from another bidder. That is the only way to push your price to the actual market value rather than just find the lowest offer you will accept.

davroson [dead]

I've done a deal like this. You need a team. First you need a consultant who specialises in this sort of transaction. Interview a bunch of them and be willing to pay a few percent of the proceeds as a success fee.

You will also need a lawyer, a specialist tax accountant, personal accountant, etc.

Right now you are at the non-binding offer stage. This is when you shape the deal and negotiate the overall price. Your aim is to not only maximise the sale price but also manage risk by maximising up front cash and minimising proceeds which are dependent on future performance (earn-out). Others have commented on this stage. My advice is to create a formal process - step back and spend a couple of months creating an 'information memorandum' and get it to a bunch of prospective buyers. The only way to get the best deal is to get multiple offers.

Now here is the most important thing I have to say. Negotiating the deal is the easy bit. I repeat - the easy bit. You have to do due diligence and negotiate the long-form contracts. If you get this wrong, the deal rapidly become much less attractive. This is where both your sale consultant and lawyer are critical, but you'll have plenty of work to do too!

Start thinking about due diligence right now. Will your business stand microscopic scrutiny? Do you meet all accounting standards, relevant business regulations, etc. The better the deal you negotiate, the harder you'll be pressed in due diligence. And remember you need to be 100% truthful because the contracts will contain clauses that you won't want invoked if you provide any incorrect information.

The only really important advice you should take from an online forum is to hire great consultants now. Only deal with genuine experts who have real experience with similar transactions. Be prepared to pay high fees, the right people will be worth it!