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Wow thanks for that link - so cool! I saw the article where they specified cost centers according to color / size etc. That was very informative - this tops it!

Update: Also I am curious to thoughts specifically on the $500 million for cyber security. Too much? Too little?

Curious - Do you agree with 500 million for cyber security?

"Something's going on and it's likely going to have pretty significant (negative) consequences" -- I feel like this is the best answer b/c much of the problem has happened behind closed doors. The real estate boondoggle and the dot-com bust required a tremendous amount of public participation to grow to the scale that each did. I hope investors (both professional and hobbyist) are very careful with each of these soon-to-be public companies. If not... then def "Yes we're in another bubble".

Why did you sell? Besides the offer, were you sick of the business?

How much in US dollars do they pay for that?

Wow, awesome to see the demand still there. It would appear that event technology like this still has a nice future!

I disagree to an extent. Some of my freshman lecture courses had 500+ people in them! I was coming from a highschool that graduated a total 80 seniors.. talk about culture shock. I would much rather have done this course online and saved the money. Perhaps have another avenue to speak to tenured professors about interests, but this would be fine for an online learning session.

I would say that LinkedIn groups are a great way to find opportunities. Also make sure your profile is completely up to date as recruiters are always scanning for qualified developers.

Regarding the visa issue, that is a different story. I know next to nothing about how to work around that, but I might look into contracting with companies somehow first as your own business entity? (again only guessing...)

Wow. It still blows my mind to walk into grocery stores and see Facebook gift cards on sale. A few startups that I have been involved with always talked about how great that would be but could never execute on it.

Great point. I had a similar experience with the healthcare startup where we would take developers (when they came in town) to our client requirement gathering sessions. While one could easily argue that is not their role, they always offered great input and I think it furthermore motivated them to better understand issues and opportunity areas.

I wonder then if remote

Great point. This was a total pain to deal with. I would argue that hiring folks as contractors first would help test the waters to see if they are employee potential? (and thus worth this headache?)

Interesting points. I also think that most mid level managers do not have the technical skill set to review remote developer's work and thus it is easier to walk into a room of developers and yell "Go do X! And it better work!!" :)

Agreed - it usually falls on a few people's shoulders, BUT I am curious, why is it riskier? (I am sure I can guess as to what you will say but just interested in your reasoning..)

You know that is a great question, and I have mentioned this (not on every occasion). It almost always gets the "Umm maybe that will be an option but we can't guarantee it". This always screams to me "Yeah this ain't gonna happen". Ha.

International remote work is a whole different ball game and #1 I admire anyone who can power though it, #2 Ultimately believe it is only beneficial when given very specific conditions. I had one team that was based in Eastern Europe / Russia and they could write code like demons, but explaining business requirements nearly put everyone over the edge. Communication was a serious barrier, not to mention the time schedules. I love the tech talent there but wow, could totally understand not wanting to jump into that kettle.

I like your analogy about the cake and definitely respect your thought process there. The way I have gotten around this is that I (or another team member) always played the role of gate keeper / "integrator" to make sure the merging of branches went as smoothly as possible. Now we also had the benefit of full test suites to run, user stories to compare against, etc. but it seemed to work. The drawback is that as the "integrator" my actual development time would be cut in order to keep timelines met. However the plus was that I could question the dev's intentions maybe make some extra adjustment / cleaner code and ultimately produce a more maintainable code base. I also was never caught off guard about garbage coming in - ha.

Does anyone else use this sort of "integrator" role and seen these challenges / benefits?

This floors me. But you are absolutely SPOT ON. I really had to laugh when I read this b/c I feel like this is an ongoing joke in the dev and greater IT community. Sigh... so true.

Thanks for the input - I hear you that it can be a challenge. I have actually had pretty good experiences managing remote devs. One team had a guy in NY, 2 in AZ, 1 in WA, and 1 in CO. The guy in NY did not last long, just b/c he went MIA a lot. However, with the others I made it very clear that during "normal" work hours they had to be online and ready to do video chat at anytime. The amazing thing was that these guys appreciated it so much, I couldn't get them to STOP working sometimes!! It would be 11pm CST and everyone was cranking on late night sessions. I am sure their wives did not appreciate it - ha, but from what I can tell, they loved it.