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tikhon

1,633 karma · joined October 10, 2006

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tikhon_Bernstam

Startups:

1. Founder and former CEO of Parse (S'11) (acquired by Facebook in 2013).

2. Founder of Scribd (S'06).

Investor:

I'm an angel in over 50 startups including: Cruise Automation, Gusto, Tilt, LendUp, WayUp, TripleByte, Checkr, RazorPay, True Accord, Swiftype, Realm, Front, Reddit (Series B), Bright, Wave, Matterport, Namo Media (acquired by Twitter for $50M), and Optimizely. https://angel.co/tikhon

References: http://tikhon.com/references

Developer/DevOps/Sysadmin:

I'm a developer. I've worked on open-source projects, side projects, etc, but most of my time I spent working exclusively on Scribd and Parse. I ran DevOps at Scribd and at Parse (until I found amazing folks to take over those roles). I was on "pager duty" for many years at Scribd, and then again for the first year of Parse. I've done everything from fundraising to engineering to sales to sysadmin to biz dev to DevOps to waking up 7 times in one night when my database kept falling over. I promptly fell over myself the next day.

Background:

I studied theoretical physics in graduate school, although I was not a physics major in undergrad (Dartmouth, Econ and CS, summa cum laude). I've been programming since I was 12 years old. I made a 3000 LOC RPG that absolutely no other person was interested in. I recently found the game last Christmas and can safely verify it was absolutely terrible.

submissionscomments
tikhon··on New in PostgreSQL 10
And they didn't even ICO
tikhon··on The Challenges a Repeat Founder Faces – Tikhon Bernstam of Scribd and Parse
Thanks folks! Yea Feynman's spinning plate story about sophomore slump in particular is such a great read
tikhon··on You are not 'behind'
You are still incredibly early to the space. Most people in the world don't hold any crypto nor do they even know what it is.

Many famous investors and entrepreneurs who came to Silicon Valley in the early 1990s thought they had "missed it." Everything up until now is a sunk cost. Operate accordingly.

tikhon··on Cruise
I can personally attest that Sam helps out all the companies I've seen that ask, whether or not it helps him in any way. That sort of person is rare in the ecosystem and should be celebrated, not questioned like this. We're attacking him for being honest and giving full disclosure? Really?

The obvious parallel one could draw here is Ron Conway -- these folks help startups because they can, not because they're profiteering. The suggestion is almost offensive given what Sam has done here, which I don't think most people would have had the guts to do. I doubt any legal counsel would have suggested he post this, anyway.

Few folks put in more time, energy, and effort than Sam does to help startup founders, and I think that's partially how he's built up such a world-class reputation.

Sam is making a bold move here with this blog post, given the case. We should be celebrating him doing the right thing here. A lot of folks wouldn't want to publicly touch a topic like this given the legal case.

Any startup would be lucky to have his help, and he's probably the most gracious and helpful person in the startup ecosystem you'll be lucky enough to meet. The fact he's been an investor in the past is, I suspect, more a byproduct of the fact he meets with so many startups as he does. If you spent all day meeting with hedge fund managers, for instance, you'd likely end up being an LP or advisor for at least a couple of them. That doesn't affect the quality of your hedge fund decisions or advice.

Sam has helped me when he had no vested interest in doing so, and I'll always be grateful for that.

tikhon··on Sam Altman: Why Hardware Could Yield the Next $10B Startups
Crowdfunding has been huge for hardware startups too.
tikhon··on OpenBazaar is a decentralized Dark Net market that's 'untouchable' by police
Tell that to the creator of cryptocat
tikhon··on Launch of the 3rd Edition of the Ruby on Rails Tutorial Book
Thanks Michael! I've been following every edition since the very first one. They get even better each time. Congratulations! Really impressive work.
tikhon··on Launch of the 3rd Edition of the Ruby on Rails Tutorial Book
as if you needed more testimonials michael, but this thread is full of them! :)
tikhon··on Net neutrality
I'd like to hear how they feel about the points pmarca made on twitter about this issue: http://gigaom.com/2014/02/24/marc-andreessen-says-more-net-n...
tikhon··on Bitcoin and the Byzantine Generals Problem
i'm a fan of everything by cdixon -- but check out satoshi and others like bohm: Here's satoshi: http://www.mail-archive.com/cryptography@metzdowd.com/msg099... and paul bohm: http://paulbohm.com/articles/bitcoins-value-is-decentralizat...
tikhon··on Mary Meeker's misinformation has influence
ha i never downvoted you. I actually don't have enough karma on this account to downvote. by he or she i meant the commenter above, not Meeker
tikhon··on Mary Meeker's misinformation has influence
again, what he or she thinks is not the point
tikhon··on Mary Meeker's misinformation has influence
I'm not sure you are 100% following the point of the article.
tikhon··on Mary Meeker's misinformation has influence
Bram Cohen's comment on this story: "The really misleading spin is the claim that mobile is taking over computers. The actual numbers in that report indicated that smart mobile has basically killed off dumb mobile, but only had a modest negative impact on regular computers."

source: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ui7ak5pz6wi8c5o/bram%20cohen%20on%... also hat tip to falon for finding this story -- i don't know her HN username

tikhon··on Why I Dislike EC2
At Scribd we initially used EC2 for systems like converting uploaded documents to HTML5 (the capacity we needed varied a lot over short time spans due to things like variable API usage). Meanwhile, the app and web servers (and many others) lived at Softlayer (still the "best-looking horse at the glue factory" for managed hosting, IMHO).
tikhon··on Why 3 MIT Grads Want to Send You an Empty Box
This is a great competitor to Gazelle, a Boston-based startup that is doing really really well.
tikhon··on Show HN: Sync – Realtime partials with Rails
Wow. I'm really impressed. Great work, Chris.
tikhon··on Want to stalk great white sharks in real time? There's an app for that.
built on parse! :-) </shameless plug>
tikhon··on Array Iteration Interview Problem
this reminds me of how even fulton, the author of the ruby way, made a critical mistake in "the ruby way" 1st edition (fixed in 2nd edition) and matz chimed in saying " "Don't modify the receiver while you are iterating over it." http://www.justskins.com/forums/collect-with-block-modifying...
tikhon··on Dropbox: Security update & new features
I got one
tikhon··on Zynga down ~40% in after hours trading
Bloomberg: "Zynga Inc. (ZNGA), the biggest developer of games played on Facebook Inc. (FB), missed analysts’ second-quarter revenue and profit estimates as the company struggled to add social game users." http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-25/zynga-misses-estima...
tikhon··on Show HN: Collections for Mac, now with Instagram Support and a Revamped UI
the fact i still love this app despite their terrible security problems from the last launch is a very good sign for them. i'd pay for this. don't need the instagram support though. sticking to professional stuff (like docs) seems like a more prudent move. google will be chasing this company soon.
tikhon··on ZeroCater (YC W11) is Feeding Silicon Valley
At Parse we started using ZeroCater with just 9-10 people by ordering the minimum food for 15 and splitting it with others or giving some away. Totally worth it.
tikhon··on ZeroCater (YC W11) is Feeding Silicon Valley
We were actually the first ZeroCater customer at Scribd, and we now use ZeroCater at Parse too. We're huge fans. They take care of everything -- from making sure the food actually shows up to changing up the menus based on our feedback and handling dietary restrictions. Also with Leslie managing our account we have absolutely incredible customer service -- she responds to every comment we make on the meals on their site. ZC saves us a ton of time so we can focus on our product and not on worrying about what/when to eat. The catered lunch/dinner also gives our team a nice dedicated time to hang out and chat. Congrats Arram and company on this story! Now don't get distracted and forget about my dinner tonight! :-)
tikhon··on Greplin becomes Cue - Intelligent "Snapshot" of your Day
really impressive work, Greplin team. I've moved this app to my home screen already.
tikhon··on ShowHN: We built this so you can send a mixtape to someone you like
certainly one of the best javascript apps so far
tikhon··on Scribd says: Beat our programmers at a coding challenge
...son!?
tikhon··on Obvious Goes Beyond Meat
Yum, fake chicken strips: "Water, Soy Protein Isolate, Pea Protein Isolate, Amaranth, Chicken Flavor (Maltodextrin, Yeast Extract, Natural Flavoring), Soy Fiber, Carrot Fiber, Canola Oil, Dipotassium Phosphate, Titanium Dioxide, White Vinegar" (http://beyondmeat.com/products/)

I'll stick with Pollan's 5 ingredient rule as well.

tikhon··on Scribd quietly growing like crazy (and profitable)
thanks kenrik!
tikhon··on Ask HN: Who Is Hiring? (June 2012)
Parse https://parse.com/jobs
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