7 ms·

Notifo (YC W10) gets a Co-Founder... Me

95 points by PStamatiou 16y ago

andrewhyde 16y ago
Congrats Stammy! Great news. I'm looking forward to using the product.
codemechanic 16y ago
Congrats paul & jazzy
johns 16y ago
Congrats to Chad and Paul! Looking forward to v2
rjett 16y ago
So before this, was Notifo a one-man YC-funded startup?
- geezgod 16y ago
  this is what i want to know. I'm not sure and I'm not trying to thread crap but is the title Co-Founder the proper word to use? I'm curious because wouldn't a "founder" be someone who started the company from the beginning? From what I understand Paul joined afterwards (after the angel investing).
  - robfitz 16y ago
    Being a founder is about what you do and how much of yourself you are able to put into the company, not when you join. If Chad had hired someone with Paul's skillset and then told him what to do, that is an employer-employee relationship. That doesn't look like what's happening here. They're entering into a partnership as equals to discover and build something new together.
    - philwelch 16y ago
      I suppose "partner" is a tempting word to use in this situation, but there may be legal connotations to designating higher-ups as "partners"--in particular, the connotation of being something like an LLP or law firm.
- jazzychad 16y ago
  yes, it was... YC definitely set me up on several "cofounder dates" during the course of YC... some of them looked promising, but ultimately none worked out. Eventually I had to just bear down and prepare for launch/demo day. As soon as I stopped looking, the right person came along :)
  - rjett 16y ago
    Cool! I'd be interested to hear your experience with 1) getting into YC as a single founder and 2) working alone in the ensuing months. That's quite a feat.
    - jazzychad 16y ago
      I've been considering writing a post about my experience to this effect. Basically it boiled down to sheer ignorance. I didn't know that being a single-founder was such a big deal (in a negative sense), so I didn't know I should have been worried/nervous about it when applying/interviewing. As for working alone... I had done so many personal projects at nights/weekends after work at my day job that working alone was just natural (again, ignorance was bliss). I was also able to draw from each of the previous projects to piece together what I needed to build Notifo very quickly. This is the advantage of working on a bunch of different small projects all the time. The criteria I used for starting a new project was that I had to do at least one thing I had never done before which required me to learn a new language/technology/framework/API/etc.... after a dozen projects or so, this built up to a huge arsenal of skills to throw at new projects. Never stop learning. That said, having had a co-founder for about a week, there has been an obvious increase in productivity, so for that I am truly thankful.
  - christonog 16y ago
    You weren't able to find someone in your personal network first? I'm surprised, especially since you already got YC funding.
dmor 16y ago
congrats - so jealous you get to work with @jazzychad
rokhayakebe 16y ago
Can someone explain how can I use Notifo?
- jazzychad 16y ago
  There is all sorts of info at http://notifo.com/ http://notifo.com/ - but if you have other questions, feel free to email us: contact at notifo daught com
geezgod 16y ago
i've used this service and i think it's great! I'm a huge google voice sms user and I hated the fact that i couldn't get PUSH notifications when new messages would come in. Notifo solved the problem and it works great. Yes there were other options like boxcar but that required me to leave my computer on all day while Notifo didnt. BIG PLUS! Only downside is whenever i try to open the app on my ipod touch - it always crashes - even when installing the new update. But it's not a huge issue because i still get notifications coming in.
- jazzychad 16y ago
  contact me (email in profile) with your Notifo username, and we'll fix the crashing issue for you.
  - frossie 16y ago
    Interesting service. I was thinking the other day, what I want is geolocation push notifications to my iPhone. For a trivial example, I have been meaning to ask my coffee shop if I could have some of their empty ice cream tubs. Every day I pull up at their drive through caffeine-deprived, pick up my coffee... and forget to ask. Sure would be great if, while I was sitting there waiting for my drink, my phone blipped "Ask them about the damn tubs already" :-)
    - Splines 16y ago
      You could probably roll your own, using IP geolocation on a push email server. The hard part is setting up the notification in the first place. You might be able to wire up something to Google Maps that lets you put pins down that can be queried by your server. Or something like that, anyway. Sounds like a neat idea :)
gaborcselle 16y ago
Congrats Paul! Hope you guys can continue to keep burn low by eating essentially every one of your meals at the Googleplex.
nanexcool 16y ago
Like I said in an email to jazzychad last week, Notifo is my favorite YC company. It's an amazingly simple service that does exactly what I need without much setup. Congratulations!
sdbluesman 16y ago
striking resemblance to notify.me which came out several years ago...
ErrantX 16y ago
I keep meaning to add a few features to WP-Notifo. If you want to collaborate on it or hack around drop me a line and I can add you to the plugin page as a commiter :) (by the way - the code you used in the thread, it is in WP-Notifo but I am pretty sure it originally came from another example, can't find the source though) ps: congrats :D
- PStamatiou 16y ago
  I've been meaning to get in touch - would love to get added as a committer. :) I'll email you at the address listed in your profile.
jayair 16y ago
congrats jazzychad & paul!
christonog 16y ago
Sorry if I missed this in your post, but what are you currently doing with Skribit? The Skribit website (as well as your HN profile info) still has you listed prominently.
- jackowayed 16y ago
  He's leaving it running and supporting it a little, but not spending much time on development, probably even less than he planned now that he's a cofounder at a startup instead of just an employee somewhere. From http://paulstamatiou.com/exploring-san-francisco-silicon-valley http://paulstamatiou.com/exploring-san-francisco-silicon-val... : >Skribit is a niche product that serves a small market well and it is with that in mind that development will continue, but in a part-time manner. Some changes will be taking place around the site to focus more heavily on converting users to paid Pro accounts (and pay off our convertible note) rather than building out certain community features that require much upkeep; making Skribit more of a tool than a destination. Ultimately, I need to land a paying job and focus on paying off my out-of-state tuition, which is still a six figure number.
jl 16y ago
Congrats Jazzy & Stammy!
ajaimk 16y ago
So, whats gonna happen to skribt?
lyime 16y ago
Congrats Paul!
shiftb 16y ago
Awesome for both of them. In a related note: can someone reply to my comment so I can test Notifo's HN integration?
- PStamatiou 16y ago
  hi :)
d0m 16y ago
By digging in, I understood what Notifo was about, but it wasn't really clear at first. On the main page, you say "What is notifo" with two paragraphes, one for user and one for services. I think it might be better if you seperate those two horizontally with a nice subtitle such as: USERS -------------- SERVICE And honestly, the "push notification" isn't really easy to understand because it really can means lot of thing for a developer like me, and absolutely nothing for someone like my girlfriend. I think a good example is needed for the new user to truly get what notifo is. And also, a good example of why a developer would want to link to a service like notifo. I mean, I understand now what Notifo is about and I think it's great; however, as I said, I needed to read a lot.
- jazzychad 16y ago
  This is great feedback, and I agree it needs to be improved. Since Paul is a great writer, hopefully he will be able to help in this regard.
jasonwilk 16y ago
Congrats Chad. Glad you finally found the right match, Paul, you found a winner. Chad is a great dude/connector/hacker
iamelgringo 16y ago
Cheers, Paul. I'm really glad that things worked out for you. Welcome to Silicon Valley, enjoy the ride. :)
Splines 16y ago
I love Notifo :). I wrote a plugin for GfW so I can get notified of machine events on my iPhone.
allantyoung 16y ago
Congrats to Jazzy - looks like a great talent addition!
samratjp 16y ago
Congrats to the both of you and on closing the angel round! Hope you guys push the envelope in this space ;-)

95 points by PStamatiou 16y ago

andrewhyde 16y ago

Congrats Stammy! Great news. I'm looking forward to using the product.

codemechanic 16y ago

Congrats paul & jazzy

johns 16y ago

Congrats to Chad and Paul! Looking forward to v2

rjett 16y ago

So before this, was Notifo a one-man YC-funded startup?

geezgod 16y ago
this is what i want to know. I'm not sure and I'm not trying to thread crap but is the title Co-Founder the proper word to use? I'm curious because wouldn't a "founder" be someone who started the company from the beginning? From what I understand Paul joined afterwards (after the angel investing).
- robfitz 16y ago
  Being a founder is about what you do and how much of yourself you are able to put into the company, not when you join. If Chad had hired someone with Paul's skillset and then told him what to do, that is an employer-employee relationship. That doesn't look like what's happening here. They're entering into a partnership as equals to discover and build something new together.
  - philwelch 16y ago
    I suppose "partner" is a tempting word to use in this situation, but there may be legal connotations to designating higher-ups as "partners"--in particular, the connotation of being something like an LLP or law firm.
jazzychad 16y ago
yes, it was... YC definitely set me up on several "cofounder dates" during the course of YC... some of them looked promising, but ultimately none worked out. Eventually I had to just bear down and prepare for launch/demo day. As soon as I stopped looking, the right person came along :)
- rjett 16y ago
  Cool! I'd be interested to hear your experience with 1) getting into YC as a single founder and 2) working alone in the ensuing months. That's quite a feat.
  - jazzychad 16y ago
    I've been considering writing a post about my experience to this effect. Basically it boiled down to sheer ignorance. I didn't know that being a single-founder was such a big deal (in a negative sense), so I didn't know I should have been worried/nervous about it when applying/interviewing. As for working alone... I had done so many personal projects at nights/weekends after work at my day job that working alone was just natural (again, ignorance was bliss). I was also able to draw from each of the previous projects to piece together what I needed to build Notifo very quickly. This is the advantage of working on a bunch of different small projects all the time. The criteria I used for starting a new project was that I had to do at least one thing I had never done before which required me to learn a new language/technology/framework/API/etc.... after a dozen projects or so, this built up to a huge arsenal of skills to throw at new projects. Never stop learning. That said, having had a co-founder for about a week, there has been an obvious increase in productivity, so for that I am truly thankful.
- christonog 16y ago
  You weren't able to find someone in your personal network first? I'm surprised, especially since you already got YC funding.

dmor 16y ago

congrats - so jealous you get to work with @jazzychad

rokhayakebe 16y ago

Can someone explain how can I use Notifo?

jazzychad 16y ago
There is all sorts of info at http://notifo.com/ http://notifo.com/ - but if you have other questions, feel free to email us: contact at notifo daught com

geezgod 16y ago

i've used this service and i think it's great! I'm a huge google voice sms user and I hated the fact that i couldn't get PUSH notifications when new messages would come in. Notifo solved the problem and it works great. Yes there were other options like boxcar but that required me to leave my computer on all day while Notifo didnt. BIG PLUS! Only downside is whenever i try to open the app on my ipod touch - it always crashes - even when installing the new update. But it's not a huge issue because i still get notifications coming in.

jazzychad 16y ago
contact me (email in profile) with your Notifo username, and we'll fix the crashing issue for you.
- frossie 16y ago
  Interesting service. I was thinking the other day, what I want is geolocation push notifications to my iPhone. For a trivial example, I have been meaning to ask my coffee shop if I could have some of their empty ice cream tubs. Every day I pull up at their drive through caffeine-deprived, pick up my coffee... and forget to ask. Sure would be great if, while I was sitting there waiting for my drink, my phone blipped "Ask them about the damn tubs already" :-)
  - Splines 16y ago
    You could probably roll your own, using IP geolocation on a push email server. The hard part is setting up the notification in the first place. You might be able to wire up something to Google Maps that lets you put pins down that can be queried by your server. Or something like that, anyway. Sounds like a neat idea :)

gaborcselle 16y ago

Congrats Paul! Hope you guys can continue to keep burn low by eating essentially every one of your meals at the Googleplex.

nanexcool 16y ago

Like I said in an email to jazzychad last week, Notifo is my favorite YC company. It's an amazingly simple service that does exactly what I need without much setup. Congratulations!

sdbluesman 16y ago

striking resemblance to notify.me which came out several years ago...

ErrantX 16y ago

I keep meaning to add a few features to WP-Notifo. If you want to collaborate on it or hack around drop me a line and I can add you to the plugin page as a commiter :) (by the way - the code you used in the thread, it is in WP-Notifo but I am pretty sure it originally came from another example, can't find the source though) ps: congrats :D

PStamatiou 16y ago
I've been meaning to get in touch - would love to get added as a committer. :) I'll email you at the address listed in your profile.

jayair 16y ago

congrats jazzychad & paul!

christonog 16y ago

Sorry if I missed this in your post, but what are you currently doing with Skribit? The Skribit website (as well as your HN profile info) still has you listed prominently.

jackowayed 16y ago
He's leaving it running and supporting it a little, but not spending much time on development, probably even less than he planned now that he's a cofounder at a startup instead of just an employee somewhere. From http://paulstamatiou.com/exploring-san-francisco-silicon-valley http://paulstamatiou.com/exploring-san-francisco-silicon-val... : >Skribit is a niche product that serves a small market well and it is with that in mind that development will continue, but in a part-time manner. Some changes will be taking place around the site to focus more heavily on converting users to paid Pro accounts (and pay off our convertible note) rather than building out certain community features that require much upkeep; making Skribit more of a tool than a destination. Ultimately, I need to land a paying job and focus on paying off my out-of-state tuition, which is still a six figure number.

jl 16y ago

Congrats Jazzy & Stammy!

ajaimk 16y ago

So, whats gonna happen to skribt?

lyime 16y ago

Congrats Paul!

shiftb 16y ago

Awesome for both of them. In a related note: can someone reply to my comment so I can test Notifo's HN integration?

PStamatiou 16y ago
hi :)

d0m 16y ago

By digging in, I understood what Notifo was about, but it wasn't really clear at first. On the main page, you say "What is notifo" with two paragraphes, one for user and one for services. I think it might be better if you seperate those two horizontally with a nice subtitle such as: USERS -------------- SERVICE And honestly, the "push notification" isn't really easy to understand because it really can means lot of thing for a developer like me, and absolutely nothing for someone like my girlfriend. I think a good example is needed for the new user to truly get what notifo is. And also, a good example of why a developer would want to link to a service like notifo. I mean, I understand now what Notifo is about and I think it's great; however, as I said, I needed to read a lot.

jazzychad 16y ago
This is great feedback, and I agree it needs to be improved. Since Paul is a great writer, hopefully he will be able to help in this regard.

jasonwilk 16y ago

Congrats Chad. Glad you finally found the right match, Paul, you found a winner. Chad is a great dude/connector/hacker

iamelgringo 16y ago

Cheers, Paul. I'm really glad that things worked out for you. Welcome to Silicon Valley, enjoy the ride. :)

Splines 16y ago

I love Notifo :). I wrote a plugin for GfW so I can get notified of machine events on my iPhone.

allantyoung 16y ago

Congrats to Jazzy - looks like a great talent addition!

samratjp 16y ago

Congrats to the both of you and on closing the angel round! Hope you guys push the envelope in this space ;-)