4 ms·

For every 1k companies who think they'll be the next Amazon, probably 1 is. Program to reality, not ego. Get walking down before you run. Normalize your databa

by tabtab 4y ago

For every 1k companies who think they'll be the next Amazon, probably 1 is. Program to reality, not ego. Get walking down before you run. Normalize your database in a practical way and you should be able to scale fairly well into typical growth. Bad database designs are the most common culprit I see.

As_You_Wish 4y ago
>1k companies who think they'll be the next Amazon, probably 1 is Try one out of every 10 million. FAANG. There's only 5. And all of them have been around for a long-ass time now. All the easy money is at the beginning, not when it is entrenched. And that also makes me think of another example people always give..."I'm not going to dig for the gold, just sell the miners the tools." Right. Because you're the very first person who has thought of it. Unfortunately, that first tool seller is mostly likely going to get the monopoly. They set up shop on Main Street because they were the first people there. They have strong relationships with the suppliers of the mining tools, and buy in a huge quantity so get quantity discounts that allow them to sell for less than you can purchase them for. As the gold boom town is now, well, booming, real estate prices are skyrocketing, and all you can afford as the new tool seller is some side street at the edge of town. And, everyone knows the original tool seller, Bob, and everyone likes him and he has all kinds of customer appreciation actions - he will go into the saloon once a week and buy everyone in the place a round, have parties, etc. Nobody is going to be the next Facebook, nobody. Unless they are. It's just not going to be you, any more than you are going to hit that $1 billion lottery. ("but you never know!!! I might! I might be the next Facebook AND win the $1 billion lottery all in the same week! You never know, it could happen! Plus a supermodel will want to marry me, but before I win the lottery and my company goes public so I know she'll love me for me!") And, 100% agree on normalizing databases. Are there companies that don't? Oh, and also, financials. Cash flows, financial controls. Make sure you never get in a partnership, ONLY a corporate structure. If you don't understand financial statements (balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statements), and you don't want to learn ("That's what CFOs are for") then you should not be a founder of a company. Legal structure...yeah, you want to know that so you won't get diluted right out of existance. "On May 15, 2012, Business Insider obtained and released an exclusive email from Zuckerberg detailing how he cut Saverin from Facebook and diluted his stake. Zuckerberg privately stated at the time, "Eduardo is refusing to co-operate at all ... We basically now need to sign over our intellectual property to a new company and just take the lawsuit ... I'm just going to cut him out and then settle with him." - Carlson, Nicholas (May 15, 2012). "Exclusive: Here's The Email Zuckerberg Sent To Cut His Cofounder Out Of Facebook". Business Insider. Retrieved February 9, 2016.
- CRConrad 4y ago
  > And, 100% agree on normalizing databases. Are there companies that don't? Oh heck yeah there are.
  - As_You_Wish 4y ago
    Wow. Seriously, how does that even happen? They hire people without a computer science degree that doesn't know about normalization? I don't have any experience with that so I'm actually curious as to how it happens, if you know, and have had experience with that.
    - CRConrad 4y ago
      As mentioned above, FAANG is only five companies, so the overwhelming majority of companies are not FAANG-scale. And down at the opposite end of the scale, yes of course there are lots -- literally millions, across the world -- of companies that don't have anyone with a computer science degree employed, so the owner (or his brother-in-law's 16-year-old "computer whiz" nephew) built any database they may have.
      - tabtab 4y ago
        Managers often don't understand the value of good DBA's and/or schema designers. They focus on the UI first, assuming if it ain't visible it ain't important.
        CRConrad 4y ago
        Hi Bryce, long time no see! :-)

by tabtab 4y ago

As_You_Wish 4y ago

>1k companies who think they'll be the next Amazon, probably 1 is Try one out of every 10 million. FAANG. There's only 5. And all of them have been around for a long-ass time now. All the easy money is at the beginning, not when it is entrenched. And that also makes me think of another example people always give..."I'm not going to dig for the gold, just sell the miners the tools." Right. Because you're the very first person who has thought of it. Unfortunately, that first tool seller is mostly likely going to get the monopoly. They set up shop on Main Street because they were the first people there. They have strong relationships with the suppliers of the mining tools, and buy in a huge quantity so get quantity discounts that allow them to sell for less than you can purchase them for. As the gold boom town is now, well, booming, real estate prices are skyrocketing, and all you can afford as the new tool seller is some side street at the edge of town. And, everyone knows the original tool seller, Bob, and everyone likes him and he has all kinds of customer appreciation actions - he will go into the saloon once a week and buy everyone in the place a round, have parties, etc. Nobody is going to be the next Facebook, nobody. Unless they are. It's just not going to be you, any more than you are going to hit that $1 billion lottery. ("but you never know!!! I might! I might be the next Facebook AND win the $1 billion lottery all in the same week! You never know, it could happen! Plus a supermodel will want to marry me, but before I win the lottery and my company goes public so I know she'll love me for me!") And, 100% agree on normalizing databases. Are there companies that don't? Oh, and also, financials. Cash flows, financial controls. Make sure you never get in a partnership, ONLY a corporate structure. If you don't understand financial statements (balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statements), and you don't want to learn ("That's what CFOs are for") then you should not be a founder of a company. Legal structure...yeah, you want to know that so you won't get diluted right out of existance. "On May 15, 2012, Business Insider obtained and released an exclusive email from Zuckerberg detailing how he cut Saverin from Facebook and diluted his stake. Zuckerberg privately stated at the time, "Eduardo is refusing to co-operate at all ... We basically now need to sign over our intellectual property to a new company and just take the lawsuit ... I'm just going to cut him out and then settle with him." - Carlson, Nicholas (May 15, 2012). "Exclusive: Here's The Email Zuckerberg Sent To Cut His Cofounder Out Of Facebook". Business Insider. Retrieved February 9, 2016.

CRConrad 4y ago
> And, 100% agree on normalizing databases. Are there companies that don't? Oh heck yeah there are.
- As_You_Wish 4y ago
  Wow. Seriously, how does that even happen? They hire people without a computer science degree that doesn't know about normalization? I don't have any experience with that so I'm actually curious as to how it happens, if you know, and have had experience with that.
  - CRConrad 4y ago
    As mentioned above, FAANG is only five companies, so the overwhelming majority of companies are not FAANG-scale. And down at the opposite end of the scale, yes of course there are lots -- literally millions, across the world -- of companies that don't have anyone with a computer science degree employed, so the owner (or his brother-in-law's 16-year-old "computer whiz" nephew) built any database they may have.
    - tabtab 4y ago
      Managers often don't understand the value of good DBA's and/or schema designers. They focus on the UI first, assuming if it ain't visible it ain't important.
      - CRConrad 4y ago
        Hi Bryce, long time no see! :-)