8 ms·

The Day our investors came to see the office (2011)

174 points by treester 13y ago

pseudometa 13y ago
The story had the exact oposite ending as I was expecting given the lead-up.
- jakejake 13y ago
  Yea I find investors are not primarily concerned about my happiness - except how my happiness may effect the business. It's not at all that they're heartless & they certainly don't want me to be unhappy. They just didn't give me money so that I would use it to have fun and be happy. Happiness is hopefully a side effect of a successful venture.
  - danielweber 13y ago
    I even more expected that the investor was going to see the slightest bit of waver in his voice and use that as an excuse to yank all the money back.
    - bitonomics 13y ago
      For a second I was thinking the opposite, in that the investor wanted to continue the happiness and bring in a second round of funding. Thus giving his first investment a greater chance of success.
    - jakejake 13y ago
      I kinda expected him to say that the investor was his Dad or something. I am pretty sure that if my company is not moving forward and the ROI is not looking good for investors - then they will not be first and foremost concerned with my happiness. They don't want me to feel miserable, but they certainly don't want to see me playing ping pong and drinking PBR all day if the company is not moving in a positive direction. I think a better question an investor would ask would be "are you still feeling optimistic" or "are you happy with the direction we're going, our progress, etc" Not just am I personally feeling happiness
  - joosters 13y ago
    There's definitely more than a little heartlessness in it, though. Both the investor & the developer are/will be invested in the business, and yet it's the developer making all the sacrifices. The investor could decide to invest more and spend it on improving working conditions, but they choose not to - after all, the suckers have confirmed that they are happy with the conditions!
Stranger2013 13y ago
I thought it was about making a very risky investment in a hope for a really high return.
austenallred 13y ago
This is exactly how I feel. The circumstances I live in are much worse than I could be the ones I could be living in (I'm currently living in the back of my Honda Civic, parking somewhere in Palo Alto or Redwood City), but I don't care. I've honestly never been happier. I'm doing what I love, building something I feel is sorely needed, and that's all that really matters. I sleep better now on the air mattress in the trunk of my car now than I did working a mind-numbing job and sleeping in a king-sized bed.
- dreamdu5t 13y ago
  How long have you been doing this?
  - austenallred 13y ago
    So far one week in Silicon Valley, but I honestly feel it's sustainable. Park your car and sleep in it wherever there are other cars (no one notices you), work in the Hacker Dojo, shower at the Gold's Gym down the street in Mountain View. Total burn rate per month? $200-ish. http://www.austenallred.com/voluntarily-homeless-in-silicon-valley/ http://www.austenallred.com/voluntarily-homeless-in-silicon-...
    - the_cat_kittles 13y ago
      keep that up for 5 years with a good engineer salary and you will be in really good shape!
      - ambiate 13y ago
        The cat kittles speaks the truth. Minimum living and investing 50% of your income into a 401k for 5-7 years in your twenties. Invest the other 35% or so into diverse CDs with ranging lock periods (or flipping things on craigslist, both have a decent ROI). Five or so years of pain for a solid path afterwards.
        13y ago
blazespin 13y ago
And this is why VC loves young people.
- mitchelllc 13y ago
  yep, because they are living a dream, and hope.
angilly 13y ago
Wow I wrote this two years ago! I saw a few comments coming in this morning and had no idea what was going on. Gotta love Google Analytics :) I'm glad you enjoyed the story. I enjoyed the experience :)
- dopamean 13y ago
  Where are you now? How are things? Are you still happy?
  - MicahWedemeyer 13y ago
    From the bio: signalgenius.com [founder & growing] fourthsegment.com [founded & failed] ryanangilly.com [blog] mypunchbowl.com [employee & still going] messagesling.com [founded & failed] I'd really like to hear how things ended and if the relationship with the investors remained so positive all the way to the end.
- bconway 13y ago
  I enjoyed seeing all the WPI and other local references from my (long) time in MA.
- prawn 13y ago
  Really liked your story. All the lead-up had me thinking there would be a horrible reaction to the plain office but it was such a sweet finale. People just being left to focus on what they're creating, and having some appreciation shown for their opinion, state of well-being, etc.
quackerhacker 13y ago
I ENVY your experience with your investors. I had an experience with an angel investor, where she said: "You need my money, what's stopping me from just hiring some programmers from India and making what you have." I told her, "passion," and I walked away from the deal . This taught me to take advice from others and NEVER deal with family. It also taught me that if my pitch is a website/app/service get my users and growth rate manageable, so leverage is in my favor.
- gscott 13y ago
  Rather then walking away I would suggest telling the person they can try but it is unlikely because the cost of an actual good overseas programmer is comperable to here if you factor in the miscommunication, time difference, and the cost of the time to communicate exactly what is needed. You might want to go back to the person, ask if they have had it built yet, and ask if they want to get started now but don't let this person take advantage of your passion.
  - spitfire 13y ago
    If they've already tried the "I can hire an Indian." line, then they've already ended the relationship. If you want to be cruel, you can point them to places like elance or rentacoder.
    - gscott 13y ago
      I was thinking it sounded more like a negotiating tactic to wrangle something more out of the relationship from someone who was emotionally involved wanting to move forward. This happened to me, I couldn't do the project and didn't even start because the person wanted it done in 3 months. He went ahead and hired a firm in India. It took him 2 years and he didn't even start from scratch he bought a pre-built product to start from to save time. So I am very skeptical of when people say they are going to outsource something.
- rhizome 13y ago
  Likely they were just playing Industrialist by repeating some received wisdom about Indian programmers being a magical outsourcing technique, to which you call their bluff and say, "Nothing, go for it. Wanna race?" and sit there silently.
msutherl 13y ago
This sounds awful and I hope never to find myself in a situation where I am thankful for ugly living conditions, for that would mean I had become insensitive to the world.
- prawn 13y ago
  They weren't dirty or unsafe conditions. They were just plain, leaving the team to focus on their well-being and their work. I would find a really showy office somewhat distracting.
  - msutherl 13y ago
    Without windows under office-quality fluorescent lights is bleak and awful. Sure, it's 'safe', but it drains the soul.

174 points by treester 13y ago

pseudometa 13y ago

The story had the exact oposite ending as I was expecting given the lead-up.

jakejake 13y ago
Yea I find investors are not primarily concerned about my happiness - except how my happiness may effect the business. It's not at all that they're heartless & they certainly don't want me to be unhappy. They just didn't give me money so that I would use it to have fun and be happy. Happiness is hopefully a side effect of a successful venture.
- danielweber 13y ago
  I even more expected that the investor was going to see the slightest bit of waver in his voice and use that as an excuse to yank all the money back.
  - bitonomics 13y ago
    For a second I was thinking the opposite, in that the investor wanted to continue the happiness and bring in a second round of funding. Thus giving his first investment a greater chance of success.
  - jakejake 13y ago
    I kinda expected him to say that the investor was his Dad or something. I am pretty sure that if my company is not moving forward and the ROI is not looking good for investors - then they will not be first and foremost concerned with my happiness. They don't want me to feel miserable, but they certainly don't want to see me playing ping pong and drinking PBR all day if the company is not moving in a positive direction. I think a better question an investor would ask would be "are you still feeling optimistic" or "are you happy with the direction we're going, our progress, etc" Not just am I personally feeling happiness
- joosters 13y ago
  There's definitely more than a little heartlessness in it, though. Both the investor & the developer are/will be invested in the business, and yet it's the developer making all the sacrifices. The investor could decide to invest more and spend it on improving working conditions, but they choose not to - after all, the suckers have confirmed that they are happy with the conditions!

Stranger2013 13y ago

I thought it was about making a very risky investment in a hope for a really high return.

austenallred 13y ago

This is exactly how I feel. The circumstances I live in are much worse than I could be the ones I could be living in (I'm currently living in the back of my Honda Civic, parking somewhere in Palo Alto or Redwood City), but I don't care. I've honestly never been happier. I'm doing what I love, building something I feel is sorely needed, and that's all that really matters. I sleep better now on the air mattress in the trunk of my car now than I did working a mind-numbing job and sleeping in a king-sized bed.

dreamdu5t 13y ago
How long have you been doing this?
- austenallred 13y ago
  So far one week in Silicon Valley, but I honestly feel it's sustainable. Park your car and sleep in it wherever there are other cars (no one notices you), work in the Hacker Dojo, shower at the Gold's Gym down the street in Mountain View. Total burn rate per month? $200-ish. http://www.austenallred.com/voluntarily-homeless-in-silicon-valley/ http://www.austenallred.com/voluntarily-homeless-in-silicon-...
  - the_cat_kittles 13y ago
    keep that up for 5 years with a good engineer salary and you will be in really good shape!
    - ambiate 13y ago
      The cat kittles speaks the truth. Minimum living and investing 50% of your income into a 401k for 5-7 years in your twenties. Invest the other 35% or so into diverse CDs with ranging lock periods (or flipping things on craigslist, both have a decent ROI). Five or so years of pain for a solid path afterwards.
      - 13y ago

blazespin 13y ago

And this is why VC loves young people.

mitchelllc 13y ago
yep, because they are living a dream, and hope.

angilly 13y ago

Wow I wrote this two years ago! I saw a few comments coming in this morning and had no idea what was going on. Gotta love Google Analytics :) I'm glad you enjoyed the story. I enjoyed the experience :)

dopamean 13y ago
Where are you now? How are things? Are you still happy?
- MicahWedemeyer 13y ago
  From the bio: signalgenius.com [founder & growing] fourthsegment.com [founded & failed] ryanangilly.com [blog] mypunchbowl.com [employee & still going] messagesling.com [founded & failed] I'd really like to hear how things ended and if the relationship with the investors remained so positive all the way to the end.
bconway 13y ago
I enjoyed seeing all the WPI and other local references from my (long) time in MA.
prawn 13y ago
Really liked your story. All the lead-up had me thinking there would be a horrible reaction to the plain office but it was such a sweet finale. People just being left to focus on what they're creating, and having some appreciation shown for their opinion, state of well-being, etc.

quackerhacker 13y ago

I ENVY your experience with your investors. I had an experience with an angel investor, where she said: "You need my money, what's stopping me from just hiring some programmers from India and making what you have." I told her, "passion," and I walked away from the deal . This taught me to take advice from others and NEVER deal with family. It also taught me that if my pitch is a website/app/service get my users and growth rate manageable, so leverage is in my favor.

gscott 13y ago
Rather then walking away I would suggest telling the person they can try but it is unlikely because the cost of an actual good overseas programmer is comperable to here if you factor in the miscommunication, time difference, and the cost of the time to communicate exactly what is needed. You might want to go back to the person, ask if they have had it built yet, and ask if they want to get started now but don't let this person take advantage of your passion.
- spitfire 13y ago
  If they've already tried the "I can hire an Indian." line, then they've already ended the relationship. If you want to be cruel, you can point them to places like elance or rentacoder.
  - gscott 13y ago
    I was thinking it sounded more like a negotiating tactic to wrangle something more out of the relationship from someone who was emotionally involved wanting to move forward. This happened to me, I couldn't do the project and didn't even start because the person wanted it done in 3 months. He went ahead and hired a firm in India. It took him 2 years and he didn't even start from scratch he bought a pre-built product to start from to save time. So I am very skeptical of when people say they are going to outsource something.
rhizome 13y ago
Likely they were just playing Industrialist by repeating some received wisdom about Indian programmers being a magical outsourcing technique, to which you call their bluff and say, "Nothing, go for it. Wanna race?" and sit there silently.

msutherl 13y ago

This sounds awful and I hope never to find myself in a situation where I am thankful for ugly living conditions, for that would mean I had become insensitive to the world.

prawn 13y ago
They weren't dirty or unsafe conditions. They were just plain, leaving the team to focus on their well-being and their work. I would find a really showy office somewhat distracting.
- msutherl 13y ago
  Without windows under office-quality fluorescent lights is bleak and awful. Sure, it's 'safe', but it drains the soul.