birken

33 ms·

211.
by birken 9y ago
Even if those in-wheel reflectors are removed, the wheel rims are reflective and the seat post is reflective (at minimum). And additionally there are several things that are way less reflective than a bicycle that you don't want to
212.
by birken 9y ago
Like it or hate it, this is what the SEC does. You think Martha Stewart deserved jail time for making 50k in an insider trading scheme she didn't really care about? The SEC finds very public cases and then brings the hammer down in or
213.
by birken 9y ago
Story time: In early 2012, the startup I was working for, Thumbtack, had struggled for 6-8 months to raise a Series A but finally got to the finish line. Around the same time, Justin Kan co-founded a company called Exec, and within a few
214.
by birken 9y ago
I feel pity for the older and more experienced founder who (allegedly) took advantage of the younger and naive one. But I also feel pity for the younger founder who was exploited and didn't know any better. Maybe it is more pitiful th
215.
by birken 9y ago
FWIW I never said anything about the guy deserving the title of co-founder or not. Arrington is claiming the guy had literally nothing to do with Techcrunch, which is directly at odds with the one piece of information we know: the guy owne
216.
by birken 9y ago
It seems the one fact that nobody is disputing is that the guy in question owned 10% of Techcrunch. Generally people who own 10% of a company had significant involvement in it. Not always, there are always edge cases, but that is a good g
217.
by birken 9y ago
Just to counter this anecdata, the startup I used to work at was founded by 4 conservatives, 2 of whom met working in the George W Bush White House. We used to discuss and debate all sorts of politic topics, and in fact I was quite often i
218.
by birken 9y ago
> have consistently shown them to be effective at reducing overdose deaths, preventing transmission of HIV and viral hepatitis, reducing street-based drug use and linking people to drug treatment and other services There are a lot of p
219.
by birken 9y ago
This strikes me as a very odd class for them to be doing. 1. YC has no problem filling up Demo Day, and I know of even high qualify, professional angel investors who don't get the in person invite. So it isn't like they have a sh
220.
by birken 9y ago
> The leaders of the company got quite a bit, so no, it is not unreasonable to expect those that are actually doing the work to get something. It is unreasonable to expect it, because that isn't how the law works. The employees can
221.
by birken 9y ago
> They absolutely do. They have the power to dilute your share to nothing, and they have the power to make special deals which cut you out of receiving anything. This is an exaggeration. Founders/officers don't have the power
222.
by birken 9y ago
Learn the skills! Financial literacy is a very important skill. Yes, startups are complicated. To be an informed employee you need to deeply understand how stock options work, you need to deeply understand how startup financing works, and
223.
by birken 9y ago
This fatalist attitude is just as bad as the overly naive attitude that I'm sure left many employees of this company feeling screwed. Employees have agency. Founders don't have some magical power over you with which to screw you.
224.
by birken 9y ago
When I read this article I was surprised and looked for some data, and while the fact that California is the leader in this poverty metric is true, the claims of why I'm not entirely sold on. 1) The state with the 2nd highest adjusted
225.
by birken 9y ago
I disagree that this blog post is giving an interesting counterpoint. As I said, I'm not diminishing their success, but this blog post isn't about their story, it's about knocking other styles of companies they disagree with
226.
by birken 9y ago
I don't want to diminish the success that this company is having being run in their own way, but give me a break with these blog posts. VC is a "trend to avoid"? Avoid "Hypergrowth"? I guess companies like Google,
227.
by birken 9y ago
A recent episode of "The Weeds" podcast was all about this [1]. I highly recommend listening to it and the podcast in general. The general thoughts are (especially for those poo-pooing the findings): - The cause is likely a massi
228.
by birken 9y ago
I once went with a group of 20 that was registered in advance and nobody from our group was called (but I think we were guaranteed seats and didn't have to wait in line). I think the 20+ group thing is an urban legend, the producers c
229.
by birken 9y ago
Agreed. I'll also point out in his supposed wise and truth-telling reddit post he also includes this point: > 6) Golden Gate and tech are terrorist targets, and I don't like being close to the bullseye. This is based on good i
230.
by birken 9y ago
I haven't tried Purple, so I can't speak to that, but I have ordered 2 mattresses and returned them both (Helix, Leesa), and I'll second that the return process was easy for both of them. The Helix support actually convinced
231.
by birken 9y ago
This is not correct. The standard construction 2x4 you buy at any lumber yard/home improvement store is specifically cut to 1.5" x 3.5". Of course wood naturally expands/contracts depending on the environment so it wil
232.
by birken 9y ago
It's possible the founders took out a "small" chunk during their large funding round, but it is equally possible they didn't. Taking out a huge amount (>10% of your equity) would be bad signaling and investors wouldn
233.
by birken 9y ago
Some need it more than others. The local news is live and doesn't need editing because the people doing the broadcast are pros. Joe Rogan is an absolute pro who has been an actor, comedian, game show host, UFC commentator in addition
234.
by birken 9y ago
I'm always bothered by un-edited podcasts. It isn't hard. I have a tiny little podcast with few listeners and still edit them all. For an hour long podcast I can easily cut out 5 minutes worth of pauses, "ummm"s, &quo
235.
by birken 9y ago
The article quotes an economist that says there is no substantial benefit to the state from deals like these: > “There is virtually no association between economic development incentives and any measure of economic performance,” urban ec
236.
by birken 9y ago
Iowa is "giving money". If there is a greater than 0% chance Apple would have built on that site anyways, then Iowa is directly losing that money. And it seems based on the local advantages of the Iowa location there was a non
237.
by birken 9y ago
What alternatives? The key product here is Google search which is what attracts the consumers. The advertisers are dealing with Adwords not because Adwords is the greatest platform in history, but because Adwords is the platform where the
238.
by birken 9y ago
You think Google can't detect this? Enough advertisers have conversion tracking that Google can detect if a person is clicking a zillion ads and never actually converting, in addition to the other multitude of ways they detect fraud.
239.
by birken 9y ago
If we are framing this as a free speech issue: Isn't spam email free speech? How dare any network provider tell me I can't send 500 billion emails about my Viagra supplements? That is violating my freedom of speech! The US gover
240.
by birken 9y ago
> It's a good list and these points are indeed very bad signals. When you break it down most points fall under the category of basic professional courtesy and it's shocking how rare that is. Most people that I interview and giv

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