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Kavan's comments

Kavan | 12 years ago | on: Ask HN: Who is hiring? (December 2013)

AddLive.com - Bay Area - Full Time (http://www.addlive.com)

Do you want to help us change the communications landscape and get freedom and autonomy in very significant role?

We are not a typical Bay startup, we are a scrappy, fun and distributed team of 7 who over 3 years have created some incredible software that allows developers to easily add live video and voice to their applications (web, mobile, desktop).

We are looking for an experienced individual (web technologies, obj-C, Java) who can help create our Solutions team. This team will be responsible for creating a layer on top of our low level APIs and SDKs and our customers' implementations.

Other responsibilities include:

- communicating with our dev community

- support in the PST time zone

- helping setup our Bay Area office

This person will be instrumental in forming our future and will have meaningful equity in the business.

The company has bootstrapped the last two years and is now profitable with around 30 smaller customers. We have recently signed two major enterprise deals to provide audio and video to large valley companies.

If you fill this description and would like to join us please email me, [email protected].

Kavan | 14 years ago | on: Facebook acquires Instagram

When Goog bought YouTube it was a mess of content. There was litigation everywhere and no advertisers wanted their products associated with it.

But Google saw the potential in the usage stats. The YouTube search bar was the second most used search bar after theirs.

Similarly Facebook see the social engagement stats of Instagram being similar to their own.

Kavan | 14 years ago | on: Show HN: Our YC S12 application - Roomify.tv One-click video meeting rooms

yip we started building this but ran out of resources and had to focus on Roomify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fms9qM7QG9g

Others have tried (eg edufire.com) but using Flash video chat, which is not great. If people are paying for someone's knowledge/expertise it needs to be delivered perfectly.

Roomify is a more generic version. It is a tool rather than a marketplace. In the future we could do something similar to the above and create a marketplace with in Roomify.

Kavan | 14 years ago | on: Show HN: Our YC S12 application - Roomify.tv One-click video meeting rooms

Good points.

Roomify simplifies video conferencing. Google Hangouts/Skype require users to be part of a network. In many cases users do not want to 'Contact' users in Skype or join Google+. Since the room is just a url, users can bookmark it and always return to the same room.

The pro version will allow premium users to have password protected rooms, and to white label the rooms with their own url. Since this is all web-based the 'Create a room' button could be placed anywhere, on your own site or on a corporate intranet. It is like having your own 'Hangout'. Not affiliated to anyone and not requiring login.

Our technology allows us to have 1,000's of users in a single room. We have built rooms apps too (shared html whiteboard, screen sharing etc). So in the long term we are looking to 'Roomify' all physical rooms. You could teach a class, hold a conference or just hold a meeting like we offer now.

Finally, we are planning a payment system that will allow room owners to charge to attend their room. So teachers and speakers could earn money from their attendees.

Kavan | 14 years ago | on: Waking up at 5am to code

When starting my business, I was working as a derivatives trader. The job was stimulating but I did not love it. It was not creative enough. Creative in the purest sense of the world. We did not create businesses, rather create profits through buying and selling.

I had to be up before 6am anyway to get in before the markets opened. We could leave shortly after the markets closed though so I did most of my work time in the evenings from 6pm to 10pm, sometimes later. And then on the weekends (probably another 12 to 20 hours).

I think the important points are:

1. Enjoy the work. If you do then you don't feel like it is work, rather a hobby.

2. Make the most of your 'day job' time. I would squeeze in gym whenever things were quiet. I would answer emails on the toilet. I would read the Financial Times and then sneak in Tech Crunch (I was trading TMT so I argued it was important to view trends).

3. Stay disciplined. A lot of the time I would get excited and stay up later. Rolling out of bed at 5:30am to get into work after being up since 1am does not feel great. You can do it once during a week, but twice and you really do become a zombie for the rest of the week until you get the time back.

I did this for two years until I managed to get some funding to take it full time. It was super tough, especially for my girlfriend. But I loved it because I believed we were building a project that would change the world. Whenever I felt down I just watched SJ's Standford speech and it would pick me up.

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle."

Kavan | 14 years ago | on: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

I quite like Hollywood. Some of the best entertainment has and will come from their studios. It is the old guard that don't get that Piracy has had very little impact on their industry and would be a waste of tax payers money to legislate against it: (http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/01/21/does-online-..., http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/internet-reg...)

I don't think we need to do too much here as I think the suits will get rid of themselves by repeatedly showing how inept they are by not understanding the digital world. But if you do want to put pressure on the old boys I would suggest:

1. Don't buy Popcorn and Cola at the cinema. The ridiculous margins on these goods are the 'cream' that makes the movie houses their money. Literally your popcorn and coke'sie cash is what lines the studio's pockets and allows Brangelina to live lavishly. Hollywood == Popcorn + Coke sales

2. Support awesome UGC like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7...

Kavan | 14 years ago | on: The Real Pirates Of Silicon Valley?

You we will sleep on the boat and commute into work.

Being from the UK you get 90 days in the US, then you need to do a visa run out of the country and can then come back. I think as long as you are being paid by an non US business immigration don't mind.

Perhaps instead of a trip to Mexico or Canada a night on the boat would suffice?

Kavan | 14 years ago | on: Zynga to employees: Give back our stock or you'll be fired

Most of Europe is the same too. Employment laws are pretty onerous. This is great for employees and I think more or less works in mature industries and businesses (think of a 10 year employee, who gets a new boss that they dont get on with so the boss just fires them).

This stricter regulation does make starting businesses very difficult, and a definite advantage the US has over Europe.

I think the answer is combination of the two where there is some kind of threshold where new/small companies have more freedom to dismiss, but forces larger businesses to treat their employees fairly.

Kavan | 14 years ago | on: Andreessen Horowitz Joins The Start Fund To Seed YC Companies

As a SV outsider who recently spent a month there, I totally agree. The only way to get meetings is through your network. Start with people you meet at events and then add to it (co working spaces like www.rocket-space.com are great for this). Eventually you'll be speaking to company founders and they can refer you. Remember that the quality of the referral is also important, so if you have only met someone for 5 mins and then ask them to refer you, their referral email will be rather weak. Spend the time building the relationship and getting them excited about your product. Then when the time comes you will get a solid referral and a near certain meeting.

Kavan | 14 years ago | on: Tim Armstrong wanting to merge with Yahoo

A classic case of 1 + 1 = 0?

Been thinking recently, what internet brands have come back from the dead? (Not Apple, they are a hardware company.)

The Napster brand was acquired, but the new company never really made it.

I was chatting to a young dev on the Zaarly startup crawl who said he worked in 'gaming', but when pressed he said he worked for a startup acquired by Yahoo. He didn't like saying he worked at Yahoo. That is a very strong signal they are dying.

MySpace, Bebo, Friendster. It seems like once you hit the deadpool or are on your way down, there is no way back?

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