innovate's comments

innovate | 8 years ago | on: SoftBank Leads $164M Bet on Mapbox

SoftBank, it seems, has and is continuing to make investments in startups with unique/proprietary data... smart team...eg recently uber, nauto, mapbox..

innovate | 8 years ago | on: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

freezing credit profiles is a good idea but full account numbers (liability accounts only) as well as addresses and employer data were also part of this breach, its likely there will be many long-term consequences unfortunately...someone with this data can easily impersonate you and level up the level fraud

innovate | 8 years ago | on: A goldmine of Radio Shack goodies is up for auction

this is my favorite story about the impact radio shack had on a generation of early makers and startups: "HOW I FOUNDED A $2 BILLION COMPANY WITH A 95 CENT BOOK FROM RADIOSHACK": https://www.wired.com/2016/07/how-i-founded-a-2-billion-comp...

I also loved shopping there... the items seemed to be obscure, growing up I always wondered who actually shopped there for these items to justify an entire store... but the demand was there, they just didn't figure out how to take advantage of the early-mover advantage

innovate | 15 years ago | on: How Americans Get Out of Credit Card Debt

1/3 of Americans carry a balance from month to month (revolving) = ~100 million people; sorry layout is confusing but this is in fact correct. Of course, more than 100MM actually have at least one credit card but not all of them carry balances.

Simply put, way more than 100MM people have credit cards, only ~100MM or 1/3rd carry balances from month to month.

innovate | 15 years ago | on: How Americans Get Out of Credit Card Debt

Today, RFZ is a do it yourself type of tool. So it is a different option altogether than debt consolidation but we did recently announce a partnership with Lending Club that allows us to consolidate people's high interest debts when and if it makes sense (not always the best option).

Planning tools are definitely in the works. We do help you understand the 'true cost' of items purchased on your credit cards; the interest and fees can be sneaky.

innovate | 15 years ago | on: Why ReadyForZero (YC S10) Started A Company to Eliminate Credit Card Debt

The debt settlement/counseling/management space has been around for over 60 years (since the 1950s), and like other billion $ industries it has gone through a variety of "regulatory" reforms and legal shake-ups. Every industry goes through that.

The debt counseling industry and, in some cases debt settlement, benefit creditors by providing an alternative way to recover funds as compared with bankruptcy or collections. In fact, under what is called "fair share" creditors give these companies direct kickbacks. The % has been reduced significantly because companies were making too much.

If you dig deeper, you will find many creditor and bureau executives working at these non-profit counseling organizations. The business model is a critical aspect in understanding how this industry works.

With all that said, we do not plan to do any debt settlement.

For additional details on the history, take a look at the Uniform Debt-Management Services Act paper (http://blog.readyforzero.com/industry-research/).

Thanks for the comment.

innovate | 15 years ago | on: Why ReadyForZero (YC S10) Started A Company to Eliminate Credit Card Debt

We do not agree and have people using the site today that claim the visibility (interest rates, payment history, credit score, etc.) and automatic planning gave them exactly the edge they needed to start making significant progress. These products (credit cards) were designed to be opaque and difficult to manage.

innovate | 15 years ago | on: Ask HN: To go or not to go college?

I went to silicon valley right out of high school to work in tech, I absolutely understand where you are coming from.

For what its worth, I also started 2 internet companies while in high school and have been a passionate entrepreneur since. After much deliberation and discouraging (not a typo) advice from those around me, I went back to college after 1.5 years in industry to get my degree, knew what I wanted to study, finished quickly and paid for a majority of it on my own. In a few cases, I even finished just as my friends who had gone straight through after HS. I had some real-world experience and knew what I wanted to study. I did serious research on degree programs and studied exactly what I wanted.

If you are up for it, college is a different kind of challenge that is hard to recreate. It requires a lot of "work" but its satisfying to move toward a long-term goal and finish; very similar to the satisfaction of building/launching an app from nothing. It requires discipline no matter who you are (entrepreneur or not) to get through college or school.

Quite simply: I wouldn't go if you expect to get professional experience or learn more about CS, I would go to learn and have fun but know that it will get harder for a lot of reasons to go back later (mostly because you won't have as much fun). ;)

Just like you I thought going away for a few years would make or break me professionally. I guarantee not much will change and you won't miss out on ("waste") as much as you think you will.

All the best.

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