kcsavvy's comments

I started and sold a company in the industry, and agree that macro level analysis misses this. In the us healthcare as a “product” has an AWFUL customer experience. On so many levels. And the worse it gets the more people want to “burn it all down”, despite the fact that it might not be as dire as we think when we do the high level analysis. Whether or not that’s a good thing is up for debate.

I built and sold a yc-backed startup that used a BaaS vendor years ago.

Even then, the inside scoop was that Synapse is poorly built and operated. Among the fintechs in YC Synapse has been known as a no-go for a while.

There were a lot of flags - compelling media hit pieces, churning customers, departing execs, etc.

Agree with you that the overall sentiment is surprisingly negative (especially when I have been really enjoying using gpt as a lightweight tutor), but AI girlfriends are going to happen and could have huge social and cultural impacts that are worth exploring now. Especially given the birth rate difficulties western nations face.

Users should have access to their own data. Whether it’s a university coursework app or anything else.

These students should be applauded. They are making studying easier. How are universities, of all places, so inept at making basic common sense decisions?

Would like to see pgvector included. If I can keep data in pg… I will.

I think the stereotypical calm company is one with strong financial performance in a stable industry that is somewhat insulated from swings in the macro economy. Think large regional players in insurance, healthcare, finance, banking, etc. It’s large enough to have “professional” managers and a big customer base (so one customer having a problem is not a hair-on-fire emergency).

In my experience you tend to find many more penny pinching owners in the world of small businesses, not at a 1000-person regional life insurance company.

Calm companies exist everywhere. In fact, calm companies probably outnumber “frenzied” companies 10x.

They are the quiet, stable, regional, unsexy businesses that have been around for 40 years. I have a friend who is an SWE at a large regional insurance broker. Very calm work indeed.

They just don’t pay SV wages.

Lots of people dislike their first jobs, which is totally reasonable because you don’t know what you like and what to look for. So congrats on realizing quickly what you don’t like. Over the course of a career, that’s progress.

You could change careers, but if you like tech and coding maybe try changing environments first. There are certain things you don’t like about your current work environment, and you can probably find a new place where those things are not present.

I think it would be unwise to tax away a financial ecosystem that has driven innovation for the world and funded one of the nation’s largest growth industries in exchange for marginally increasing infrastructure spending.

The session playback looks useful - I find this is missing from many DD alternatives I have seen.

Elements of this story indicate a founder who simply lost control of their company, which is their job as a founder. I don’t think the VC is the villain here.

They raised at an inflated valuation and seemingly received a favorable multiple (100-10x “7-figure” revenue). The fact that they rode out the company to 0 means they had board control and were never fired. So they are ultimately responsible for every decision they made. Including over-hiring and not firing their clueless VPs.

I say this as a founder of a yc-backed company that was acquired. I know the pressures of short-sided VCs. I also know that the job of a founder is to pick which advice you follow.

True

Build something more impressive than you would work on while employed and it’s probably a plus. Following your interests (if you have the privilege to do so) can result in some really cool / impressive work to show off later.

From someone who has built 2 successful enterprise apps as eng #1 (1 sold, 1 going strong today valued over 100M) and worked on others that failed, the ONLY thing to worry about now is whether or not your customers really want and need your app. 99% of enterprise saas products fail because of this, not because of a missing feature.

All the enterprise features like SSO, integrations, audit trails, etc can be built when a customer is asking for them — these are largely solved problems. These are probably attractive problems because they are engineering problems and you are an engineer.

Ignore them and focus on the business problem. “Does my app solve a burning need for my customers?”. Read “The Mom Test” to get in the mindset of answering that question. That is all that matters right now.

There are medical interventions that can help so please talk to a doctor if you want to go down that path.

Other than that, practicing until you consistently pass meta mocks on interviewing.io or something like that is probably the best way to come in feeling OK.

Please realize this is normal. Lots of engineers get extremely anxious before interviews. Like sick to stomach can’t sleep for days anxious. I remember listening to a podcast with a senior principal at Amazon — this guy was an incredibly accomplished engineer, and he was so nervous during his first algo interview at Amazon the interviewer paused and asked him to grab a drink and take a moment. I think this is due to the ridiculous interviewing practices we have adopted as an industry, but that is a different topic.

You will get through it and no matter what happens you WILL be ok. The world is big and opportunity is endless, whether you work at Meta or not. If you have someone to talk to or hug, go do it. Seriously it helps.

Is leetcode a type of engineer? In terms of ROI in finding a new job that’s what I recommend specializing in.

I have heard of many startups bringing early customers onto their advisory board - it seems like a relatively common practice. I am curious what makes this fraud? The timing? Or the fact that the Netflix VP did not disclose this to His employer?

Product market fit isn’t just building a cool product. It’s when that product meets an audience that values and pays for it.

Distribution IS part of a startup idea. It’s an essential ingredient. Don’t think about idea and distribution as separate things. If you can’t find your target audience to validate your idea with, you have an incomplete startup idea, by definition!

If you are unsure how to find your target audience today, building your product will not fix this problem. Speaking to real users should be a higher priority than building or planning features.

For advice on speaking to users I only recommend one short book - “The Mom Test”. In that book you will learn why “excitement” is a very misleading signal. There is a good reason why YC partners constantly recommend it.