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langer | 10 years ago | on: Welcome Jared

Jared is one of the best angels I've ever worked with and he's been high value add for Zesty, having invested in us before we even got into YC. Stoked for both YC and Jared!

langer | 10 years ago | on: Zesty (YC W14) Raises $17M Series A to Improve the Health of Humanity

Hi there, one of the founders from Zesty here. There is definitely some variety in the level of healthiness of our meals, and this is something we want to keep increasing over time, evangelizing healthy eating as we go. However, in order to have a significant impact, you need to operate on a large scale. We've learned from trying that you can't get most companies to adopt a service that is too extreme on the health side. It's too much of a behavior change for most people. Compared to what our clients were eating before, we are a significant step in the right direction, and we intend to keep taking bigger steps here over time. We're excited about the progress we've already made and look forward to how much more we can make with this funding.

langer | 12 years ago | on: Zesty (YC W14) Launches Healthy Catering Service

Hi Eric, we are currently serving San Francisco but we're planning to roll out to the South Bay soon. If you email me at david at zesty dot com, I can put you on our list of pilot companies down there.

langer | 12 years ago | on: The boss, not the workload, causes workplace depression

The challenge for founders is that it's more important to be respected than to be liked as the boss.

If you're too strict, employees think you're unfair and they get depressed. If you treat them too leniently and are too friendly, they'll like you but the company's performance will suffer.

The best founders prioritise performance and being respected, but create structure and goals that avoid people feeling like they're being treated unfairly.

langer | 12 years ago | on: In Almost Every European Country, Bikes Are Outselling New Cars

More interesting will be to see stats on car purchase rates in Uber and Lyft's top cities over the coming years. In SF, car ownership is becoming a luxury amongst people I know - they either have a sports car, or no car and use Uber/Lyft/Zipcar for transportation everywhere.

A recent David Sacks tweet claiming this got a lot of attention: "Why Uber/Lyft market is so much bigger than people think: it's not a substitute for cabs, it's a substitute for driving." https://twitter.com/DavidSacks/status/378305832602980353

langer | 12 years ago | on: London: the new Silicon Valley?

This type of question is most relevant to people considering which ecosystem in which to base their company, or part of it.

Having spent 2007-2012 doing a startup in London and the past year doing a startup in Silicon Valley, I've experienced both sides. I also had Silicon Valley investors in the first startup and spent time here every year since 2007.

London is catching up in some areas and you have to break the question down to make it useful. I'd look at the following areas that make Silicon Valley what it is:

Funding

- Not much difference in availability of investors but you'll get roughly double the amount of capital at double the valuation at each stage in Silicon Valley.

- Reason for similar availability is that there is at least an order of magnitude more investors at seed/early stages in Silicon Valley but a similar proportion more startups.

- At seed/early stage, Silicon Valley investors have higher expectations for growth and London investors have higher expectations for business model validation.

- Silicon Valley was much further ahead 5 years ago due to fewer investors in London and fewer startups in Silicon Valley.

- In London the tax incentives for seed investing and VC firms started by successful entrepreneurs (Atomico, Notion, ProFounders etc.) are changing this.

- In Silicon Valley, YC and its copycats are creating more high quality startups.

- At later stages, investors are still almost all American but they are comfortable investing across the pond by then.

Talent

- Proportionally more top people in Silicon Valley than in London across all functions.

- You'll pay 50-70% of the salary for people of an equivalent level in Silicon Valley and the cost of living is similar to London.

- Hiring is an order of magnitude less competitive in London than in Silicon Valley.

Acquirers

- Silicon Valley is dramatically better. London has no talent acquisition market and because all the active large acquirers are in Silicon Valley, they prefer local deals. This feeds all the way down to early-stage valuations which need to be so low in order to tie up with the poor exit market in London.

Ambition and role models

- One of the biggest differences. Mentality of being best in the world is far more ubiquitous in Silicon Valley than London.

- This has serious implications for you as a founder as your ambition levels are heavily influenced by the people you surround yourself with.

Accessibility of a large market

- Most billion dollar addressable markets you can target are mainly composed of the US market.

- For cultural reasons on the consumer side and relationship-building reasons in B2B, it's much easier to win the large markets when starting in Silicon Valley.

Overall London is catching up and one $10B+ success story will accelerate closing of the gap, but there are some structural reasons that mean there's always likely to be gap.

I wrote a guest post discussing the growth of London a couple of years ago, and things have continued in the same direction since: http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/27/the-european-startup-ecosys...

langer | 12 years ago | on: Show HN: Meals/Feels - Log your meals and feels to spot food allergies

'feel' is a quality lacking from existing food trackers like MyFitnessPal. While I'm not aware of having any food allergies, I track how I feel when I train in the 'notes' box on MyFitnessPal so I can assess the impact of diet/sleep/training volume on performance. This works for me and makes sense in the context of food allergies.

Trying to spot an allergy also won't require the level of detail of MyFitnessPal/similar so I like the stripped down interface.

langer | 12 years ago | on: Lessons on Mental Strength from the “Marathon Monks”

This is the #1 reason I like CrossFit, triathlon and other extreme sports. By regularly committing to physical challenges that require a lot of mental strength, your fear of similar commitments in business and the rest of your life reduces.

langer | 17 years ago | on: Video of giant squid

What SpaceX, Virgin Galactic etc. are doing with space tourism is great, but I reckon a lot of people would pay good money to see one of those up close (safely!).

langer | 17 years ago | on: Should You Get An MBA? Some Nice Insights

The MBA is an investment opportunity - costing 2 years and ~$100k.

Surely any would-be entrepreneur is better off investing 2 years and $100k in starting a company?

langer | 17 years ago | on: 5 Hacks For Closing An Angel Round

"Hack #1: Accept a lower valuation

[...] If you want to close your funding sooner, take your valuation down a notch and give your investors 'a great deal.' This means selling me one-third of your company for $500,000, which is still a smart, $1 million pre-money valuation."

What percentage discount on pre-money valuation is generally given to really smart money [read: ideal investor(s)] vs totally dumb money?

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