samg's comments

samg | 7 years ago | on: Ask HN: Who is hiring? (July 2018)

Umbrella | Brooklyn, NYC | Full-time | Full stack engineer | https://www.askumbrella.com/

Umbrella makes it easy and affordable for seniors stay at home by connecting them to Umbrella Neighbors who want to give back with everyday tasks and home maintenance. Umbrella Neighbors are often recent retirees who want to give back and stay active. We are pioneering a new kind of purposeful work, while serving those most in need and addressing a large market.

We're a small, diverse, fast-moving, mission-oriented startup. Our stack is Python/Django/React Native. To apply email sam [AT] askumbrella.com

samg | 8 years ago | on: Ask HN: Who is hiring? (January 2018)

Umbrella | Full-stack software engineer | NYC | ONSITE

Umbrella makes it easy for seniors to continue living in their own homes, by connecting them to Handy Neighbors who want to give back with everyday tasks and home maintenance. Many Handy Neighbors are seniors themselves, often recent retirees who live in the neighborhood. We are pioneering a new kind of purposeful work, while serving those most in need and addressing a large market.

We're hiring folks with 4+ years of experience.

Our stack: Django/Postgres/React/Heroku Learn more at: https://www.askumbrella.com/ Contact: [email protected]

samg | 10 years ago | on: The right way to start a company

I think you are oversimplifying "the idea". Google's idea wasn't that "people will want to search online." Google's insightful, interesting idea that was then well-executed was the PageRank algorithm.

Geocities, Myspace and Facebook were all very different ideas. If the first two had executed better, all 3 would probably still co-exist.

samg | 10 years ago | on: The right way to start a company

This is the more common meme, and I think it is healthy to keep 'idea folks' away. Even great ideas, without execution, are worthless.

But as you say, a great idea combined with a great execution is where things get really special. Still, I do think great ideas are rare. It depends a bit on how you define what an idea is: is it a social network? is it a social network within a college campus? is it requiring real world identity?

samg | 10 years ago | on: The right way to start a company

author here– agree with many of your points, except two: 1) I think great ideas are surprisingly rare, and are very difficult to recognize. It's especially hard because of how important execution is for 'uncovering' a great idea. Great idea, badly executed = looks like a bad idea

2) I think "burning passion" oversimplifies things. Many great businesses are built without 'passion' for the solution...just a passion for some part of the business...and sometimes that's just recognition of a great financial opportunity.

samg | 10 years ago | on: The right way to start a company

hey, author here! certainly didn't mean it that way at all– was telling a personal story and used specific examples from my experience to illustrate

samg | 11 years ago | on: Video to GIF

Imgur's default is also HTML5 video– we support both WebM and MP4

samg | 11 years ago | on: Ask HN: Who is hiring? (December 2014)

Imgur is hiring in San Francisco. We're the best place to explore, share and discuss the internet's images. According to Alexa, we're the 13th largest site in the US, with just 12 engineers today.

We're hiring for growth engineers, full stack engineers, Android engineers, iOS engineers, javascript engineers and more.

Learn more here: http://imgur.com/jobs

Open positions: http://imgur.com/jobs/positions

or email me at [email protected]

samg | 11 years ago | on: The Happy Demise of the 10X Engineer

Alternatively, a creator can now build a product with fewer people and doesn't need to raise capital. This trend is extremely empowering of labor.

samg | 12 years ago | on: Who’s afraid of Jeff Bezos?

Please read the post with a heavy dose of sarcasm mixed with admiration :) I'd very much like to see formidable challengers arise.

And I actually wrote this post a week before Bezos bought the WaPo, although I think it only underscores the point.

samg | 15 years ago | on: How to beat Apple

This bugs me too. I put the location in the Note section, which is tappable.
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