uahal's comments

Payzer | Charlotte, NC | ONSITE | www.payzer.com

Payzer is a payments platform focusing on mobile solutions for the contracting industry.

We’re currently adding to our technology team and have a particular need for professionals with experience with LAMP, AWS and Mobile. Familiarity with the payments industry is a large plus.

Senior Mobile Developer - https://payzer.workable.com/j/40D5F22008

Senior Application Developer - https://payzer.workable.com/j/F23F18E927

Senior Systems Administrator - https://payzer.workable.com/j/07469C3564

What we offer - The chance to be early at a fast growing, fully funded venture backed startup. - A professional work environment that’s non-corporate. - Strong training, mentoring and coaching. - Medical insurance: Choice of 3 plans including a 100% employer paid plan - Dental, vision, short and long-term disability, and life insurance - Company-sponsored 401(k) plan - FSA and HSA Accounts - Paid time off

Seems to me that if a person is leaving a company for a different opportunity, they're making a clear comment on their perceived future value of the company.

That is, who would leave Google in 2002? Dell in 1993? Facebook in 2006?

In my opinion, the best stock exercises are cashless, one time events, paying full short term capital gains. Those trades represent almost no risk to the exerciser (exercisor?) and are pure financial upside.

A huge percentage of stock options expire worthless (one common assumption is that 90% of options bring no value to the holder).

That's offset by the fact that a meaningful fraction of the 10% that have value to the holder can sometimes generate life changing wealth.

To me, substitution of stock options for cash is a function of how much financial risk you want to take or can afford.

If you have fewer financial obligations (eg. unmarried, no mortgage, no kids, no or low debt) and want to take a risk at a company by taking options in lieu of cash, do so.

If, on the other hand, you have financial obligations (any of the Big Financial Four above), it's probably better to get a salary that keeps your nose above water, take the token sign on equity they offer and then earn more shares by being awesome.

In any case, it's wise to objectively evaluate the value of your equity every six months or so. If it seems to you that it's got a lot of value, try to get more (ways to get more include being awesome and asking). If you think it's not worth much on two consecutive bi-annual reviews, see if there's another place where you could get a better deal.

It's no one's job to manage your career but yours.

I've used this product myself and the mobile optimization really helped with response rates. It's a good experience.

Kind of reminds me of Alien Blue for Reddit. I hemmed and hawed about buying AB for some amount of money (I don't even remember how much it was) and now I can't live without it.

Can't say I've ever felt that way about a Mac app but I'm giving it a shot.

I feel for you. I've been on the "idiot" side before but I understand where you're coming from. A couple things I'd have you do:

- Don't take advice from people who know very little and have no context.

- Clarify your ownership position in the company. "Can you explain my equity thing to me again?" Know what you own now. Know what you're entitled to in the future. If you already know this information, you can skip this step.

- Think of a person you completely trust and whose intellect you fully respect. Let's call them X. Sit down on your own and write X a letter that outlines the whole situation.

Address at least the following:

a) What you want out of the deal b) What you think it'll take to make the deal successful c) Conditions under which you're willing to keep at it d) Whether or not you want to keep going forward with this thing e) All the other important things that you know.

Make it a good letter. Spend real time on this letter. Something around 1,000 words or more.

Don't send letter. Save letter. Go to sleep.

- Next day (after you've slept and eaten), revise your letter. Really go through it and make it say what you want it to say. Take out that part that's irrelevant. Add the section about the thing you forgot.

Don't send letter. Save letter. Go to sleep.

- Next day, read letter. Revise it again if you need to.

Twist: The letter isn't for X. It's for you.

- At this point, you've built a clear inventory of what you own in the business and what you think needs to happen in order for it to work and for you to stay.

My guess is that you'll then know what you need to do. That might mean sit down and talk with the idiots. It might mean that you need to leave asap. It might mean an N day ultimatum. It might mean something else.

But whatever it means, it will have come from you.

Also, read this. I have it on the mirror in my bathroom.

http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~gongsu/desiderata_textonly.html

You are going to live through this experience. You will benefit from the lessons you've learned in this experience. This, too, shall pass.

Good luck, fellow traveler.

Fred Wilson covered the validity / opportunity / challenges associated with advertising as a business model in a recent post. The whole thing (and the comments) are informative but here's my high level summary;

- Huge difference between ads that are sold (niche) vs ads that are bought (scale).

- It takes millions of users a month to be successful at scale. It takes a great sales team to be successful in a niche.

- The absence of scarcity in online and mobile advertising creates structural downward pressure on CPM.

http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2012/12/mba-mondays-revenue-models-a...

Had the same experience. Feel the same way.

If it's not working but there's a chance you could make it something valuable, give it another go.

If it's not going to work and you know it's not going to work, it's time to shut it down and move on.

(edited for clarity)

It's all-too-easy to lie on self-reported documents such as tax returns, expense reports, and insurance policy forms. That's why we're generally required to sign a statement declaring that the report is truthful. Usually, the signature line is located at the very end of the form—after it has been filled out already, and consequently, after the potential cheating has occurred. This paper examines whether governments and companies can bolster honesty simply by moving the signature line to the beginning of the form, such that signers are swearing that they will tell the truth rather than that they have told the truth.

Really good post. I was talking to a friend of mine last week and he related a great story:

In January of 201X, he was sure his company was going out of business after 6 long hard years.

In May of 201X (same year), XXXXXX (titan we all use all the time) bought his company for $40M.

Hang in there, keep pushing, make progress, stay sane. Get up the next day and do it again.

Welcome to StartupVille.

What sort of experience have you had with Pusher and iOS, particularly in 3G environments?

Ask sales & marketing oriented types within your interested prospects how they'd explain the concept to a stranger.

Record and transcribe their comments.

Make a greatest hits compilation from those comments.

Try that with Angels.

Repeat.

1) Maintain a long list of large issues you need to resolve.

2) Regularly take a few of those items off the list and resolve to do them in a given g session.

3) When not working, take a real break. Do something else.

4) Exercise regularly. This is so massively critical for me that I can't overstate it. Regular exercise aids in focus, sleep and maintaining a positive mental attitude.

Cool utility. Surprised at how many three letter domains are still left.

Guess they'll be going away more quickly now...