Recent submissions

Comment · 10 years ago
I guess I missed the 'Fundraising' portion while being Latin American in the 'lessons' - must be because its so easy, right?
Comment · 10 years ago
I'm not sufficiently white to qualify for a Medium account to tell everyone how I quit my 6-figure paying job at McKinsey, after graduating at Wharton, and my college roommate who graduated in finance gave me $5MM in seed money to start my new photo sharing app, so you can do it too'
Comment · 10 years ago
I'm sure he is not tweeting from a notepad. Don't smartphones count as computers nowadays?
Comment · 10 years ago
Any ideas how to get a refreshing sabbatical, reboot, invest in myself and seek new friends when the child support and alimony payments are due? anyone? anyone? Bueller?
Comment · 10 years ago
Only good for specific tech jobs. For sales, marketing, product management, PR, HR, etc... they don't do squat.

Prediction: All these 'hiring startups' will pop like a soap bubble and leave behind as much once their raison-de-etre vanishes and hiring stops being hot.

Comment · 10 years ago
Let's say it was strong empiric evidence (e.g. on event invites, I always saw this, SV event invitation emails had the lowest open/clicks vs. other parts of the country) Same email, different regions. Same result. I also get the regular 'I hate emails, I don't click or read them' from a lot of coworkers, despite being the main revenue channel. Yeah, it's fun to be right. I'm bragging about it.
Comment · 10 years ago
I'm glad there is real data on this. I kept explaining to people that our email and social habits in SV are a complete outlier vs. the rest of the world.
Comment · 10 years ago
The data is nationwide. But California proves this NOT to be the case.

Sunnyvale/Mountain View have experienced 4 years of building new housing without limits, yet every year is more expensive. The new units (rental or for sale) are way higher than the average rent or price. (e.g. ALL the new housing being built now in the peninsula is priced at $1MM or more) I fail to see the point of pushing for new unregulated housing here besides saying in 30+ years the middle class will move to housing built for the rich now. Sure... In 30 years the middle class won't exist. (and in SV I give it 12-15 years)

Comment · 10 years ago
Depends on what you do...it could take more than 6 months, and try being income-less in SV for a few months
Comment · 10 years ago
Thank you for the 'mansplaining' and for reinforcing stereotypes that older people 'must not have been good at their jobs' and by showing your ageism proudly. You are doing us all proud TinyTim. You go boy!
Comment · 10 years ago
This is so true. So so true

I am in what I consider the 'top of my game' in user acquisition and digital marketing - My last company was acquired after two years thanks to a very quick quick growth. I have a decent resume with the big names and startups too. Have 10 years of exp + US and emerging markets. Been looking in SV since September (the acquirer was foreign so the US office is closing) and what I've found is something similar:

1) Waiting for Godot - Interviewed at a new-online-loan company for a position for Digital Marketing Dir. I used ALL their tools they have in place and had worked with their digital vendor. Didn't pass. Last I looked, 3 months later and according to Linked-in, 122 candidates later, no one has been hired. 122 people and no one is qualified apparently here. You ever see those job-applicant counts at linked-in? 100's of people applying. No one is ever good enough.

2)No Diversity Allowed - Once, FB asked clearly for 6+ yrs experience for a monetization position in exactly the same area I was working at the Startup that was acquired. I went, I interviewed (with a team of all FB lifers). Result? They hire a Stanford MBA grad with no experience beyond an internship at Uber. huh?

3)The Presentation/Project to do - Yes, now another SV favorite of the job interview. A new round of presenting work under ridiculous deadlines and sometimes fake data. Or pick my brain for free time. Yet another confounding exercise that adds very little. 20 slides later, you just blew another 10 non-paid hours in a powerpoint with no use.

4)The Dirty Dozen - How many people you think you need to talk to get an open position? Lately it requires 12+ or more in marketing. Not only they want a 30 min interview with each (for 6 hours) but sometimes 30 minutes is not enough, or usually too long when 4 or 5 people that will interview, you will not work with ever.

Just a couple of months ago, for a 4-month contractor position (covering for someone leaving in maternity leave) I had 2 rounds of interviews, talked to 9 different people...just for 4 months or work. WTF?

5) The Bait & Switch - After all its said and done, either 'the position has been revised down' or 'would you like to be a contractor for a few months' until we get approval for an FTE? Cmon dudes...

6) The Ghost Ship - You go through the interviews, then the company does layoffs, and you are invited again (post layoffs) to interview with a whole new team. Yeah, no thanks.

7) The Double Trouble - Once, I was the last of the 2 candidates. The other won. A few months later, they called me again, saying the position had been opened again. I went back thinking it was just a quick refresh to do before taking the job. But no, they made me interview all over again, and also had other candidates. Didn't get elected again. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.

Comment · 10 years ago
I don't agree. If Investors were dumb enough to add so much money to the seed round of this turd, they should (and will) learn better by losing all their $ than to ask for it back. VCs gave tons of $$$ to Color, to Secret, etc... and its all gone. Although they all love to say 'you can only lose your money once'...
Comment · 10 years ago
Comment · 10 years ago

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