jchoong

The why and what of any business capability is also a translation. From market needs and signals to requirements and features.

There were definitely bad actors in the pandemic PPE procurement rush. It's mostly cleaned up now (prices/availability are more reasonable) but we would start to see all the lawsuits/investigations come forth from the activity earlier in the year.

Too many folks jumped into the business without knowing how it works/how to do verification.

We've done a fair bit of nitrile glove trading (after our initial work with N95 procurement & donations early in the pandemic) and happy to answer what I can.

No need if you can have the drive unit changed just off the highway in a well mapped/instrumented yard. eg.

highway (fully automated truck) <> yard (switch out container/trailer from self-driving truck to manned/normal trucks) <> local (manned)

Starting up: expect lots of discomfort. There's so much bigCo support you have to re-build and it is hard to hire. It might be better to spend 6mths - 1yr at A/B stage co first then only to the founder stage. Alt, try doing something on the side to begin with. Find a partner in crime.

L7 & single? You can afford to pay the outside co-founder a bay area survivable amount (140-200 varies) and have that person work through some of the early situations and then skip out when things are moving along (eg. think A round). Risk-adjusted & safe but yet keeps a lot of the upside while allowing you to taste what it's actually like.

L8? Risk-reward ratio is skewed towards staying at a FAANG. Find and fund a few projects. See what happens. Get excitement outside of work (take all! possible vacations)

Either way, maybe find some time to talk with a proper counselor/therapist (and not HN...). Doesn't hurt and can help with the disconnected feel.

ps. funding env for form FANG, it's good assuming you are doing something sort of close to what you were responsible for. Don't expect risk-reward to be favorable though..

200 coming in cold is too high without a solid record / examples / focused vertical.

Have paid 200/hr easily and was happy for a 2 month project with a specific scope ( needed a solid RN<>iOS/Android bridge w. a lightly documented video player + optimization ). In another case, 250/hr (2k / day x 4 day week x 6 mths) to shore up team as it ramped up.

In both cases :- super clear communicators / solid engineers. 8-12 years eng. experience, 3-5 yrs in specific language.

In both cases, it required 2-3 strong references & examples within the specific requirement we needed. And it took 2-3 weeks back / forth before we decided (and we looked/searched hard for other options)

I've also 'taken chances' with folks at the 80-120 range. And that's the typical range where it's much easier to make the decision and never went much beyond samples and a quick 30min tech chat. Onboard fast ... and off board just as fast if things don't work out in the first 2-3 days.

If you're just starting out, placements are fine, build your portfolio up for 2-3 mths, then start looking at the 120-140 range. Once there, 6-12 mths out, you should see what you're good at / what are the particular trends and then focus there. Then you're closer to targeting specific companies (eg. do outreach) and for those specific hotspots, you would be able to command the 180-250 range.

Definitely target companies that just raised their A or B rounds. Else, it's the standard network + word of month @ those rates. Do try Angel.co as well (w. specific / targeted messages)