7 ms·

Six Degrees of YC Separation

94 points by kmack 8y ago

ryanmercer 8y ago
Probably more accurately titled "Bay Area Tech is a Small World After All" TLDR: Chekr Director of Solutions, formerly Director of Strategic Sales (and first business hire), starts client on-boarding company (nice idea, streamline a lot to minimize hand-holding).
- tlb 8y ago
  I find that the mechanisms that make the tech world small are interesting in themselves. Graphs are made small (in the graph-theory sense of the shortest distance between typical nodes) by adding connections. This anecdote about how some particular connections were formed and later led to real opportunities seems like a good example of how things often happen in the Bay Area tech world. Perhaps someday there’ll be a general theory of how opportunities are created, but in the meantime if you want to learn how things happen, there are only anecdotes to learn from.
  - shawn 8y ago
    On the flipside, the mechanisms that make the tech world small are also the mechanisms that will exclude you and those around you if you happen to attract someone’s ire. In the limit case, this seems like a return to feudalism rather than an inclusive opportunity for everyone. I was at startup school in 2007. What struck me was how motivational and inspiring it felt. The tone in the tech world has shifted dramatically since then, at least online.
kamac 8y ago
> Hiring people that have a track record of taking projects from inception to delivery and who actively seek out projects to own is critical Doesn't that regard the first few early hires (who'd take some form of senior/management positions later on)? For me a person who delivers projects means somebody who's very involved in the process; somebody that calls significant decisions about the product. Should all hires be like that? Isn't being able to execute the tasks you're assigned enough?
- seanmcdirmid 8y ago
  I would go one step further and say if you have full of go getters, some might get bored when the inevitable “just execute the assigned tasks” work comes up. This is what I hear happening at Google a lot: they only hire A players, but many get bored (and eventually leave) when they are assigned B or C-level work that needs to get done.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - gav 8y ago
    I was visiting a large successful startup that had a "no managers" mantra--they hired engineering A players who were expected to work on the right things. It turns out that people want to work on the fun and challenging tasks. Nobody put the effort into the billing system and they were doing a poor job of collecting money from their customers. That's the thing about any organization, there's plenty of grunt work and "boring" tasks to go around, but they need to get done. Scaling up any organization is an exercise in making sure that the right things get done.
    - citizens 8y ago
      I once interviewed at a place that had "no managers' yet kept referring to the "MGMT" team. Made me laugh.
      - jiaweihli 8y ago
        I’ve yet to see a company with no managers work out. Usually it signals lack of bandwidth to set up management, low perceived value, or pessimistically a cost-cutting measure to double up on responsibilities.
        garmaine 8y ago
        Valve.
btrautsc 8y ago
Nice Kyle! congrats and good luck!
jadbox 8y ago
I thought that since this author's startup is sorta a 'reddit for politics', I'll plug my own startup (currently self-funded) which is a 'chatroulette/duolingo for politics': https://dinnertable.chat/ https://dinnertable.chat/
- ladon86 8y ago
  That was his first YC application, and it got rejected. Looks like his current startup (which is in YC) helps companies with onboarding. Your implementation looks nice! The idea of yet _more_ people to discuss politics with however... is not for me.
  - jadbox 8y ago
    I think of it more as a system to help people improve their political reasoning. Too many people are stuck in bubbles, and 'reaching across the aisle' cannot be solved by just showing the "facts"... it needs to be an emotional journey best carried out through interpersonal connections. The question is... will people be willing to have these difficult conversations? I'll just have to see with this startup. heh
- microcolonel 8y ago
  Cool, seems like it'd attract exactly the people who don't need it though. ;- ) I'll sign up I think! Edit: While I was signing up, I tried copying the verification code from the email, and it copied with the period from the email, so when I pasted it into the site it didn't work. Maybe put a zero-width space in there (U+200B) or ditch the period altogether. ;- ) Edit 2: The "start login" page didn't work the first time around. In the console I saw a 404 status on something. When I refreshed, it redirected me to the right page though. Give that signup and sign in flow a good test, I was almost ready to call it quits after trying a couple times! Edit 3: The countdown clock is jumping around a bit. Turns out the font for the numbers (Montserrat) is proportional, and does not support OpenType tabular number variants (in CSS you select these with: { font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums; }), so the countdown clock tends to jump each time a second passes and it is updated. Maybe nitpicky but it bothers me.
freedomben 8y ago
What exactly is meant by "commits" that you talk about in 1:1 and meetings? Is that more like "commitments" or "git commits". The former I agree, the latter I think is in many cases a terrible measure of productivity, because it discourages activities that don't directly lead to code, such as pairing with your junior, or helping a customer, or providing mentorship for others, etc. Remember you'll get what you measure.
- kmack 8y ago
  "Commitments", not "git commits". For revenue teams, this could be signing a contract, scheduling a certain number of meetings, drafting a blog post, etc. Similar parallels for any team within a company. The key is being able to break larger projects into manageable weekly commitments that are specific and measurable.
  - freedomben 8y ago
    Awesome, thank you
  - thrownthrow 8y ago
    Did you use the word in error or is this another example of the trend of start-ups using verbs to replace nouns?
    - jjtheblunt 8y ago
      I so agree with the ridiculousness of this behavior. When people talk of an "ask" meaning "request" i cringe at the embarrassment of their need to be jargon-cool rather than individuals.

94 points by kmack 8y ago

Probably more accurately titled "Bay Area Tech is a Small World After All" TLDR: Chekr Director of Solutions, formerly Director of Strategic Sales (and first business hire), starts client on-boarding company (nice idea, streamline a lot to minimize hand-holding).

tlb 8y ago
I find that the mechanisms that make the tech world small are interesting in themselves. Graphs are made small (in the graph-theory sense of the shortest distance between typical nodes) by adding connections. This anecdote about how some particular connections were formed and later led to real opportunities seems like a good example of how things often happen in the Bay Area tech world. Perhaps someday there’ll be a general theory of how opportunities are created, but in the meantime if you want to learn how things happen, there are only anecdotes to learn from.
- shawn 8y ago
  On the flipside, the mechanisms that make the tech world small are also the mechanisms that will exclude you and those around you if you happen to attract someone’s ire. In the limit case, this seems like a return to feudalism rather than an inclusive opportunity for everyone. I was at startup school in 2007. What struck me was how motivational and inspiring it felt. The tone in the tech world has shifted dramatically since then, at least online.

kamac 8y ago

> Hiring people that have a track record of taking projects from inception to delivery and who actively seek out projects to own is critical Doesn't that regard the first few early hires (who'd take some form of senior/management positions later on)? For me a person who delivers projects means somebody who's very involved in the process; somebody that calls significant decisions about the product. Should all hires be like that? Isn't being able to execute the tasks you're assigned enough?

seanmcdirmid 8y ago
I would go one step further and say if you have full of go getters, some might get bored when the inevitable “just execute the assigned tasks” work comes up. This is what I hear happening at Google a lot: they only hire A players, but many get bored (and eventually leave) when they are assigned B or C-level work that needs to get done.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- gav 8y ago
  I was visiting a large successful startup that had a "no managers" mantra--they hired engineering A players who were expected to work on the right things. It turns out that people want to work on the fun and challenging tasks. Nobody put the effort into the billing system and they were doing a poor job of collecting money from their customers. That's the thing about any organization, there's plenty of grunt work and "boring" tasks to go around, but they need to get done. Scaling up any organization is an exercise in making sure that the right things get done.
  - citizens 8y ago
    I once interviewed at a place that had "no managers' yet kept referring to the "MGMT" team. Made me laugh.
    - jiaweihli 8y ago
      I’ve yet to see a company with no managers work out. Usually it signals lack of bandwidth to set up management, low perceived value, or pessimistically a cost-cutting measure to double up on responsibilities.
      - garmaine 8y ago
        Valve.

btrautsc 8y ago

Nice Kyle! congrats and good luck!

jadbox 8y ago

I thought that since this author's startup is sorta a 'reddit for politics', I'll plug my own startup (currently self-funded) which is a 'chatroulette/duolingo for politics': https://dinnertable.chat/ https://dinnertable.chat/

ladon86 8y ago
That was his first YC application, and it got rejected. Looks like his current startup (which is in YC) helps companies with onboarding. Your implementation looks nice! The idea of yet _more_ people to discuss politics with however... is not for me.
- jadbox 8y ago
  I think of it more as a system to help people improve their political reasoning. Too many people are stuck in bubbles, and 'reaching across the aisle' cannot be solved by just showing the "facts"... it needs to be an emotional journey best carried out through interpersonal connections. The question is... will people be willing to have these difficult conversations? I'll just have to see with this startup. heh
microcolonel 8y ago
Cool, seems like it'd attract exactly the people who don't need it though. ;- ) I'll sign up I think! Edit: While I was signing up, I tried copying the verification code from the email, and it copied with the period from the email, so when I pasted it into the site it didn't work. Maybe put a zero-width space in there (U+200B) or ditch the period altogether. ;- ) Edit 2: The "start login" page didn't work the first time around. In the console I saw a 404 status on something. When I refreshed, it redirected me to the right page though. Give that signup and sign in flow a good test, I was almost ready to call it quits after trying a couple times! Edit 3: The countdown clock is jumping around a bit. Turns out the font for the numbers (Montserrat) is proportional, and does not support OpenType tabular number variants (in CSS you select these with: { font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums; }), so the countdown clock tends to jump each time a second passes and it is updated. Maybe nitpicky but it bothers me.

freedomben 8y ago

What exactly is meant by "commits" that you talk about in 1:1 and meetings? Is that more like "commitments" or "git commits". The former I agree, the latter I think is in many cases a terrible measure of productivity, because it discourages activities that don't directly lead to code, such as pairing with your junior, or helping a customer, or providing mentorship for others, etc. Remember you'll get what you measure.

kmack 8y ago
"Commitments", not "git commits". For revenue teams, this could be signing a contract, scheduling a certain number of meetings, drafting a blog post, etc. Similar parallels for any team within a company. The key is being able to break larger projects into manageable weekly commitments that are specific and measurable.
- freedomben 8y ago
  Awesome, thank you
- thrownthrow 8y ago
  Did you use the word in error or is this another example of the trend of start-ups using verbs to replace nouns?
  - jjtheblunt 8y ago
    I so agree with the ridiculousness of this behavior. When people talk of an "ask" meaning "request" i cringe at the embarrassment of their need to be jargon-cool rather than individuals.