You know how when you want to get coverage in the media, you hire a PR firm. It just facilitates a connection in a few to many relationship. Few=NYT/TC, many=you/every other startup.
The money guys are in the same boat (VCs and angels) as the media folks. Few of them, many of us. Are there any services who will pitch to them for you till they land you funding, like PR firms do for coverage? (c)
I just started messing with Rails, but in a big way. That does not mean I've done anything great, I just have been learning from every source I could. I think I'm ready to stand my own two feet now (or at least try).
How do I start looking at, and messing with, simple open source projects? I'd prefer projects that are well documented / have tons of comments, are small, standalone, and simple.
For example, a good initial project might be a simple form, that lets users sign up, and store data in a db, and be able to call it (kind of like bare-bones Wufu). Another might be just creating multiple relational dbs and messing with them.
Also anything that teaches good jQuery integration, CSS etc. Also, if anyone would like, I don't mind putting up my crap work somewhere for you to dissect. :-)
Always grateful.
I apologize if you feel I bug you too much here. However, I couldn't help but wonder whom you looked up to when you were in college, when you were starting your company, when you were started investing, and now?
Majority of the hackers that I know, who know of you, think very, very highly of you. Which led me to wonder "Does PG have his PGs?"
Thanks.
You have talked about a lot of great YC founders. You've also pointed that there have been others who weren't so great. Those who taught you how to do better by not picking founders like them.
Could you please elaborate more on those? Who they were, what were they like, what you learned from them? You sound like a positive fellow who sees the best in people. Why were these folks the wrong type?
Has this ever happened, when you liked one or two of the cofounders and not so much the others?
Based on our app, what if you like one of us, or two, but not the other one or two cofounders?
Thanks.
I am learning how to code at a feverish pace. I have a new idea every week. So instead of going out and looking for a technical co-founder, I decided sometime ago to get technical myself. Really glad I made that choice. I am good at opening doors, calling people, getting meetings, and excellent at raising money. :-) The only part missing was coding, and I am on it like it's going out of style.
So far I've looked at tutorials for HTML5, CSS, AJAX, and jQuery; it all seems easy enough (on-line tutorials - built nothing yet). I am currently head-first in Rails (and really enjoying it - its way better than my day-job). However, I know I am learning fast, and whatever I build will not be world-class. Actually, it might suck a little, or even a lot, will even be slow and/or buggy. I want to make money from what I build. I enjoy programming, but I also like money.
So I was thinking, if I build something that is not optimally designed, would I be able to put is somewhere online, where other developers would be able to look at the source code, comment on my work, fix my mistakes or recommend fixes, optimize my code, or provide any other kind of input? I want to be able to chip in too, and learn from what people are doing to my code and saying about it.
Is there a way I could do that in a for-profit model?
So far I have gone through web tutorials (w3 schools) of HTML, CSS, jQuery and score about 75% at the end of each tutorial. I'm now going to go through AJAX and SQL tutorials on the same site. Next I'm going to try Michael Hartl's Rails tutorial.
Say I become 65 or 70% competient with the above technologies (while being slow to build), am I ready to build dynamic web apps, or should I add something to my to-learn list? Are there any holes or gaps in my plan? I also want my apps to look nice and feel fast.
I used to know C++ fairly well about 5 years ago. No coding ever since.
To get an idea what I'm trying to build think something like a simple groupon-esq featured online college application tool (so you can apply for multiple colleges/scholarships/funds at the same time).a
I'm in a bit of a situation - I need to learn to build stuff (web or mobile apps) in 2 weeks. What can I pick up and be dangerous with, quickly? I have access to a MacBook and a PC, an Android phone and an iPhone - above all I have a blazing fast internet connection and full 80 hours coming up that I can devote to learning.
I used to be a C++ developer, then took a 5 year break from any/all programming. I can still make sense of C++ code and have most of the OOP concepts, but please keep in mind that understanding code and being able to build something are two very different things.
Imagine this, you lose your entire skill-set due to an accident or injury, and need to be able to build something/anything (web or mobile app) by learning something in the coming two weeks or so - what advice would you give yourself? What would you learn, something fast to pick up and make useful stuff with. Please assume you're of average intelligence, not a genius, neither an idiot.
This does not have to be production-grade, just a shaky first go will do.
Thanks in advance!
