Ask HN: Technical Start for a Non-Technical Founder - <AUTHOR> My technical co-founder and I have split ways.
As a non-technical founder, I decided to bring in a partner to take care of all things 'tech', while I dealt with Sales, Marketing & Finance.  The startup was my idea. However, I believe my partner to have more experience, skills and guidance (FAANG), and guide me in the journey too.
However, I have always felt that my partner was not pulling his weight. With constant delays, not replying to emails, and or suddenly on vacation, and so on. I felt like I am chaperoning, rather than get more insights from my partner.
The app I am building is not complex. I even made a replica of the entire thing on MS-Excel.
I slowly found myself learning to code enough to design and build the front-end of the application.  Which I delivered to my co-founder to do the rest, and still we have not been able to deliver.
I guess to him, this was a side-project, and for me, I was passionate about bringing this to market as fast as possible, and truly believe that this solution is necessary to the world.
But the pivot to a sole founder, albeit exciting is a little scary. I always doubted if I would be able to do anything technical, and didn't have the courage. But in the last 3 years, I have been able to surprise myself. I want to do this, and I will build this.
- Has anyone been in a similar situation? Can you please share your experience in coming back from this?
- I want to build a web app, no matter what. I am good with hacking about in HTML, CSS & JS templates to create front-ends, but I have no idea what to do next about the back-end. According to my business logic at the moment, PWAs sound like a good choice - but I just want to get it to market - so is building something responsive enough?.
- Where should I start to make the back-end?
Any and every advice is much appreciated.
Thank you so much for your time in reading this. <comment><USER2> Hi! After two startups and a co-founder split, I have decided to try to go the other way this time. No (initial) funding, organic growth, first finding product-market fit and doing both technical and non-technical myself (one person shop) - I am non-technical but have a technical streak. I have done in the past a coding bootcamp (Fullstack in NY, highly recommended) but have not really coded since then (four years ago). Recently, I decided to dive back in and really enjoying the technical side of things. However, I realize it's not the most efficient way to building a product or company - but I believe that the issues investors and co-founders can create, besides the time to find and convince the right ones, if you have a knack for the technical, it might be the better and more peaceful choice - so far it is for me, let's see where I get to. Given that I had some foundation in coding (though limited practice) I felt diving into a few course before starting to build with the actual product was very beneficial. I especially enjoyed the courses by Wes Bos (worth every penny). I also spent a lot of time to explore what the right frameworks are. It's one thing to build something you can click through. It's another thing to build it in a way it can scale (including other developers coming in and continuing from where you left of). Choosing the right tech stack feels like a very important choice, the deeper I dig. I hope this is helpful. Good luck with your journey!

</comment><comment><USER3> (will update more when at a desktop)

Several backed builder solutions, no/low code, or outsource

Started a private beta for own solution, email is in profile if interested.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi. Thanks for the reply. I couldn't find an email. Will wait for your answer when on desktop :).</comment></comment>


AMD's Interlagos and Valencia finally emerge - <AUTHOR> http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4230565/AMD-s-Interlagos-and-Valencia-finally-emerge

<comment><USER2> "AMD predicts the updated Opteron 6276 will have 84 percent higher performance than rival Intel's Xeon processor Model X5670"

Even though Apple seems to be an Intel shop for x86, I would love to see a Mac Pro with a couple of these. They say they will be price competitive.

</comment><comment><USER3> Does AMD have an embedded platform outside of Fusion (like it, but without a graphics core)?</comment>


Ask HN: Sites similar to hothardware, anandtech but with server/blade specifics? - <AUTHOR>

Looking for sites that review hardware primarily aimed at the server space, rack servers, blade servers... I can't find any really good source.
Anyone know of some good sites? I've tried the following and they are all pretty bad:
serverwatch.com infoworld.com techworld.com networkworld.com pcworld.com <comment><USER2> You won't find any. Most server hardware never gets sent out for review at all, and the "tier 1" vendors only give hardware to tame reviewers like InfoWorld. AnandTech does review whitebox servers on occasion, though.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> It's sad, most of the InfoWorld reviews only dig into Novice level stuff... nothing as far as real good benchmarks, quirks, things they would change, etc.</comment>


Lead developer quits Bitcoin saying it 'has failed' - <AUTHOR> http://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-technology-bitcoin-idUSKCN0UT2II <comment><USER2> > Hearn said in his post on blog-publishing platform Medium.

[https://medium.com/@octskyward/the-resolution-of-the- bitcoin...](https://medium.com/@octskyward/the-resolution-of-the-bitcoin- experiment-dabb30201f7#.arla6x1wy)</comment>


Cybersecurity as a socially conscious career choice for young hackers - <AUTHOR> http://www.forbes.com/sites/jmaureenhenderson/2013/09/30/selling-cybersecurity-as-a-sexy-and-socially-conscious-career-choice-for-young-hackers/?

<comment><USER2> Nothing new here, except for a big ad for cyberaces (dot) org.

The lesson: most kids who crack systems as a self-declared white hat will be punished, some will get lucky with job offers (that they never seem to accept at the end of the day - humm).

Like the elders were advising 10-20 years ago: don't bother with trying to play by the rules. Start your own consulting firm or just keep it to yourself.

</comment><comment><USER3> Hamad was expelled not for finding the vulnerability, but for running Nessus against the system _after_ he reported the vulnerability, allegedly as a means of checking to see if it had been fixed.

Young Hamad shouldn't have done that, and would be fired from _any_ job in cybersecurity for doing the same thing against a client's network without authorization.

<comment><USER4> I don't consider running a "Nessus scan" such a huge misdeed. Expelled for running a nessus scan? No, way.

<comment><USER3> Fine, all moral decisions aside, you'd lose your job for the analogous situation in the professional world.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Apart from the fact that it's pretty much impossible to find a job in cybersecurity unless you have some wanky certifications.

When I was younger I tried to break into that world and it was pretty much impossible. Companies I contacted to notify them about their security flaws seldom replied (and when they did, it was never to thank me)

On the other hand, I could always find buyers for exploits in alternative markets, or credit card numbers, or rooted servers.

My moral compass prevented me from going too deep into that stuff, but I know people who ended up setting DDoS -for-cash services, etc. (and they/we were just kids !)

I get it that you're trying to sell courses here, but come on...

<comment><USER6> This is really not the case.

Certifications are often frowned upon by some of the better pen testers.

Programming skill will get you most of the way there. It is by no means impossible.

<comment><USER5> I worked in this company where we had a dedicated security team, the pentesters were either outsourced or underpaid goons with an excel cheatsheet of things to try. The managers were MBAs with CompTIA certs.

Now, this is only my experience, but I've never really seen all-rounded security people being valued in companies, apart from maybe small consultancies where getting a job is probably mostly governed by luck and being in the right place, at the right time :)

<comment><USER7> It depends both on the company and on the role.

Certs can be important for contract/services work, so if you're looking at a company that bills people out to clients, and that would be your role, you'll probably needs certs, as some clients (e.g. government) require them.

If you're looking at joining an internal security team at a company -- even a big one like Visa or Intel -- the certs tend to be less important. Plenty of people, as you move up the management chain, have certs, but usually because the employer footed the bill.

My evidence is anecdotal, obviously, but everyone I know who's joined an internal security team got the gig based on skills and experience. None of them had certs. (And the offers I've received myself weren't based on certs, since I don't have any!)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This reminds me of Hackers for Charity which connects bored hackers with charities who need IT help. It keeps the teens from hacking systems they shouldn't, and gets them something to put on their resume so they have an easier time getting a legit security job in the future.

</comment><comment><USER6> _If you're good, you have nowhere to practice right now except the open internet, where it's a federal crime._

Not quite true. Many massive sites offer rewards for finding vulnerabilities. Be sure you comply with their terms of service while doing so.

<comment><USER9> Plus you can get VMs with vulnerabilities to test against.

But don't hack other people. Bad things lay that way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> HBGary, Palantir and the likes... socially conscious, green, recyclable.

<comment><USER11> That's one _tiny_ company that no longer exists, and another that doesn't do information security.

<comment><USER3> Would it factor into your hiring process, if someone had a story like this and applied to your company?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I'm the coach of a high school Cyber Patriot team and it is really interesting.

The high-schoolers are more hungry for information and more interested than the College CCDC team I work with (a very top team).

With that being said, there are so many outlets for these younger hackers to practice. CTFs everywhere on the internet, cyber challenges are all over the internet, and there is always something completely new to learn (Oh...you learned WebSec pretty well...but what do you know about exploit development).

The problem is we need more people who know what they are doing to work closely with the high school students and keep them focused and keep them exploring the discipline.

A bored student without Allen Pallers thing here will usually be a bored student with it. The CyberAces weekend in my state is in March. What are my high schoolers supposed to do until then if they are truly bored?

</comment><comment><USER13> Social consciousness is simply being aware of the problems that people face. It doesn't mean you're "making a difference" at all. Most people in cybersecurity don't, because most of the jobs are focused on improving a public or private entity's bottom line, not helping people with their day to day struggles.

Want a socially conscious job that helps people? Don't pick a career where you track down holes in the dyke and report back their location to your corporate or government master. Pick a career where you build a better dyke (and don't hold people for ransom to use it)

Aside: i'd love to see these blatant advertisements-as-news-articles banished from the front page for good.

<comment><USER14> I think your aside is responsible for more than a few of your upvotes.

<comment><USER13> That's possible, though the comments above the aside could just as easily be a reason for downvotes. People are probably weighing the voting decision against both and choose accordingly. True democracy in action!</comment></comment></comment>


Developing countries are (increasingly) competing on creativity as well as cost - <AUTHOR> http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15908408

<comment><USER2> Thomas Friedman pushes globalization, with the same passion as a drug dealer, touting that, "Let them do the blue collar work, and America will do what it does best: creative, innovative, white collar work."

That's only a temporary competitive advantage, though. (To say it's sustainable is racist, really.) And now, lo!, here are the signs it's ending. Surprise, surprise.

 _Innovation in the emerging world will encourage, rather than undermine, innovation in the rich world._

With this, they are trying to say, "But don't worry; this doesn't affect you." Ha! No, no, no. Developing countries are coming to eat your lunch, and I couldn't be happier about it. Bon apetit!

</comment><comment><USER3> A lot of the time you are limited by the environment you are surrounded with. It makes sense to me that developing countries would start to compete on a creative edge, because they likely have a completely different perspective about the world than we (non-developing) countries do.</comment>


Dead Bodies Keep Moving for More Than a Year After Death, Scientist Finds - <AUTHOR> https://www.sciencealert.com/the-writhing-dead-turns-out-human-corpses-move-around-quite-a-bit-as-they-decompose <comment><USER2> What I find most surprising is that nobody had ever done such a timelapse of a human body decay. Makes me think of all the other patterns of motion we could discover simply by filming everyday stuff at unusual sampling rates.

</comment><comment><USER3> seems to me like the janitor is sneaking in and banging the corpses

<comment><USER4> warming up for halloween ?</comment></comment>


Text message blows up suicide bomber by accident - <AUTHOR> http://www.leaderpost.com/news/Text+message+blows+suicide+bomber+accident/4172966/story.html#ixzz1CEXYNNTR

<comment><USER2> Spam saving lives.

<comment><USER3> Bad business, though: they lost a customer.

<comment><USER4> But saved a dozen potential ones.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This happened on the 2009 Christmas episode of _Bones_.

A guy gets forced into a suicide bomb vest and then it's prematurely detonated. The trigger turned out to be a radio signal from a nearby pirate radio broadcaster who happened to be on the same frequency as the bomber's detonator.

<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1541172/synopsis>

</comment><comment><USER6> So, does this make the one who sent the text message a murderer?

<comment><USER7> Message was sent by robot (automated congratulations from mobile operator). So, does this make it a murder of human by robot?

<comment><USER8> They're here to protect us! I knew it!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> So the bombing at the airport wasn't an isolated incident, but a planned attack. What's the motive behind it? Why Russia?

<comment><USER10> that's why <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Chechen_War>

The chechnyan islamists have been terrorizing the area since the 1990s.

they were the first ones that i know of, that used the 'force' of producing and distributing videos of 'peer' civlians getting beheaded.

<comment><USER11> The Russian (government) is responsible for a fair share of civilian slaughter. This does not excuse terrorism, just shows that there is no righteous side in this war.

As a side note, the airport attack could not have been prevented by the nude scanners.

<comment><USER12> As a side note, the airport had at least one nude scanner when I flew out of it several years ago.

<comment><USER13> I think you only underscore his point further.

<comment><USER12> At the time it wasn't general use, I only went through it due to special circumstances. And no, of course they had no effect, you don't get scanned to go into the arrivals lounge.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> That's why you buy a new pre-paid phone to use as the trigger.

<comment><USER15> Just use an Android phone and set up Tasker to trigger on a special keyword in the SMS, not just any SMS.

<comment><USER16> Prepaid Android phone or have them sign a two-year contract?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> She started the new year off with a bang.

</comment><comment><USER13> So, how about sending a text message to every phone every 5 minutes. Vendors could agree on a message they will ignore that will just set off the vibration motor in the phone. You'd have to hack the firmware to get around that, which I would consider beyond the skills of most bomb makers, if not all of them.

Of course it would take a few years to phase out all the old phones but you could then pretty much spot a potential bomber by checking the age of the IMEI.

<comment><USER18> No. Absolutely not. Are you being sarcastic? I would never buy a phone that vibrated every 5 minutes, that would drive me insane.

That's yet another way to show that the terrorists win every single time. What better way to change the world than to force every single cell phone to annoy the bloody hell out of its user? Who needs to keep killing people when you're able to constantly and continuously annoy every single person in the Western world?

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Why should she use a text-message for a belt bomb? Wouldn't a simple switch be sufficient?

I don't think this is a credible source.

<comment><USER20> Remote triggers on suicide bombs are not uncommon. Either in case the suicide bomber gets cold feet and can't push the button or so that a spotter with a better tactical view can trigger the bomb at the optimal moment.

<comment><USER21> It also can be for quasi religious reasons, similar to the American practice of having several people throw the switch in an execution, with only one of the switches being live.

<comment><USER13> And to remove the fact that you are committing suicide from your cosmic slate which may very well be against your religion.

<comment><USER22> So the plan is to get into heaven on a technicality?

<comment><USER13> Mobsters taking confession on their deathbeds in return for a large chunk of cash? When it comes to self delusion humanity has no limits.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Nodes: Reimagined web OS with composable apps - <AUTHOR> https://nodes.ws <comment><AUTHOR> Hello! My name is Tim and I am a web developer. Today developers use lots of open source small focused libs to create apps, but those apps are not composable. Imagine we have approach to build small focused apps(like url preview, note taking, kanban board, chat and so on) and then combine them to achieve next level of functionality.

Also I struggle to find better approaches to UI design and overall user experience, so that apps and environment can help user stay focused, productive and at the same time have fun.

Experiments on this topic led me to create Nodes. It is work in progress, but some patterns are already visible:

\- Nodes is like directories with superpowers given by micro-apps called sides. \- Each side "do one thing and do it well"(like url preview, text note and so on) \- Node can contain one instance of each side type and another nodes.

This enables fractal design of arbitrary problem solving. Given that sides can be developed independently by OSS community and then easily and instantly "installed" from url and that every node(with all child nodes) can be used as template to create new nodes we get simple, scalable and robust alternative to current "bunch of closed source independent apps" situation.

Now you can try Nodes, it is working offline-first(cloud or decentralised collaboration can be added on top of that), and showcase this ideas. Code is available on Github. Your feedback and support on Patreon is highly appreciated! Have a nice day;)

P. S. It is my first open source project, so please be merciful to me</comment>


I Hate It When My Tests Pass - <AUTHOR> http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/sn56n/i_hate_it_when_my_tests_pass/

<comment><USER2> Being the TDD junkie that I am... Isn't the simplest solution to this problem to write the test first? :-)

</comment><comment><USER3> Link to the actual content: [http://blog.amir.rachum.com/post/21601402106/i-hate-it- when-...](http://blog.amir.rachum.com/post/21601402106/i-hate-it-when-my- tests-pass)

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh, silly me. Posted it at reddit first and mixed up my copy+paste. Sorry.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Printing details of successful tests seems like a good way of hiding details of any failing tests :-\</comment>


Ask HN: Why my SEO is still not working? - <AUTHOR>

We are getting the same traffic from 150 to 200 from last 4 months. no improvements. any suggestion.<p>PS: http://www.waroze.com/ <comment><USER2> Are you trying to rank for Google.com or Google.co.in? First of all, if you want Google.com you will probably want to change your hosting to a U.S. based host/server.

It does look like you have been naughty and are doing spam links back in January, then lost 90% of your links - and then your inbound links have stayed pretty much flat since then.

SEO isn't just backlinks, but its on-site optimization, content, social interaction, semantic information...and 100's of potential factors. There is no quick answer and a real expert would take hours to provide you with a complete analysis.</comment>


Machine Translates Thoughts into Speech in Real Time - <AUTHOR> http://www.physorg.com/news180620740.html/r:t/ <comment><USER2> Remarkable. Here's what seems to be the key point (reordered a bit for clarity):

 _The study supported our hypothesis [...] that the premotor cortex represents intended speech as an 'auditory trajectory,' that is, as a set of key frequencies (formant frequencies) that vary with time in the acoustic signal we hear as speech. [...] In an intact brain, these frequency trajectories are sent to the primary motor cortex where they are transformed into motor commands to the speech articulators. [...We] had to interpret these frequency trajectories in order to translate them into speech. [...] In other words, we could predict the intended sound directly from neural activity in the premotor cortex, rather than try to predict the positions of all the speech articulators individually and then try to reconstruct the intended sound [...]_

Also remarkable (but maybe this is old hat to people who know about this stuff?) is that the signals they're interpreting come from neurites that started actually growing into the electrode months after it had been implanted.

I suppose there is a big difference between being able to interpret pre-speech frequencies in a normal brain (i.e. of a person who hasn't used this device before), versus someone being able to train themselves to communicate using this device over time. Given how adaptable the brain is, it's the latter that would seem to be the big win (and the article does vaguely imply this). Of course the device presumably wouldn't work at all if it weren't rooted in normal speech function.

</comment><comment><USER3> The key facts:

 _In the current study, only three vowel sounds were tested._ _The test subject's average hit rate increased from 45% to 70% across sessions, reaching a high of 89% in the last session._

</comment><comment><USER4> Holy cow! Is this 1st April? Unbelievable. They implanted an electrode to a disabled guy's brain, powered it wirelessly and it sent them back wirelessly signals representing audio frequencies of what the guy wanted to say. Decoded on a computer with 50ms latency, 89% accuracy on vowels.

<comment><USER5> Yeah, I think I'll have to see more evidence before I'll believe this exists.

<comment><USER6> The physorg article links to the original research paper, which is published in an open access journal that anyone can view. Perhaps you would be interested in video S1 in the supporting information section:

[http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone...](http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0008218#s5)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Unfortunately I can't read the story from my iPhone. They redirect a perfectly good site to a minimal site that doesn't properly follow links, so I'm redirected to the current story list. Clicking on Full Site switches to the proper display but then the story isn't in the list.

<comment><USER8> [http://pda.physorg.com/speech-speechsynthesizer- frequencytra...](http://pda.physorg.com/speech-speechsynthesizer- frequencytrajectories_news180620740.html) should work. In fact, I prefer this layout to the 'normal' one.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> That is quite amazing. It's a pity you posted this on what is probably one of the lowest traffic days of the year for HN, but thank you anyway.

</comment><comment><USER10> I wonder how it goes about a person talking to himself (without actually speaking) vs. thinking and speaking to somebody.

If I had to use one of these I'd surely need a 'mute' feature :)

</comment><comment><USER11> Polygraph replacement incoming?

</comment><comment><USER12> I want one.</comment>


Real value - <AUTHOR> http://b.elezea.com/post/18328432163

<comment><USER2> Popularity is indeed a crude proxy for quality, as innumerable examples show. But this makes it hard to upvote this heartfelt short statement: because, what am I going to do -- make it popular? Isn't that what it's speaking against?

<comment><USER3> The tumblr stats below the end of the post looked very out of place, after reading the content. 3 likes. 1 reblog.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Status updates are a new kind of conspicuous "consumption": instead of buying that pair of designer jeans for the big night out I'll just post a witty status to show off. Nothing wrong with that. Maybe even better than consumerism: no natural resources were lost in the production of this status update.

</comment><comment><USER5> _Everyone knows that's not the whole story, of course. No one says "I'm lonely" on Twitter. No one uses Facebook to post their deep, dark thoughts about marriage or parenting or work or the future or the past._

When people do share such sentiments, they are ignored or told that they're over-sharing. I admit that I've even felt this about other people "fishing for pity", though at the same time I realize what a stupid, negative, uncaring thought that is to have, particularly in light of it being so-called 'social' technology.

However, the above passage leads me to wonder: you know how they say that you can change yourself from the outside in? For example, feeling nervous about a job interview of blind date? Literally skip for the last 20 feet to the door. It's very difficult to keep a negative frame of mind when skipping along. Force yourself to smile, and you may soon find yourself genuinely smiling more.

Does this hold true for 'social' networking? Let's say I'm depressed and haven't gone out much. If I focus on going out, doing something, and taking a picture of it, and then make a positive (or pseudo-positive) post about it, am I not effectively improving my real emotional situation?

Incidentally, I had a traumatic experience a few years ago when I met an amazing person who profoundly changed my life over the course of a mere month. She then passed away unexpectedly. I wrote a Facebook 'note' about my experience and feelings. It received little response on Facebook. When meeting friends in person, however, they often mentioned how deeply touched they'd been by what I wrote. So, the social pressure to be positive extends to the point that we don't even comment on our friends' tragedies online.

<comment><USER6> This may not happen so much on Facebook or Twitter or any place where your online identity is closely linked to your offline one, but the internet can actually make that kind of "over-sharing" easier. When people are anonymous or pseudonymous online, this can remove the inhibitions that keep them from talking about their innermost thoughts and secrets. The result of this is that, sometimes, groups of anonymous strangers will talk publicly about their feelings and be surprisingly kind to one another.</comment></comment>


How Andreessen Horowitz Fumbled An Instagram Investment - <AUTHOR> http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/20/how-andreessen-horowitz-fumbled-an-instagram-investment/ <comment><USER2> Anyone reading this article needs to remember to never be afraid of putting yourself out there because you are afraid of failure.

I saw the market first, I created picplz, and I went for it. I was a huge believe in the mobile photo sharing opportunity, and I went for it with all of my heart. Clearly, picplz didn't win, but I have ZERO shame or regret for doing my best.

When I read articles like these, which are about myself, my company and people that I know well, I can't help but feel vitriol aimed at me for DARING to create, launch and raise funding for picplz. I am not clear on what exactly people want, an apology for trying?

The fact is, I saw the writing on the wall that we wouldn't win _early_ and pivoted out of photo sharing which I had ~90% of my series A cash still in the bank. It certainly seems like that was the right move, but all of this press makes it look like pivoting was the wrong call(?) The press I read is written in such a way that it assumed that the A16Z investment is dead and my entire company should just be written off to zero today. That is bullshit. If I started to take press like this too seriously I might as well just dissolve my company and stop coming into work.

I say this to the hn comminity: never be afraid of failure. No one knows what will happen. All of this arm-chair quarterbacking is a waste of time. Stop reading this kind of crap and instead put your energy into doing your best work. Sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose, but if you give yourself the opportunity to win enough times, you WILL be successful.

<comment><USER3> I think you're reading something into the article that isn't there. I saw no vitriol aimed at picplz.

<comment><USER4> I read the article as being unnecessarily harsh towards picplz to bolster the 'fumble' that was Andreesen Horowitz's 4,000% return on instagram. This article is definitely a non-article and could easily be changed around to say "Andreesen Horowitz has done it again!".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> "At that market capitalization, Andreessen Horowitz's stake would be worth $100 million — not bad for a $250,000 investment, but $200 million short of the return it could have earned had it stayed the course."

Amazing that you can turn $250k into (possibly) $100,000,000 and in the eyes of a NYT writer you have fallen short.

The writer will make a great parent.

<comment><USER6> I'm really not sure I get her beef.

If I bought $1MM worth of AAPL in 2003 at $10/share, I'd have $57MM. But if I bought it in December 97, at $3.30/share, I could have _$150MM!_ What an idiot am I!

AH made out like bandits here; I'm sure they feel just fine about it.

<comment><USER5> "not sure I get her beef"

There is a saying in news business "if it bleeds it leads".

The negative angle draws in viewers and readers on certain topics and in certain situations. My guess is that that she decided this angle would get more views and interest.

<comment><USER6> Given how the page fared on HN, she's probably right.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Extra, extra, read all about it! Firm makes wrong bet in high risk industry and still comes out with 40000% return! Epic fail!

<comment><USER8> What a tragedy! Andreeson Horowitz only earned $100 million on a $250 thousand investment. What amateurs! They might as well go work at McDonalds.

<comment><USER9> I know, right?

For his next hit piece, that NYT "journalist" should write how Andreeson Horowitz are losers because they failed to buy enough Apple stock at $8 a share.

<comment><USER8> If Andreeson Horowitz invested in a company that produced a time machine, the New York Times would criticize them for not using the time machine to go back in time and invest in an earlier funding round.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> It's helpful to know as an entrepreneur that, whatever "A16Z" (heh) thinks about this particular instance, venture capitalists are, allegedly, as a species, _way more motivated_ by fear of stories like this than they are of the fear that their investment in you will come to nothing. When they need to raise money for their next fund, nobody is going to hear about the investments that came to nothing, but the obvious missed opportunities are going to sting.

This helps explain why they'll plow money into shoot-the-moon me-too startups that have no discernable chance of success, but might turn you down even if you have steadily growing revenue.

<comment><USER5> "fear of stories like this".

As a matter of fact, Fred Wilson on his blog the day after the deal was announced was asked this by a commenter:

"I was looking for a lively discussion of the FB/Instagram deal today"

To which Fred replied:

"i'm not interested in that discussion really. somehow that takes energy from me. i am not inspired."

As you said "obvious missed opportunities are going to sting"

[http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2012/04/life-liberty-and-blazing- bro...](http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2012/04/life-liberty-and-blazing- broadband.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Is it just me, or does this seem like a pretty savvy investment by A/H? They got their money into both companies, and ended up getting back (if the article is to be believed), a 400x return on their investment. There was a time and place where that was considered not too shabby, some might even say quite good.

Nobody can maximize every investment. How often does it happen that anybody maximizes their investment potential on any given deal? I wish I would have bought Apple stock in 1998 instead of 2005, but I wouldn't say I "fumbled an investment opportunity." When I first saw this headline, not knowing the backstory, I thought this meant that they did something to piss off the Instagram founders and lost out on the chance to put anything into the company at all.

</comment><comment><USER12> Was the NYT headline updated? It currently reads 'How Andreessen Horowitz Bunted on an Instagram Investment'.

The piece describes how Andreessen Horowitz invested in both Burbn & Picplz. After Burbn pivoted to Instagram, Andreessen Horowitz had to choose between the two - since they competed directly. Andreessen Horowitz chose to go with the company that they put money for photo sharing.

<comment><USER11> Ha, it must have been, because the URL still says "fumbled."

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Also tells you how difficult it is to figure out who is going to make it big. picplz had Dalton Caldwell, both an Android and an iPhone version and a several month head start. You can't blame a16z for picking them.

Besides, it looks like they did the most ethical/default thing they could - back the company they had already funded for photo sharing and avoid a conflict.

</comment><comment><USER14> _It was a calculated bet against Instagram and it left Mr. Systrom livid, these people said. Instagram's founders never discussed strategy with the firm again._

Curious: To what extent can you avoid disclosing information to your investors, once it becomes clear that they are competing against you.

 _But Mr. Systrom's experience with Andreessen Horowitz taught him to choose his investors warily._

Why? It seems like A16Z did the most ethical thing, which was support the company that the original founded for this idea. When Instagram pivoted into a competing position, why would they expect A16Z to back them and bury picplz?

 _By the time Facebook acquired Instagram for $1 billion in a cash-stock deal a week ago, Andreessen Horowitz's stake in the company had fallen to less than 10 percent._

If A16Z had half the seed round, then that means that the seed investors owned 20%, diluted. If Benchmark own 30% at the sale, that means that the seed angels must have took >30% of the company at the $500K seeding. Is this correct?

</comment><comment><USER15> I'm personally sad to see what happened to picplz; they were the main option around for Android at the time and I always preferred their low-key feel to the more showy feel of Instagram. Competition is a good thing.

</comment><comment><USER16> I'd hardly call a 400x return 'fumbling'.

</comment><comment><USER9> The article failed to convince me of the truth of the thesis proposed in its headline. Seems more a hit piece than anything solid or impartial.

</comment><comment><USER17> I actually find this article rather unfair to all involved. It is quite clear that the author seems to have it out for AH - after all, a $100m return is freaking AMAZING for $250,000, and Benchmark made a far lower multiple for the amount they invested.

In the end, I'd say the win goes to AH - they made a mistake, but also didn't exactly lose either.

</comment><comment><USER18> Why didn't he just invest in both?

<comment><USER19> Because it would dilute the trust relationship between the investor and the companies involved. ... "never discussed strategy again" ... That is not a good vantage point to be in if you are investing in a company. How do you make effective decisions if you are not privy to the entire picture?

"moral reasons" ... Give me a break.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Marc ensured the market expanded with his wise bet. I doubt he has any regrets. Who knows whether Instagram would have expanded unless they were motivated to get to a point of turning their backs on A16Z. $ talks.

<comment><USER20> oh yeah i'm sure that marc andreesen is in cahoots with paul graham and has the extension to see your downvote..... way to curry favor there champ

<comment><USER20> did not mean to imply that paul graham, of all people, would not respect privacy. i was just trying to be satirical, and i guess my attempt failed.</comment></comment></comment>


Samsung looking to invest in RIM? - <AUTHOR> http://oddpattern.tumblr.com/post/19410716463/samsung-looking-to-invest-in-rim

<comment><USER2> This article questions the move but Samsung is one hell of a conglomerate that already sell over 50 different phones over 4-5 OS's. The Blackberry brand is still very valuable, the BBM and QNX/BBX tech both seem like non-terrible investments and yeah it does diversify their options should Googarola start to get favored.

I've always said RIM should have switched to Android keeping the Blackberry brand with a strong BBM based UI layer. I still think they should but maybe they need to totally hit rock bottom and have someone like Samsung step in and make the burning platform decision.

</comment><comment><USER3> If it's about intellectual property, it's possible. Otherwise, what possible synergies could exist between RIM and Samsung?</comment>


Hillary Clinton's SuperPAC pays to change online opinion - <AUTHOR> http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/04/21/hillary-pac-spends-1-million-to-correct-commenters-on-reddit-and-facebook.html?n=2 <comment><AUTHOR> Also relevant: [http://www.ibtimes.com/bernie-bros-obama-boys- echoes-2008-me...](http://www.ibtimes.com/bernie-bros-obama-boys- echoes-2008-me..).

The BernieBro and Obamaboys narrative was created by the same person, and allegedly the bernie bros were actually Hillary paid commenters. (again, allegedly)

If we allow someone to blatantly try and change popular opinion under the guise of anonymity, we will lose internet for what it is. India is seeing the same with easily bought twitter trends, specially by the populist government ruling the capital state.

Multiple people on reddit report that a lot of times, most of the new submissions are downvoted heavily on the /r/SandersForPresident sub. I think this is very worrying

<comment><USER2> This reminds me of what I saw from the Snowden leaks about HUMINT psyops: [https://theintercept.com/2014/02/24/jtrig- manipulation/](https://theintercept.com/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipulation/) and it doesn't surprise me that this is being used by election candidates.

Realistically, if they are willing to buy Facebook likes and twitter followers, what else are they willing to do to persuade public opinion to their liking? Companies also engage in a form of this guerrilla propaganda.

You are correct, it is very worrying.</comment></comment>