
The Day our investors came to see the office (2011) - treester
http://thedayseries.tumblr.com/post/963728807/the-day-our-investors-came-to-see-the-office
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austenallred
This is exactly how I feel. The circumstances I live in are much worse than I
could be the ones I could be living in (I'm currently living in the back of my
Honda Civic, parking somewhere in Palo Alto or Redwood City), but I don't
care. I've honestly never been happier. I'm doing what I love, building
something I feel is sorely needed, and that's all that really matters.

I sleep better now on the air mattress in the trunk of my car now than I did
working a mind-numbing job and sleeping in a king-sized bed.

~~~
shin_lao
How do you go to the toilets?

~~~
joonix
I'm not the Parent but if I'm ever a transient I'll hold onto my $30/mo
24-Hour Fitness membership for dear life. Toilets and hot showers all over the
country.

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angilly
Wow I wrote this two years ago! I saw a few comments coming in this morning
and had no idea what was going on. Gotta love Google Analytics :) I'm glad you
enjoyed the story. I enjoyed the experience :)

~~~
dopamean
Where are you now? How are things? Are you still happy?

~~~
MicahWedemeyer
From the bio:

signalgenius.com [founder & growing] fourthsegment.com [founded & failed]
ryanangilly.com [blog] mypunchbowl.com [employee & still going]
messagesling.com [founded & failed]

I'd really like to hear how things ended and if the relationship with the
investors remained so positive all the way to the end.

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pseudometa
The story had the exact oposite ending as I was expecting given the lead-up.

~~~
jakejake
Yea I find investors are not primarily concerned about my happiness - except
how my happiness may effect the business.

It's not at all that they're heartless & they certainly don't want me to be
unhappy. They just didn't give me money so that I would use it to have fun and
be happy. Happiness is hopefully a side effect of a successful venture.

~~~
danielweber
I even more expected that the investor was going to see the slightest bit of
waver in his voice and use that as an excuse to yank all the money back.

~~~
jakejake
I kinda expected him to say that the investor was his Dad or something.

I am pretty sure that if my company is not moving forward and the ROI is not
looking good for investors - then they will not be first and foremost
concerned with my happiness. They don't want me to feel miserable, but they
certainly don't want to see me playing ping pong and drinking PBR all day if
the company is not moving in a positive direction.

I think a better question an investor would ask would be "are you still
feeling optimistic" or "are you happy with the direction we're going, our
progress, etc" Not just am I personally feeling happiness

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quackerhacker
I ENVY your experience with your investors.

I had an experience with an angel investor, where she said: "You need my
money, what's stopping me from just hiring some programmers from India and
making what you have." I told her, "passion," and I walked away from the deal
.

This taught me to take advice from others and NEVER deal with family. It also
taught me that if my pitch is a website/app/service get my users and growth
rate manageable, so leverage is in my favor.

~~~
gscott
Rather then walking away I would suggest telling the person they can try but
it is unlikely because the cost of an actual good overseas programmer is
comperable to here if you factor in the miscommunication, time difference, and
the cost of the time to communicate exactly what is needed.

You might want to go back to the person, ask if they have had it built yet,
and ask if they want to get started now but don't let this person take
advantage of your passion.

~~~
spitfire
If they've already tried the "I can hire an Indian." line, then they've
already ended the relationship.

If you want to be cruel, you can point them to places like elance or
rentacoder.

~~~
gscott
I was thinking it sounded more like a negotiating tactic to wrangle something
more out of the relationship from someone who was emotionally involved wanting
to move forward.

This happened to me, I couldn't do the project and didn't even start because
the person wanted it done in 3 months. He went ahead and hired a firm in
India. It took him 2 years and he didn't even start from scratch he bought a
pre-built product to start from to save time. So I am very skeptical of when
people say they are going to outsource something.

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blazespin
And this is why VC loves young people.

~~~
mitchelllc
yep, because they are living a dream, and hope.

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msutherl
This sounds awful and I hope never to find myself in a situation where I am
thankful for ugly living conditions, for that would mean I had become
insensitive to the world.

~~~
prawn
They weren't dirty or unsafe conditions. They were just plain, leaving the
team to focus on their well-being and their work.

I would find a really showy office somewhat distracting.

~~~
msutherl
Without windows under office-quality fluorescent lights is bleak and awful.
Sure, it's 'safe', but it drains the soul.

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Stranger2013
I thought it was about making a very risky investment in a hope for a really
high return.

