

What it's like to work at Radar - girk
http://blog.snaptalent.com/?p=155

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skyrog
As someone who works for Radar, it's great to hear that others share the same
sentiment on the workspace as I do. Nice as the pictures are, they still don't
do the place justice imo. It's a fantastic spot, and anyone impressed with
this entry should really consider getting in touch with us about any of the
openings mentioned.

It's also great to see Radar end up on Hacker News. As Melissa mentions in the
intro, our privacy model means we're doing something 'different' with mobile
social networking, which usually ends up getting us more mainstream writeups
(WSJ and The Times recently) than exposure in the tech sphere.

I have tremendous respect for the Hacker audience, and I'd love to hear any
opinions from this sector. Because of Radar's core focus on your content being
exposed to the average person's ~real social network, their closer friends and
family, we see a larger range of high use cases than just people with
'lifecasting' intentions. Suddenly, the post informing everyone that you're
enjoying a plate of spaghetti is interesting rather than a contribution to how
much 'noise' you produce, or acquaintances from across the country are keeping
up with your actions visually and engaging in conversation around it rather
than having short bursts of info pushed on them. It's gratifying to see the
average teen or college student who can't see the utility in a lot of web 2.0
services pick up Radar and know right away how to get his friends involved
with something he just pulled his camera phone out to capture.

Of course, just off the center of the bell curve (or further down the tail,
depending on your thoughts) are the info-obsessed or moblogging crowd, who
will find Radar in a tech blog and have the common "Why haven't I heard of
it?" or "So it's a visual Twitter?" reaction when they see that their content
can be made public also. There's also the guy with the 8Mpixel camera on his
phone taking macro shots of blades of grass and sunsets who thinks he's seen
picture sharing before. This isn't surprising to anyone here. The amount of
people with camera phones across the globe is staggering, and that number is
increasing exponentially. Of course, the way people utilize the service is
going to change based on their needs and understanding.

Common to all groups and use cases is the ease in which a person's content
becomes attentively absorbed by their networks in this model. Some look at a
setup that encourages a group discussion with friends rather than a large
building full of people screaming out loud and think that it's a flawed
marketing model counterintuitive to the obsession with virality, but as many
services fail to translate mobile social networking (and successful
advertising) to the mobile space, and the mainstream continues to push back
against Twitter with, "I don't get it," or "I tried it and I think it's dumb,"
coupled with reports on usage being lower than what's been hyped, how
attractive does the notion of engaging conversation and eagerness to absorb
content become to people seeking solutions to the notion of social networking
fatigue (and, of course, advertisers)? In that respect, we indeed view our
model as doing something 'different' here, and the growth and feedback we've
received to this point are good reinforcements for our resolution.

As I alluded to, it's satisfying for me to see Radar on Hacker News, but it
would also be great to hear anyone's reaction to the service. I already saw an
article pop up this morning discussing our use of the .net domain name. Any
other reflections?

Take a look around. If you're new, feel free to make Ray (the van mentioned in
the article) your first friend on Radar, or, more obviously, get a couple
people you know involved with a few of your posts. Here's Ray's info:

user name: Ray1965 invite code: Ray

Again, would love to hear anything back - good or bad, and glad to see
everyone enjoyed a look at the office. Thanks, guys.

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sdpurtill
That's one of the coolest office spaces I've ever seen...

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IsaacSchlueter
Definitely.

Brick and wood > cloth-covered cube walls.

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technoguyrob
I wonder if someone from a society where brick and wood is the "dull" office
norm (it looks like it certainly could be) would welcome "cloth-covered cube
walls" as refreshing.

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pchristensen
Probably. Just look at the "futuristic" building materials of the 40's and
50's (before which everything was basically brick and wood). They look hideous
now but people raved for them because of the novelty. But brick/timber is
likely to remain scarce and popular because it's uneconomical to build now so
there won't be a glut again.

<http://www.flickr.com/photos/shmance/2251201415/>

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brandonkm
Loving these interviews, snaptalent is awesome.

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brasmusen
Yikes! "Work hard, play hard..", there has to be a company that can do better
than that cliche. Other than that, it sounds like a cool company to work for,
as far as start-ups go.

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blogimus
_Yikes! "Work hard, play hard..", there has to be a company that can do better
than that cliche._

I agree its got a lot of mileage but gets the point across and is a common
catch phrase. Still significantly better than cliches such as "looking for
rockstar..."

You have a company, right? What do/would you say?

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steveplace
_Still significantly better than cliches such as "looking for rockstar..."_

We've gone over this. The hip new term is now "code barista."

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=255668>

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sharpshoot
Hey guys, sumon from snaptalent here. Who else would you love to see
interviewed? Digg, Apple, Google... let us know

~~~
ambition
ITA Software!

~~~
pchristensen
+1 for ITA Software!

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pxlpshr
i'll sell my soul to the devil for that office space. hopefully he'll throw a
bed in their too, and I can just call it home...

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coffeemug
Shouldn't they mention their compensation strategy when discussing what they
do to make everyone happy and productive?

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richtaur
Um. I didn't see foosball tables there. Sorry, can't work with you.

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kevintwohy
I'd say the Karaoke is generally for the worse ;)

Very cool.

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kiversontiny
sloshball!

~~~
flawedarist
YAW!

