
Ask HN: Can I visit your startup in SF? - maxcameron
Hi there,<p>My name is Max, I'm a cofounder at Kera, and we're from Toronto. We started Kera to teach the world how to use software.<p>Cameron (one of my cofounders) and I are coming to SF the week after next (Oct 22-26) so we can make new friends and learn how companies like yours are educating and onboarding new users. We're also looking for advice about building our startup. If you're doing something interesting, have an awesome company culture, or just like hanging with Canadians, we'd love to meet you.<p>Any referrals or introductions are more than welcome.<p>You can find out more about Kera here (http://kera.io), and we can be found at @maxcameron &#38; @camwest on twitter.<p>Thanks in advance,<p>Max<p>edit: my email is max@kera.io
======
larrys
I find this entire approach fascinating.

That someone can post this on HN and get a bunch of invites back.

Does doing something like this scale? What if everybody just decided to post
"hey I'm coming to SF is there a place for me to crash" or "hey I'm coming to
NYC anyone want to have coffee?" or "I have a problem writing perl..."

Since there are companies that you are trying to reach, and you must have some
idea of the type of company you want to reach, why not put some effort into
doing something other than the obvious easiest thing which is to post an "Ask
HN" and see who bites?

(For the record I wouldn't feel the same way if a top commenter who spends
much time on HN made a similar request because at least they have put time and
effort into HN (and I don't consider my karma as anywhere near that point for
the record.)

~~~
charleshaanel
Why not congratulate OP for his initiative. The fact that som many people are
responding so positively gives new members of the community (like myself) a
wonderful impression of how helpful people are here. Look how many people are
pitching in to help this person without any expectation of return.

Also, this is yet one community. You have no idea who all else this guy knows
and by meeting with whoever responds here, they will gain from it.

I'd like to point you to a Reid Hoffman article which discusses the power of
connecting with people from various networks:

[http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/01/24/reid-hoffman-
linkedin...](http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/01/24/reid-hoffman-linkedin-
startup-you/) (special attention to the bit on "The diversity of weak ties"

The fact that he's not a top commenter is even more inspiring. It shows that
if someone has a good concept, takes initiative and quells any fear that "oh
I'm not a big guy/girl on HN,I can't be that audacious" - well that person
will get results.

Reminds me of Geothe's timeless words, "...boldness has genius, power and
magic in it".

------
petercooper
There have been quite a few threads like this on HN over the years (including
one I made :-)). I wonder if there's some way of formalizing or aggregating
the concept of visiting other companies, it seems there's an audience for it.

~~~
hugs
"Some way of formalizing or aggregating the concept"... like StartupCrawl? :-)
<http://startupcrawl.com/> (My startup, Sauce Labs, participated in the crawl
in 2009 -- it coincided with RubyConf that year, so there was a lot of flow-
over traffic from RubyConf go-ers.)

~~~
lauraku
Hmm perhaps if this were more than once a year?

------
volandovengo
Kera looks great! Is it currently an idea that you're trying to validate or
are you currently coding it up and waiting to launch?

~~~
camwest
We've done a lot of validation and have a bunch of people doing experiments
with it. We can chat more about it if you want to reach out cameron@kera.io

~~~
volandovengo
great - i'll shoot you an email.

------
reiz
Hi Max. My Name is Robert Reiz. I am the founder of
<http://www.versioneye.com>. That is my second Start-Up. I am coming at the
same time to San Francisco, from Germany. I like your product, I like
Canadians and of course I like Beer :-) I will contact you.

~~~
maxcameron
Hey Robert. That's awesome. Looking forward to hearing from you.

------
zocoi
Checkout <http://openco.us/>, they are doing a kickoff today where you can
spend an hour visiting a startup in their list, from airbnb to zynga and
beyond

~~~
maxcameron
Looks like we're missing it :( Bummer.

------
froseph
Drop by whitetruffle ( <https://www.whitetruffle.com/> ). We're located in
Rocketspace coworking space. @froseph or joseph@whitetruffle.com

~~~
maxcameron
Hey Joseph,

Thank you so much. I hear Rocketspace has some wicked things going on.

I'll email you!

------
scylla
Come stop by. <http://www.appdirect.com>

We're based in San Francisco but founded by two Canadians.

~~~
maxcameron
Want me to bring you a bottle of CC or a double double or some ketchup chips?
No joke.

~~~
SirPalmerston
Love the Ketchup chips. <3

Edit:

From Vancover...

~~~
maxcameron
Done and done.

------
bernardom
Very, very cool startup.

For us non-technical folk, you might wish to add a section to your how-to
explaining how Kera.io would interact with proprietary data; for example, if
our app happens to be financial, would you be able to see any of it? Or is the
script hosted on our end?

(This may be obvious to a dev, but not to me, and therefore caused me to send
this to our devs to ask)

~~~
camwest
The script is hosted on your end and data is pulled from our servers to yours,
we don't store any personal information or anything on our side.

 _Edit_ : I'll update the FAQ

------
dsowers
Your software is really cool. Just wondering why you haven't completed your
website yet. The "how it works" just takes you to a google doc. Anyway, best
of luck. If you want to venture to Lake Tahoe, I'd be happy to grab a beer.

~~~
camwest
Well to be honest we were building our marketing website and realized that we
were better off to just put it in a Google Doc since we can iterate faster on
it. We literally update it in realtime while users watch which is a lot better
than the marketing site refine/deploy process. Once things stabilize a little
more we'll extract the information into a great marketing website. Probably in
the next 6 weeks.

------
porterhaney
Will you be bringing poutine?

~~~
maxcameron
If you need it, I will bring it.

------
mnicole
This is exactly the tool I've been waiting for; great work and good luck!

~~~
maxcameron
Thanks for the kind words. Are you in SF?

~~~
mnicole
Portland, sorry.

------
arram
You're welcome to join us for lunch at ZeroCater. Email in profile.

~~~
maxcameron
Awesome - i'll email you this weekend. How is zerocater not in Toronto yet?

------
SwaroopH
Come visit Startup House (5th and Harrison) to meet us (<http://attico.us>)
and various other startups.

~~~
maxcameron
Sounds good! I'll be there.

------
briancary
Hey Max - we'd love to meet you guys in person and have you check out our
sweet office and awesome company (ReTargeter). How about Friday the 26th?

~~~
BrentUnderwood
Awesome company, and awesome dude, I'll attest.

Hey Brian!

~~~
maxcameron
yeah, Brian's awesome. He signed up for Kera a few months ago so we've been
chatting for some time.

------
ishake
Originally from Toronto myself. Part of a startup called Insight (YC). We're
based in Palo Alto. Happy to grab a coffee when you guys are here.

~~~
maxcameron
That would be awesome. What's a good way to get ahold of you?

------
kloncks
We do payments (<https://www.ribbon.co>) and would love to show you our
offices in SOMA.

hany@ribbon.co

~~~
maxcameron
Thanks so much Hany, I really appreciate it. I'll email you asap.

------
stefanobernardi
Max, Kera.io looks awesome, congratulations.

Happy to have you guys visit, and we'd love to talk about using the product
too.

We're in SOMA. stefano ]a-t[ betable.com

~~~
maxcameron
Thank you so much for the kind words. I'll follow up with an email shortly.

Max

------
ultrasaurus
Max, I'll shoot you an email, PagerDuty is originally a YYZ startup too and
we're at 2nd and Bryant in SOMA.

~~~
maxcameron
Looking forward to hearing from you. Lemme know if you need anything from up
here. Ketchup chips etc.

------
revicon
Hey Max, stop by Gigwalk when you're down here, we're over on 4th and Bryant.
I'll pop you an email. -Matt

~~~
maxcameron
I'll gigwalk myself over to your office no problem. Talk soon Matt.

------
mstank
Wow, great product. Any examples of companies using it or are you still in the
early stages?

~~~
maxcameron
Hey,

The short answer is: yes.

Feel free to check out <http://verold.com>, <http://ptable.com>, and
<http://happytables.com> to see Kera in production.

We also have some really cool case studies in the works with more "high
profile" startups in Toronto. That being said, we're still a very early-stage
company.

------
enjo
Not California, but if you find yourself in Denver/Boulder I'd love to show
you around:)

~~~
camwest
Max is going to be in Boulder for Defrag. Are you going?

~~~
Xorlev
FullContact will be at Defrag, we could probably finagle something if you
wanted to visit. :)

~~~
maxcameron
That would be amazing. Can you email me at max@kera.io?

------
gobengo
Come hang out with us (me?) at Livefyre. 3rd/Market downtown. ben@livefyre.com

~~~
maxcameron
Hey Ben - thanks so much. I'll send you an email shortly.

Max

------
jaymstr
Definitely welcome to come visit LaunchRock. I'm jameson@launchrock.com.

~~~
jaymstr
And really dig Kera by the way. Could be interesting for us.

------
tatianajosephy
We'd love to see you at CrowdFlower. Email forthcoming.

------
tomblomfield
This is an awesome tool. How did I not know about it?!

~~~
maxcameron
It isn't really something people search for. It's going to be word of mouth
until our category solidifies.

What are you working on these days?

Max

------
jaequery
where do i sign up to invest?

~~~
maxcameron
If you're up for a coffee, let me know. max@kera.io

------
taigeair
good luck guys!

~~~
maxcameron
Thanks Taige!

