

Why I Quit Intuit and Started Hall.com - An Update - bretthellman
http://blog.hall.com/post/11276873024/why-i-quit-intuit-and-started-hall-com-an-update

======
ChuckFrank
And Hall.com does what exactly.

I've danced from your blog to your twitter and over to your fb and back, Then
over to your .com which sends me back to your twitter, which says that if I
read your blog, I can tweet a hall pass, for what? Okay so then I googled
Hall.com and still nothing.

And herein we talk about how much the domain costs, and what your start-up
experience is like (newsflash -- more creative control -- thanks) And still
there's no word on hall.com.

Yet we have page after page of startup advice about being able to pitch our
concept in an ice storm on a sinking ship, while the band plays and the Hotsy
Totsies wink. Three Words -- Netflix for Comics. Done.

But still these pages fill with little teases here and there about the
brilliant work that is being done, without actually saying what it is exactly.

So, dear sir, back to you -- in three or four words --

Hall is ..... in real life only better. Hall is ..... the new new coke. Hall
is ..... Qwikster with a c. Hall is ...... kids in the. Hall is ......
Heuristic ALgorithmic Laboratory

~~~
bretthellman
Chuck, sorry if we caused any frustration. We had not updated our followers in
some time and wanted to send out an update. We have 28k+ people in line and
several have emailed asking for a status update. We'll be answer your question
very soon and opening the doors to HALL.com. Thanks

~~~
omonra
What exactly are they in line for? This sounds like Soviet Union circa 1980s
(ie across the board shortages) when people would join a line in front of a
store just because one was formed - without any clue as to what was offered. I
have to say this 'i want attention but i won't reveal why I deserve it'
attitude very annoying.

~~~
gunz_rozez
Has any of you read the title or the blog post?....the blog post or link is
not about hall.com, it is about why he quit his cushy well paying cushy job to
venture out on his own and put his email address out maybe he can give back?
Again the post is not about hall.com

~~~
stfu
Looks like I should jump in here:

1\. The topic makes a clear reference to his new project.

2\. Promoting a new project in the headline and not willing to give any
indicators on what it is all about smells very "buzz" marketing'ish.

3\. Nobody asked for his email. From my understanding HN is not about penpals
or mailing lists but about open discussion

~~~
gunz_rozez
I agree with you on that he should have left out hall.com from the title....

------
rosstafarian
Am i the only one that finds it shady that this guy refuses to say what his
company does and only weedles when asked directly? "We have 28k people in
line! We'll tell you what we do later!" I can understand trying to create buzz
with mystery, but come on sounds like the ads on craigslist asking for a
programmer to work on the next big thing thats a total secret or some one will
steal it!

------
dmix
> I wasted a month searching. I learned that you don’t find a cofounder; it
> happens naturally or it doesn’t.

I agree.

I've spent 2yrs+ years looking for good co-founders (through people I meet,
not a recruiting mission). I've been to tons of events and meetups, kept up
with entrepreneurs/developers in my area.

Theres only a few few people that I'd want to start a company with and they
are all usually busy doing their own companies.

After having a few cofounders who didn't work out, I've learned its much
better to not have one that have a mediocre one dragging out down. But at the
same time I've still learned it crucial to have a cofounder.

~~~
ywong137
Brett also says "After spending a month building the first prototype,
investors saw what I could do and I never heard the cofounder advice again."

I'd like to point out that Brett is an extraordinarily productive coder AND
designer. I run Sunfire Offices (I'm Yishan) and it's pretty rare to find
someone who can output so much stuff on his own so Brett's experience is
admittedly atypical. Of course, that's also why we invited him to work out of
Sunfire - _I_ saw his stuff and was like, shit, this guy can really crank it
out.

Anyhow, I should probably address some of the comments further up the page:
Brett's the real thing and his company actually makes a Real Product. I'm
afraid he hasn't put out any other public marketing materials because they've
been working on the actual code. I know I probably don't have any credibility
here (i.e. less than Brett himself since I don't post much on HN) but I'll
still say - trust me, it's not just some crap marketing.

Brett: you should frickin release already! Sunfire was one of his beta-testing
organizations and we'd like to be let into the new version, please.

~~~
bretthellman
Thanks Yishan, re:launching, we're working on that now. any day

------
calloc
Why should I care about why you quit and your new project? What is hall.com?
Clearly I am not the first person to ask this question.

Why should I bother asking for a "hallpass"?

It sounds like a marketing campaign... yet I can't find any information on
what you are doing...

------
bretthellman
If anyone has any other questions/thoughts... I'm in Mtn View and always up
for chatting over coffee.

~~~
bretthellman
brett @ hall-inc.com

------
lennysan
Is it worth putting the time at a big company like Intuit, or if you were to
do it over would you go straight to your own startup?

~~~
bretthellman
Depends on where you are in your career. Straight out of college I wouldn't
recommend going to most big companies... you'll learn bad habits and not be
pushed to do your best work. Join a startup.

~~~
slewis
Can you give some examples of some bad habits you might learn? 40 hour weeks?

~~~
bretthellman
During my first month at Intuit as Product Manger who coded, I pitched some
ideas to my leader at the time. His feedback was to try to come up with ideas
that were more practical. That pretty much sums it up. To credit Intuit, that
leader is no longer with the company. The problem imo is this type of thinking
shapes the way people think. On the flip side, VCs/Investors/Angels are only
interested in the big ideas that sounds crazy that big companies reject.

~~~
Choppen5
>only interested in the big ideas that sounds crazy that big companies reject.

Great! I've got that covered... we'll see though seems like a lot of VCs like
safe a sure bets, proof that it is already working.

------
gunz_rozez
How do/did you convince other employees/partners to join you in this
venture....Just having the faith is not good enough right?

~~~
bretthellman
Having well known investors certainly helped. that and the idea and
technologies they'd be working with made the difference

------
porterhaney
Brett, curious without a cofounder and no employees, how much had you built
before you raised your seed round?

~~~
bretthellman
@porterhaney What's important is to show you can execute on what you're
pitching. We also had solid metrics (retention etc...)

~~~
dustineichler
What's a 100% of nothing re: retention. No offense, but it sounds as though
networking paid dividends, not what you had built... at all.

------
mikk0j
28K is an indication of nothing if they don't know what your product is about.

------
Hisoka
What is Hall.com going to be about, and how much did the domain name cost you:

~~~
bretthellman
Re: the domain name, beside hard work, we reached a fair deal thanks to some
investor & legal advice. I'd be happy to share in another post if you're
interested? Let me know...

~~~
rudiger
I'd like to read the story behind getting the hall.com domain, as well as the
'hall' Facebook and Twitter handles.

~~~
stfu
I am interested in the domain name and other "handlers" story as well. Would
be great if you could share it.

