

Square Buys Design Firm 80/20 - ThomPete
http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/01/square-makes-its-second-acquisition-buys-design-firm-8020-opens-new-york-office/

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kghose
For a second I thought - they are really diversifying, that's a totally
different industry. And I started to have my doubts about how well this would
work. I also began to worry that 80/20 had gotten into financial trouble. I
use 80/20 (<http://www.8020.net/>) a lot in my work and I would hate for
something to happen to them. But a quick reading of the link clarified that it
was a different industry all together.

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ThomPete
different company 8020.com

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dclusin
Perhaps maybe they will fix the design of the square card reader? I saw the
iPad + Square combo being used as a replacement for a register at a coffee
shop and the lady had to fumble with it and eventually use her other hand to
hold the reader so she could slide the card.

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apawloski
There's a lunch truck at my school that has the same problem. The problem is
that the scanner plugs into the headphone jack and sits on top of the iOS
device. It seems like it would be more logical to use a longer wire to get the
reader off of the device and onto a nearby surface. This would also allow a
more "normal" scanner size (instead of the dinky half inch one).

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morganpyne
Congratulations to the 80/20 folks, and a great acquisition for Square. I had
the pleasure of working with Andrew in the past on a couple of projects and
he's both a very talented & productive designer, and a very nice guy.

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aresant
Truly GREAT UX designers are, in my experience, at least as hard to find as
great engineers.

As such I've always wondered why more small design firms aren't acqhired.

Cool to see Square create a template for doing this, seems like a no-brainer
if you can find that much talent sitting in one place

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debacle
There's a higher S/N ratio for UX architect, and it's a bit easier to bullshit
your way into a job as a UX architect. Of the great UX people I've met in my
time, none of them actually worked as UX architects.

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adambenayoun
Happy for the team - congrats ThomPete! :)

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photorized
Strange move on their part. What's going on?

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mhartl
It's hard to hire great people, so Square acquired a company full of great
people wholesale. It's roughly equivalent to hiring with a large signing
bonus, but with a very different (and more egalitarian) psychology.

