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Probably need to GTFO [another how do I spin leaving question]
It strikes me that the core problem here is that your current company’s runway is privileged information: your current employer doesn’t need rumors about their financial health to start spreading. I think your instinct to avoid straight out saying that to other companies is very reasonable.
[... 132 words]Where should we stay in Nashville?
For a delightfully unique Nashville experience, I suggest looking up Santa’s Pub. It’s a dive bar in a double wide trailer run by a man who looks a bit like Santa, and every night there is karaoke night. Aside from being a bit smokey it’s an enormous amount of fun.
[... 63 words]Japanese pantry staples?
These answers are fantastic! I’m so glad I asked here. Thank you all very much.
[... 46 words]Difficulty level: Eating dumplings
When I lived in Islington a few years ago I really liked New Culture Revolution for dumplings. It was never busy, not very expensive and the food was great.
[... 40 words]Need new noms
I’m in a similar space to you at the moment: looking to expand my cooking horizons with new adventures.
[... 105 words]Lovecraft-inspired fiction and cookbooks (unrelated!)
Have you considered the Laundry Files series by Charles Stross? They are novels about a secret UK government department which fights off lovecraftian threats while suffering through the typical burucracry you would expect from the UK government.
[... 49 words]Let’s make moving and packing FUN again
Something nice I’ve done in the past that has worked surprisingly well is to record a time lapse video of the packing. I used software for my laptop (an OS X app called Gawker, but I don’t think it works today so you may need a different solution) which takes a frame every 30 seconds and combines it into a video. Stick the laptop in a high up corner with a good wide view of the room and get to work.
[... 176 words]Help with next steps for a startup
Have you thought about applying to Y Combinator? The reason I ask is that “I have lots of expertise in language learning and basically zero expertise in startups, market research, business, fundraising, app pricing, etc” is pretty much YC’s sweet spot: they know that it’s much easier teaching those things to engineers and makers than it is to teach engineering to business people (I’m assuming you have product and engineering skills based on your description of your progress so far).
[... 175 words]What’s the cheapest or free stack solution to deploy and experiment with a realtime application in 2016?
Heroku have a good free tier, and comprehensive support for deploying both Python and Node.js. If you are mainly interested in realtime I would suggest starting out with Node.js on Heroku. Depending on the complexity of your project you might even be able to use raw Node.js without adding something like Express.
[... 81 words]Which VCs invest in an early stage in an IOT Technology startup in USA North East?
I can’t provide a specific list of VCs, but I can help you answer this question for yourself.
[... 131 words]What’s the first thing you would check if the company is losing money even though there’s a big increase in its revenue?
The company’s expenses.
[... 31 words]What is the single greatest value-add from Y Combinator?
It’s very difficult to pick the best one, but from our experience here’s something that really stood out: the sense of camaraderie and trust you have in others who are also going through YC.
[... 385 words]I’m in Polanco (Mexico City) and I hate it. Where to go?
You said you want to avoid expensive taxis.. are you morally opposed to Uber? If not you should know that it works in Mexico City (with your regular Uber account registered in another country), it’s fast and not very espensive. It may give you a lot more flexibility for exploring the city.
[... 71 words]Why is snapEDA.com slow? Is it because it uses Django?
No, it’s not slow because it uses Django.
[... 36 words]Weekend travel in Europe
I’ve been using www.atlasobscura.com a lot for travel inspiration recently—it’s particularly good for finding the most interesting/weird things in a given area (it can even do geolocation in your phone to show the most interesting nearby things). I bet you could find some very exciting options there.
[... 105 words]What are the best strategies to get a tech job at YC-backed startups in the next 5 months?
Keep an eye on jobs | Hacker News—it’s the official listing of almost all jobs advertised at YC companies.
[... 46 words]How can I negotiate a free conference venue in London?
The two top options in my experience are universities (including student unions) and private companies with good meeting facilities.
[... 107 words]Are traditional web frameworks and languages like RubyOnRail, Spring Boot and PHP dying now when new fast reactive pure JavaScript frameworks and services like Meteor, Node, Angular 2.0 and Firebase are breaking ground?
No.
[... 40 words]We applied to Y Combinator a few weeks ago and submitted a demo. We made significant progress since then and have a much better demo now. Is it possible to replace the demo? Is it advisable?
It’s fine to replace the demo, and definitely a good idea if your new demo is better. That said, don’t expect that anyone who has viewed the old demo will check out the new one. As a result the sooner you get the new demo in place the better.
[... 91 words]Have you ever experienced a boost in productivity by switching to a different programming language?
Switching from PHP to Python (over a decade ago now) dramatically improved my productivity as a programmer.
[... 38 words]How does one decide which Javascript framework (e.g. Node, Backbone, Angular) to use on any given project?
If you are just learning JavaScript, I suggest trying to work without any frameworks or libraries at all. Starting with something like Angular will make it much harder for you to learn the core language and browser APIs.
[... 137 words]What are some tips for improving public speaking skills quickly?
Practice your talk, out loud, in private, as many times as possible before you deliver it. There’s no better way of ensuring you know your material and that you can deliver it at a sensible pace without freezing up.
[... 127 words]Aside from Google I/O, does Google organize any other conferences?
They run a whole bunch, but many of them aren’t widely advertised—they have a lot of invite-only events for customers of their advertising tools, for example, and there are things like the Google Analytics Summit.
[... 95 words]What are good event venues to have a 100 person weekend hackathon in San Francisco?
As a general rule, tech companies in San Francisco are very supportive of hackathons and keen to host events. Eventbrite have hosted this kind of event in their office in the past, and I’m certain there are a bunch of other companies with decent spaces that would be worth approaching. Does the hackathon have a specific topic? I suggest approaching companies related to that topic as a starting point.
[... 90 words]Does Y Combinator accept purely app ideas like WhatsApp, Flipboard, etc.?
Yes they do, but you’ll need to demonstrate that your team also has the ability to execute on the idea.
[... 37 words]Should I use Django forms or pure HTML in order to do not establish borders for the growth of my app?
Use Django forms. Django scales horizontally on the front-end, so if your site needs to handle large amounts of traffic you just need to run multiple front-end servers—your form handling code will scale up just fine.
[... 65 words]What are the most important things to keep in mind when doing a presentation?
Know your material, and don’t speak too fast.
[... 28 words]What is the best payment provider for a web app with monthly subscription fees at its early stage?
We found Stripe extremely easy to get started with for charging subscription payments.
[... 37 words]What are the key points accelerators such as Y-Combinator drill into their startups?
They also teach the importance of launching something and getting real feedback. The entire three month YC process is based around the need to launch and demonstrate traction in order to raise money from investors.
[... 89 words]