Archive for May, 2010

Startup Engineer: Which number is right for you?

Having been an engineer at a startup I empathize with people who are being recruited into startups especially if it's their first startup. The key deciding factor for me was that I wanted to learn everything about engineering a consumer product. Sure making bank is a nice motivation, but I quit my Masters at Stanford because I knew I'd learn a ton more working on the ground floor of a startup than I would sitting in a classroom. I still wholeheartedly ...
31 May, 2010 by Poornima in My Experience 21 Comments
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Major bug or vocal minority?

This post originally created for Seattle 2.0: Major bug or vocal minority?  How to Use Feedback from Product Users for the Deploy 2010 conference, but it looks like the post has been taken down since.  Here is the original post: Congratulations if you've got a product that has a large user base!  Double congratulations if that user base is willing to give you feedback on your product!!  Regardless of whether the feedback is positive or negative you  have successfully established a community of users who ...
27 May, 2010 by Poornima in Product Development 1 Comment
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Self-Direction Leads to Your Calling

From the ripe age of 8 I've been thinking about my career, I aspired to be a lawyer, professor, and writer.  I read all the time and wrote stories for fun.  I had lofty goals of being published in seventh grade, but my dreams were curtailed when my family moved.   I can't say it was all self-imposed because a large part of it came from having immigrant parents who really valued education and instilled a hard work ethic in me. ...
27 May, 2010 by Poornima in My Experience 2 Comments
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Perspective on Pitching

Having been at the ground floor of a startup before I've experienced writing the first lines of code, shipping a product, and then getting acquired, but I never had the experience of pitching or seeing someone else do.  Last Wednesday I did my first pitch for my startup, BizeeBee, in front of about 75 people, a panel of 4 angel investors, and alongside 7 other founders.  While this might seem nerve-wrecking to most, it was an experience I had been looking ...
15 May, 2010 by Poornima in My Startup 7 Comments
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