ASK ANY QUESTIONS TO AMAZING BRANDS
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Q&A Wiki
ASK ANY QUESTIONS TO AMAZING PEOPLE
Sheryl Sandberg
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Sheryl Sandberg is an American technology executive, activist, and author. She is the Chief Opera... Read more
226
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Reid Hoffman
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Reid Garrett Hoffman is an internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist and author. Hoffman is best ... Read more
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Ben Horowitz
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Ben Horowitz is an businessman, investor, blogger, and author. He is a high technology entreprene... Read more
56
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Marc Andreessen
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Marc Andreessen is known as the co-founder of Mosaic, Netscape, Ning, and Opsware. He is the gen... Read more
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Hillary Clinton
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Hillary Clinton is an American politician who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State... Read more
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Steve Wozniak
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Steve Wozniak known as "Woz", is an American pioneer of the personal computer revolution of the 1... Read more
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Ashton Kutcher
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Ashton Kutcher is an American actor, producer, investor and former model.[3][4][5]
Kutcher beg... Read more
41
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Yash Nelapati
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I was hired when Pinterest was just an idea in an apartment with 3 people thinking about it and B... Read more
65
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Nikhil Aitharaju
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Coming close to losing my US visa status to growing our startup to 25 employees and 4M$ in annual... Read more
75
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Devendra Laulkar
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I co-founded Vessel, a SaaS platform providing mobile marketing automation and analytics. We were... Read more
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It works for startups where there's already a group of people out there who are actively searching for what you offer - or something closely related.
If you're developing a totally new product - without clear demand for it (like the next Snapchat), then SEO isn't going to be super helpful.
I actually have no idea what the selection process was behind the scenes, but when the Irish Independent notified me, I was ecstatic and humbled! It was very validating of our mission to completely revolutionize the way individuals around the globe connect with each other and with their institutions. This is big!
This is a tough question. So many things! There were a lot of learnings.
The most obvious thing I think is to build a product that users loved more. We became hyper-focused on growing revenue pretty early on, and as a result, it was hard to move away from a (simple) product that was bringing in money. So I don't think the product was differentiated enough vs our competitors (tutoring is a super competitive space!), and it didn't create enough value for tutors, who only cared about us when we were sending them bookings.
There are a few products out there now that I think are doing a better job of creating LOTS of value for tutors. Coach is one of them. (https://www.withcoach.com)
Pro's: Dublin has an amazing tech/startup culture here that is only getting stronger. The talent is also pretty incredible as people are very educated and want to get involved in startups. Great tech community here — people are always willing to help.
Con's : You are limited when it comes to fundraising. There are a handful of good VC firms in Ireland where as in San Francisco there are myriad! SF is great place to live and work as the energy there is infectious and there are startups everywhere you turn. The weather is also amazing. Con of Silicon Valley: It can be hard to shut off from work!
Pro's: Dublin has an amazing tech/startup culture here that is only getting stronger. The talent is also pretty incredible as people are very educated and want to get involved in startups. Great tech community here — people are always willing to h...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
I think it was very innate. Tim (our CEO) is really good leader and he handles most of the business and people related problems. Ryo and I handle most of our Engineering and product related tasks. Trust is the most important thing when it comes to...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
You will go through different phases of uncertainty-- first market validation, then scaling, then team growth, etc.
I mostly managed anxieties and stress by lifting weights, playing my favorite sports, sleeping well, and meditating. I also live...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
yes it is, but I encourage you to select brown or red or black or wild rice. These grains have so much more nutrition and fiber than plain white rice. They are all gluten free too.
Explore other grains as well, besides wheat. ragi, jowar, nacchni...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
We played up to their ego, stayed humble, and asked nicely. Every entrepreneur (even celebrities) needed help when they were younger, and someone gave them their break. Humble entrepreneurs know this, and are willing to pay it forward to help aspi...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
We met through a common friend. The guidance has always been based on whole foods, simplicity, mindful exercise and managing stress and emotions in the most effective way. Shilpa never really needed guidance, she was well informed and had already ...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
Mark cuban tweeted about our product. He did not fund us. His tweet definitely fueled us to get funding. I was on my F1 visa at that time, and trying to work on a startup with no funding was a bigger threat to my visa. Most likely I wouldn't have ...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
Yeah, I was nervous as hell, and we stayed up late the night before our interview tweaking our demo (which they never looked at). It's a whirlwind 10 minute interview, and before you know it, it's over. I think Aaron did really well in the intervi...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
Right from start date to website up and running, it took about 60 days. But over the next one year we were adding features and making the product better in every sense. Evan and I perfected the grid and added infinite scroll which made the experie...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
Evan, co-founder of Pinterest is the designer who worked on all the early prototypes. Right from version 1 the grid was always there. He spent a lot of times in getting the design aesthetics right. Its like the 80-20 rule. He got the grid pretty s...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
I had job offers from couple of companies even before my last semester. This put me in a really comfortable situation. I was scouting for opportunities for the last semester to get more experience. I was particularly interested in this company cal...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
I dont think there was any hardest moment, but I guess the fund raising in the early days was a hard moment. I could see Ben going out and meeting a lot of VC's but things were not happening. Every morning I would see Ben go out super pumped but c...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
We have some amazing angel investors who were selected not only for their financial capacity but more importantly for what they could bring to the table as advisors and mentors. It is important to round out your portfolio of investors according to...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
All the first few thousands of users are friends and their friends. We had an invite system which was very personal and every user gets 5 invites each. We encouraged users to invite their friends who has great taste in a niche you are interested i...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
I am not doing a good job managing stress. Stress has led to some really bad health problems in my life. And my health eventually lead to unhappiness. Right now I'm spending time away from SF with my parents. My health got better and I'm more happ...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
File a return what ever the invormation you may have. Pay tax amount with that. Afterwards youcan amend the tax return. If you do not file and if you owe taxes the penalty is hefty. $100 minimum with the taxor 25% what you owe which ever is higher.
- Short answer No. I am too much of an operator to stand on the side lines and empower the CEO and his team.
- In the same vain I also do not take a role of an advisor, if asked I will share the operating insight.
- I also do not consult with startups, unless I am taking on a short term operating role, normally as the COO
- But saying all that I am really interested in using big data (data sets) to solve business and personal problems
My team is currently trying to revisit the data that we gathered in November 2014. Our first interpretations (the sixteen organic molecules) are out in the public domain. By revisiting we aim to identify those molecules that we were less confident...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
Absolutely nothing. I truly cherish every moment I spent working at TINT. Right from the lowest of the lows to the highest of the highs, it's a journey of my lifetime. But if you want me to be really anal, I would say I wish I didn't stay up late ...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
In the early days how did you encourage users to install “Pin it” button and use it regularly. Was it solely on the ‘Pin it forward program’?
It is extremely hard for startups to gain the first momentum and make user create content on their networks. It is Chicken- -and-eggs problem. Some startup I know even pay someone to write the content on their platform.
In the early days the first set of users were our friends and family. All of the user base graciously volunteered to use the product and provide feedback. Upon registration we congrtulated the user and encouraged the user to install the bookmarkle...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
Ben Silbermann does not know how to code. But he knows how a good product looks like and works like. He is a product guy with a laser sharp vision. Ben and Evan (co-founder and design lead) brain stormed a lot about how the product worked. When Ev...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
There are good carbs and bad carbs....and it's up to us to balance the protein and good fats into the diet
examples of good carbs are your whole grains like brown rice, millets, dalia, ragi, jowar , barley, bajra, semolina...and ofcourse all vege...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
It does not matter how long you worked. If you had any income in the year 2015 you have to file tax return. Tax is based on the taxable income.
Taking breaks as a startup founder. It's very easy to say in theory, but very difficult to do in practice. You'll be tempted to work a lot and you'll feel guilty when you're not. The reason I take breaks now (I don't touch any work on weekends any...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
I had job offers from couple of companies even before my last semester. This put me in a really comfortable situation. I was scouting for opportunities for the last semester to get more experience. I was particularly interested in this company cal...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
This was all on-page SEO - 7 Cups had garnered a ton of attention and backlinks from credible sites but had never done any SEO. So I came in, cleaned up the site architecture, and within weeks we started getting traffic for: free online therapy, o...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
Must pass the test provided by the California board of real estate and affiliate with any of the local board of real estate association. You must then join a broker association to become a real estate agent.
Obesity is one of the biggest medical issues today and it's more rampant in children than ever before. Along with that diabetes and heart diseases are plaguing us. What do you think are the major factors that are causing this? Is the GMO food, lack of exercise, poor diets, too many carbs, wheat and gluten or all of the above? I personally struggle with weight management and haven't found a good solution that works over time yet.
Hi Amandeep,
Yes it is one of the biggest medical issues and it's worriesome that its so rampant in children today.
You have rightly listed out the main causes -
GMO - i would add the cancer connection to this to.
Lack of exercise and ov...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
Yes it was a constant struggle. There have been some really tough times where I was literally shivering thinking about my existence here in the US. Luckily not having a family in the US made some of the decisions easier. I definitely played all th...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
I am not doing a good job managing stress. Stress has led to some really bad health problems in my life. And my health eventually lead to unhappiness. Right now I'm spending time away from SF with my parents. My health got better and I'm more happ...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
Don't use the ' all or nothing attitude ' when it comes to food. Everything in moderation and learn ways to compensate when you have eaten wrong or missed out on a work out or sleep.
Embrace food and don't make it your enemy. When there is an ene...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
We have some amazing angel investors who were selected not only for their financial capacity but more importantly for what they could bring to the table as advisors and mentors. It is important to round out your portfolio of investors according to...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
We got our first customer in February 2013. Since we had a smaller price point, we got to 10 by the next week. Then 50 by end of Feb. 2013. Then 100 in April 2013. It wasn't easy though. We used our current customers as our marketing force and we ...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
Yes it was a constant struggle. There have been some really tough times where I was literally shivering thinking about my existence here in the US. Luckily not having a family in the US made some of the decisions easier. I definitely played all th...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
Like most of us, I believe there could be many distinct alien lives existing out there. But I do not have a definite answer on the 'possibilities' of such lives existing! The latter needs extensive details. Presently several non-carbon chemistri...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
Yes it is. When I heard the idea it was pretty raw. Its hard to judge the idea. But the way I looked at it was "What is the problem we are solving?". I used delicious and magnolia to bookmark stuff and tag webpages. I used to tag a lot of blog pos...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
We started working on a social bookmarking site before TINT up. Social bookmarking was big then because of Pinterest just taking off. Also Mark Cuban and a couple of others tweeted about us, which helped us get enough publicity to generate some in...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
I studied Computer Science during my bachelors and Software Engineering for my masters. The degrees and course work did try to teach some computer related stuff but, I dont think I learned a lot. I did my bachelors in India where the emphasis was ...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
I was lucky to meet Conrad Chu, my Co-founder and Munchery's CTO, while leading the engineering teams at Convio and GetActive Software (acquired by Convio). We loved working together, and as two fathers, felt the same problem of having little time...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
The first year at Pinterest is kinda a weird year since we were trying out things that we had no idea about. We knew we were attempting a good problem. We were heads down focussed on building the product. 2010, we were 3 guys working out of a apar...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
We offered customers the opportunity to come on as a beta customer for a much lower price as we respected that they were taking a risk coming on with an early-stage company. We also made sure that for every early customer that we understood their ...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
Absolutely nothing. I truly cherish every moment I spent working at TINT. Right from the lowest of the lows to the highest of the highs, it's a journey of my lifetime. But if you want me to be really anal, I would say I wish I didn't stay up late ...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
- cortisol is the biggest enemy,,,manage stress effectively so as to keep cortisol in check as it is this hormone that comes in between a flat tummy goal. Breathe deeply to lower cortisol levels
- Diet is alsmot everything,,,eat clean balanced...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
In my family, I've always been the one to do the cooking. I love cooking and providing healthy, nutritious meals for my family, but as a software engineer, I found myself struggling to find the time to cook. When short on time, we'd have to settle...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
Seems to be in a wait and see mode. Prices have fluctuated and many homes came in the market in the past few months have not been sold compared what has been the trend six months ago. Also people were expecting to know about the Fed rate details ...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
Our product adds a social layer to every website making them more social and engaging, and TINT means adding a shade/ hue to something. So TINT'ing up a website sounded more apt, hence the name.
Ambition, Plan, Proposal, Design - these are the four consecutive initial stages in realising any exploratory project. As for the human colonisation of Mars, most of the space agencies have been ceasing to move beyond their respective mission desi...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
Mark cuban tweeted about our product. He did not fund us. His tweet definitely fueled us to get funding. I was on my F1 visa at that time, and trying to work on a startup with no funding was a bigger threat to my visa. Most likely I wouldn't have ...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
I worked all the time. You put in everything and don' t track time.
First 6 months were a bit relaxed, because we didnt know what we were doing. Ben was busy riasing some money. He said I will just raise some money so that I can pay you, and I ...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
There were two primary reasons - (1) I was done with technology, and more precisely IT consulting (2) I wanted to build something that people would come and buy from me, and I did not have to pitch anything.
The long version was that in 1999, I...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
Super hard to predict because Pinterest has consistently blew my imaginations and predictions every single year. But I will take a chance to hit my wild guess. Pinterest will be the default place to collect. I am hoping a lot of people will use Pi...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
Our product adds a social layer to every website making them more social and engaging, and TINT means adding a shade/ hue to something. So TINT'ing up a website sounded more apt, hence the name.
I recently read this book called Joy Inc which I loved. It talks about making few process changes in your company that can help you achieve more joy. I also liked this book called maverick by ricardo selmer. Try headspace app for meditation. It's ...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
I actually have no idea what the selection process was behind the scenes, but when the Irish Independent notified me, I was ecstatic and humbled! It was very validating of our mission to completely revolutionize the way individuals around the glob...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
- Its hard to measure happiness as its based on the internal state psychological, cultural and the external environment health, weather
- Happiness has a large varied data set, based on time and event, how does one correlate all of them to find a happiness score
- BeingHappy uses a set of emotions as a register for the psychological state (self selected) and the external environment to score
- Using fundamentals of data science we normalize our scoring algorithm to in time getting better at giving a happy score and predicting
Many....
Mindsets to begin with.
In Newyork, people tend to own accountability and responsibilty for their health. In India, ( no genarlizing), but people tend to put their health in the hands of doctors, nutritionists, etc and expect to be fix...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
My main foray into the startup world, prior to Munchery, was my role as Director of Engineering at GetActive, then at Convio. GetActive, which built online software and tools for non-profits, was acquired in 2007 by Convio, the leading provider of...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
It should be more than what normally what you put for owning a home. Depending on the income and expenditure, lenders may have their requirements Lenders would be the best source to give an accurate answer.
Keep everything balanced.....balanced nutrition and diets is the safest for the body. Use low carb and other diets like paleo only when its really needed and there is a specific goal. never use these diets as a quick fix. The body needs all macron...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
In 2010 I was working for another startup about a team of 60 people. Things were pretty slow. Kind of a stable job but nothing was really exciting. Monotonous tasks, slow pace and what not. I used to spend a lot of time working on open source proj...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
Water exists within our atmosphere, on surface, as well as a few hundred miles within the Earth's interiors. It is widely believed that a certain volume (and not the entire volume) of water on Earth came from comets, mostly arriving around 4.3 to ...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
Check with your employer for maximum contribution into 401k plan (retirement fund) For 2015 it is too late to invest into real estate.
Helen and I were introduced by a mutual friend. We were lucky as we instantly got along, but most importantly we both shared the passionate and drive for KonnectAgain. It’s important to have a great relationship with your co-founder and be open ab...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
TINT was never our idea. Our first product was called hype marks. It's a social bookmarking website similar to Pinterest but for links. One of the feature of our website was to prefetch your links from Facebook and Twitter on sign up. A top celebr...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
Easiest way is to bolster their ego. This means reading their blogs, tweets, and conversing with them without the intention of asking to meet them. IF you do this enough, the VC will discuss back with you. Foster that relationship, and ask when yo...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
Passion, Patience and Product. Do you have the passion for the product you're working on? Do you have the patience to stick through tough times? Do you believe in the product and have a good product sense? Ask yourself these questions and if the a...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
We offered customers the opportunity to come on as a beta customer for a much lower price as we respected that they were taking a risk coming on with an early-stage company. We also made sure that for every early customer that we understood their ...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
Passion, Patience and Product. Do you have the passion for the product you're working on? Do you have the patience to stick through tough times? Do you believe in the product and have a good product sense? Ask yourself these questions and if the a...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
We were running out of funds and had a tough time raising money. So the only option we had is to charge our customers. You can only figure out the right pricing after multiple iterations. The key is to first start with something and then adjust yo...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
Able to convince clients that they provide accurate information,be knowledgeable regarding property details in general, understand clients needs and always available to provide information as and when needed by clients.
- When I think of startups I dont think of Vitamin vs Pain, I have been on both side of the spectrum. IMHO its all about scaling!
- @WagHotels was a pain product, how ever its taken over a decade to scale it to cover the bay area only
- On the other side @sidecar was a vitamin, can be said a pain to - and it could not scale as quickly as the competition
- Some Vitamin products become a Pain. Imagine San Francisco with @uber - its hard to imagine
- I love what @hnshah said about a Vitamin product that I was involved with - "its a solution looking for a problem"
- I dont think of Twitter and Instagram as Vitamin - they are both solving a social problem at the highest level of abstraction
- I do believe that @Twitter is not being valued correctly, do you have a valuation of the future of radio/tv its time will come
We were running out of funds and had a tough time raising money. So the only option we had is to charge our customers. You can only figure out the right pricing after multiple iterations. The key is to first start with something and then adjust yo...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
I am not sure you will have any in the bay area in that range.
We started working on a social bookmarking site before TINT up. Social bookmarking was big then because of Pinterest just taking off. Also Mark Cuban and a couple of others tweeted about us, which helped us get enough publicity to generate some in...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
TINT was never our idea. Our first product was called hype marks. It's a social bookmarking website similar to Pinterest but for links. One of the feature of our website was to prefetch your links from Facebook and Twitter on sign up. A top celebr...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
Helen and I were introduced by a mutual friend. We were lucky as we instantly got along, but most importantly we both shared the passionate and drive for KonnectAgain. It’s important to have a great relationship with your co-founder and be open ab...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
The question you’ve asked is one of the most profound questions troubling us. And it is being investigated currently from different school of thoughts. Scientists are breaking down this enormous question into minor questions and pursuing them ...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
I recently read this book called Joy Inc which I loved. It talks about making few process changes in your company that can help you achieve more joy. I also liked this book called maverick by ricardo selmer. Try headspace app for meditation. It's ...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
I was very happy to see this confirmative discovery. Kudos to the principlal investigating team! This discovery has greatly rejuvenated the will to explore Mars.
Some five years ago, I participated in a geological expedition (led by renowned geol...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
I first begged any chefs I could find on Yelp to cook for Munchery. I still remember the first chef I met in person. She was very confused by what we were trying to do (rightfully so!), but she ends up being one of our biggest supporters today. Th...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
I had been doing some research on how to distribute our product since that was our biggest pain point when working on our first consumer application. I realized if there were ways to piggy back off of people's community, that could really scale aw...This knowledge is worth millions but signing up is free
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