Hey folks, I built this as a side project as I couldn't see a list of privacy-focussed tools specifically aimed at startups (rather than consumers).
The project has languished a bit recently as my focus has been taken up elsewhere, so if you like it feel free to hit me up at fred[at]hey[dot]com. I'm open to collabs/acquisition.
Aim high, but have compassion for yourself as you push forward.
This is not embracing mediocrity, it is not disengagement, slacking, or merely rejecting perfectionism. It is understanding that the process of growth and improvement exacts a toll, and that growth is not always a pure function of time invested.
It's what I tried to capture in the post, but probably could have put better.
The sense of just taking the steps I can today, rather than burdening myself with the expectation of needing to have worked it all out and achieved all of my comparison-driven life goals.
The key is to find healthy rhythms that help us continue to better ourselves over time.
The other key difference here as far as I understand, is that Telnic required you to register .tel domains, you couldn't bring your own domain and store contact information against that.
For the past few months Barry (https://twitter.com/pace) & I have been talking to a bunch of young'uns about their news habits and one thing that keeps coming up is that people are overwhelmed with the news, and in particular, they're sick and tired of Brexit. So tired, they've switched off.
So, why are we providing more Brexit commentary?
We believe context is important, that our democracies need us all to be informed and engaged. Brexit is the defining issue of our time (at least this side of the pond) and so if anything deserves some extra effort, it's this.
But context, though vital, must be given in the right package.
By slicing it into 5 bite-size, interactive chunks (~3 min read time each), we hope to be able to clear some of the fog surrounding Brexit to help play our part in our nation moving forwards with clarity and purpose.
We hope you enjoy this short-series, but whether you do or don't, we'd love your feedback. We'll be hanging out in the comments here most of today ️
As just been reported by Paul-Olivier Dehaye who got 4 separate emails from Leave.EU, as well as one from MasterInvestor.co.uk indicating that the Leave.EU campaign used customer data from Arron Banks insurance businesses. I hope the ICO is all over this.
see https://twitter.com/podehaye/status/1059758450010456065
Carole Cadwalladr has been calling for an investigation into the potential use of dark money surrounding the campaign for many months. She deserves a lot of credit in pushing the investigation by NCA and ICO.
A point of clarification that didn’t make the article: we’ve not technically raised VC funding yet, we’re in an incubator. But we’ve effectively raised an initial round via our budget, and are on the path to raise our first round proper.
I agree with the rough sentiment of what you’re saying but think it’s a slightly too narrow point of view. Joining an incubator or accelerator helps minimise downside whilst in the process of figuring out the problem space and whether your hypothesis have legs. Sure, you can do this as a side hustle first and that’s great too, but as I say in the article, it depends on your circumstances.
I’m not raising money specifically because of personal life challenges, deciding to raise only came after making the big life adjustments. It’s my belief that raising can sometimes be less pressurised than bootstrapping, though admittedly most startup founders don’t live it out that way. We’ve got our beliefs based on what we know and our experience so far, I look forward to walking it all out and reporting back on what I learn.
Hey ausjke. Sounds tough, but congrats on getting this far. I'm not best placed to give advice here, and might need more context to do so properly anyway. I know a good group for bootstrappers, if you want the details my DM's are open on twitter (https://twitter.com/fredrivett).
I agree bootstrapping itself wasn't the problem. The problem was that I felt my focus on building a business on the side of my day job limiting to what I could do next. At the start of the year I decided the healthiest thing for me to do was to start from a clean slate and bed down somewhere. I wasn't sure where, but London is where I ended up.
I realise there are much more sane ways to live our lives than a startup, bootstrapped or funded. I agree it takes a lot of personal sacrifice too, mentally more than anything.
I realise my path looks strange, going from "I need more time to focus on things outside of work" to "I'm starting a startup", and it was never my plan when I came back. It was only 4 months after returning that the opportunity came up and it was the best fit for me at the time.
I may be too naive, but both myself and my co-founder believe that working excessive hours isn't a necessity to make a startup succeed. Sure there are times when you need to work longer in short periods to get something over the line, but the idea that being on the brink of burnout gives the best odds of success goes against what I've read about how the human mind works, and my experience too.
The project has languished a bit recently as my focus has been taken up elsewhere, so if you like it feel free to hit me up at fred[at]hey[dot]com. I'm open to collabs/acquisition.