Nate Westheimer › Comments

"A win for NYC. Love the experimentation." - Nate Westheimer

"This was a large part of why I decided last Spring to partner up with Aaron Cohen on AnyClip. So far, my decision has been a great one, AnyClip's trajectory aside. The opportunity to work with someone who has literally seen it all -- from the first GIF89 flashing advertisement to data-intensive operations like MenuPages -- has really been fruitful for me, as one of those "visionary young people." Vision just can't replace experience." - Nate Westheimer

"good luck!" - Nate Westheimer

"No, your thesis is very important here. Would love to have a collection of theses somewhere, just to read through. Not a surprise, I love yours." - Nate Westheimer

"Very valid point about how useless a thesis can be for a team who doesn't execute. But it's a good framework to execute around for a team that does." - Nate Westheimer

"Yes, your point is still quite valid." - Nate Westheimer

"Perhaps unimportant but I think 37Signals took $ from Bezos." - Nate Westheimer

"This space is interesting because great players -- like Facebook (mobile app usage is insane), Twitter (duh), Google, Foursquare, etc -- are already rocking this space and rocking it well. How much more company does this space need? Would love to hear what "big problems" other commenters think are still unsolved in this space. We know how to make connections, share our thoughts and locations, find information together and on the go... what else is needed? My contribution: I think a big unsolved problem -- while other people are finding ways for you to save money while on the go -- is how you can MAKE money, socially, in real-time, while you're on the go. The labor issue. The socializing, real-timing, and mobilizing of the web are all a part of us making a more efficient -- and labor will be a big part of this." - Nate Westheimer

"Congrats, Ryan. I can honestly say it was one of NY Tech Meetup's best presentations in my tenure." - Nate Westheimer

"Thanks! TC50 draws an international crowd, so it will be hard to compete with. I'd love for something like this to exist in New York, but I'm not sure it ever will..." - Nate Westheimer

"I'm not saying learn code. I'm saying learn "the ways of" code -- and that's nowhere to be found in a CS101 book. It's to be found on Andrew Kortina's blog or at a Justin Day's BarCamp session on 3d, self-replicating robots. The idea is -- if you not already a programmer -- to think like a programmer. The people who say you have to be a programmer are wrong, but I don't care what role you want to end up filling at a startup -- founder, CEO, maid, biz dev, product, QA, etc -- the people who saw you have to think like a programmer are right. You'll end up wasting a lot of cycles if you don't learn to do that. And unless you're insanely good (and experienced) at what you do, those wasted cycles are just too much waste for a startup to need your services, no matter how smart." - Nate Westheimer

"Ha! Mine too." - Nate Westheimer

"Jared, go make yourself so intensely aware and understanding of how software engineering works that an untrained eye can't tell a difference and CTOs talk to you like you are one of them. Live the products and understand why some succeed and some fail. Eat web apps for breakfast, and -- before lunch -- learn to install and hack-around on Drupal, Wordpress, and even get up and running on Ruby on Rails. At the end of the day, you'll still be a non-programmer. But, you won't be an idiot like so many other non-programmers (the reason folks say you must be a programmer to succeed). That's the basic program I think is needed." - Nate Westheimer

"I definitely think the pace of startups is accelerating here, and I think hackers have great resources already. I still think we're leaving major innovators out of the picture -- some non-hackers especially -- and could find creative ways to bring them into the fold, and out of the brain-and-soul-sucking industries which dominate NYC. Perhaps its my own personal experience, but I think there's a right path for training non-developers to make big contributions to the tech startup world. I also think that if we did this in a coordinated fashion, the effects would be transformational." - Nate Westheimer

"I think we could go wrong focusing on hackers with new programs in NYC. We have a vibrant hacking scene -- both hardware and software -- and I think there's enough hacker-friendly money laying around. I'm interested in the non-hackers, personally. There are a lot of brilliant minds who think like hackers but need some education on how to properly get a tech startup off the ground. That's what we have a surplus of here -- and that's the community which is underserved." - Nate Westheimer

"Quick update for folks... there's a minor bug in our invitations system, so I'll have everyone's invites out first thing in the morning. Thanks for hanging in tight!" - Nate Westheimer

"Yikes! Sorry we ran out of invites (actually, we got 175 requests before I cut it off). I'll get those 175 their invite now... and hopefully we can get more invites to you soon. Nate Westheimer Co-Founder, AnyClip" - Nate Westheimer

"Thanks a bunch for the write-up, Devindra. Shoot me your email so I can get you a beta invite. Nate VP Product, AnyClip" - Nate Westheimer

"It's not just about mentorship. It's about partnership too. The technology being developed in the universities can be game-changing for some companies. The problem is most companies don't know what tech is being developed at universities and most universities dont know what problems people with businesses have." - Nate Westheimer

"It's a tired saying, but I'll throw it out there: "50% of something is a lot more than 100% of nothing." My dad was the first person to tell me this, when I got started with BricaBox. With that venture, I owned well over 50% of the company still when I decided to close it. That well over 50% turnout to be of nothing. With my new venture, I'm sitting well south of that 50% number, but with little sacrifice to ownership. Why is this? It's because my "less" comes with "more" team of invested people. The more people who feel like meaningful owners of the Company (meaningful in terms of both % and their attitude towards it), the more valuable my Company is. So, % matters, for sure -- it's the basis on which investors and employees can do real back-of-envelope dreaming -- but so does the culture around that number." - Nate Westheimer

"Very cool list. Congrats to all of them!" - Nate Westheimer

"Great bunch of insights here." - Nate Westheimer

"Scott - wow. I never had to look away, but I understand how tough it was to write. Mostly, I learned a lot just in reading this post. I look forward to catching up in person and -- as with everyone else -- seeing what revolution you're going to start next. Best, Nate" - Nate Westheimer

"I think you're right about listening to customers. Blip.tv is a perfect example of getting this right." - Nate Westheimer

"I think the trend of cheaper startups puts a focus on market timing for sure. It's harder to go longer periods of time without getting traction because next week, when the market is ready for your product or service, someone could come in without the baggage of an existing company and with a product build around more current models/facts/etc and compete." - Nate Westheimer

"Brad, this is a real gem. You finish beautifully too. Where can we break the economics of government and create Zero Billion dollar programs, services, and products leveraging what's good in technology? It's a great question to think about." - Nate Westheimer

"Wow. What a great, comprehensive review of #nytm!" - Nate Westheimer

"You're 100% right. I think there are a lot of programs which could get some attention -- certainly the Incubator at Rose Tech Ventures deserves a visit. But for the sake of simplicity, I can see see why this should just be about tech companies. Getting Bloomberg on board to actually do this will be a victory enough :-)" - Nate Westheimer

"This is an important list to pull together, and I'd be pleased to continue collaborating on it with you. My initial list: - Betaworks - 10Gen - Drop.io - Angelsoft - MakerBot - Livestream - Hunch - Blip.tv - HDCloud - and more and more! ... and of course I'd say AnyClip, where we're developing some pretty awesome technology in search and video analysis, though the bulk of the development happens with our team in Israel." - Nate Westheimer

"Love it." - Nate Westheimer