zander (79)
Gamification
Adding game elements to normally not game related software or processes in order to increase engagement.
A: User testing has shown that users don't like our accounting app.
B: We should really be adding some gamification.
A: Will that make the app more useful?
B: No, but more fun!
graup about 9 years agoHerd Mentality
When people follow the leader or others like a herd instead of thinking independently. Often seen when investors are deciding which startups to fund.
VC: You guys have a really strong team, exactly the type that we like to fund, but we just don't believe in the idea.
Kim: Did I mention that a16z decided to invest in us yesterday.
VC: Wait. Don't leave. I think we started things off on the wrong foot.
zazpowered about 9 years ago
Early Employee
A founder who will take 1% of the company instead of 25%. This is a polite way of saying "sucker."
CEO: "We couldn't have done it without a few great early employees."
employeeNumbaOne about 9 years agoI still wouldn't minded having been an early employee at Facebook or Uber.
@silconobserver Zach Holman.
This is total and utter bullshit. The founder risks his entire savings, family/friend relationships and pours his life into his startup. When things finally begin to work he goes out and hires the first few employees. In return the "early employees" get paid market rate or slightly below market rate and get equity and the founder gets painted as a greedy bastard? Who is the real sucker here
Fuck you money
When you make enough money from a startup or job that you can basically do whatever you want. Usually from equity after a liquidity event.
Engineering manager: Congrats on the IPO everybody. See you guys on Monday.
Engineer: I'm not sure about that
Manager: You think you can do whatever you want now you have that fuck you money?
Engineer: Sorry sir. I just got a little excited
zazpowered about 9 years agoIn the single comma club now... :/
@SingleCommaClub that's not bad. you will get to two commas soon
Uber Driver Engineer
A label that describes a lot of Uber drivers. When you talk to one they will tell you they are trying to learn how to code, build an app and start a company. Uber is only now, startup is future. The passenger will encourage the driver but deep down inside they don't think its happening.
Because of the success of Uber there has been an influx of Uber Driver Engineers trying to start their own companies.
zazpowered about 9 years agoNon-technical Cofounder
A Wharton MBA who will overestimate the value of his idea and underestimate the value of the person who will implement it. Often wonders why his technical cofounders leave him and the apps they build look like shit and get hacked all the time.
Non-technical Cofounder: Why do all these technical cofounders leave me? Did they not see the MBA from Wharton in my email? I'm telling you right now, I know how to write a business plan. I even offered the last guy 10% of my company.
zazpowered about 9 years agoWorked with a guy just like this before. We had tons of competition doing the exact same thing but dude refused to change his ideas or strategy at all. Happy it was contract work.
Also known as "Ideas Guy"
As opposed to a technical cofounder that shaves yaks because they have no clue about business?
Popular phrase: "Looking for a technical co-founder"
Jian Yang
A character on the Silicon Valley show that represents your stereotypical asian engineer in the Silicon Valley world. Jian Yang is from China and is often misunderstood due to cultural differences and language barriers.
Jian Yang: Which is for burning?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUBpqOdF3i0 The actor for Jian Yang, Jimmy Yang doing standup: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_UyvGIeXW0
Erlich: We don't burn trash in this country. It's illegal.
Jian Yang: What about garbage?
zazpowered about 9 years agoDave Ratio
It's very difficult to achieve gender parity at a startup, given the toxic culture. The next best metric, is to compare the number of men named dave, to the number of women. Reference
Alex: It's hard finding a company that has a reasonable number of women.
Kourtney: Have you tried working at a company with a 10:1 dave ratio?
oakland_mike about 9 years agoSnapchat
A mobile app that lets you share intimate pictures with the people you just met at the bar instantly. It also lets you share temporary moments of your life that are not cool enough or sometimes too embarrassing to share on Facebook or Twitter.
I just add everyone I meet on Snapchat and send them pictures of the cat I found on my street.
yungsnuggie about 9 years agoSLO Engineer
Engineer that graduated from CalPoly SLO. Good chance of being bro-ey, surprisingly good what they are doing.
Interviewer: So you said you came from SLO..? Cal Poly?
Interviewee: Yeah bro
Interviewer: Bro, I came from there too, you're hired!
mwang about 9 years agoIE Troll
A person who purposely uses Internet Explorer in front of others and claims that it is the superior browser on the market, to either mock another person or make it seem like they are completely incompetent.
Jack is an IE troll who gets girls to help him install chrome because he is "so bad" at using computers.
yungsnuggie about 9 years agoHacker News Hack
A person who spends his time commenting on Hacker News product posts all day criticizing everything he sees, but is just barely aware that they can't make something original of his or her own.
During his breaks, Jack becomes a hacker news hack who browses hacker news all day and criticizes everything he reads.
yungsnuggie about 9 years agoI Could've Built That Fallacy
The fallacy in which someone believes that they were capable of building something before an already more popular version of a product has come out.
In many instances this fallacy is contained by engineers working at companies or in academia in an indirect attempt to belittle the success of founders, claiming how trivial it is to build said app. It can also be a feeble attempt to make up for their unrealized internal inferiority complex. In reality they might have been able to code it, but not conceive it's details, key features, and brand identity.
George suffered from the I could've built that fallacy for weeks after Snapchat received an offer from Facebook for over a billion dollars in talked about acquisition. He built his own version while working at Google, but it only had 5 users. He was happy he didn't quit his day job.
yungsnuggie about 9 years agoI hear this so often
Agreed
Growth Hacking
Growth hacking is a buzzword journalists and marketers shamelessly use to describe marketing techniques that uses internet applications in non-traditional ways. It makes the person saying it seem as if they've mastered a skill traditional marketers haven't caught on to. Although this is incredibly important aspect for startups it is pretty much a douchier way of saying marketing.
Studying various growth hacking techniques, Jimmy decided to email a million people Dogecoins with his companies name at the bottom of the email to increase exposure.
yungsnuggie about 9 years agoPokemon Recruiting
Giving preference to job candidates based on having unusual non-job-related characteristics - with the goal of collecting one of each kind to your team. Based on the collectible toy with the theme "Gotta Catch 'Em All".
Yuliya: Hey look, a resume from a Bulgarian engineer who speaks Urdu and plays the ukelele in her spare time. Andy: Wow, serious Pokemon points there.
AndyB about 9 years agoCode Ninja
A euphemism that is used by Bay Area recruiters who don't actually know what in specific they want in a Software Engineer, just someone who can pretty much do everything and anything that's handed to them.
We're looking to recruit the best Code Ninjas possible for our startup of 4 currently employed non-technical founders. Free pizza will be provided on Wednesdays.
yungsnuggie about 9 years agoAlso used oddly and inappropriately by non-Asians as term of endearment to their Asian-American friends.
Bus Factor
The number of people that need to be hit by a bus before their project is dead.
"Our engineers work in teams of 10 for the higher bus factor"
asdf about 9 years agoIt is well known that engineers make a "SPOF" sound when hit by a bus.
Making the world a better place
Solving a very specific problem that loosely translates into a social benefit.
We are making the world a better place through P2P iBeacon messaging platforms.
dennis about 9 years agoLook at how much time sink we've created for evil people... with Reddit.
Silicon Valley Billionaire
Silicon Valley Billionaires tend to be younger, poorer dressed and generally less douchey than billionaires from other areas. Some are so poorly dressed that it is often hard to distinguish one from a hobo. In New York, a 23 year old scrawny male with t-shirt and jeans might be told to fuck off at a Lambourhini dealership but the same thing would never happen in Silicon Valley.
Sales person: Do you think I should even talk to that guy over there. It doesn't look like he can afford a car.
2nd sales person: That's Mark Zuckerberg
zazpowered about 9 years agoEngineer Unicorn
An engineer that is competent, good looking, dresses well and is not socially awkward.
John: How come no other engineers are like David?
Mary: He's an engineer unicorn. They are rare.
pygmyknight about 9 years agoThe legend says some of them can be found here http://www.engineerunicorns.com
"Unicorn" is a common term for an engineer (usually front-end) who also has good taste in design and is able to contribute to UX early on. But "unicorn" is also used for startups that turn out to be breakout successes, like Uber and Airbnb. Silicon Valley really likes unicorns.
Reminds me of Never Lead VC http://www.topchart.io/lists/worst-vc-group-names#!items/53632-never-lead-vc