Question by @nico_darambong: why prefer to be the early bird type of hacker as most are nocturnals?
Starting up early gives you a long day. Let’s say 5am to 10pm. Practically equivalent of 2 work shifts :p
Morning (or fresh from sleep) actually is the most effective way to think for me. Basically, I spend my first hour going through what I need to do today (randomly, while Facebook-ing). Simplest to say, mornings are my peace time and I pseudo-meditate by doing nothing.
Additionally, I have sites running globally and processing transactions so I check them if they are still up and our contact emails if there are any critical issues.
Question by @mparaz : what's the secret of your startup success
Cliché :p. LOL! What success? :p I think it’s still far from it. Proudcloud perhaps but for the others ongoing like Ticketbase, Lawadvisor & Mashup Garage, they are having very good traction each but still needs to work hard to get an impact. I’d say the answer is carefully choose people you work with and building the RIGHT TEAM AND PEOPLE for each company. Love your team and take care of them.
Each of those companies I started, do have big names in it — that probably may have an effect but I won’t credit it as the biggest impact. (Proudcloud w/ Jay Fajardo, Ticketbase w/ Clint Nelsen of StartupWeekend, Mashup Garage w/ @rstacruz, @victor, @noel). The ability to sell and package your company is important (in that case, for a developer, I think I can fairly say I’m also a good salesman :p). So learn how to start sell your product/services too.
One other thing that can be accounted is this... If you’re doing a lot of service work in the past, you get enough business exposure from the clients/projects you work with/on so it’s fairly easy to kick-off something on that front. You only then need to fill in the marketing, find a really good bizdev guy who can do what you can’t.
Question by @keikun17 : mahirap ba maging long hair?
OMG, priorities. Hair isn’t one of them. Sa long hair, either I leave it as is or with a pony tail then move on to my day. Besides, may “rock star” effect ata siya everytime I go to meetings? Looking more sophisticated and artsy, so parang “before we can work together you need to accept me as is and don’t judge me by how I look. I did pretty good shit while sporting this long hair.” Stigma breaking siya. Rock en Roll to the world!
Mahirap ba? Dehins. Mas mahirap mag maintain ng hair kaya. I only have my hair cut every 4-6 months ata, tapos sa bahay pa. I have one hairstyle, yung layered na pambabae.
Question by @jamesflorentino : what year did you start programming and what language?
Hahaha! 12yrs old with basic? My first programming gig at 17 (at Innodata, my first job too) where I hacked on Wordperfect scripts and VB6/VBA (Excel) automation. My first freelance web app is 18 with (Java/Struts). I taught .net at 21 (while in college) at Informatics. I’m 32 now.
I played around with C/C++, Perl when I was young. I studied them but I knew from the beginning that things like Java, .Net, PHP will eventually be more popular and career defining. At 2006 I made a switch to Ruby and never looked back.
Question by @richardneililagan : Ano ang iyong quintessential top 1, everyone-must-read, siguraduhin-mong-mabasa-mo-bago-ka-mamatay comic / graphic novel recommendation? (At alam kong marami yan --- pick one!)
The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller.
Question by @keikun17 : How many cups of coffee per day / bottles of energy drink?
Just 1 cup! 4 shots Iced Americano Venti which I drink the entire day. I do 6 shots if needed.
Kung espresso naman 2 shots in the morning, 2 shots in the afternoon.
All black. I hate sugar or anything in my coffee. Hehe.
P.S. I enjoy the feeling of being tired at nights. Sarap tulog. :)
Question by @marc : - What's the most difficult decision you had to make that had the most impact (in your life or anyone)
Not difficult but the probably the best decision. I’ll have two answers.
Career? Starting Proudcloud. As a developer I really want to have company that I myself would love to work for. Within Proudcloud, it’s spinning off new companies so I’m totally happy with that. Everyone?: Creating the Phackers Facebook group and this Slack group? Because YOLO. When we started this we really don’t expect much support but here you guys now. We’re close to 750 here. 4.1K in Phackers FB. We have here the best community in the country so thanks for being very supportive to your colleagues in the industry (ang cheesy, pota).
Question by @headgeekette : Is there anything you wish you had more time for?
I’d like to code more! Kasi ganito, the more I mature the more I had to take care of high level things for my companies. More time with the kids too, I’d like to teach them how to code haha
Question by @normz : how do you balance gaming, family life, developing and running a company?
Actually, it’s simpler and seasonal. There will be seasons that I play games (right now I don’t). There will be days that I’ll be a developer fulltime (right now I am), some days a biz dev (past 3 weeks I’m overseas and doing business). Running a company, I got an entire core team with me on my companies who has been helping me. Really, it’s not just me alone who is doing all the work. :p
That said, learn to figure out what hat you’ll wear for the day. Will I do project planning today? Will I code?
Question by @yowmamasita : what would be the hardest / most challenging programming project you had? longest time you had to work on a project without sleep?
Haha! Nope. A full day working is enough except for release days where sometimes people might need to extend a bit.
If a project is making you not sleep then there’s something wrong with it (or with you). That shouldn’t be the right way to build a project/product (contrast to what you’re hearing from SV/Startup stories). No guys, just don’t do it. Estimate and schedule properly. Developing a product is beyond that, you should learn how to conserve your energy. Parang marathon yun eh, you cannot put all your efforts shipping a product, you need to reserve some while the product is running.
In that case, learn how to negotiate with your bosses/clients/peers :)
No more challenging stuff for me. I get @victor and @rstacruz to do it for me :p
Question by @richardneililagan : you always hear about people wanting to start their own startups. We all know it's not the simplest of things, much less elevating your startup so that it has a presence internationally. What would you say was your "first big break"? 😄
Go global and start acting global by day 1. I’d say when we started Ticketbase (ticketbase.com - raised $500k from Tony Hsieh’s LasVegasTechFund, and a few angels). It’s so easy to get access if you start claiming you’re a global startup and not a local one. Start thinking and talking like one too.
Closing customers like Facebook, Github, Martha Stewart, Startup Weekend is actually easier than expected. We just tell them we’re a “San Francisco based company, we do this yada yada, we’re better looking than eventbrite”, yes! cold emails & contacts do work! But then again, just like what I answered a while ago, you need a better half (biz co-founder) who will do that for you. Get a U.S. number too (I have Skype). Which I use to call people around the world to close a customer. Go fucking call them, it works :). Most of them don’t care if you’re from here. I’ve been in conf calls with Github, Facebook people and they practically don’t care if I’m from Manila.
Question by @ra : how do you boost your team's morale when it comes to tight deadlines or sa mga projects nyo that's needed to be fixed pero it's taking longer than expected? do you pop in Eye of the tiger in your playlist and yell 'Kaya nyo yan guys!' with your pompoms?
Actually, you have to be at the frontline and start pushing code yourself up to the point of a release. It excites everyone. Tapos, Katy Perry na music. For example: We launched an app yesterday called www.lawadvisor.com w/ @chard, @akosipc, @victor, @samrosecruz, @raconcepcion screenshot below:
**Questions by @keikun17 (again) @jason: What's your coding playlist like?, What is your everyday carry, you share us photos of your workstation(s) (Not an AMA, but we asked @rstacruz for one before)
- 90’s music (yeah I’m stuck there).
- MBP Retina 15", iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad. (Like a true Apple fanboi)
- I don’t have an updated photo of my home office but here’s an idea: http://d.pr/i/sVE2 Sa office, I have two workspaces. I usually work with the devs. I have a separate private space which I rarely use. That private space has a black couch.
Question by @radamanthus : What’s your favorite show on Cartoon Network?
Wat. Dexter’s Laboratory.
Question by @ajgb1113 : are you fussy with (programming) fonts? if yes, what are your favorites? any recommendations?
Oh no I’m not :(. I’m just using Monaco 12pt on vim/iterm.
Question by @johnkevinmbasco : How many startups of yours has failed? and how many became successful?
I lost count as I don’t see all of them as startups but just “projects” though. The thing is “success” is a relative word. I haven’t got a good exit yet, although it’s not exactly what I’m chasing right now. I prefer relating success towards taking a company where you want them to be and finding the very model that sustains and grows it from its own revenue and not just depending on VC money. I say Proudcloud as first. Mashup Garage is potentially the next one. Ticketbase, we’ll find out though. We have more projects than we’re publicly broadcasting actually.
Some few projects failed or just gotten stale but are currently being revived by somebody else now. For example: Semaphore co is now fully at Kickstart. Nowshowing.ph is being rewritten. Artisteconnect is just there. In the past, around 2006 I failed one spectacularly but I was young back then.
Question by @dyu : what new developments in software are you excited about?
React by Facebook! I’m a fan. I have a hobby project that uses it. I’m doing the weekly reservations app for Comic-Odyssey that should be out very soon.
Question by @nico_darambong : Is your coffee consumption giving you health complications? 4-6 shots is something. What are you, nico_darambong
I drink it nga the entire day. You don’t drink them in an instant otherwise there will be a crash after 2-3 hours. So what I’m doing is sipping few ounces pa unti unti until my day ends. Parang ganun. Tapos since it’s iced it also becomes my water for the day :D
Question by @dayvough : when forming teams (e.g. Proudcloud), how did you find the people? and how did you know if the applicant was fit or not? (Latter question has no preference if the person is a fresh grad or a senior. More on culture fit)
I don’t find people. People find me. (Naks. ang angas hahaha!). Okay kidding aside, Some of the guys I've hired, I already know personally and we just start working together, and their friends or a co-worker joins too eventually. We barely send “hiring” posts out there. Some add me on Facebook months ago pa lang (I don’t know why) then pops the question to me winks. We do it networking style, we hire our friends first. It works well that way. I think. Power!!!
I think hire what you or your team can handle (mentoring, support, training, finance). I strongly discourage to hire “the best” all the time. That’s a selfish way to run a company and to ruin the software industry. It’s important that you give equal opportunity din to new devs. (Who knows who you’ll be able to fish, there’s always a prodigy out there that just needs some discovering). Not only that, coming up with a good career plan individually for who you hire.
+1 w/ culture fit. This is a long topic and I have a lot to say about this kaso magiging sobrang haba na :p
Question by @headgeekette : Let's face it. Long hair is hard to maintain. How do you keep yours looking nice and flowy?
Sunsilk Pink and Cream Silk Green. Also my hair tends to be oily, siguro baka dahil dun haha
Question by @rme784 : would there be a new social network that will replace facebook? even if not now but someday
Haha I don’t know the answer. I hope not though. I’m perfectly fine sa Facebook.
Question by @markchavez : hi! What books have you read relating to Ruby?
Pickaxe, Stuff ni Avdi Grimm. I barely read technical books na ngayon. 25% business books. 75% comic books.
Question by @aldrenterante : kung hindi ka naging developer, ano gusto mo maging? at bakit?
Actually, I never picked any other career than a developer. Maybe a Pastor siguro pero parang hindi ko ata kaya lol
Question by @headgeekette : Did a time ever come when you had to fire a friend?
Not yet and I’d like to stay it that way! :D
Question by @aldrenterante : for business books anong marerecommend mo samin specially those who are starting there own startups?
Hmmm… medyo case to case eh. I guess "Personal MBA" ang pinakaeffective, short and concise siya. “The Lean Startup" makes sense to read. “So good they can’t ignore you”, “Drive by Daniel Pink"
Question by @rme784 : what circumstances that your idea can be a startup? do you use lean startup method for it or other things? (edited)
Yeah pwede. You can use that as the baseline. But honestly, try to find a model or processes that your team and yourself is comfortable working. Don’t buy into things like that too much. Use them as a reference or a starting point.
Question by @markchavez : any hobbies aside from programming? :simple_smile:
Yeah, I’m into comic collecting. I have approximately 5000 comics now. Some key issues and I collect anything Batman :D
Question by @ra : do you also collect 1/6th scale figures?
Nope. lol
Question by @jamesflorentino : bro what's one thing you think the startup culture here in the Philippines can improve on?
Too much locally focused startups. I’ve done a lot of projects here and there’s always a ceiling of what you can do locally. Burnout will come first before you even see progress locally.
For developers, you know guys… the amount of effort developing something globally versus locally aren’t really far from each other. Here’s one example I see sa Startup PH this morning, (www.shapecloud.ph). If I’m going to tweak that model, instead of selling 3rd printing services. I’m going to make it a marketplace of 3D printers where other 3rd printing services around the world can sign up and provide their service and I'll just charge for every successful connection. Sayang yung effort to develop it eh.
Also, by treating us developers with respect and not just looking at us as disposable resources :p
By @keikun17 : @jason What's your favorite local event
NERDFEST!
By @rstacruz : how do you manage to juggle being Jason of proudcloud and time with your family?
Hahaha I have awesome people surrounding me!
By @rstacruz : tingin mo may Impostor Syndrome symptoms ka? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome
Siguro. Sometimes I feel I don’t deserve things eh (like this AMA). Somebody wants to write me a ridiculous amount of cheque for me to work on but thinking WTF did I do that I deserve such thing. Sometimes I feel guilty din that I can learn things fast and BS my way into something. Haha so siguro nga.
Question by @jamesflorentino : where do you find inspiration from?
Figuring out how to pay 40+ people their salaries. Hahaha!
By @kneetaps : pwede pahabol follow up question to one of your answers earlier today: when looking for a good bizdev guy, what qualities and skills do you think are must haves?
Actually, track record + charisma. Emphasis on charisma. :D
By @samkeeleyong : what would you say to your 20-year old self, if you could time travel right now? (edited)
Buy as much .com domains as I can back then.