March 2020 I was investigating Solid for legaltech projects I'm designing. I thought it sounded like a great way for a user to create a master profile that can be used with multiple web apps and service providers, while maintaining more control over their data. I engaged with the Solid community and with Ruben, who was very nice and helpful. However, I found that the tech was still at the hobby stage, and I didn't really think the toys being built on it were very compelling. It was very disappointing considering it was already a couple years old and had a lot of hype around it. I hope that this moves forward, but it's almost a year later and seems to be the same story.
The only 10X browser improvement that can be made these days is if it cuts RAM use by 1/2 compared to the others, (and isn't tied to crypto). I would pay for this!
My understanding of it is that much of the money is supposed to be for Google and Facebook ads - something which I would never want to have to pay out of pocket for in the US market. So it's not just that the founders can pay themselves a ramen salary or better, but that there's a big early marketing budget built-in.
Thanks for this! Certainly I have some experience with this already from my legal services business. The main difference being the clients trusted me first.
And much more. Not going to through it all in detail, and there are probably many things I don’t know about WeChat since I’m not a heavy user living in mainland China.
The team definitely needs to get the experience of being behind the great firewall. Try using a VPN there to watch YouTube, try using a locally purchased cell phone without access to Google Play or the Apple app store. Try bashing PRC government policies in WeChat.
Only then will they see how tightly things are locked down. It's not like they're the only ones to have this idea, so why doesn't it exist? Oh, because it's really difficult and even dangerous with the current police state that controls the communications.
This is something I've been considering for a while, but now the pandemic is pushing it forward as I may be having a gap in my income coming. I'm looking for some paid work with a startup or fellow entrepreneur.
I'm a mechanical engineering technologist and project manager turned tech entrepreneur. I don't code, but have been slowly learning, and also trying out no-code tools. I have extensive experience in manufacturing and construction from my original career, and had a profitable consulting business in legal services that I pivoted to a tech company, releasing one web app in 2017. But this is all history now and I can't generate income from that in the near term. You can find more info about it in my IH profile.
I realize that there will be many talented people unfortunately entering the job market soon, many of them being specialists - engineers, marketers, designers... I believe I have something different to offer as a generalist that has filled many different roles and has very diverse experience.
If any of this resonates with you and you want some more info, I'm open to chat about any opportunity. Thanks so much for reading, and best of luck during this challenging time!
Yeah, I had a GF that worked for a government research department. The last quarter of the year the department staff did ridiculous things to ensure every penny of the budget was spent. Frivolous travel, non-relevant conferences, parties, etc. As someone who worked in the private sector and managed project budgets I was blown away haha.
Nope. They just walk on through the front door, or sneak in the back one when someone is getting off. I just spent the last 1.5 years commuting down Vancouver's infamous Hastings Street on the bus, and there's not a day goes by where you don't see something messed up. I moved last weekend in part to get away from it.
Right, I forgot about the government tie-in. This part of free rides is definitely dysfunctional. Bus drivers aren't obligated to do anything, for their own safety, except notify the transit police.
In Vancouver, Canada, this is a problem. But we also have the bigger problem that the public bus system, operated by private companies, allow the homeless to get free rides. It makes some routes unbearable and even dangerous.
As far as I know, he had a business model involving an emerging technology, and wanted to select a product that would be most successful with it. He felt books was that product. He's said as much in interviews.
And then there is the whole construction / contractor / material aspect of it.
A big problem with a renovation is the uncertain number of surprises that the contractor will encounter when tearing out the existing material. The contractor doesn't want to get stuck cleaning up that black mold for free.
It really depends on the area of law, type of firm, type of client, etc.
In immigration or family law there is lots of procedural work, the lawyer might be solo, and the client is an individual or family. In this case the lawyer can generally not charge thousands per hour, they're doing most or all of the work, and the work has lots of steps that are repeated every case. This is a good case for the use of software to increase efficiency.
In big corporate law the work is specialized, the lawyer belongs to a firm, the client is a multi-national, paralegals and associates do a lot of the work, and the firm can charge thousands per hour. Here there's not a lot of incentive for efficiency.
Practice management software targeted to solos and small firms is very successful, look at https://www.clio.com/
"Temp laborers could probably use some software to help with tracking hours etc. Typically all the hours are tracked with just the supervisor writing down on a carbon copy how long they worked and gives it to the laborers to take back to their office which is then manually input to the billing system to pay the laborers at the end of the day."
"Keep in mind there's a much larger population of non-smartphone users that only use flipphones in construction especially day labor so any sort of app meant for the workers or laborers to use would just go unused."
Right on the first point, wrong on the second. The app is used by a different crowd - mostly younger, and many newcomer professionals or working holiday visa holders. This crowd doesn't need the daily pay to buy a 12-pack after work, and a cash advance in the morning to get smokes and a bus ticket.
I've used both types of service regularly over the last couple of years to fill in the gaps while I work on my startup.