skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> we've received a low 8 figure verbal offer over the phone today.

Try to get something on paper.

> they could fire us on day #2 and we'd have only the token money we got up front to show for it.

That's something you should take care of contractually.

> the offer is low by about 20% from what would make us "happy" to sell for.

20% is not a whole lot to be off for an opening offer, but keep in mind that if you go for broke you might end with nothing.

> We're very excited (indescribably so) at the prospect, we love the company and really want to make a deal and start working on the million ideas we have for the future - but at the same time we are afraid of cutting a deal now that we'll be second guessing ourself on for 4 years.

How long before the next offer comes along?

Will it be a better one?

Will this offer stand?

Are you the next twitter or are you operating in a space with competition? This matters a lot in your risk assessment.

> The purchaser has made the deal seem very much like a standard-fair offer and has (without saying so) implied that they make an offer and that is it - they don't go back and forth on it.

I would say that :) That doesn't mean it's true. But it does mean that they want to pressure you a bit and apparently that is working.

Keep your head cool.

Don't sign anything on the spot ever, always think it over, always have it reviewed. Be as cool as you can be and don't allow yourself to be pressured.

> We are also being courted by attornies/firms and investment bankers who want the business, and it's hard to get a bead on some really solid advice without feeling like the person giving it has something to sell us. They basically have all told us it's ridiculous we've come this far without getting an LOI already, and the purchaser has basically said they don't issue LOIs until the terms are agreed on in principle.

That makes good sense but even a letter of intent is essentially meaningless. Even a term sheet is meaningless. The only document that really matter is the final contract, and only then when it has been signed.

> So anyhow, what next?

Get a really good lawyer! An experienced one and one that will not blink on doing a deal like this (as in, that has done multiple deals like this and comes with very solid references). Deals like this happen only a few times in a lifetime, don't be cheap, that might come back to bite you big time.

> They are waiting on our go-ahead to put together an LOI.

Get a lawyer.

> Counter immediately?

Get a lawyer.

> Is it stupid to be afraid of "ruining" a deal?

No, not at all, that actually happens. Don't ruin it!

> Should we involve our attorney?

YES!

If you end up with a deal on the table after negotiations are finished and you don't like it walk away.

Treat it as a learning experience up to that point and only sign if you are 100% sure that it's a good deal for you and your buddies.

Good luck!
Ask for double of what you would accept, not just a bit more.
Nike Dunk Low Premium SB Eric Koston
Sounds like a horrible deal. If you want some cash out, talk to VCs and negotiate taking some investment for growth and some for the founders to take home.

If you don't need the cash... then why bother?
The author boils the "right" to internet access to a "right" to communication... but there is no such right, internet or otherwise. If you go to jail, you're isolated from the world. If you're bad in jail, you're isolated from the jail.

Humans don't have a right to communicate, for better or for worse... and I don't see why the internet should be an exception (as much as I'd like it to be, given my own addiction) when telephones, letters, telegraphs, roads, and person-to-person communication weren't/aren't.
MySupermarket built something similar in the UK (they've been around for 4 years and have around $20m in VC financing), so the idea probably doesn't need much more in the way of validation.
I think the single folder is that killer feature that certainly won them the market share. It's entry point is incredibly simple yet for the more technically inclined we can simply setup symbolic links to create the multi folder functionality.
It still has value according to the two-step HN algorithm of fact-finding.

step 1. Someone posts something (anything will do) on a blog

step 2. HN tears it apart and reconstitutes it with some decent approximation of truth and usually a fair bit of insight.

Basically, the source content is just the jumping off point. The blogs serve as a focal point for directing the HN hive's attention for a while.

You could post a story titled "Sarah Palin is more influential than the Pope but less influential than the iPhone" and fill it with lolcat pictures and still get an interesting discussion here.

Why? Because smart people are awesome.
> To me, this would be enough to immediately reject the offer.

To me that would be reason enough to make sure I negotiated the deal in such a way that if the company fires us that our stock will vest instantly.

> Any time someone tries to convince you to not consult your advisors, run away immediately.

No, get advisors anyway.

If the deal is good they might be lowballing them anyway and they're scared the other party finds out by how much.

What's good for one party may be great for the other!

There is this joke about the rights to an invention being sold for a relatively low amount, where the buyer confides after the deal to the seller 'we'd have bought it for ten times as much', whereupon the seller answers 'I'd have sold it for ten time less'.
There is more information and discussion on this topic at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2150639

While I think the fact that Sourceforge is resetting passwords is useful, I think it would have been better communicated as a comment at the aforementioned link, as opposed to making a screenshot of an email message and submitting that.
Very good point. This article fits quite well in the category of "nostalgia for a simpler age that never really existed."
> I'm using a Web Site + solution for my current job though, know if it handles that?

To be honest I'm not really sure. The big test would be to see if Zeus manages to import the solution file (i.e. from the Workpsace, Import menu).

This import has only been tested for 2005, 2008 and 2010 C# and C++ projects.

If it doesn't feel free to send me a bug report.

> I'll certainly give it a try for more "normal" .NET coding, there's a lot of utility code to be written :)

These are the three 'one off' steps needed to get the Visual Studio compiler to run inside Zeus

http://www.zeusedit.com/zforum/viewtopic.php?t=2707
Quick someone - find a way to do this with social deals sites. Filter out the daily spa deals and provide deals that match my interests from all the various groupon clones.
Congratulations guys! I like the redesign. I check the site for deals every weekend before doing the weekly shopping and always find at least one good deal. (I am still looking forward to seeing the expansion to Whole foods :)

I am sure you already know this, but https for the passwords would be nice to see when you have a few min to look into it.
Mygrocerydeals.com exists here but it's kinda bad. I have a take on it that's fairly different so we'll see how it goes for me.
IANAL, and you should get one (see #1) ASAP. But a few observations:

1. Get a startup attorney (you probably already have one, who incorporated you, if you don't - use one of the bigger names (wilson sonsoni, gunderson, cooley))

2. Figure out what your perfect offer would be, and counter

3. Rule #1 of any negotiation is to be willing to walk the fuck away if you're not happy. As soon as you become a little desperate, you've lost leverage.

4. I'm not quite sure how double trigger acceleration works but if you're getting options that vest, you could potentially figure out a way to get all (or some) of your options accelerate if you do get terminated. Usually this applies only on change of control, but I'm sure your attorneys could cook up something.

5. Why do you need to get acquired to work on the million ideas for the future? Have you thought about raising capital to do that (you know, the choice that Foursquare took when it turned down acquisition offers) - raising capital when there's already acquisition interest should be easier if that's the route you want to take and you can take money off the table if you need the cash and still build a potentially massive company. Talk to VCs anyway. This goes back to what you think the size of your opportunity is and how tired you are of going after it.

6. If you do "verbally" accept the offer, make sure you and your attorneys go over the LoI and terms with a fine tooth and comb, you could still get screwed. There's a million ways that could happen and that's where good attorneys will help.

7. Don't panic.

8. Best of luck!
Never rush into any decision because the buyer told you that they are not going to negotiate ... they all put on a poker face playing the game. Your business is highly profitable while on paper their offer isn't really that exciting. I think there is plenty room for negotiation.
How to read a paper
Yes. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."
The langpop link is interesting because it does an analysis by source. If you are familiar with Craigslist, you can see some of the problems with the methodologies. The SF Bay Area is heavily into web development, so PHP is no surprise. But C and C++ are second and third and essentiallt tied. That much C development going on? Not really. The majority of listing have C\C++ some where in the acronym stew, just to indicate that they want real programmers. So what were companies hiring a year ago, when last I looked? PHP, Java, C#, Ruby, and C++. All the rest was HR noise. But it's more interesting than nothing.
All other advice aside, any vesting stock should accelerate upon termination. ie. You only lose stock if you walk away. They fire you, you vest 100%. Anything less is an invitation to be robbed.
I just got the email, too. I hate a lot of their interfaces and services (download pages, source browsing, search, mailing lists... lots of lame) but I'm glad they're jumping on the problem proactively.
Get a lawyer. Go check out the list of suggested good start-up lawyers on http://venturehacks.com

You do NOT want to sell without a negotiated contract for your (all of you) ongoing employment. You need a lawyer for that, DON'T do it yourself.

Some of what the other side is telling you is clearly manipulative (no surprise). If they want to buy you, insist that they do it properly. You owe it to yourselves, and the other side will respect you for it - guaranteed.
Just to address this, we will not receive another offer. Period. It's annoying that I can't fully explain that without blowing our cover, but you'll just have to take my word on it :)
You're supposed to trust them because they yell "police" or "fbi" as they burst in. Sure an intruder could yell the same thing, but it's the same idea as their badges. Easily faked, but they just have harsh penalties for impersonating law enforcement.
I can't recommend him personally but I'm always stunned by grellas' comments on HN regarding legal stuff (he's a Sillicon Valley business lawyer)[1]. Maybe you could get in touch...

[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=grellas
The real question is whether Anonymous's legion of teenage trolls understands what civil disobedience means (i.e. that you are supposed to get arrested).
My feelings about Jason Calacanis evolved similarly to the way they did about Gary Vaynerchuk, just slower. With Gary, you see him going HiEveryBodyThisIsGaryVay-NER-Chuk!-and-this and you're kind of turned off, but you warm up to him because he's a good guy doing a unique style, and he's got serious chops/substance beneath the style.

Similar for me with Calacanis. It was Peldi from Balsamiq linking to an article of his talking about how to deal with journalists smartly that turned my opinion around, and since then I've come to respect the guy a whole lot. He's got a strong style that rubs people the wrong way at times, but he's a super savvy businessman and also seems like a genuinely helpful person.
Thanks, I had not seen that. Interesting concept.
Yes, and vice versa, lets say the RCMP needs someone sent to Syria for 'questioning', then they'd phone the FBI and tip them off that such a person is coming to the US. And the FBI would promptly send them to Syria for 'questioning' of course also ignoring their citizenship and duty to deport people back to their country of citizenship.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maher_Arar
I fear that attempting to name the "best" languages is just as fruitless as trying to name to the most "popular" languages.
The Challenger Disaster: What Happens When Politics Overrides Science.
Lawyers/bankers/third-parties people can and do very frequently kill deals. Do not hand the discussions off to them. Yes, in some cases a third party negotiator can help a lot. In this case though it's probably too likely they'd piss off the buyer and make them walk.

Just tell the buyer you want a deal that you won't regret, and what that means. It's really that simple. Once you get to the point where you're happy stop pushing for more unless you're truly okay with the buyer walking away.
Maybe we should create a site/wiki/working group/mailing list to discuss these issues. Otherwise it won't get talked about and never done because the corps definitely don't have incentive to do this.
Kudos for this pivot, the video is worth watching. Data driven decision making at its finest.
> Just to address this, we will not receive another offer. Period.

>> If you're really doing well and in a growing market, I'll offer you 3x revenue in cash myself, that'd be a steal.

You just did.
This is great and all, but I feel like someone should point out that at some level, you need service to your house. In the US at least, AT&T (or some company that was formerly AT&T) owns most of the last-mile wires, so anyone who can control the last-mile wires ultimately has control over the network.
It's typical for the other side to open negotiations with crummy conditions, not different from what happens millions of times a day in bazars all over the world.

I would venture a guess, that the potential buyer is aware of your inexperience, and trying to pull one on you.

Don't let them FUD you with comments like 'changing the tone' once legal representation gets involved. They clearly seem to have invested time and effort to vet the deal, so you very likely have a strong position.

I'd take my time, as excited as you might be, don't get desperate, and try to find a good M&A lawyer to provide you with guidance. Ask for referrals from people you trust.
That's the beauty of the NoSQL landscape (not a fan of the term). Each db has a specific quality, and while a general SQL db can be moulded to meet a certain need, there may already a db solution that is perfect for it.
They will be named if/when anything goes to trial.
Why would you think about taking an offer where they can fire you and keep the company?
To me that would be reason enough to make sure I negotiated the deal...

Sure. By "reject the offer" I mean to reject that offer, not that the offer couldn't be revised to become acceptable.

If the deal is good they might be lowballing them anyway and they're scared the other party finds out by how much.

It might be a good deal, but trying to convince someone to not consult advisors indicates to me a certain lack of ethics. As a general rule I don't think it's good to make deals with people you don't trust.
Right now, I don't monetize much. I occasionally add in an Amazon affiliate link.

I acquire subscribers in many ways, but I've bought very little. I spent $20 on a reddit ad which netted me (I think) 3 subscribers -- that's 100% of my marketing budget to date. The most effective ways:
* I syndicate posts to certain blogs, asking the blogger to plug the newsletter in exchange for letting him or her run the whole post for free.
* Word of mouth and asking readers to tell their friends about it.
* Links to individual issues, which have on them subscription boxes and links to the archives.
Are parents civilly liable in the US when their kids do something? That’s under most circumstances not the case in Germany. It is possible but the barriers are extremely high.

A thirteen year-old downloading software off the internet and using it is age appropriate (i.e. it is not reasonable for parents of teenagers to check everything they are doing online), the parents would consequently not be civilly liable in Germany.

(This is my personal extrapolation of the respective German laws. The case I know about is the following: Two twelve year-olds walk home unaccompanied from a nearby playground and decide on their way home to slash the tires of a neighbor’s car with a small swiss army knife one of the kids received as a present. The parents aren’t civilly liable in this case because it is age appropriate for twelve year-olds to walk to a nearby playground and back alone and it is also appropriate for one of the kids to own a small swiss army knife. There is nothing reasonable the parents could have done to directly prevent the incident.)
I'm no Tumblr expert, but in five minutes of searching I see Tumblr -> Wordpress utils, RSS, and the Tumblr API. That's three methods.
Getting a lot of the same questions so I just want to address them.

1) We will not receive another offer, there are no other offers possible. I can't fully explain this without blowing my cover, but suffice it to say we're very confident in this. It revolves around our extremely niche market.

2) A huge part of the reason we're afraid of blowing this deal is what I just stated in #1, since there are really no other exits for us.

What makes us different than another tech startup is that we really are only interesting to a very very few, and this company is the only one who can afford us :)
Komodo Edit is a very nice editor with a Linux version. I use it on Windows, though I'll be comparing Sublime to it now.
besides Suez canal is really a non-issue for US military's current missions - it has firm positions at Diego Garcia, in Persian Gulf and Pacific which is really a stones throw.

Suez is real issue if you want to move that force into Mediterranean.
Don't accept packages from AQ!

This reminds me of my grandfather's motto -- he was a WWII veteran -- "Never accept a drop shipment from Japan".
Congrats!

I think that you can be upfront with them.

"Look, there are a couple of things that make us uneasy about this deal. Mainly, we feel the offer is a little low and that the vesting schedule is a little long. The combination of the two makes this a very difficult deal to consider. I am not saying we don't want to consider it, but just that since we assume you are wanting to work with us for at least the next 4 years, we might want to spend some time to make sure we get started with the best chance of long term success."

I think that is both honest and strong negotiation.
Pretty much the same thing here.

Here's my experience with whatever this is:

Went to linked page.

Saw a bunch of suspicious looking buttons that made me suspect clicking them might cause me to perform actions I do not want to perform on well-known sites I may currently be logged into in my current browser session.

Closed page.

The End.
My own experience: I sold my company few years ago and I was talking to two companies at that time. One made a verbal offer of 1 mil, all in stock, vested over 4 years (similar to yours) subject to employment. Another company had a 5 mil offer, which was OK'd by their board. Cash deal, but they wanted to stagger payments to something like 10 years. To that I said "no, not interested" (which was true) and basically went on with my life. They came back in a bit and offered a 3 year period in equal parts plus generous stock supplement vested over the same 3 year period. And after the deal was done I was chatting to their finance guy and he said that it did not matter to the company if to pay in cash or in stock, because they simply sold stock to their current investors to raise needed cash.

In other words and without knowing specifics of your situation, I would probably say "thank you, but no, not good enough" without getting into the negotiations. If they are interested enough, they will be back. And if they are not, then your concerns of being fired on a second day may be not that unfounded.
Actually, it's not. In "normal" exceptions by the time an exception gets to you the computation that threw it is gone.

This depends on how you model control flow. What's become more common now is to have very explicit control flow modeling so you have pseudo-edges from every place an exception can occur to the catch block (of course fewer with synchronous exceptions).

So when the exception is thrown you keep the frame on the stack, shove your IP, and go to the new handler -- like a function call. From the handler you have five potential exit points:

1) Pop stack, jmp... continue control flow from where the exception took place,if recovery succeeds.

2) Fall out the bottom if it was handled, but not "recovered".

3) Go to next recovery handler in list, if there is one.

4) Unwind.

5) New exception.

With that said, there are as many ways to implement exception handling as there EH mechanisms. Every one of mine I've done pretty differently, but in everyone of them I think could implement condition handling pretty easily.
I'll give you a blog for $50 a month if you want :) decalcms.com
No-knock warrants (often to the wrong address) are now so common that if I heard my door being broken down I would assume it's the police. The castle doctrine seems like a dead letter at this point. A sad commentary on something, but I'm not sure exactly what.
Booby traps are a definite no, as for what would happen in a plausible scenario, read this:

http://reason.com/archives/2010/08/31/drug-raid-gone-bad
Thanks for the great work. Any chance of CoffeeScript syntax highlighting?

Edit: Also, do you have indent guides like in Komodo Edit? I couldn't see a way to turn them on, if so. That's a hard feature to give up once you're used to it, especially for Python.
They do.

EDIT: Anonymous has demonstrated an increasing political savvy and awareness, first via the protests against Scientology, but also with some smaller things that were tried that didn't spark such media coverage, like Operation CNTroll, for example. Characterizing all of Anonymous as being ignorant children is just wrong. Not all of them are doing things for political reasons, but the leadership most certainly is.
I'll try to read that over the weekend, but I'll just note that it's not difficult, especially for someone of Friedman's stature and intelligence, to construct an internally consistent exposition of a particular worldview. That is to say, I hope he accounts for falsifiability. ;)
Agreed, make an outrageous counter offer, you know, cost of living and all that. The reaction will shed some light on where they really stand.
You're right. The reason I pointed it out as a flaw is because it has major consequences in this case. It's true for every hash function, but highly unlikely to happen in most cases.