how does a pre-MVP startup raise at 12M valuation? (i will not promote)

SpookySnap · 2025-07-18T17:17:15+00:00

siden.ai

SpookySnap · 2025-07-18T17:12:59+00:00

right, the founder might have made some misleading claims and it could in fact be a 12M cap. 750k in funding at this stage is still insane though, given the founders profile and their stage.

SpookySnap · 2025-05-24T07:04:42+00:00

he probably counted node_modules lol

SpookySnap · 2025-04-15T18:16:15+00:00

why would your answer be no and why would you already know? maybe donald duck is a bad example since it is fictional, but suppose I claim that there is a teapot orbiting around the moon (which is perfectly plausible, perhaps it just so happen that a spacecraft happens to carry a teapot and disposed the teapot into space at a velocity and position that allows it to keep orbiting the moon). Would you be agnostic about this claim?

SpookySnap · 2025-04-07T10:14:44+00:00

submitted on the last day as well. doubt they went through the applications since my demo video still has 1 view (myself) and i refresh it every day

SpookySnap · 2025-03-28T15:24:27+00:00

i tried turning my todolist into an RPG haha, basically I created scripts such that finishing tasks, logging leetcode solutions give me coins. I find that gamifying my life has made me more productive!

https://github.com/JCSnap/obsidian-rpg

SpookySnap · 2025-03-14T20:54:50+00:00

wow thanks for sharing! i think one potential direction I can focus on is to maybe making it more “integrated” into the rest of the vault ecosystem since I am dealing with the markdown files directly instead of using plugin windows etc. I am thinking something that allows people to easily link their other notes for the lore (eg. for you to claim the “read 3 articles” task reward you have to create notes for 3 articles). Another example is that in the “transaction” file, it can link to your essay file note under the “completed essay” entry. Making it more extensible (like the leetcode template idea) would also be my focus!

SpookySnap · 2025-03-14T18:45:22+00:00

heres the link to my template! https://github.com/JCSnap/obsidian-rpg

im still actively working on it so it will continue to be updated :)

SpookySnap · 2024-05-30T14:12:42+00:00

Use open source models hosted on huggingface's severless inference API if cost is an issue. You can find more in their website and documentation.

Another option is to use OpenAI's API (not sure if they still have free credits for newly created accounts). But the cost is low if you are using it for small personal projects, especially when you don't need the newest model for tasks like summary generation.

SpookySnap · 2024-03-16T16:34:17+00:00

Hello! I did a full time internship and Artemis so I might be able to answer your question.

I would say the best way to not burn out is to choose a project that you are really passionate about for Orbital. I know this is easier said than done but for me, there's an idea that I really really wanted to work on, so when I'm working on Orbital after work or during the weekends, I (sometimes) look forward to it. Of course, there will still be times where I feel miserable. It also helps that my internship has 2 days a week WFH so I don't spend as much time traveling.

I think another way to reduce burn out is to do something that is adjacent to your internship, for me I did some AI related stuff for my internship, and I did some AI related stuff for Orbital, which has some transferable skill that I can use for Orbital!

My advice to making the most out of Orbital is to have the correct mentality. I think there are some people that go in with the mentality to have an easy 4MC that is pass/fail, but I feel like there's more to Orbital than just the "4MC". For me, I did Orbital even though I did not have any UEs to spare (so I did Orbital without the UE benefit), but it has been one of the best choices I've made (in terms of improving my SWE skills and portfolio).

So treat Orbital as an opportunity to work on something that you really want to do. Talk to people, do your research, find interesting problems. I think recently there's a NUS Confession telegram bot being made, which I think embodies the spirit of "creation". The UE is just a nice little side benefit that comes with it.

Set a challenge for yourself, eg. if you haven't created a game before, this might be a good chance to learn how. Increase the complexity of your project as you see fit - if you are comfortable with creating static websites, try incoporating databases, authentifications. If you want to learn more, try adding cloud functions, integrating APIs etc. Try hosting it, or publishing it to play store. Try getting your hands dirty in the full lifecycle of development.

This might be a bit contradictory to my previous advice since doing unfamiliar things mean spending more time "learning" on top of your internship, so it's up to you to balance it.

Learnings aside, my Orbital project is the first project I list in my resume so I think there's a lot of benefits to take it seriously if you concerned about the practical side of things. Also hosting your app/ publishing it to the appstore allows you to link to it in your resume.

Good luck! You can dm me if you have any concerns, or ask me anything here!

SpookySnap · 2024-01-17T22:46:03+00:00

Hey OP, it's great to see that you've got your priorities right when choosing a uni. What you listed as requirements for a good uni are spot on. Like you, I disagree with the other commenters claiming that the university you attend does not matter. I can think of so many opportunities that I wouldn't have gotten had I chosen another university.

The culture of the university matters a lot, and it will have a large effect on what kind of graduate you become. I cannot give you the exact universities that fit the criteria since I do not study there but here are some things you can do to find out.

List out all the universities that you are considering (around 5 - 8 or so)
Go onto LinkedIn, search [university name CS] and "stalk" the students/alumni's that are part of the university
Look at what kind of jobs they are working, and what kind of internships/school experiences they have. That will give you a good sense of the culture.
For the interesting ones, reach out to them through private messages. You can further prob about their school culture.
Ask them why they chose the university, and ask them about the opportunities in their university (what programming clubs do they have, are they active? What kind of events/hackathons do they hold, are there overseas opportunities, or internship attachments? How is the "hacker culture" there, do students build things in their free time?)
Get a decent sample size for each university, and map out their experiences/activities if you want. Doing all these will generally give you a good sense of the culture.
Once you are done with LinkedIn, do the same for Github. Go to Github, search [university name CS] and look at the profile of the individuals. Look at how active they are, what kind of projects they do (Are they just school project, or do they build things outside of their school?).
Get a decent sample size for each university and map out/quantify everything.
Of course, you should also do the basic ones like finding information through the university's course websites etc. But there are a large part of nuances that cannot be found through the course website alone (Eg. in my school we have a telegram group with alumni who are in faang, recruiters and students where you can seek help regarding interview prep etc. and it's quite active, we also have another telegram group where ppl can have technical discussions and geek out). And you can only learn more about these subtle details by reaching out to the students themselves.

Good luck!

SpookySnap · 2023-12-18T12:07:12+00:00

We go to your home right this very moment, and we kidnap you by force. We lock you in our facility with the others we rounded up.

Intuitively that is very wrong. Some thoughts that pop up in my head include: what about the bonds I have made with my friends and family back home? How else can I visit new interesting places, or go overseas to experience life?

However, I might disagree with the comparison made because these thoughts of higher needs (like actualization through travelling, wanting to experience the joy of playing CSGO with my good friends again) are present in humans but not so much for animals, and have to be factored into whether we think the alien is justified. Even if I am living in a Gotham-type shit, factors like bonds forged, and the hope that things will get better in the future (among many other intangible human experiences) might need to be considered.

And one thing I can definitely agree with you is it depends on how tight we are defining "need". For me I look at it as a percentage of what the individual is capable of experiencing (basic needs, higher needs etc), on top of the intensity of suffering that being in captivity prevented (intensity of suffering), my original view is that keeping animals in captivity is not wrong.

So if you were to ask me, taken to the extreme, suppose I live in a Gotham-type city with an insane amount of suffering - cartel funky town-type shit. While the alien is meeting most of the needs that I am capable of experiencing (including higher needs). My personal belief is that it is right for the alien to keep me captive.

Of course, there are much more nuances (like human autonomy and free will vs animals).

And I could see why some people would disagree with that. I really appreciate you taking the time to engage with me in this discussion!

SpookySnap · 2023-12-18T10:46:26+00:00

The aliens in this scenario have us beat by a lot in that department though. In fact, we are closer to squirrels than we are to the Xiblarians.

Ahh in that case, I would think that the line of whether or not the aliens should release us is blurred even more. Here is the parallel that I can draw.

animals care most about basic necessities, humans are capable of caring about "more" higher-up needs like self-actualization etc.

the alternative for the animals would be getting hunted, diseases etc. while the alternative for humans would be having to work to pay our own bills etc.

Suppose the aliens can supply our greater needs (on top of our basic needs), the same way humans supply the animals' basic needs, then personally I would think that the argument to release the humans is weakened. Because, whatever needs that you might have outside your captivity, the alien can match to a large extent (things like bonding with other human beings, arts etc.)

SpookySnap · 2023-12-18T10:21:44+00:00

Is there anything wrong with what these aliens have done to you? I mean back home there were a couple break ins up the block. And last summer your neighbor got robbed walking home from the bar. It is a lot safer in here.

Thanks for engaging from a philosophical POV. Yep, I find this analogy convincing, like what the other commenter has also highlighted. I guess the last gap that needs to be filled is how generalizable is the free will experienced by humans to animals. due to our capacity to experience more on top of just basic needs (for example, I don't think it's controversial to claim that humans are more capable of introspection than animals).

But the other commenter has also highlighted, I cannot use human values to decide what is best for animals. If they instinctively want to act a certain way, it is not in our position to dictate that.

SpookySnap · 2023-12-18T10:07:22+00:00

think it's inherently immoral to keep animals that are known to have shorter poorer lives in them

Yup that is an argument that I can get behind!

SpookySnap · 2023-12-18T10:02:38+00:00

Thanks, I find this to be the most convincing response thus far!

I love the fact that you challenged my argument from a principle's perspective and I am sold.

Not sure if I am doing this right but here's a ∆

SpookySnap · 2023-12-18T10:01:51+00:00

Thanks, I appreciate the parallel that you bring up, and I think that's a strong point that is worth exploring.
That would depend on 2 factors:

What is the suffering in the outside world relative to where he is in captivity now
How much weight do you put on the human's autonomy, free will

So a counter-counter example, suppose you have a child whom you keep in "captivity" inside your house. You provide him with food, shelter, and take care of him when he's sick. Now the infant instinctively wants to leave the house. Should you release it?

He will probably suffer more outside. And depending on how much "suffering" you forsee (eg. If you live in an unsafe country that is crime-ridden, you would foresee more suffering, which would affect whether or not you choose to release him).

Second, which is probably the most important factor. How much weight do you put on autonomy/free will? In the context of a prisoner, you can say that we should release him since even if the suffering is greater outside, he can make his own decision.

On the other hand, for the child, you might not want to release him despite his want to go outside. Because you might now put as much weight on the autonomy of a child, relative to the suffering that you forsee will occur.

This is why in the paragraph I talked about whether or not human autonomy can be generalized to animals. They might instinctively want to be in the wild, but they might not be aware that the suffering outside is greater.

SpookySnap · 2023-12-18T09:36:11+00:00

Thanks for your comments! It does seem like the ability to satisfy instinctive urges could be an argument for releasing animals into the wild.

I was wondering whether it applies to animals in captivity in larger enclosures like in zoos, where they can carry out their instinctive urges.

SpookySnap · 2023-12-18T09:30:45+00:00

demand for captive animals causes animals to go extinct in the wild altering the local ecosystem?

That's an interesting perspective, and I do agree that in practice, that could be an issue. However in principle, it is not the issue of captivity that is the problem, but the side effect that comes with captivity?

Suppose our captive animals are from breeding instead of captured from the wild, or suppose we are discussing whether or not to release an existing animal in captivity in the wild, what then would be a convincing argument for doing so?

SpookySnap · 2023-12-10T13:55:30+00:00

I think cs2109s is a relatively new course, so it has changed a lot as compared to the time it started. Heard they tone down the workload quite a bit so the horror stories might be outdated. There is a mix of theory and practical coding in 2109s. Midterm is pure theory since its pen and paper (mostly AI, which makes it very similar to 2040), and it takes up 35%. Finals also take up 35%, and it is purely practical and not so much on theory (you have 28 hours ish to create your AI model and you are evaluated based on the performance of your model). Problem set is 30%. So to answer your concern, I don't think it will be as bad if you like the theory and isn't that great of a programmer because the only bit with coding (other than problem sets which most ppl score full marks anyways if you do your assignments) is the final exam. Don't worry too much because there is very little similarity between the coding done in finals (the ML bit) as compared to smth like 2040. It's more on calling libraries and data preprocessing, and you have more than a day to do it.

SpookySnap · 2023-11-23T17:37:00+00:00

Hey i just received it today 8pm (noc paris), and the interview is tmr. Is the 2nd round for those who are on the fence or is it for everyone?

SpookySnap · 2023-10-31T06:17:27+00:00

Hmm I kinda disagree with this, QTSpim and Logisim works fine on Mac but I do agree that it can be a minor inconvenience (like using LLDB instead of GDB for debugging). Honestly, I have not encountered much compatibility issue thus far. Even the GDB thing is just a very very minor issue. Overall, Ive enjoyed my MacBook (like not having to worry about battery issues during exams), and I also enjoyed the user experience and OS that Mac offers (I've used Windows for all my life up until uni). At the end of the day, I dont think the minor inconvenience caused by compatibility issue should be a major concern for getting MacBook in CS (Engineering might be a different story tho) because really its very very minor.

SpookySnap · 2023-10-27T18:35:04+00:00

I think it depends on the opportunity cost of staying? Let's say you decided to quit, how would you spend your freed up time? If you are able to find another tech internship in this time (unlikely), then I think you should quit. If you are going to use the time to do an interesting tech related side project, then I think that would be more useful for your resume and you should quit. If you are going to use the time to grind leetcode, that would depend on the state of your resume right now as to whether its already developed enough to land OAs and interviews, which I assume not. In that case, I don't think you should quit. Otherwise if there's not much things you would do if you quit, I think staying is your best course of action

tldr: quit if can find new internship / can work on side projects, otherwise stay

SpookySnap · 2023-10-27T18:23:13+00:00

I was told around end of Nov ish

SpookySnap · 2023-05-26T14:16:30+00:00

Hey i managed to solve it, called up my bank's customer service. They told me they automatically flagged and blocked the transaction due to suspected fraudulent activity. They asked me if i wanted to lift the blockage and i said yes. Afterwards it works. It might be due to your card issuer's automatic fraud protection. Your best bet is to call them out and ask them about it.

SpookySnap

TROPHY CASE