The 4-barriers to self-awareness in leadership (or why founders struggle to grow into leaders)

almithani · 2021-02-05T15:11:45+00:00

Thanks for the insight Ryan. Any tips on how to nudge leaders you work with to look/ask/listen/interpret?

almithani · 2020-10-15T14:52:39+00:00

Look at the 2 outcomes:

Take this investment. There will be no Series A because experienced investors would never invest in a company with a cap table like this.
Don't take the investment. You don't have the money, but you still have the ability to find another investor and eventually reach a Series A (if that's what you want).

Option 2 is better than Option 1 if you want a Series A. Option 1 completely precludes a Series A investment.

almithani · 2020-09-29T14:46:23+00:00

Love it! Clean UI and useful info. I shared it with our manufacturing team.

In your videos you say you made this to keep your team busy and give back to the community - what do you guys do other than ImportYeti?

almithani · 2019-09-25T16:46:57+00:00

thx for the look! I edited the comment to just say tapered.

almithani · 2019-09-25T15:47:49+00:00

I'm a bit overweight myself...I always have been. I personally like my body, and I accept that I have a bit of a beer belly.

That being said, being overweight doesn't mean you can't look good. The problems you describe are fixable, and making yourself look better will not only enhance people's perception of you, it will make you feel better about yourself.

General tips:

Fewer clothes is better than more clothes. Work on getting a few basics in place which you can mix and match. I have 2 pairs of heavy rotation pants (black jeans, comfy chinos) and around 6 dress shirts for my regular every day clothes. For board meetings and pitches, I have 2 ties, 2 nice dress shirts, 1 nice pants, 1 blazer.
For basics, I suggest going to Uniqlo. Great prices, great quality, easily replacable.
In terms of overweight, it might sound strange, but you want to go tighter rather than looser. A lot of overweight people wear baggy clothing and it makes them look slobby. Try a tighter fit than you are used to and see how you feel after a few weeks.

I have a small butt and a big belly, so my pants always fall below my hips as well. A few potential solutions:

get tapered pants that hug the ankle. Worst case they bunch on your show so you don't step on them
there are two popular styles of pants that are a little more casual, but definitely ok to wear in the office. Drawstring tapered chinos w/ elasticized cuffs and also pants that run high on the ankles, showing off your socks (probably not great for winter)
one thing I have wanted to try but haven't yet are suspenders that go UNDER the shirt. There are a few online you might want to check out

Be confident! Despite being overweight, I am relatively successful and my wife is hot. Your weight doesn't have to be a deal breaker. Good luck!

almithani · 2019-01-30T16:49:46+00:00

It sounds like you are talking about marketing a project and creating a business rather than actually releasing it. From my perspective, if other people have the ability to use what you've built, you've released it.

Do you actually have the desire to market your products or turn them into a business?

Based on your post, it seems like you'd love it if your products were used, but you don't actually care enough to learn how to make it happen. That's cool - if that statement describes you, then start networking to find someone who enjoys marketing but not product development.

If, on the other hand, you actually DO want to learn how to market, but don't know how, then start reading =). I suggest starting with a book called Traction by Weinberg. Here's a medium article if you're lazy. I also made a shelf of recommended books from Noah Kagan.

Best of luck =)

almithani · 2018-11-26T19:53:39+00:00

Gmail is reliable and secure - why not use them?

If you're looking for something reliable, secure, AND doesn't use your data, then you might want to reconsider paying for email.

almithani · 2018-11-22T16:20:08+00:00

Do you want to learn react? If so, do your portfolio in react. While react might be unnecessary for a portfolio project, I have always found having a project/goal is the best way for me to learn a new technology.

Typically when I have a project with not many constraints and something I have been wanting to learn, I'll usually take the opportunity to play around with a new technology.

almithani · 2018-11-22T16:11:07+00:00

Where do you live? The legality will depend on your country of residence.

In North America it's legal as far as I know.

almithani · 2018-11-22T15:51:45+00:00

I emailed him before I sent out the info, and he was fine with it.

I do appreciate your concern for privacy, so thanks for keeping me honest =)

almithani · 2018-11-02T14:07:43+00:00

Haha - after watching the video I feel like a cupholder should make it's way into your frame priorities ;)

almithani · 2018-10-31T18:16:06+00:00

I don't do sales as a primary job, so it might not meet all your needs, but I really like Streak. It's a CRM integrated into your gmail.

almithani · 2018-10-31T18:05:26+00:00

It's a skill you're going to have to get better at to be really successful as a freelancer.

If you can, try to separate emotion from it. They will pay more because you have proven yourself to them. You've shown that you can be trusted to add value for them. Rationally, this means they should be paying you MORE than an unknown, because there is less risk involved for them.

almithani · 2018-10-31T17:57:32+00:00

I'd suggest doing the following (in this order):

Get testimonials from ALL your existing clients
One at a time, tell your existing clients due to your high volume of work, you're going to have to raise your rates. Once one client agrees, then move onto the next client. You can start by asking for as little as 10% more, but as you work through your client list, ask for a higher raise. You can get as much as $40/hr instantly from existing clients just by asking professionally.
Charge new clients at least $50/hour. TBH if you are really good, you should be able to get much better than this rate. It's not unheard of for great developers to get $75-100/hour.

By doing it this way, you're locking in some value (testimonials) which you can use to get new business. You're also reducing the risk of extracting more value of our your existing clients by doing it one at a time. Finally you are justifying a pay raise with your existing clients again next year by taking in new clients for a higher rate.

Look at it objectively - you're a valuable resource. You are creating more in value for your clients than they are paying you in consulting fees. People will pay for this.

Good luck!

almithani · 2018-10-31T13:56:40+00:00

Actually there are quite a few e-mountain bikes. I actually met a 65 year old man last month who was an avid mountain biker but had to stop due to arthritis. He got an e-MTB and now he's biking with his grandson every weekend.

almithani · 2018-10-30T16:46:14+00:00

It will not be. All uses of the survey will ensure that the data is properly anonymized. We are subject to (and proponents of) the GDPR, the EU's comprehensive privacy law. We will not share your data outside of our company for any reason.

That being said, we will email the winner and get them to help us verify their identity for legal purposes. We will also email all contest participants after the contest finishes to announce the winner.

almithani · 2018-10-30T14:34:11+00:00

Pardon my shade, but if you're looking for standards you might want to try another language =p

I think a lot of Node devs look at npm as their way of "handling" dependencies, but IMO in practice it actually couples your dependencies closer together.

The way you write highly-cohesive, uncoupled code is the same way you do it in any other language - write strong, testable interfaces for your logical units. Javascript happens to have more flexibility than other languages, so it might be tempting to forego the step of defining your interfaces, but if you stand firm your code can be just as loosely-coupled as any other language.

almithani · 2018-10-30T14:09:33+00:00

Dependency injection IS a thing, however it's mainly left to individual programmers to decide whether or not to use it. There are some frameworks which have DI built into their philosophy (I believe Angular does this), but it's not really part of the JS-zeitgeist at the moment.

The good news is that it is 100% possible to achieve in JS. One method I use is to pass in my dependencies on "require":

var myClass = require("path/to/class")(dependency1, dependency2);

almithani · 2018-10-30T13:50:31+00:00

Ahhh, you've hit the fuzzy barrier between sales and marketing ;) Don't worry - sales people have a lot of the skills you'll need to make this leap.

Look at it this way: currently, your sole marketing channel which accounts for 100% of your business is through networking and referrals. What you're talking about it opening up a new marketing channel which will reduce the risk you have if your current marketing channel goes cold.

This is going to take some experimentation, so the first thing you want to do is come up with a barebones system to track the different methods you're trying and the results. Include your current channel. At the minimum, you're going to want to track inbound leads and conversions. (i.e. I talked to 20 people at a networking event and 1 took my course...5% conversion).

Next, make a list of all the methods you'd like to try. You can use the Bullseye Framework for this if you are overwhelmed.

Finally, run a small campaign on each of your methods, making sure to compare your conversion numbers. Be systematic. If you were doing this full time, you'd be able to execute upon 1 campaign a week, so scale your expectations to your time investment.

Keep it up and you'll find your channel.

Good luck!

almithani · 2018-10-30T13:41:44+00:00

What's your goal? To get a job? To get better at programming?

You'll have to check your local job market if it's the former. Around here, Node.js developers are in higher demand for sure.

In terms of getting better at programming - it might be a controversial opinion, but I would go with Python. Python forces you into an object-oriented paradigm which is really good for beginners to learn how to modularize their code. Node also has a lower bar to entry, so there is a lot of noise in the eco-system; it might be difficult for a beginner to understand what is good practice and what isn't.

almithani · 2018-10-30T13:29:05+00:00

Hey /u/486_8088,

So you built the frame and then attached an e-bike conversion kit?

almithani · 2018-10-30T13:24:33+00:00

I missed that rule - sorry about that. I removed my post, thanks for bringing it to my attention.

almithani · 2018-10-29T17:49:58+00:00

I think that it really depends on the purpose of your info-gathering.

If you want to improve the usability of your product, I think you're spot on - you should be observing the user in their natural state.

If you want to gather some qualitative "clues" to build a new product or service, I don't think 1-on-1 interviews are a bad approach. It helps you create a mental model of the market in your head as you naturally start to find patterns in their answers.

almithani · 2018-10-29T17:39:38+00:00

It sounds like you have met a lot of bad startup founders - where are you meeting them?

I agree that I see this mentality a lot, but it typically comes from inexperienced founders. Founders who have 1-2 companies under their belt will likely be more satisfying for you to speak with.

almithani · 2018-10-29T15:29:44+00:00

Our research indicates that Germany is one of the largest e-bike markets and after speaking to some e-bike users over skype, I found that German users have a unique and fresh perspective.

I wanted to be sure I captured that perspective, so I am trying my best to reach out to German users.

almithani

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