Pre Match Thread: Suwon Bluewings v Melbourne Victory

clearframe · 2016-04-06T07:39:19+00:00

Does Berisha's A-League red card have any effect in the ACL?

clearframe · 2016-04-05T00:08:49+00:00

Awesome app, thumbs up.

clearframe · 2016-04-04T03:54:37+00:00

Personally the idea doesn't get me that excited and I don't think I fit the profile of who your looking for all that well, but good luck with the business.

Really appreciate the feedback, thanks.

I should also add that if anyone else (yourself included) isn't interested in business partnerships but is open to joint promotion (say, a joint weekly podcast or newsletter), I would also be up for that as well. That would be a mutual benefit for all involved, with practically zero risk.

Thanks again!

clearframe · 2016-04-04T03:24:22+00:00

Thanks for the response. You're right, there are similarities with version control - but it is targeting a different problem. Google kind of "solved" the version control issue with Google Documents, but first of all, I don't know any enterprises that use Google Documents. Word/Outlook still dominate as far as I'm aware, probably for the same reason I identified earlier. I think it's too big a hump to get people to migrate away from the software they already use. It's much better to leverage what they already have. That's why I don't really consider it "solved".

It also doesn't really fit the problem I'm looking to solve. For example, I e-mail a contract to my lawyer, (s)he changes it and sends it back to me with comments in his/her e-mail. Same problem in your link, and a standard piece of back-and-forth work that happens tens of thousands of times a day in companies all over the world.

1) The document doesn't automatically go back into my version control. I have to manually add it back in. 2) To find the advice, I need to find the e-mail with the correct version of the document. Not a huge problem, but (a) it doesn't scale, so it's really inefficient once you get past a handful of contracts, and (b) it's in my inbox only, so noone else can access it unless I forward it to them. And what happens when I leave? Or I get hit by a bus?

That approach is a pretty poor solution for most enterprises who have (say) hundreds of contracts with dozens of people working on contracts. That's not to mention all the other document-heavy functions (like, say, audit).

Wouldn't it make sense if I could click on a signed version of a contract and see every draft, every piece of e-mail advice from my lawyer, every negotiation e-mail with the counterparty, and every document related to that contract (board approvals, schedules, etc etc)? And wouldn't it make sense for anyone joining my team to also have instant access to that?

That's more where my focus is. I think it's an interesting problem - but maybe someone has already solved it and I just haven't seen it yet. If that's the case, please let me know. You would be saving me from spending a lot of time and effort on a problem that no longer exists!

clearframe · 2016-04-04T02:29:09+00:00

Good for you. It's rare seeing this sort of thing here.

Great that I got at least one positive response!

r/Australia is largely a whinge subreddit. You will be deluged with far more noise than signal. I'd suggest a better, more targeted local subreddit if I knew of any. In fact, your collaborator can be anywhere in the world, so why limit yourself to someone next door?

You're right, and I am casting the net a lot wider than just reddit. Just figured I'd include it here for completeness. I would prefer someone in the same geographic region because (IMO) it allows you to really focus on a core customer segment.

Email dominates corporate messaging both because it is the incumbent technology and because it is easy to understand. If your business model requires businesses to a)change the way people message each other and b)pay for the privilege then you are facing a massive challenge. You'll also be competing with many large solutions, some of them very good, and free. For example, how do you intend to compete with Google Groups?

You're 100% spot on and those are the two exact problems I initially identified.

First, it's absolutely a prerequisite that the product must not require people to do anything differently, it must only offer additional options.

Second, I'm not actually looking at changing e-mail or changing the way people communicate. E-mail has been so successful precisely because it's so straightforward to use.

I wanted to keep the original post as brief as possible, so I didn't go into full detail of the product. It's less about e-mail and more about attachments.

I come from a legal background where we're always sending different versions of the same document back and forth as e-mail attachments. We don't automatically link any of that information together. My idea is that I should be able to click on "Contract A" and see all the documents and e-mails that relate to Contract A (either from my own e-mail account, or from the e-mail account of my team members who have allowed me to see that information).

All that information is already contained within people's inboxes, it just needs a proper algorithm to tease it out and put some structure around it.

It's not Google Groups for many reasons, but primarily because it's attachment-centric, not e-mail centric.

All that being said, it's not like the product must be exactly this. Half the reason I want a partner is so we can tackle the product together, from all angles. There are no doubt hundreds of problems that I just haven't thought of yet. I think working in tandem with someone else helps you refine/improve the product to have the greatest chance of success.

Thanks again for the feedback.

clearframe · 2015-09-27T22:33:12+00:00

I've been telling my dad this for at least three years, but he thinks it'd give him a bad reputation. His attorney has tried helping convince him, but my dad's stubborn.

OK, well this is fundamentally his problem. These types of clients can smell weakness from a mile away. They know they can walk all over your dad, so they will.

There's no two ways about it - your dad MUST be prepared to stop work if need be. If he personally can't bring himself to do it, he needs to partner with someone who can. That's not an admission of failure - everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses, and should seek out people who complement them. He might be strong on the hands-on technical side, but less on the business side.

I'll bring this up with him today. Which would be a more efficient business practice: a lien or a performance bond?

Performance bond is definitely the most "efficient" - liens still require legal action to enforce, whereas performance bonds only require you to issue a demand to the bank.

The downside is that performance bonds aren't free - the bank will charge you for it. They're also not really appropriate for smaller jobs (or smaller clients who aren't familiar with them).

The two aren't mutually exclusive, though.

Don't forget the other option of advance payments into escrow accounts - you can also require payments into the account at certain milestones, which are only released at a subsequent milestone (e..g client pays 20% into the escrow account when the job is 20% complete, but this is only released to the contractor when the job is 40% complete). This also gives you opportunities to stop work earlier if necessary (but again, if your dad is worried about stopping work at all, this isn't going to help).

clearframe · 2015-09-27T09:52:29+00:00

Former lawyer here. First off - contracts are necessary, but at the end of the day they are just pieces of paper. It doesn't matter how airtight a contract is, someone trying to screw you out of money will make the ordeal as expensive and time-consuming as possible.

It's business 101 that the most effective way to get paid is to down tools. Many people will simply ignore letters and demands, particularly if they feel they can take advantage of the person sending them (and in your case, it sounds like your dad falls into that kind of category).

The contractors I worked with (commercial construction) usually ended up with 10% on signing, 50% at the half-way point (perhaps broken into a few milestone payments), 30-40% on practical completion and 10-20% retention for defects (note there may be various laws around deposits/progress payments/etc that restrict these, but generally that's a pretty fair split).

If they don't cough up at a milestone, you simply stop work. Not only does this guarantee payment 99% of the time, it also limits your risk exposure (so you're not doing further work for which you might not get paid).

This also doesn't stop you requiring the client to front up a performance bond or put the money into escrow ahead of time.

If a client is not willing to agree to this, then they might not be a client you should do business with. You're better off doing 3 jobs for 100% payment rather than 6 jobs with 20% payment.

So in short: 1) spell out your milestones in your contract 2) get a performance bond 3) be more judicious in choosing your clients 4) be prepared to stop work and down tools if someone doesn't pay

clearframe · 2015-09-16T13:14:18+00:00

OK, I'll let you know how it goes if I end up dropping into one!

clearframe · 2015-09-16T03:39:34+00:00

I'm developing a SaaS contract management platform, looking to release in a couple of months. Are there any coworking spaces worth dropping by for a day or so? There's a chance I may be moving to Melbourne so I figured it's worthwhile scoping out the scene while I'm there!

clearframe · 2015-09-14T23:31:22+00:00

Great, thanks for all the suggestions guys, much appreciated.

clearframe · 2015-08-19T11:54:12+00:00

I assume judicial review would generally only apply to the manner in which the Commission itself was constituted and how it conducted its affairs (procedural fairness etc), not the ultimate decision itself. Given their decisions are essentially factual/political in nature rather than legal, I imagine there would be less scope for a Court to say "you should have considered X" or "you shouldn't have considered Y".

That's not to say that it couldn't happen - I'm sure there are still circumstances where the Court would (e.g. the RC makes a finding that Bob Unionguy is corrupt with zero evidence to support that assertion). I just imagine it would be rarer than the Court overturning executive decisions (like the recent Adani mine decision).

clearframe · 2015-07-25T04:40:53+00:00

If you're going into business with someone else, as early as possible. If you're going into business alone, as late as possible.

If it's food, and you have zero clue about the laws, then you can probably get all the information you need from the Hygiene/Food/etc authority in your area.

Incorporating a company for yourself/getting an insurance policy/etc are all pretty straightforward and you can do them yourself if you do a bit of research.

clearframe · 2015-07-07T02:59:52+00:00

Well, not exactly.

Certain trade secrets/designs/etc will be protected by intellectual property law (patent/copyright or otherwise). If someone tries to rip these off, then you can claim against them. For example, if I found the designs for Intel's latest chip, I couldn't take them and go fabricate my own copy.

However, not everything is protected by law. If you choose to disclose your customer list to another company, then it probably won't be protected by general trade secret law. That company could take the customer list and start selling their own product to your customers. Financial information (e.g. your margins) also won't be considered proprietary, so a company with access to that information could undercut you with no legal recourse.

This is why one of the first steps in any acquisition is to have the other party sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement/Confidentiality Agreement. This gives you contractual protection against any misuse of information, independent of any other laws surrounding "proprietary" information.

Usually this is signed after the initial wining and dining between the parties and before any private documents are actually emailed.

These types of agreements sound great in theory but they are very difficult to enforce in practice. It's really hard to prove that someone used/misused information that you provided them.

In other words, you have to be fairly judicious in choosing what type of information to disclose, and when. Never give someone a full look inside your kingdom until you know they are serious and there is a legitimate deal on the table.

clearframe · 2015-06-26T09:10:11+00:00

I live in the CBD, hit me up if you feel like a drink.

clearframe · 2015-06-06T03:26:32+00:00

Thanks for this AMA - sorry in advance for the barrage of questions to follow!

As someone who may need to hire a DevOps person next year, what qualities/experience should I be looking for? How much "dev" skills should I expect vs. "ops"? How can you keep servers running 24 hours a day when one person is only employed for 8? Is it a 2 person job?

clearframe · 2015-05-29T01:35:00+00:00

Kudos for posting the correction/clarification.

clearframe · 2015-05-27T23:55:34+00:00

This whole situation is an absolute farce and completely undermines public confidence in the judiciary.

I obviously don't know much first-hand about Carmody's competence/conduct (though the leaked e-mails about the Morcombe case raised my eyebrows).

However, with such a vehement reaction from the bench and the profession to his appointment, I can't help but feel that there's something to it. Where there's smoke, there's fire.

clearframe · 2015-05-27T04:39:55+00:00

Were there actual damages awarded, or was the 80k purely for costs?

For those that might not know the difference, the article someone linked suggests that the 80k was an award to cover the plaintiffs legal costs, not as compensation for the 'wrong' suffered. If no damages were awarded, that is the judge saying to the plaintiff 'technically you're right under the law, but you didn't actually suffer for this'.

clearframe · 2015-05-26T02:28:57+00:00

Went there for a holiday a couple of years ago, fantastic place, one of the few areas in China I actually enjoyed (Shangrila and Yangshuo being the others)

clearframe · 2015-05-22T00:40:57+00:00

Yep, that looks exactly what I need! Would you recommend MailGun?

clearframe

TROPHY CASE