HACKER Q&A
📣 _5tfz

The Interview with Devs and Founders who went from 0 to a 100 (or 95)


Hi! Small intro: I’m a long time lurker, sometimes poster, & lover of HACKER NEWS. I worked for a YC company awhile back and have since always come back here for interesting topics. A female in my late 20’s who’s worked in tech for her short career.

I am looking to interview developers and founders who have started from zero/pre-seed, gone through funding (by YC or not), and made their venture successful — whether you’re profitable and private, went public, or were purchased. Company type does not matter.

This is a user interview— purely for research purposes only and all information will be private and remain between us (happy to sign anything to make you comfortable)

I’m really just looking to shoot the shoot with you and have a casual conversation if you’re up for it :-)

I can’t disclose my identity here but if you reach out and legitimately disclose yours, I can assure you will know who I am.

I am located in Northern CA and am HAPPY to meet in person in the Bay Area, but am also up for zoom meetings if folks aren’t sick of that yet.

A small incentive: depending on your background, there could be a future opportunity for you. Please reach out, even if you just want to grab a coffee and chat! I’m also down to bring a converter and water kettle for tea at a random spot. It’ll be fun!

Email (again): [redacted]

--mystery woman on a mission

  👤 quickthrower2 Accepted Answer ✓
Good luck with this. I suggest lurking on indie hackers and you find a lot of people who won’t look super successful compared to say Uber or Facebook but have got businesses off the ground and make anywhere between enough to feed their family to a few million. It’s also amazing who’ll give you time if you reach out. I spoke to someone on the phone for tips who postered a successful micro business on HN you’ve probably heard of (sorry for being mysterious: I would feel bad if I “doxxed” them) but they were very helpful. So I think what you are doing will be easy in the sense of getting people to say yes. I think they’d love to talk to a woman because of how unrepresented women are in tech and startups. Good luck!
👤 codegeek
I am a founder even though not venture backed so probably not your target but I couldn't resist. What is the purpose of this research ? I think you need to be a bit more open before any real founder would be interested in talking to you (being blunt here but not trying to offend you personally). Your post seems like you are asking for a lot but not giving much back in return yet. You also said "future opportunity for you" but you don't clarify what type of opportunity ? Why would a busy/real founder who has raised funding would talk to you ? You need to make this more interesting and valuable. My 2 cents.