Disqus - Latest Comments for joshuabaer

Re: WP Engine passes $100M in revenue and secures $250M investment from Silver Lake

Joshua Baer — Thu, 04 Jan 2018 21:27:40 -0000

Congratulations Jason! It’s been an honor and a pleasure to watch this incredible journey. You are one of the most amazing entrepreneurs I’ve ever met, and you’re a mensch who always does the right thing. Well deserved!

Re: The Second Quartile

Joshua Baer — Tue, 26 Dec 2017 20:07:02 -0000

Texas has a lot of companies that fit your "second quartile" description and they face all of those same problems.

Re: LG fixes WiFi interference problems with UltraFine USB-C 5K display, new units unaffected

Joshua Baer — Sun, 12 Feb 2017 20:07:57 -0000

I just called Apple to exchange the display I purchased in January. The support rep immediately acknowledged the problem and said I just need to bring it into an Apple Store to exchange it. She said the stores have them in stock because it's a common problem.

Re: RideAustin isn’t the solution, but a means to get there

Joshua Baer — Sun, 12 Jun 2016 21:38:46 -0000

Thanks for the words of support. I'm not sure what the long term answer is, but I agree that it can't depend on donations. It's possible that the non-profit could be self-sustaining once it hits critical mass. Either way, I hope that it pushes us towards having more reliable, cost-effective options for ridesharing in Austin. I still hope Uber and Lyft come back ASAP!

Re: Top Tips For Taking A Roadtrip With Kids

Joshua Baer — Mon, 30 May 2016 15:02:06 -0000

Check out the Are We There Yet app for kids so that they can follow along with the trip on a map and stop asking "Are we there yet?" over and over! http://baer.ly/awtyios

Re: More Strong-arming from Uber and Lyft

Joshua Baer — Sun, 24 Apr 2016 13:45:30 -0000

To clarify, my comment, "This is getting uglier every day," referred to both sides getting uglier and uglier every day.

I think this has turned into much more of an emotional decision for many voters and many council members than a rational one. Neither side is listening seriously to the other side and Austin loses in the middle.

Re: Convenience outweighs safety risk to Uber, Lyft

Joshua Baer — Sat, 09 Apr 2016 12:06:15 -0000

It's not about cost, it's about what barriers you put between signing up as a driver. Most driver's aren't full
time - they are driving 10 hours a week to make some extra money to help pay their rent or feed their families. If you make them go somewhere to get fingerprinted before they can drive, it significantly reduces the number of drivers who sign up.

Re: Convenience outweighs safety risk to Uber, Lyft

Joshua Baer — Sat, 09 Apr 2016 12:04:27 -0000

Not only that, but two companies who HATE each other (Uber and Lyft) are agreeing and cooperating on this one issue. If it wasn't truly a barrier to their business model, 2nd place Lyft would take this opportunity to say "we'll do fingerprinting" and stick it to Uber. The fact that they both are holding firm says that they know from experience in Houston (where there are 1/4 the drivers as there are in Austin, a much smaller city) that fingerprinting actually breaks the business models and prevents them from signing up enough drivers to get critical mass.

Re: Convenience outweighs safety risk to Uber, Lyft

Joshua Baer — Sat, 09 Apr 2016 12:02:24 -0000

He's comparing the RESULTS. You look at how many incidents there have in cabs and how many incidents there have been in Ubers, and then you can see if statistically it makes a difference. It doesn't.

Re: Convenience outweighs safety risk to Uber, Lyft

Joshua Baer — Wed, 30 Mar 2016 23:50:30 -0000

We're much safer with Uber and Lyft, because of all of the drunk drivers they take off the road. If they leave down, people die. It's not like all of the people riding in Ubers will suddenly start taking taxis. They didn't before Uber and they won't after.

Not only that, but there are a lot of people who are paying their rent and feeding their families driving for Uber and Lyft. If those part-time jobs go away, it really hurts them.

Uber and Lyft aren't perfect. I think they could have handled this much better. But that doesn't change the facts about how much drunk driving has been reduced since Uber and Lyft launched and how many Austinites put food on the table with money they earn driving.

Austin's citizens are getting screwed between the crappy politics of the Taxi Lobby, the TNC Lobby, and our city council who is still learning how to work together under the 10-1 structure. I care about what's safer and what's better for our jobs and economy - and we're better off with Uber and Lyft here.

Vote YES on Prop 1.

Re: Back in the arena: the beginning of data.world

Joshua Baer — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 22:08:34 -0000

Brett I first met you just as you were starting Bazaarvoice and consider myself privileged to have been able to read the inside scoop from the investor updates as you made that vision a reality. I can't wait to see you do it again!

Re: Apple confirms iPad Pro charging problem, a fix is on the way

Joshua Baer — Tue, 24 Nov 2015 09:55:07 -0000

I'm not having a problem with it freezing, but I am having a lot of trouble getting it to charge. It also seems to be going DOWN in battery even when it's plugged in. Last night I plugged it in with the 12W charger and Wifi turned off at 8% battery and this morning it was only at 11%! It says Photos is using the most battery so maybe this is because it's syncing my iCloud Library.

Re: A comprehensive guide to Austin's best co-working spaces

Joshua Baer — Wed, 11 Nov 2015 23:07:24 -0000

You can replace Posh with Galvanize, coming next Spring!

Re: Austin’s only overseas flight gets upgrade

Joshua Baer — Thu, 21 May 2015 20:26:39 -0000

I flew on the Dreamliner to London and thought it was a wonderful experience in business class. Now I'm trying to figure out how many frequent flier points I need in order to get one of those suites...

Re: Interview: Rand Paul to open Austin office

Joshua Baer — Sat, 14 Mar 2015 16:22:57 -0000

If you're curious about how Capital Factory works with elected officials and presidential candidates, see this post http://baer.ly/cfrandpaul

Re: Rand Paul brings on another past Cruz staffer, will open tech office in Austin

Joshua Baer — Sat, 14 Mar 2015 16:22:27 -0000

If you're interested in learning more about how Capital Factory works with elected officials and presidential candidates, see this post http://baer.ly/cfrandpaul

Re: Likely Presidential Contendor Rand Paul Sets Up Shop At Capital Factory | texastechpulse.com

Joshua Baer — Sat, 14 Mar 2015 16:21:16 -0000

For more information about how Capital Factory works with elected officials and presidential candidates, see this post http://baer.ly/cfrandpaul

Re: Brett Hurt on scriptogr.am

Joshua Baer — Sun, 11 Jan 2015 12:33:11 -0000

That's the thing. People complain about not having enough capital in Austin, but there is a selection bias because it's the people who haven't received funding. It's very rare to see an awesome team with a compelling product that can't get funded. Most of the time is a good idea with an incomplete team and no real traction that I hear complaining.

Re: Brett Hurt on scriptogr.am

Joshua Baer — Sun, 11 Jan 2015 12:31:27 -0000

Sorry Yaniv, still in stealth mode.

Re: Brett Hurt on scriptogr.am

Joshua Baer — Sun, 11 Jan 2015 12:29:45 -0000

Actually, most of the time when I see thing ranking cities for the number of young people, early adopters, social media usage, etc. Austin ranks higher than SF and the valley (unfortunately I don't have any specific references).

With the University of Texas, it seems like we have plenty of young consumers. :-)

With Google Fiber, I expect we will see even more consumer facing startups launching in Austin to take advantage of the fact that we have access to more bandwidth. I'd like to see Austin gain a reputation as a place to launch new consumer Internet products.

Re: Brett Hurt on scriptogr.am

Joshua Baer — Sat, 10 Jan 2015 20:09:32 -0000

There is this funny thing about human nature. When something has never happened to us personally, we think it will NEVER happen. When something happens just once, we suddenly think it's more likely to happen again than it really is.

When an investor has never had one of his or her consumer startups blow up into a huge success and doesn't know anyone personally who has, he thinks it's not very likely to happen. As soon as he has a big hit, he suddenly wants to invest in more companies like that one because he wants to do it again.

The same thing applies to employees. When no one has seen it happen, people are less likely to try. But as soon as there is a big success, everyone who was part of that team wants to go to do it again. They now have tons more experience, contacts and resources to do it. It's easy for 10 or 20 new companies to spring forth in the first year after a big IPO or multi-billion dollar acquisition.

Because Austin hasn't had any big consumer Internet wins like a Twitter or Instagram, investors are wary of those kinds of deals. If we had just one big success, it would set of a wave of new startups and investments and hopefully would produce the next one in a virtuous cycle.

Austin needs it's first big win to get things moving. Who's going to start it? I think I know...

Re: Two Tech Schools Open Shop

Joshua Baer — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 16:39:12 -0000

Don't forget Austin's home-grown coder school, MakerSquare!

Re: Audio Books – Late To The Party

Joshua Baer — Sun, 21 Sep 2014 12:03:34 -0000

I've been doing this for a year or two and really enjoy it. They say comprehension is much higher with audiobooks. Right now I'm listening to Benjamin Franklin's biography by Walter Isaacson on my way into work.

Re: SXSW PanelPicker

Joshua Baer — Sun, 31 Aug 2014 21:10:07 -0000

Thanks Jason!

Re: SXSW PanelPicker

Joshua Baer — Sun, 17 Aug 2014 23:09:18 -0000

Thanks Bryan! I always try to make sure that people leave a session with actionable things to try, a book to read, and a few good links to check out. Hopefully some great new connections too!