Tim Glaser's README

This guide might be helpful in working with me.

Bio

I've been coding since I've been 11, which isn't as long ago as I'd like it to be. Someone first paid me to write code when I was 13 (though I'm sure they regretted it) and someone else gainfully employed me when I was 16.

Originally from the Netherlands, though I quickly moved to London (I do not generally enjoy nice weather) where I joined Arachnys and shortly met James Hawkins. I went from being a software engineer, to product manager, to "leading" an R&D team, which consisted of just me.

After four years I thought it was time to go do something else and had lined up a new job. Roughly 37 seconds after it was announced James wanted to "grab a beer." While plying me with alcohol, he convinced me to give up this fancy new job and instead start a startup with him.

In my 'spare' time, I fall down snowy mountains, wrestle in the mud over an egg-shaped ball and watch a lot of Bondi beach in order to perfect my Australian accent.

Areas of responsibility

• Build the engineering team
• Make sure we move fast
• Make sure the engineering team has all the context it needs
• Make sure the engineering team is happy
• Make sure we're building in the right direction
• Sounding board to James Hawkins (CEO)

Quirks

• I come out with opinions quickly and strongly. They are actually weakly held so please push back when you disagree, I'll take it well.
• I will likely talk way too much. Please just interject/talk over me.
• A lot of what I say sounds like a definitive statement ("this is what we're going to do") when I actually mean "here's something we could do".
• I'm easily distracted in meetings and can come across as disinterested. It's something I'm working on but if you notice I'm drifting off please mention it.
• Weekends are holy to me and I'll almost never work on a weekend (and don't expect anyone else to!). I also don't like to have meetings after ~8pm my time, or before 10-11am.
• Please don't message me "hey" and then spend 3 minutes typing your question. Adding those two together is fine.
• I like my meetings clustered together.
• I can be too frugal with company money.

What I value

• Ownership. Please don't wait for me to give the go-ahead. Bias over action.
• People who get things done without me having to chase. I love it if we mention something should get done and there's a PR for it the next day.
• Speed. It's much easier to get things right if you take more shots at goal. Let's just get something up and iterate on it.
• Receiving feedback. Please give me a ton of feedback, I still have a huge amount to go and will only improve if I get feedback.
• When I give feedback, I'd appreciate if you consider it first before defending yourself. I may have gotten it wrong and feel free to push back, but I don't like it when people start defending themselves straight away.
• I'm not a big fan of meetings. Please write your thoughts up in a GitHub issue/PR first. We can always have a meeting after that which will likely be more productive.
• I like short, to the point writing. Use short words, bullet points and screenshots.
• Directness. If you don't like something please just say so.

How I can help you

• I can help you figure out how to build something in 1/2 the time you think it should take
• I can help you figure out what you should be working on
• I can help you figure out what to do in your career
• I can help be a rubber duck
• I can help bounce ideas around

How you can help me

• Come to 1:1s with an agenda and clear things I can help with
• Give me feedback
• Bring up problems, don't hide them. As a startup we'll always have a million problems, it's our job to surface those and fix the important ones.

Nomading

I currently don't have a fixed address, and tend to move places every 2-3 months. If I remember to update it, you can see where I am and where I'm going here. I'd love to meet up with anyone if it's within a reasonable distance (and sometimes even if it's not). Would love for you to reach out and organise something.