TheBrockEllis

The company I work for currently uses HipChat for internal team communication (moved from Skype, evaluated Slack and Hall before moving to HipChat). We're starting to embrace HipChat as a central area for messages and alerting, a concept that some are now calling "ChatOps". We currently have our Github repo sending messages to HipChat and our internal bug tracking system and looking at more integrations in the future.

How would you go about dividing up the rooms in ChatOps set up. We currently have a room of managers, one for development, one for support, one for sales, etc etc. Would fewer rooms work better? Would a dedicated room for each 'alert' or 'service' work better? What do you think the right setup is?

I have an idea for a small SaaS product. I've done some initial market research and the field looks promising (in Midwest terms, maybe not in Silicon Valley terms). I've created some mock-ups and wire frames and I think it could be a great side project that -may- have the opportunity to make money some day.

I have a friend who I would like to invite to partner up and share the coding work. Since the project is merely thoughts and sketches right now, there isn't anything to really protect (ideas are a dime a dozen, execution is what matters) but since this project has the -potential- to be profitable some day, is there any type of agreement or paperwork I should have both of us agree to before bringing it up to him?

I have read so many stories of founders getting burned by not having the right paperwork in place and things getting ugly when the stuff hits the fan. Does the fact that we wouldn't be actively seeking to make money initially mean there is no worries?

Just want to get my ducks in a row before I end up being the next cautionary tale.

I work for a web development company in the Midwest. I read all about today's tech companies and the kind of culture and environment they provide their employees and I do my best to try and emulate them where we can.

The one thing that I have not yet read about is how start-ups, or tech companies in general, treat part time employees? We employee about a quarter of our staff at < 30 hours/week. They are also not all developers- some are tech support and marketing as well. Do the benefits provided by the company (no vacation policy, paid holidays, free meals, etc) flow freely to all employees or is there some sort of cut off?