Write Internal Tools: Business in the Front, Party in the Back
If you find yourself fortunate to work for a company that values your time as a commodity too precious for repetitive and boring tasks (see #6 of wealthfront’s values), then your team will hopefully dedicate significant time not only on the great features you offer your customers, but also on developing the tools that help… Read more
Video Recording & Slides: Psychology of Testing by Misko Hevery
A few weeks ago, as part of our “Lean Startup for Geeks” series of talks, we hosted Miško Hevery. Miško, who has inspired countless engineers to test effectively, spoke about the Psychology of Testing. Enjoy his slides and a recording of his presentation! Check out our next talk in the “Lean Startup for Geeks” series… Read more
Why Culture is Key
Typically, entrepreneurs seek three things: changing the world, financial success and creating a unique organization that will last for decades. The opportunity to shape a company’s culture, values and treatment of its customers is one of the most exciting elements of joining a startup early. When I decided to join Wealthfront in 2007, I saw… Read more
Wealthfront Lean Startup talks: Why Fighter Pilots Run Startups by Steve Blank
We’re excited to have Steve Blank in our next Wealthfront Lean Startup event on February 18 at Wealthfront HQ in Palo alto. Steve’s talk “Why Fighter Pilots Run Startups” will be about why startups are not small versions of large companies. Steve Blank is a retired serial entrepreneur, founding and/or part of 8 startup companies… Read more
Test-driving your Javascript for fun and profit
With web-based UIs growing more complicated everyday, testing your Javascript code is just as vital as testing any other part of your stack. At Wealthfront we use jsTestDriver to provide test-coverage of our javascript code. We like its similarity to JUnit and the ease with which it integrates with Hudson. In this article we’ll drum… Read more
Quantifying Investing Skill: The Information Ratio
Quick, which manager is better? Manager A who consistently beats her benchmark by a full percentage point, or Manager B who sometimes beats the benchmark by as much as five percent, but who also can underperform the same benchmark by that same five percent? It’s not an easy question to answer. The difficulty lies in… Read more