Jeff Triplett ✨
PRO
@jefftriplett
You probably have three options. Work something out with the CEO that looks like a payment plan, hire a collection agency (expect to only recover 25% to 50% of it), or hire a lawyer to send them a letter and possibly take them to court. The letter is worth every penny, but taking them to court might not be.
In the future, make sure you get enough upfront that saves you from the last bit, and I would work out some level of, if we don't get paid, this code never going into production.
I would avoid all drama and if you have access still to anything. Delete that access and don't do anything that gets you in trouble. Short and long term, it's not worth it.
Thanks Jeff. We have attempted the payment plan but he is just ghosting us.
They were paying on schedule, invoices were rendered bi-weekly to avoid this kind of situations.
We're bringing a lawyer in to send them a letter.
The lawyer normally works, but sadly, once you get this far, they might be running on vapors. Good luck with it. We haven't had many of these over the years with my agency, but it's sadly non-zero. Long term, we have more than made up for it, even with former employees giving us referrals or work with their new companies over the years. I know a few who have got put in bad situations when the company ran out of money and couldn't pay them either. Bad deal.
Unfortunately, we learned this person has been following this practice with other vendors in the past too. Seems like a pattern.
Good luck and lawyer up then. Make sure you add damages to what is owed if you have to go to court. Might be worth reaching out to other vendors too.
RE: exposing your time zone to the public - Ideally, anyone who is logged in with would only see times through the context of whichever timezone they selected. The rest should be UTC or whichever you pick. The point of the website is to work-in-public so I'm not sure why it would get more complicated then that.
People have to do something while they wait for results. So launch and write up how it goes.
The quality varies by the video. The only difference between the two is that captions include timestamps with the transcriptions.
I'm glad you found a working solution. Check that API out if the pypi project ever goes out on you. It should be quick to get it back up and running with it.
I manage some via their Captions API unless there is some nuance that I'm missing. We pay for transcription services or use Whisper and then upload them via the Captions API.
Well, I didn't know that and I spoke too fast!
If you are comfortable with Python or JS, I would call the YouTube Data API. They have native APIs for this, plus a bunch of other useful data. It's also very ChatGPT friendly.
They don't offer transcripts via their API unfortunately.
I manage some via their Captions API unless there is some nuance that I'm missing. We pay for transcription services or use Whisper and then upload them via the Captions API.
Well, I didn't know that and I spoke too fast!
I looked into it, but it doesn't seem like they have transcript available. They only have captions which I'm not so sure are accurate. Are the captions as accurate as in the case of uploading a audio extract to whisper?
The quality varies by the video. The only difference between the two is that captions include timestamps with the transcriptions.
I'm glad you found a working solution. Check that API out if the pypi project ever goes out on you. It should be quick to get it back up and running with it.
Timeboxing worked well for me. Find a time that works five or six days a week and put it on your calendar. The length of time matters less than doing something every day. Then, figure out when works for you—starting or ending your day. You can slip in 30 minutes over lunch. Either way, the goal is to build a new muscle while forming a better habit.
I also don't beat myself up if I only get 15 minutes to create new issues, research, or clean up a confusing area of the code. Those small daily chunks add up over time, and they help build some clarity on what you should be focusing on.
As a parent, kids made it easier for me to focus. Kids don't care if you are in the flow or not, which made me realize flow is mostly bullshit. They also gave me an excuse to be home more and not feel like I needed to be at every social function. Kids also sleep pretty early, giving me a nice block of time at night to work on anything I want. I'm not saying, "have kids to be more productive," but as someone with kids, it's easy to make up excuses when I didn't have kids for why I couldn't focus or why I wasn't making time for it.
Never Enough: From Barista to Billionaire (physical copy and audiobook)
I liked Andrew Wilkinson's podcast interviews and new podcast enough to pick up his book. I liked it, but don't buy it expecting it to be a business book. There are some good, how to not be a shitty person moments in it.
Django for Beginners, 5th Edition: Build Modern Web Applications with Python (physical copy)
A friend and business partner wrote it, so I bought a copy to properly review it. It's good if you want to learn Django or need a good
The 2-Hour Cocktail Party: How to Build Big Relationships with Small Gatherings (physical copy and audiobook)
This isn't written to be a business and marketing book, but it's honestly one of the better ones I have read. It will teach you how to host parties and network with old and new friends. It's also a damn good book about human psychology, and if you have customers, it will light up several lightbulb moments for you.
Poor Charlie's Almanac (audiobook)
I bought this audiobook, but I haven't gotten around to listening to it yet.
Docker has a really good Python API that does the container interactions you want: docker-py.readthedocs.io/en/s…
If you prefer JS, they might have one too.
I would start with it and then wrap your own REST api around it via FastAPI or your framework of choice. I bet it's not a huge lift.
Hmmm, another interesting approach, if i decided to go ahed using dockers in some instance, that definelly could take care of API to that job.
Thank you
The lawyer normally works, but sadly, once you get this far, they might be running on vapors. Good luck with it. We haven't had many of these over the years with my agency, but it's sadly non-zero. Long term, we have more than made up for it, even with former employees giving us referrals or work with their new companies over the years. I know a few who have got put in bad situations when the company ran out of money and couldn't pay them either. Bad deal.
Unfortunately, we learned this person has been following this practice with other vendors in the past too. Seems like a pattern.
Good luck and lawyer up then. Make sure you add damages to what is owed if you have to go to court. Might be worth reaching out to other vendors too.