Before you even ask, 100 duck sized horses.

For those who don't know what "AOL Squatter" is about, here's the original story: http://news.cnet.com/8301-32973_3-57440513-296/meet-the-tireless-entrepreneur-who-squatted-at-aol/

CNN coverage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i76PO_Dxj4

And the TIL post that frontpaged last week: http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1b6fhf/til_that_a_teen_secretly_lived_in_aols_hq_for_2/

I had a few folks request that I do this AMA, hopefully it won't disappoint. Proof: https://twitter.com/ericsimons40/status/319487908094554112

I'll do my best to answer every question but I do have a company to run! I'll be around until 2pm PST.

UPDATE: Thanks for the great questions! I'm answering questions for another hour, keep em coming! :) http://imgur.com/QF2VyQe

FINAL UPDATE: Thanks for all the awesome questions everyone! Feel free to post more, but I'll be tending to my day job now and will answer your q's when I eventually reopen reddit. I hope you learned some good stuff from my experiences - you guys rock!

Comments: 774 • Responses: 102  • Date: 

jackhanford854 karma

Hey guys, I live with the OP here is one of the more flattering pictures of the mastermind. http://i.imgur.com/5cfkTZn.jpg

ericmsimons816 karma

damnit this is on the internet now

youtrynagetweird470 karma

Did AOL have 1-ply or 2-ply?

ericmsimons677 karma

1-ply :(

PROFESSIONAL_FART249 karma

1-ply?! My god, you have got to be one of the most committed entrepreneurs I've ever read about. I don't have what it takes to make it in the world of start ups as I demand Charmin when I squat.

Phecalfeliac444 karma

[deleted]

ericmsimons1145 karma

Professor Plum, with the candlestick, in the conservatory.

missingbrick285 karma

What was your 'closest call' of being found out during your stay? Also, thanks for doing this.

ericmsimons689 karma

No problem! There were a few times when security was sweeping the entire floor and I would leave my laptop open on my lap to make it look like I fell asleep coding. When I heard someone coming near me, I would "wake up" and mutter how I had to keep on coding to hit "my boss's deadline" haha

crocodileinmykitchen259 karma

[deleted]

ericmsimons501 karma

Yup - the guards were all really nice

ginaflytospace47 karma

Except that last one.

ericmsimons92 karma

He wasn't a security guard, he was the building manager (the boss of the security guards)

Rubic1326 karma

Seems like for the building manager to come in and bust you, they were onto you. So anytime before then you think you might of slipped up? Or do you think it was more cumulative? Or were you just damned unlucky that night with him coming through?

ericmsimons28 karma

I think it was cumulative (I posted in a few of the other comments about this in more detail if you're interested!)

Lillars61 karma

Quick, pretend to be asleep!

ericmsimons133 karma

zzzzzzzzzzZZZzZZzzzzzzZ

m_kane261 karma

Did you get anyone from security fired over it?

ericmsimons579 karma

This was actually my biggest concern. To my knowledge, no one was fired from the story leaking. The higher ups at AOL thought the story was hilarious, which probably prevented the lower management from firing anybody.

French87379 karma

Honestly, based on the article you linked, the way AOL handled it really pleases me. Where most companies would have most likely made comments about tightening security, "it won't happen again!", plan to take action on security guards involved, etc, AOL almost seemed... HAPPY about it. For a company that is no longer on the cutting edge and lacks innovation, at least they can still acknowledge the relentless spirit of a young entrepreneur.

Well done, AOL.

ericmsimons567 karma

I agree - they handled it so well. I had to talk with a few of the higher level execs, and they were really nice and understood where I was coming from. A++ would squat again (JUST KIDDING)

alarmed130 karma

[deleted]

ericmsimons235 karma

Technically, I "squat" in my startup's office. Less security guards though

corcorr102 karma

can i squat there too? sharing is caring? :3

ericmsimons193 karma

Sure! PM me :)

French87252 karma

Dude, awesome story.

"Yeah, save money whenever possible, and use all the resources you can," he said. "And don't die. That's basically my motto."

ADD is the new YOLO?

ericmsimons220 karma

Haha ADD, love it. A few startup founders have told me that they have "And don't die" written on the walls of their offices now :)

davidcarron216 karma

Would you still like to get that coffee I promised you? Feel bad not taking up that offer...

If I would have known your situation I'd of invited you to our meals on the 2nd floor :)

ericmsimons210 karma

YES! I still wanna come visit you on the 2nd floor :) you still have my number, right?

pwniess245 karma

Now kiss.

ericmsimons167 karma

nonononononono we're just bros

pwniess237 karma

Cute :)

ericmsimons180 karma

STOP IT

BgBootyBtches10 karma

did what i think just happened really just happen?

ericmsimons17 karma

probably not

The_I_in_Teaim61 karma

Wait a minute, second floor as in Disney interactive?

ericmsimons68 karma

correct!

UlyssesSKrunk29 karma

How do you know what's on every floor? Do you like, live here, or something?

ericmsimons63 karma

Nah man, I just work a lot! Haha! Yeah, that would be hilarious if someone lived out of here, right? ...right?

Survived2012197 karma

Hi! Couple of questions:

  • How did you interact with the other people there? Make any friends? How about friends?
  • Did you ever go out of the building?
  • Whose/what computer did you use?
  • Did you still talk to/meet up with your outside friends?
  • Can you describe the person that found you out, and what was their reaction?
  • Can I have your autograph?

Thanks in advance!

ericmsimons306 karma

I did have a few friends (maybe 5 or 10 at most), and I dated a few girls during that time as well :)

I tried to get out as much as possible, but I probably only left a max of 3 or 5 hours per week.

I had this really crappy Dell laptop that was five years old, but it pulled through!

I'm from Chicago, so I didn't really have any outside friends at the time (except for one guy that I knew from Chicago)

The person who found out was the building manager, and he was really pissed. I had gone to sleep at 5am because I had been working really late and then he busted open the door at 7am and started yelling at me. I don't remember much of what he said, but I do remember him saying "this isn't a dorm" and "get out". I was half asleep the entire time and trying to figure out what was going on lol. He did shake my hand and wish me good luck after 20/20 filmed a segment about me, so I think things ended well.

Depends on what you want me to autograph...no body parts :)

courtFTW97 karma

How did you have time to date multiple people of you only left the building for 3-5 hours a week?

ericmsimons152 karma

Over the course of two months, I dated two girls and I would only spend and hour or two a week with them (outside of the AOL building) at most.

Survived201249 karma

haha no I don't want my body autographed, a piece of scrunched up paper will do :) ty for answering btw

ericmsimons62 karma

haha of course :)

Nomad_Shifter42145 karma

How has AOL treated you since you got Internet famous? The news article I read made it sound like they were being suprisingly cool

ericmsimons350 karma

They've been awesome. They let 20/20 come and film me in their HQ reenacting living out of there (should be airing next month!). Apparently I'm still not allowed in the building though :(

GamerKingFaiz9 karma

Someone better post the video when they release it.

jhoops522100 karma

When did you start learning coding and how did you do it? What advice would you give to people who want to learn coding but get frustrated easily? Also, what inspired you to work on a startup for educators instead of chasing the money in software engineering?

ericmsimons180 karma

For my 13th birthday, I asked my parents to buy me three programming books instead of an Xbox (much to their surprise). I spent all my free time after school teaching myself from those books.

Being frustrated is par for the course when learning to code. It really helped for me to focus on the end result instead of the specific bits I was having trouble understanding. For example, I was hell bent on creating a blog for myself as my first project. If I hadn't set that objective, it would have been much harder to push through and learn everything that was required.

For me, running this startup isn't about the money - it's about the impact. One of the key realizations I made when I was living out of AOL was that life isn't about what you have, it's about what you leave. I want to leave our next generation with easy access to high quality & engaging learning resources, because it really shouldn't be so hard to learn about new things.

Cozmo2387 karma

Your story kind of reminded me of the Apple contractors that had their project cancelled but kept sneaking in to work on it anyway. Had you heard that story and ever thought what you were doing was similar?

ericmsimons65 karma

I only read about the Apple story after I had squatted. I really appreciate the hustle those guys had - even cooler that their software ended up shipping at the end of the day!

ineptidude82 karma

My dad is an elementary school teacher that has really awesome, creative ideas for lessons . For example, he once made his classroom into a pinhole camera to teach his kids about light. Right now his students are gardening in the school courtyard to learn about photosynthesis. However, his lessons are increasingly limited by standardized testing, which frustrates my dad to no end.

Do you feel that standardized testing in schools will limit the potential creativity of lesson plans that teachers will share on your site? Are you interested in using Claco to push for creative, hands-on learning over teaching to the test?

ericmsimons131 karma

YES and YES! The problem is that the government wants data on what's happening in their schools, so they test like crazy and "assess teacher performance". This actually has a negative impact though, because the teachers have to focus on fixing the wrong things if they want to keep their job.

My goal for Claco has always been to help teachers do what they do best: teach. We fight for the teachers because they fight for the students. I would love nothing more than to see the government take this approach as well.

wiwille80 karma

What was the best thing you ate while living on AOL dining? Worst?

ericmsimons166 karma

Best thing: a full Thanksgiving meal (turkey, gravy, mashed taters, etc). No joke. It was just sitting out for anyone to eat.

Worst thing: stale bread w/ cheerios on top for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The weekends were really, really bad when looking for food (they would throw out all of the food in the fridges on Fridays)

SexiestSkeever118 karma

When I used to be a janitor for an office building, fridge cleaning days were the best! As a broke college student, nothing was actually thrown away

ericmsimons65 karma

LOL nice :)

French8716 karma

your article said you went to boston market for thanks giving.

-_________________-

ericmsimons37 karma

AOL had a company wide Thanksgiving meal the Friday before the actual holiday.

VitalFroogle68 karma

What was the biggest lie you had to tell to a person?

ericmsimons371 karma

"Haha no way man! I may work here a lot, but I don't live here..."

adamcr15151566 karma

Would you rather have one inch long nipples or a one inch long dick?

Edit: Grammar lesson by /u/goshdarnyou

ericmsimons127 karma

nips bro

zeroGamer49 karma

You can always snip the nips.

ericmsimons50 karma

exactly

dwarfwarrior60 karma

Did they offer you a job?

ericmsimons119 karma

One of the guys insinuated that they would be happy to have me as an employee, but no formal offers

chewp91135 karma

Did you follow this up, or just let it go? The ball is in your court to try to make that kind of thing a reality....

In a related question, has anyone else offered you a job/ squat space since you made the news?

ericmsimons93 karma

I didn't want the job - I'm all in on my startup :)

I've had a ton of people try and poach me from my own company. It's really annoying. I have at least 2 or 3 people a week try and do this.

chewp91128 karma

That's awesome man, it's good to be in demand. Hope the appeal stays with you past your startup/ helps the startup. Love to see the creativity, all the best in your endeavors.

ericmsimons28 karma

Thanks!! Best to you as well :)

Hootinger58 karma

[deleted]

ericmsimons73 karma

By vetting only the highest quality teachers, we can seed our system with the best educational materials. We're betting that great materials (that are publicly available) will lead to mass spread of our product (and it's working really well: https://twitter.com/TeamClaco/status/314567697000173568/photo/1).

The big idea with Claco (our lesson plan system) isn't actually about lesson plans: it's about building an identity system for teachers. In the same way that Github has become the identity system for developers, we envision Claco will become the identity system for educators.

kman569047 karma

What compelled you to do this?

ericmsimons86 karma

I had failed, and I was willing to do anything to turn it around.

When I first came out to California to start my company, three of my friends joined me as cofounders and we worked (literally) 14 hours a day building our first product. We did this for four months straight. Finally, the day came to launch our product that we had dumped our hearts into...and it flopped. After a few weeks of scrambling to fix things, my cofounders ended up leaving and going home. So the company was just me, a worthless product, and no money.

I spent a week figuring out what I wanted to do. At the time, a company had offered to acquire us (me) for a decent chunk of money. I knew I wouldn't enjoy working at that company though, and I would be stuck there for at least 2 years. It was a really tough choice, but I decided to risk it all and restart the company alone from scratch - because I believed that I could pull it off. The craziest part is that I actually executed my plan: I built, designed, marketed, and raised venture capital for my product over the course of six months.

French8723 karma

What was the "Decent chunk of money" if you don't mind me asking?

ericmsimons68 karma

I can't disclose the exact number, but I would have been able travel to Hawaii, get a place on the beach and browse reddit all day long for years.

bainpr45 karma

Dear redditors, if your going to ask a question please read the article that details the event. The facility had showers and a laundry machines, that is how he maintained himself. Stop asking please.

ericmsimons21 karma

thank you thank you thank you :)

ServerGeek41 karma

Has your story of living there helped propel you in your career at all?

ericmsimons120 karma

Definitely. Out here in Silicon Valley, almost everyone I run into knows my story and it's a great conversation starter. The most annoying thing is when I visit other people's offices and they say "lets get the couches out of here, otherwise Eric might sleep on one of them"...or other related jokes that were funny the first 100 times

ServerGeek38 karma

Interesting... Follow-up:

  • So in Silicon Valley, people recognize you as the AOL Squatter and come up to talk to you about it?
  • Have you ever used your pseudo-celebrity squatter status to pick up a girl (or guy)?

ericmsimons133 karma

People have approached me multiple times about it (this actually happened when I got my haircut last week lol)

A few days after the story broke in the newspaper about me living in AOL, we threw a pretty big party at our house. One of my friends would wait for me to talk with girls and then come up with a newspaper and say "ERIC! Dude, you didn't tell me you were on the front page of the newspaper today!" and every girl would be like "OMG!!1!1". It was a very successful night :D

Sydthebarrett63 karma

Talk about a good wingman. I hope you returned the favor somehow

ericmsimons89 karma

I know right? I actually just hooked him up with some really awesome Swedish girls that hang out with us, so I think we're even now :P

RunTrees41 karma

Do you have an AOL account?

ericmsimons71 karma

I did, back in the day when AIM was the hip thing to use

Person67837 karma

One of the articles states you slept on couches that weren't on security rounds - How did you go about discovering security routines and all that stuff? Where was safe and when it was safe?

ericmsimons71 karma

It was just trial and error. A lot of nights I would be woken up by security guards walking by, so I changed my sleeping location daily for a while. The best place I found to sleep was a room called "Napquest" - a room where AOL employees could take naps (sleeping is just an overnight nap, right?). They had a lavish couch and vibrating chair, and the windows were blacked out so no light could get in. Security guards almost never bothered me in there (but that's where I was sleeping the night they kicked me out)

herearetwentyletters34 karma

Why didn't you just sleep during the day in the nap room and stay up all night?

ericmsimons56 karma

A lot of people want to use the nap room in the middle of the day, so you'll be woken up and discovered more quickly than doing it at night,

thedrinkmonster36 karma

Did the AOL gym have a squat rack and barbell with weights and plates or did it just have a bunch of cardio machines?

ericmsimons34 karma

It was a full featured gym - squat rack, barbell, weights plates and all different types of cardio machines.

KvotheLionheart36 karma

What are your thoughts on Khan Academy?

ericmsimons48 karma

Khan is great! He's a great teacher. I really respect all of the work that he and his team do. It will be interesting to see how their strategy works in the long term.

minivansareevil34 karma

I love stories like this. Wish you all the best.

ericmsimons23 karma

Thanks so much, I really appreciate it!

JeetRaut32 karma

Is Claco hiring at all?

ericmsimons51 karma

Yup! PM me if you're a developer looking for a job :)

Swift_Reposte30 karma

Want to grab a beer sometime?

ericmsimons62 karma

I would love to - PM me!

I_Dionysus27 karma

Since everyone thought you were just another employee, did you ever work with anybody? Steal their ideas?

ericmsimons36 karma

Lol no, I was more of a loner. I made some great friends there though, and some helped me brainstorm strategies for marketing, engineering, and fundraising.

king4aday20 karma

Did your friends know what you were doing in there?

ericmsimons25 karma

My closest friends did, but most people I talked with did not.

TheIdealist200026 karma

How were your interactions with the regular AOL staffers if you did interact with them? Did you venture out ever?

ericmsimons59 karma

My interactions were great, I became good friends with a handful of their employees (I even dated one for a bit). When I ventured out, I was limited to walking distance - there was a park, restaurants, and a train station that I could hang out at.

Protip: taking girls on walks at the park yields the best bang-for-buck, great for when you're broke and have no money :D

princep4125 karma

What is one of piece of advice would you tell yourself back then with the knowledge you know now?

ericmsimons83 karma

Treat your body and mind well. Get out and take breaks. You are more important than your purpose.

diwank21 karma

Two questions:

  • It must have been a nightmare to be on your guard at all times; how did you keep yourself motivated?
  • Why is a raven like a writing desk?

ericmsimons17 karma

Pulling off my plan was what kept me motivated. I had to win.

I have no idea...

Survived201219 karma

One more question: If you had to describe Claco in 9 words or less, what would you say?

ericmsimons66 karma

Hand crafted by Chuck Norris

jordongrangruth19 karma

What is your favorite way to use those AOL trial discs they give out for free still? I prefer frisbee, myself.

ericmsimons69 karma

I used to put them in my CD player as a kid and see if they played music. Version 5.0 made a growling noise, no such luck on any of the others.

iknowwhatsup18 karma

How many times has this story gotten you laid? It almost worked with me... :p

ericmsimons42 karma

Maybe we can add one more to the list :P

kevo3141517 karma

I basically have not heard anything from AOL in 8 years. I don't mean this in a bad way, but the picture of the pretty AOL campus has me wondering...

What do AOL employees do? What did the people sitting next to you work on?

ericmsimons16 karma

AOL is actually working on some interesting stuff. They were overhauling AIM, Mail, and some other stuff while I was there. Their employees are nice and seem to work really hard during the day.

bangarang316 karma

How's the company going?

What made you finally decide on your concept/idea and take the plunge?

What piece of advice would you recommend for someone technical starting their own company?

ericmsimons21 karma

Good! I'm actually working on another product right now, but Claco is growing like crazy and we have tons of happy users :)

I decided on Claco's concept/idea because of the biggest frustration I had in school. The materials my teachers were using to teach us (worksheets, textbooks) weren't engaging or relevant to me, and I knew that really awesome online resources would make my experience at school way better. Claco is a place where teachers can find & share engaging, relevant resources that they can use in their classrooms. More of the backstory can be found on my bio here - http://www.claco.com/about/team

Focus intensely on providing value to your users. This is the best way to create a successful & awesome product/company. Do anything it takes to make your company succeed and don't be afraid of pushing the envelope.

ftac201516 karma

So how many hours of sleep did you actually get each night?

ericmsimons43 karma

Not many - anywhere between 3 and 6 hours. And then I would get up and work for 12-14 hours. Repeat process.

Living out of AOL was one of the worst experiences I've even been through, but it really shaped my character and taught me how to focus.

ChiefSmokeDawg13 karma

Can you please elaborate on the anxiety issues you are faced with now? I am recovering from starting my own business and barely slept for many months and have had horrible consequences that have not gone away and it's been months since trying to give up the dream and focus on myself.

ericmsimons17 karma

I posted this in another comment, but I'll say it again here: You are more important than your purpose. That was a really important fact that I had to accept before I could better myself. Focus on making yourself healthier, happier and more energized and the effects of that will permeate throughout everything that you do.

magentasky11 karma

Do you feel that your high school experience prepared you adequately for entrepreneurship? What do you think about high schools in general preparing people for "off-the-beaten-path" careers? (ps I went to your high school ;D)

ericmsimons16 karma

My high school did not. It's hard to teach entrepreneurship in high school, much less in any school. I think it's important that our education system encourages students to find their perfect career - and sometimes that means not going to college. Sadly, this is very taboo right now, but visibility into non-college options are becoming more apparent.

diwank7 karma

What's your favorite song?

ericmsimons25 karma

Right now? Or of all time?

Right now I'm digging "Living on a Dream" by Empire of the Sun

All time: "The Adventure" by Angels and Airwaves.

VersatilityMaster7 karma

Great story. You have serious balls! I read your story and just thought to myself, "Hey, why not? It's free."

On a more serious note, where do you see yourself 10 years from now? What are your stretch goals professionally?

ericmsimons7 karma

Thanks!!

Gee, 10 years from now...I want to be doing what I'm doing today - improving the way we educate. I'm not sure what that will look like, but I'm sure it's what I'll be doing. It's important to me that I leave amazing things for the next generation.

shiv4m6 karma

What do you do for a living?

ericmsimons13 karma

It depends on how you define "living" lol. I run a startup, but I don't pull a salary because I would rather pay my employees more and keep more $$ in the company's bank account. The company does pay for my rent and food each month though.

Batteries_Work4 karma

Any secrets about AOL you are willing to share with us that won't get you into trouble?

ericmsimons8 karma

I wasn't an employee, so I don't have any secrets about AOL :(

deacon23232 karma

How do you intend for Claco to develop high quality materials? Will it be entirely community-monitored? Also, do you intend to present Claco to teachers through conferences/professional development or are you hoping word of mouth will be enough?

ericmsimons2 karma

Community monitored seems to be the best way to scale quality materials.

Word of mouth is our primary growth strategy, but we also crash conferences and do PD from time to time :)

steamynix2 karma

What are your thoughts on the Burger Rat?

ericmsimons4 karma

RIP Gilroy :(

courtFTW2 karma

How did you not go stir crazy? What did you do to let off steam, for fun?

Where did you sleep?

Was all the food free there- do they just give their employees free food like google does?

ericmsimons3 karma

A month or two after I left AOL, I had two crippling panic attacks that landed me in the hospital and it took me a while to learn how to deal with anxiety. People, be careful with how far you push yourself. Don't learn it the hard way. I didn't take nearly enough breaks while I was working on my startup and I regret not taking an hour everyday to focus on myself.

I slept on couches and chairs throughout the building (but usually in rooms where I could close & lock the door)

They don't have nearly as many choices as Google does. It was limited to cup-o-noodles, cereal, cheese sticks, and whatever was left over from teams that ordered in food.

CB_WizDumb2 karma

How did you do laundry while there and get other essentials? Toothbrush, toothpast, shaving razor etc. ?

ericmsimons2 karma

Toothpaste, mouthwash, shower gel, and shaving cream were provided by AOL. There was a laundromat on campus for towels and there was another one down the street that I would use for my clothes.

Kamikaze_Commie2 karma

What were you expecting to be the eventual outcome? Did you plan on never getting caught and just living it out until you wanted to leave?

ericmsimons3 karma

It was honestly meant to be a temporary thing until I could find somebody who would let me sleep on their floor/couch. Since I didn't know many folks out here at the time, it took months to find a place for me to stay.

idontownanoutfit2 karma

What's your stance on charter schools? Do you support public schools?

ericmsimons2 karma

Generalizing here, but charter schools are great. I wish public schools weren't so limited by the government. I've talked with a handful of admins and teachers that would love to innovate within their school, but laws & regulations are more or less prohibiting them from doing so.

TheCountryRedditaria2 karma

Can you recommend a few steps to take, or steps you could have maneuvered around, when forming your company? Is your company aiming to have an IPO in the long term? Thanks for answering questions. Also, you still working out?

ericmsimons4 karma

When starting a company, the biggest lesson I learned was to choose the right people to start it with. This also applies to new hires. A great company is simply a reflection of a great team.

We would love to IPO in the long term, but we'll see :)

I am still working out. It's important to treat your body and mind well - if you don't use it, you lose it!

Julz232 karma

How did you sneak food in on your birthday? Did you ever have friends round to party?

ericmsimons2 karma

Thankfully I wasn't there over my birthday! Some of my friends that worked out of AOL would play board games on Thursday nights and (the people over 21) would drink beer :)

bayshark692 karma

You mention this site is geared towards the highest quality educators. Would you mind sharing how you distinguish a high quality educator from a low quality educator? Also, great story man, your drive is inspiring!

ericmsimons2 karma

We personally vet our educators, and we look for teachers that are tech savvy and already putting their lessons online. These types of teachers aren't solely putting standardized test prep, worksheets, etc online - they're also using videos, games, and interactive applications. We want teachers that are on the bleeding edge of making their classrooms engaging and relevant.

neorouge2 karma

I currently work at that AOL palo alto office as a high student and that place is nice! Did you ever go to the gym there? What floor were you on?

ericmsimons3 karma

I frequented the gym quite a bit (as that's where I took showers in the morning). I was on floors 1 and 3, but halfway through my stay they revoked my 3rd floor access :(

thirdrail692 karma

Awesome story man!

With standardized testing taking so much of teachers' time and energy, do you think your product is viable? After all, you don't have to sell the teachers on it, you have to sell the administrators and politicians on it. Teaching seems like a profession that leaves little room for creativity or flexibility these days. How do you (realistically) plan on overcoming this?

ericmsimons3 karma

Teachers love our product, but the government's current initiatives aren't aligned with our end goal. We're actually working on another product right now because of this exact problem. Claco is growing quickly though (as are many other great edtech companies), so perhaps there is a chance that someday in the future admins & politicians will listen to the masses and change their policies.

sezelemi2 karma

Did you ever have to bribe someone to keep your secret?

ericmsimons2 karma

Nope, no bribes

bainpr2 karma

Did you make friends with any of the employees that worked at AOL during the time you were squatting there? If so did any of them know what you were doing?

ericmsimons2 karma

I did make friends, and almost no one knew I was living there. I intentionally didn't bring it up much because it could have blown my cover.

illmortall1 karma

Did you get paid throughout your stay?

ericmsimons3 karma

No, I was living off of my own money (or lack thereof). I spent a grand total of $100 over six months.

i_crave_more_cowbell1 karma

did you ever pull pranks on employees?

jackhanford7 karma

I was woken up by a Megaphone multiple times. (I worked for Claco for 8ish months :P)

ericmsimons6 karma

I can verify that this is true. We basically put Jack through company hazing last summer :P

yuloforce1 karma

What are you wearing? ;D

yuloforce1 karma

Take it off, boy.

ericmsimons1 karma

oh god

kittenlover271 karma

I'm fe om chicago too. What highschool did you go to? Schools here in illinois are horrible. I too have similar feelings about our educational system

ericmsimons2 karma

I went to Naperville Central, 2010

dako976691 karma

Interesting, Naperville has some of the higher regarded schools in Illinois.

Source: I am from Lisle, next city over from Naperville and many friends who went to Naper Central or Naper North.

ericmsimons2 karma

They do, and the school was good in relation to the majority of schools in the US. The problem is with the way our education system is designed in general.

m0unt41nd3wu1 karma

Naperville Central huh? You guys kicked my schools ass in all sports. (West Chicago)

ericmsimons2 karma

Sorry about that :P I played football for a year there, but I probably didn't contribute all that much to our win

klsi8321 karma

A/S/L?

ericmsimons1 karma

21/M/CA, u?

Fendicano1 karma

Have the higher ups at AOL contacted you since?

ericmsimons2 karma

Yup! They've been awesome. You can read more in one of my previous comments :)

BeastmanBob1 karma

I came to this thread expecting some information about squatting with weights. Do you even lift?

ericmsimons1 karma

I do, bro

Chair00071 karma

have you ever thought of partnering with the Khan Academy, they seem to have similar goals as yours and a wide variety of topics.

ericmsimons2 karma

We've actually been chatting with them! A lot of our teachers use Khan's stuff, so it would be great to have an easy way for them to find & use his content on our site.

[deleted]-5 karma

[deleted]

ericmsimons5 karma

Thanks for commenting. I was requested to do an AMA multiple times, so I decided to do it (after a year of people asking me). I'm sure that it could be easily misconstrued as looking for attention/marketing myself, but it really isn't. Looking forward to answering any questions you may have!