Hi everyone,
AMA. But real quick a brief overview.
In 2010 I was working as a software engineer on a team of people rewriting an optimizing dataflow compiler. We were doing performance and functional testing, and wanted to build a cluster of machines to parallelize the testing. To get the most of our budget, I offered to build the test machines. I put together spreadsheets manually entering in price/performance/capacity data to find what would get us the best bang for our buck. As I was doing that, I thought that the process was tedious and there should be a site to do that.
So in April 2010 I started working on a side project to plot those CPU price-vs-performance and hard drive price-vs-capacity curves. I wanted to learn Django and Python better. My HTML at the time was 90s-ish at best – layouts done with tables and 1×1 transparent pixels, not CSS. I bought a $20 admin theme off themeforest and wrangled it into what I needed. I’m colorblind and not a designer by any stretch and that showed in the site.
I started evolving the site to not just plot component curves, but factor in compatibility checks. I was building new PCs every 3-4 years, and each time it involved coming up to speed with what the latest architectures and chipsets were. That took time and I felt like part of that process could be automated.
Late December 2010 after a heads-up about this community on HN, I [posted in /r/buildapc for the first time](https://www.reddit.com/r/promos/comments/ec5nl/pick_parts_build_your_pc_compare_prices_and_share/).
When I first started I told my wife that there was a monetization opportunity through retailer affiliate links, and if we were lucky maybe we could go get coffee or see a movie. I left my job to work on PCPP full-time over eight years ago.
I hired /u/manirelli a bit over seven years ago. /u/ThoughtA also joined us over four years ago. (Both those guys are here to answer questions too). They handle all of the component data entry, community engagement, and a host of other things. They’re amazing.
What started as price tracking a few retailers in the US is now over 200 retailers across 37 countries, processing hundreds of millions of price updates a day. Brent is the guy who handles all of that, and Jenny manages those retailer relationships. It’s a ton of work and I’d be lost without them.
Not to leave anyone out, but huge thanks to the rest of the team. Phil (you can thank him for all the whitespace lol), AJ, Daniel, Jack, Barry, and Nick. You all rock. I’m incredibly blessed to get to work with all of you every day.
This has been such a ride I can’t explain it. I’ve felt so incredibly blessed to be able to be a part of this community and what it does every day. Thank you.
— Philip
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With all that being said, AMA. There may be some things I can’t comment on if they involve agreements or confidential terms.
And yes, we’re working on an app. A PWA. May go native later but no guarantees. I hope to have it out by Christmas. I had hoped to have it ready by today but it’s just not there yet.
**EDIT**: Holy comments batman. Gonna try to answer as many as I can today.
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