4 ms·

I worked at Rocket Internet and the main problem they have is like any big company; a few very good people and a lot of useless people. Any proper startup wort

I worked at Rocket Internet and the main problem they have is like any big company; a few very good people and a lot of useless people. Any proper startup worth their salt, competing with rocket directly, will absolutely slaughter them.

PythonicAlpha 11y ago
Interesting. I just thought, that Rocket was in a business, that seldom any other startup is ... As much I know, Rocket is about starting new startups. I guess, there are not so many startups working in this particular business ...?
- andy_ppp 11y ago
  Rocket Internet is renowned for being a Fast follower - they see an idea they like and build a copy of it; for example they started Wimdu which has had moderate success competing with AirBnB in some European countries. Obviously I'd probably bet AirBnB is bigger than Wimdu even in Germany. I really enjoyed working in Berlin for a few months though, it was excellent fun and I had an enormous apartment all to myself for about a third of the cost for the same thing in London.
calpaterson 11y ago
Given their specialisation in releasing in non-English markets, the question is not "can you beat them" but more like "can you beat them in India when they have a 6 month lead on your expansion?".
- andy_ppp 11y ago
  Well I'd say you should operate in all markets as soon as possible. i18n isn't that hard and then it's about hiring the right people in each market. There's a business right there - doing the first part of expanding startups in Europe, India, Africa, China, etc. I'm sure you could scale it pretty well. I don't know what the costing/charging model would be. I suppose Y Combinator has access to some of these things already but not in the way programmers would think about it... * Translation that actually tries to transfer jokes/tone of a site and explains said translations in English. Maybe you could crowd source/do multiple translations.[1] * Tax Rules, Incorporation, Local Laws - as an API where possible. * People who could be good from local markets that could be useful. Hiring abroad must be very difficult. [1] http://gengo.com/ http://gengo.com/ looks like it does this bit I suppose, but I'd like to see more of a market and people being able to discuss pros and cons of each translation.
  - calpaterson 11y ago
    > i18n isn't that hard I don't agree. I think it is very hard. You even mention some of the problems! Law, tax, language, getting 4 translations done quickly enough for you to release new things on a regular basis
    - andy_ppp 11y ago
      I guess after doing about 6-7 i18n sites at Yahoo! I know how to build them pretty well now!

PythonicAlpha 11y ago

Interesting. I just thought, that Rocket was in a business, that seldom any other startup is ... As much I know, Rocket is about starting new startups. I guess, there are not so many startups working in this particular business ...?

andy_ppp 11y ago
Rocket Internet is renowned for being a Fast follower - they see an idea they like and build a copy of it; for example they started Wimdu which has had moderate success competing with AirBnB in some European countries. Obviously I'd probably bet AirBnB is bigger than Wimdu even in Germany. I really enjoyed working in Berlin for a few months though, it was excellent fun and I had an enormous apartment all to myself for about a third of the cost for the same thing in London.

calpaterson 11y ago

Given their specialisation in releasing in non-English markets, the question is not "can you beat them" but more like "can you beat them in India when they have a 6 month lead on your expansion?".

andy_ppp 11y ago
Well I'd say you should operate in all markets as soon as possible. i18n isn't that hard and then it's about hiring the right people in each market. There's a business right there - doing the first part of expanding startups in Europe, India, Africa, China, etc. I'm sure you could scale it pretty well. I don't know what the costing/charging model would be. I suppose Y Combinator has access to some of these things already but not in the way programmers would think about it... * Translation that actually tries to transfer jokes/tone of a site and explains said translations in English. Maybe you could crowd source/do multiple translations.[1] * Tax Rules, Incorporation, Local Laws - as an API where possible. * People who could be good from local markets that could be useful. Hiring abroad must be very difficult. [1] http://gengo.com/ http://gengo.com/ looks like it does this bit I suppose, but I'd like to see more of a market and people being able to discuss pros and cons of each translation.
- calpaterson 11y ago
  > i18n isn't that hard I don't agree. I think it is very hard. You even mention some of the problems! Law, tax, language, getting 4 translations done quickly enough for you to release new things on a regular basis
  - andy_ppp 11y ago
    I guess after doing about 6-7 i18n sites at Yahoo! I know how to build them pretty well now!