4 ms·

You have some nice ideas on how to improve on LinkedIn. However, you're not offering functionality which is fundamentally different. Thus, I strongly doubt th

You have some nice ideas on how to improve on LinkedIn. However, you're not offering functionality which is fundamentally different. Thus, I strongly doubt that you'll be able to overcome network effects. In my opinion, you need to come up with a unique "hook", a feature unlike anything offered elsewhere. The hook will bring in new customers, and they'll stay for the better experience.

chaostheory 10y ago
I disagree. TheyMadeThat may have a ton of weaknesses, but being too similar to LinkedIn is not one of them. The fundamental difference between TheyMadeThat and LinkedIn is that we focus on the actual work being produced and not mainly on tenure. I may have missed it but does LinkedIn have an equivalent feature to this? http://www.theymadethat.com/things/apple-macintosh http://www.theymadethat.com/things/apple-macintosh Are these two pages that similar? http://www.theymadethat.com/organizations/apple http://www.theymadethat.com/organizations/apple https://www.linkedin.com/company/apple https://www.linkedin.com/company/apple LinkedIn is a social network for old school resumes; we're a portfolio on steroids. Still I'm not too surprised that the perceived differences may be subtle, just as they were initially for Friendster, MySpace, and Facebook.
chaostheory 10y ago
This is you on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanwporter https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanwporter This is you on TheyMadeThat: http://www.theymadethat.com/people/ryan-porter http://www.theymadethat.com/people/ryan-porter http://www.theymadethat.com/things/emobie http://www.theymadethat.com/things/emobie
- ryporter 10y ago
  I thought your first response was a bit confrontational, but this one was very effective. Point taken. :)
  - chaostheory 10y ago
    I didn't mind that you said that we'll probably fail; I hear it a lot. Specifically your point about not being able to overcome LinkedIn's current network effect is valid, especially when one of our goals was to try really hard to not spam our users and their contacts. However, when you mentioned that we were fundamentally the same as LinkedIn, I mistook your comment as a troll given that I've provided examples in my post. "In my opinion, you need to come up with a unique 'hook', a feature unlike anything offered elsewhere." Depending on how much information you enter or for how long you explore our site, we do have a hook. It's related to giants.

chaostheory 10y ago

I disagree. TheyMadeThat may have a ton of weaknesses, but being too similar to LinkedIn is not one of them. The fundamental difference between TheyMadeThat and LinkedIn is that we focus on the actual work being produced and not mainly on tenure. I may have missed it but does LinkedIn have an equivalent feature to this? http://www.theymadethat.com/things/apple-macintosh http://www.theymadethat.com/things/apple-macintosh Are these two pages that similar? http://www.theymadethat.com/organizations/apple http://www.theymadethat.com/organizations/apple https://www.linkedin.com/company/apple https://www.linkedin.com/company/apple LinkedIn is a social network for old school resumes; we're a portfolio on steroids. Still I'm not too surprised that the perceived differences may be subtle, just as they were initially for Friendster, MySpace, and Facebook.

chaostheory 10y ago

This is you on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanwporter https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanwporter This is you on TheyMadeThat: http://www.theymadethat.com/people/ryan-porter http://www.theymadethat.com/people/ryan-porter http://www.theymadethat.com/things/emobie http://www.theymadethat.com/things/emobie

ryporter 10y ago
I thought your first response was a bit confrontational, but this one was very effective. Point taken. :)
- chaostheory 10y ago
  I didn't mind that you said that we'll probably fail; I hear it a lot. Specifically your point about not being able to overcome LinkedIn's current network effect is valid, especially when one of our goals was to try really hard to not spam our users and their contacts. However, when you mentioned that we were fundamentally the same as LinkedIn, I mistook your comment as a troll given that I've provided examples in my post. "In my opinion, you need to come up with a unique 'hook', a feature unlike anything offered elsewhere." Depending on how much information you enter or for how long you explore our site, we do have a hook. It's related to giants.