5 ms·

I wouldn't refer to it a rejection letter, rather understand that they just aren't investing in your company/team at this time. Maybe do a "Ask HN: How can I i

by tyrelb 17y ago

I wouldn't refer to it a rejection letter, rather understand that they just aren't investing in your company/team at this time. Maybe do a "Ask HN: How can I improve my team, business model, etc." and we can all crowd-source improve your idea so that another angel group would be interested in investing.

DanielBMarkham 17y ago
This is an excellent idea, and it's exactly what I'm going to do in a few days. But rejection is rejection. I wouldn't try to sugar it up too much. Reality is a good teacher. I used to be a freelance writer. You pitch people, they reject you. When asking girls out, you ask them, they reject you. If you're a salesman, you make friends and offer people help, they reject you. Nothing wrong with being rejected. In fact, it should be a point of pride. Life is a numbers game. You have X rejections to get through to get where you are going. You got rejected. Now you have X-1. The faster you can crank the decrement loop the faster you'll reach your destination (assuming you are learning each time through the loop, of course!)
- rjett 17y ago
  Out of curiosity, what was your idea?
  - tptacek 17y ago
    Presumably it's the same idea he's been talking about for about 6 months now on HN; if you go read his comment backlog, he's been pretty open about it.
  - DanielBMarkham 17y ago
    EDIT -- Totally re-done for clarity. You're in a conference. The keynote speaker says something cool. You go to tweet it to your friends -- but it's longer than 140 characters. So you key it into your iPad on my app and choose to share it with your FaceBook and MySpace Friends. Over on FB and MySpace, the longer quote appears and has a link back to my web app where the quote is stored. You're reading a political or science article. About half-way down, the author makes a really cool point -- all the ideas seem to be coming together and this text just jumps off the page. You highlight the paragraph and enter it into my app, choosing also to share it on Twitter and FB. You're looking for something pithy to tweet or put on your FB status. You visit my app and read the latest quotes from sources all over the world, sorted and ranked especially according to your tastes. Choosing the one you like the most, you upvote it, make a comment, and choose to automatically email it and post to your status updates. You're looking for the best of the web today. Visiting my app, quotes from much longer articles and speeches are listed, customized to your tastes. Finding one that looks especially interesting, you click the link and go to the longer article, spending 10 or 20 minutes reading the full text. Your friend hears something incredible at a news event. He quotes the speaker, links to the video, and notifies you by using my app. You visit his quote on my app, make some comments, and vote it up. Soon you and your friend have made several comments -- other people have also joined in. Your conversation about this quote is saved for you to return to when you like. Finally, you're reading a book on your Kindle or other device. You find a particularly interesting passage. Quickly you copy it out, tag and save it, perhaps also choosing to share it on your status update. Later on, when you are not at your e-book reader, you can visit the web site and view your quotes -- along with the comments from your social network and other folks who share your same interest. Does that describe it well enough?
    - pclark 17y ago
      If you want some idea feedback I have no idea what product your pitch describes. Re-read it twice and still puzzled :)
      - DanielBMarkham 17y ago
        Try it now
        pclark 17y ago
        how is it different from tumblr?
        DanielBMarkham 17y ago
        1) Niched product 2) Better content preference learning system
        pclark 17y ago
        sounds interesting, when are you launching?
    - bricestacey 17y ago
      You should figure out your elevator pitch. I would've preferred, "personal blurb aggregator and it's better than Twitter or Tumblr because _____" I still don't know why anyone would use this when you can do all this using existing microblog services like Twitter, Posterous, or Tumblr and it's obviously already exists in social networks like Facebook and Buzz (status updates with comments).
      - DanielBMarkham 17y ago
        ...I still don't know why anyone would use this when you can do all this using existing microblog services... 1) Message length 2) Content preference learning system 3) Niche product

by tyrelb 17y ago

DanielBMarkham 17y ago

This is an excellent idea, and it's exactly what I'm going to do in a few days. But rejection is rejection. I wouldn't try to sugar it up too much. Reality is a good teacher. I used to be a freelance writer. You pitch people, they reject you. When asking girls out, you ask them, they reject you. If you're a salesman, you make friends and offer people help, they reject you. Nothing wrong with being rejected. In fact, it should be a point of pride. Life is a numbers game. You have X rejections to get through to get where you are going. You got rejected. Now you have X-1. The faster you can crank the decrement loop the faster you'll reach your destination (assuming you are learning each time through the loop, of course!)

rjett 17y ago
Out of curiosity, what was your idea?
- tptacek 17y ago
  Presumably it's the same idea he's been talking about for about 6 months now on HN; if you go read his comment backlog, he's been pretty open about it.
- DanielBMarkham 17y ago
  EDIT -- Totally re-done for clarity. You're in a conference. The keynote speaker says something cool. You go to tweet it to your friends -- but it's longer than 140 characters. So you key it into your iPad on my app and choose to share it with your FaceBook and MySpace Friends. Over on FB and MySpace, the longer quote appears and has a link back to my web app where the quote is stored. You're reading a political or science article. About half-way down, the author makes a really cool point -- all the ideas seem to be coming together and this text just jumps off the page. You highlight the paragraph and enter it into my app, choosing also to share it on Twitter and FB. You're looking for something pithy to tweet or put on your FB status. You visit my app and read the latest quotes from sources all over the world, sorted and ranked especially according to your tastes. Choosing the one you like the most, you upvote it, make a comment, and choose to automatically email it and post to your status updates. You're looking for the best of the web today. Visiting my app, quotes from much longer articles and speeches are listed, customized to your tastes. Finding one that looks especially interesting, you click the link and go to the longer article, spending 10 or 20 minutes reading the full text. Your friend hears something incredible at a news event. He quotes the speaker, links to the video, and notifies you by using my app. You visit his quote on my app, make some comments, and vote it up. Soon you and your friend have made several comments -- other people have also joined in. Your conversation about this quote is saved for you to return to when you like. Finally, you're reading a book on your Kindle or other device. You find a particularly interesting passage. Quickly you copy it out, tag and save it, perhaps also choosing to share it on your status update. Later on, when you are not at your e-book reader, you can visit the web site and view your quotes -- along with the comments from your social network and other folks who share your same interest. Does that describe it well enough?
  - pclark 17y ago
    If you want some idea feedback I have no idea what product your pitch describes. Re-read it twice and still puzzled :)
    - DanielBMarkham 17y ago
      Try it now
      - pclark 17y ago
        how is it different from tumblr?
        DanielBMarkham 17y ago
        1) Niched product 2) Better content preference learning system
        pclark 17y ago
        sounds interesting, when are you launching?
  - bricestacey 17y ago
    You should figure out your elevator pitch. I would've preferred, "personal blurb aggregator and it's better than Twitter or Tumblr because _____" I still don't know why anyone would use this when you can do all this using existing microblog services like Twitter, Posterous, or Tumblr and it's obviously already exists in social networks like Facebook and Buzz (status updates with comments).
    - DanielBMarkham 17y ago
      ...I still don't know why anyone would use this when you can do all this using existing microblog services... 1) Message length 2) Content preference learning system 3) Niche product