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I launched a start-up two months ago, and I can't agree more with Paul: it has become ridiculously inexpensive to do so. I considered chasing some VC funding, b

by tomek77 19y ago

I launched a start-up two months ago, and I can't agree more with Paul: it has become ridiculously inexpensive to do so. I considered chasing some VC funding, but then realized that all I need is a good idea and some time to focus on it; the VC's wouldn't have helped me with either one. As a matter of fact, even owning your own computing resources is unnecessary: check-out Amazon's cloud computing web services (our bill: <$100 / mth)!

tx 19y ago
How's that related to you costs? The primary expense has always been the cost of talent and "cost of sales". Employees time and marketing/advertising. Paul assumes that programmers will work for free (or for very little) because they're founders, but doesn't address the other big one. Well, he saves a ton of money on free YC-backed PR, but even his model breaks down if you need more than 2-4 programmers to deliver even a prototype, or if your idea/business depend heavily on graphics designers or rely on complex distribution channels (even within the web). In fact if you way back, there was another time when a couple of guys in a garage could do it all. Gates and Allen did it. Jobs and Woz did it. In history of personal computing there was always one or two guys who did it first without bunch of money: nearly every piece of traditional desktop application has that guy. Equipment and infrastructure costs have never been prohibitive since the invention of a PC. As web applications grow the history will repeat itself: instead of two guys building it you'll need 20, just like it did with desktop software and games. There are only brief windows of opportunity for a "little guy" and they only come some major breakthrough in technology comes along.
- tomek77 19y ago
  tx: "The primary expense has always been the cost of talent and "cost of sales". Employees time and marketing/advertising." The point I am making: it is not so any more! How much dev time or marketing or technology insight went into any of these, for example: digg fbook myspace flickr techcrunch? And yet they´re worth billions of $.

by tomek77 19y ago

tx 19y ago

How's that related to you costs? The primary expense has always been the cost of talent and "cost of sales". Employees time and marketing/advertising. Paul assumes that programmers will work for free (or for very little) because they're founders, but doesn't address the other big one. Well, he saves a ton of money on free YC-backed PR, but even his model breaks down if you need more than 2-4 programmers to deliver even a prototype, or if your idea/business depend heavily on graphics designers or rely on complex distribution channels (even within the web). In fact if you way back, there was another time when a couple of guys in a garage could do it all. Gates and Allen did it. Jobs and Woz did it. In history of personal computing there was always one or two guys who did it first without bunch of money: nearly every piece of traditional desktop application has that guy. Equipment and infrastructure costs have never been prohibitive since the invention of a PC. As web applications grow the history will repeat itself: instead of two guys building it you'll need 20, just like it did with desktop software and games. There are only brief windows of opportunity for a "little guy" and they only come some major breakthrough in technology comes along.

tomek77 19y ago
tx: "The primary expense has always been the cost of talent and "cost of sales". Employees time and marketing/advertising." The point I am making: it is not so any more! How much dev time or marketing or technology insight went into any of these, for example: digg fbook myspace flickr techcrunch? And yet they´re worth billions of $.