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This response only addresses the extreme criticisms about saying they had a blog so it "must have been easy" or "it's cheating". I don't think it was easy nor

This response only addresses the extreme criticisms about saying they had a blog so it "must have been easy" or "it's cheating". I don't think it was easy nor cheating. Both of the founders mentioned here are smart, capable, and engineered whatever advantage they had. Another perspective on self-promotional articles (not an inherently bad thing) like these is they downplay or omit the influence another venture had on building their current one. The SubmitHub article has a specific question about 'what have been your biggest advantages' and it surprised me that "running a high traffic blog in my target industry with a large email list" wasn't mentioned there. That seems like a huge advantage. This is a sentiment I've seen in many of the comments here and in the HN comments about your SubmitHub writeup. It's not meant as a personal attack at you, Jason, or Distrokid's founder. You're all doing great things! It's about breaking down what were likely the major factors in success so that information can be applied in one's own ventures.

csallen 10y ago
Totally agree with you. I know this is a nitpick, but in Jason's response to "What have been your biggest advantages", he actually does talk about running Indie Shuffle: > As mentioned before, being "part of the problem" provided the best advantage possible. There were a few competitors trying to solve similar problems, but none of them were actually part of the equation. As such, they struggled to convince others to sign up, and didn't have a steady funnel of users to push their way. Specifically, the knowledge he gained from running Indie Shuffle ("being part of the problem") and the "steady funnel of users" really helped him out.
- jstandard 10y ago
  On 2nd glance, you're right. It could have been more clear ("running my music website was a huge advantage because..."), but it was indirectly acknowledged. Thanks for calling it out.

csallen 10y ago

Totally agree with you. I know this is a nitpick, but in Jason's response to "What have been your biggest advantages", he actually does talk about running Indie Shuffle: > As mentioned before, being "part of the problem" provided the best advantage possible. There were a few competitors trying to solve similar problems, but none of them were actually part of the equation. As such, they struggled to convince others to sign up, and didn't have a steady funnel of users to push their way. Specifically, the knowledge he gained from running Indie Shuffle ("being part of the problem") and the "steady funnel of users" really helped him out.

jstandard 10y ago
On 2nd glance, you're right. It could have been more clear ("running my music website was a huge advantage because..."), but it was indirectly acknowledged. Thanks for calling it out.