4 ms·

Can someone explain what he meant by this. "If you ask me about barriers to entry, you don't understand the internet." Is he saying that you should not worry a

by danest 16y ago

Can someone explain what he meant by this. "If you ask me about barriers to entry, you don't understand the internet." Is he saying that you should not worry about your competition?

GVRV 16y ago
Here's what I think he meant. There must be a VC who would've thought Posterous can be substituted by a Wordpress plugin. Any 14 year old can create that. Obviously, Posterous is more than just blogging via email and the VC must not have got that.
- pavs 16y ago
  > Obviously, Posterous is more than just blogging via email. What does Posterous do that is absolutely unique and useful that wordpress or other blog platform doesn't do? I know saying anything negative towards YC funded startup is not looked upon here, but I will take a shot. Posterous is nothing unique, it doesn't do anything that other blog platforms don't have or can't be configured to do the same thing. The only thing working for Posterous IMO is that they have done a really good at their landing page which is short an informative. They also have good ideas to promote their platform. Personally I don't understand why would any tech savvy online user would "switch to" Posterous or even use any of the hosted blogging solutions out there for that matter. Its not only mindlessly easy to setup and maintain your own blog (wordpress or whatever), it makes more sense to host your own stuff and have 100% control over your own blog. Posterous makes sense for grandpa and the guy/gal who just discovered blogging, not for a seasoned blogger/internet user.
  - GVRV 16y ago
    > What does Posterous do that is absolutely unique and useful that wordpress or other blog platform doesn't do? From the top of my head: Intuitive user interface, awesome iPhone application, vibrant community, ease of usage, works out of the box. It's not aiming for the serious blogger. It's the easiest way to post stuff online. The rationale is most people aren't tech savvy and there are tech savvy people don't care about whether the index should have 8 or 10 posts, whether the date is YMD or DMY. It's for people who want to just post stuff online easily and share it with others.
    - anamax 16y ago
      > It's the easiest way to post stuff online. While posterous is an easy way to post stuff on line, twitter and facebook also have easy ways to post stuff online. tumblr and weheartit's bookmarklets are also easy ways to post stuff online.
    - arnorhs 16y ago
      I'm not a big fan or wordpress, however I have to chime in here. Wordpress has: - intuitive user interface - awesome iphone application(s) - vibrant community (actually much larger than - works out of the box - ease of usage "and ease of usage", intuitive UI and works out of the box are essentially the same "feature" But I agree that posterous is more simple than wordpress, but those arguments don't have anything to do with that.
    - pavs 16y ago
      > From the top of my head: Intuitive user interface, awesome iPhone application, vibrant community, ease of usage, works out of the box. Intuitive, Awesome, Vibrant are all subjective personal opinion/taste. I could perhaps rightfully (based on user-base) argue that wordpress/tumblr has intuitive interface, Awesome iPhone application, bigger and very active community, easy of use and works out the box (which one doesn't work of out of the box?). Whats so unique about these qualities with posterous? >It's not aiming for the serious blogger. It's the easiest way to post stuff online. The rationale is most people aren't tech savvy and there are tech savvy people don't care about whether the index should have 8 or 10 posts, whether the date is YMD or DMY. It's for people who want to just post stuff online easily and share it with others. You repeated exactly what I said. But there are also some serious tech-savvy users also using posterous. Which makes me think that they have some good marketing ideas and got these guys to throw in some blog posts on posterous so that others will think "wow, so and so is using posterous, it must be cool or something. Must be the new fad" Reading my own comments, I feel like I am coming across someone who has something against posterous. But honestly I don't, its just yet another blogging platform and if it wasn't funded by YC we wouldn't see it so often here on HN or even talk about it.
  - jey 16y ago
    OK, even if we accept your assertion that the tech savvy won't use Posterous, what about everyone else on the internet?
  - frossie 16y ago
    What does Posterous do that is absolutely unique and useful that wordpress or other blog platform doesn't do? That is exactly the point the OP was making wasn't it? It doesn't matter whether it does or not, that's not a "barrier to entry".
  - nzmsv 16y ago
    Hosting your own blog makes it vulnerable to Slashdot (and now HN, Reddit, etc.) effect. Also, a server (and even a shared hosting account) requires maintenance and monitoring to make sure you aren't serving viruses to your users. Many seasoned bloggers just want someone to take care of all this for them.
  - philwelch 16y ago
    I ran a hosted Blogger, which became a hosted Wordpress, which I threw away and now I have a Posterous. Let's say I run Wordpress on a shared host, which I did for years. That means I have to keep Wordpress updated. Easy, but takes time and effort to do a boring housekeeping task. There's no 100% control because you have a CMS controlling your site instead of writing your own HTML and CSS files. Then you have to pay for hosting and stress over things like storage and bandwidth, or pay enough money that you don't have to, and then stress over the money. On the other hand, you could run your own domain name with email and so forth (and then worry about storing all the spam you ever receive on the server and the fact that your hosting provider has terrible anti-spam systems). Or you could just point your domain to point at a Posterous and get Google Apps for your domain, spend 10 minutes playing with DNS settings and maybe an hour waiting for the DNS to propagate, and have a blog at your domain, the best email client in the world, and no stress. If I needed more control, I'd write my own CMS and do the same thing except with Heroku instead of Posterous, because that's more fun than hosting my own installation of someone else's CMS. If I needed even more control I might consider a VPS and my own CMS. But hosting your own wordpress doesn't fit anywhere useful in terms of fun, control, or convenience.
- robryan 16y ago
  There probably would have been others than got it but didn't invest because of the amount of competition in the blogging space. Sure it may be the easiest way to start up a blog online but your presented with plenty of different options if you decide to create a blog, each of which will serve the purpose. Also I think it is in area where there is a risk of someone like Facebook leveraging their large user base with an improved integrated version of their current notes feature. Posterous may well pay off nicely for investors but it's by no means a sure thing.
a4agarwal 16y ago
On the internet, there are few barriers to entry. It's incredibly cheap and easy to build most startups these days. That's not where the value is. The value is that you think you can do it bigger and better than anyone else. Except for maybe Google search, I can't think of a product that I couldn't build tomorrow if i wanted to enter that space.
- starkfist 16y ago
  The fact that there are fewer barriers to entry also make startups where there are barriers to entry more valuable. Some of the big successes this time around are e-commerce operations which require a lot of capital for the parts of the business associated with moving physical inventory.
- ericd 16y ago
  I don't know about this, if you're a new business trying to do something similar to an existing competitor that's well known and well liked, that's a big competitive advantage and barrier to entry for newcomers. Mindshare isn't very easily quantifiable, but it's very real. But maybe the barriers to entry you're talking about that VCs fret over are more traditional things that just don't really apply to the internet.

by danest 16y ago

Can someone explain what he meant by this. "If you ask me about barriers to entry, you don't understand the internet." Is he saying that you should not worry about your competition?

GVRV 16y ago

Here's what I think he meant. There must be a VC who would've thought Posterous can be substituted by a Wordpress plugin. Any 14 year old can create that. Obviously, Posterous is more than just blogging via email and the VC must not have got that.

pavs 16y ago
> Obviously, Posterous is more than just blogging via email. What does Posterous do that is absolutely unique and useful that wordpress or other blog platform doesn't do? I know saying anything negative towards YC funded startup is not looked upon here, but I will take a shot. Posterous is nothing unique, it doesn't do anything that other blog platforms don't have or can't be configured to do the same thing. The only thing working for Posterous IMO is that they have done a really good at their landing page which is short an informative. They also have good ideas to promote their platform. Personally I don't understand why would any tech savvy online user would "switch to" Posterous or even use any of the hosted blogging solutions out there for that matter. Its not only mindlessly easy to setup and maintain your own blog (wordpress or whatever), it makes more sense to host your own stuff and have 100% control over your own blog. Posterous makes sense for grandpa and the guy/gal who just discovered blogging, not for a seasoned blogger/internet user.
- GVRV 16y ago
  > What does Posterous do that is absolutely unique and useful that wordpress or other blog platform doesn't do? From the top of my head: Intuitive user interface, awesome iPhone application, vibrant community, ease of usage, works out of the box. It's not aiming for the serious blogger. It's the easiest way to post stuff online. The rationale is most people aren't tech savvy and there are tech savvy people don't care about whether the index should have 8 or 10 posts, whether the date is YMD or DMY. It's for people who want to just post stuff online easily and share it with others.
  - anamax 16y ago
    > It's the easiest way to post stuff online. While posterous is an easy way to post stuff on line, twitter and facebook also have easy ways to post stuff online. tumblr and weheartit's bookmarklets are also easy ways to post stuff online.
  - arnorhs 16y ago
    I'm not a big fan or wordpress, however I have to chime in here. Wordpress has: - intuitive user interface - awesome iphone application(s) - vibrant community (actually much larger than - works out of the box - ease of usage "and ease of usage", intuitive UI and works out of the box are essentially the same "feature" But I agree that posterous is more simple than wordpress, but those arguments don't have anything to do with that.
  - pavs 16y ago
    > From the top of my head: Intuitive user interface, awesome iPhone application, vibrant community, ease of usage, works out of the box. Intuitive, Awesome, Vibrant are all subjective personal opinion/taste. I could perhaps rightfully (based on user-base) argue that wordpress/tumblr has intuitive interface, Awesome iPhone application, bigger and very active community, easy of use and works out the box (which one doesn't work of out of the box?). Whats so unique about these qualities with posterous? >It's not aiming for the serious blogger. It's the easiest way to post stuff online. The rationale is most people aren't tech savvy and there are tech savvy people don't care about whether the index should have 8 or 10 posts, whether the date is YMD or DMY. It's for people who want to just post stuff online easily and share it with others. You repeated exactly what I said. But there are also some serious tech-savvy users also using posterous. Which makes me think that they have some good marketing ideas and got these guys to throw in some blog posts on posterous so that others will think "wow, so and so is using posterous, it must be cool or something. Must be the new fad" Reading my own comments, I feel like I am coming across someone who has something against posterous. But honestly I don't, its just yet another blogging platform and if it wasn't funded by YC we wouldn't see it so often here on HN or even talk about it.
- jey 16y ago
  OK, even if we accept your assertion that the tech savvy won't use Posterous, what about everyone else on the internet?
- frossie 16y ago
  What does Posterous do that is absolutely unique and useful that wordpress or other blog platform doesn't do? That is exactly the point the OP was making wasn't it? It doesn't matter whether it does or not, that's not a "barrier to entry".
- nzmsv 16y ago
  Hosting your own blog makes it vulnerable to Slashdot (and now HN, Reddit, etc.) effect. Also, a server (and even a shared hosting account) requires maintenance and monitoring to make sure you aren't serving viruses to your users. Many seasoned bloggers just want someone to take care of all this for them.
- philwelch 16y ago
  I ran a hosted Blogger, which became a hosted Wordpress, which I threw away and now I have a Posterous. Let's say I run Wordpress on a shared host, which I did for years. That means I have to keep Wordpress updated. Easy, but takes time and effort to do a boring housekeeping task. There's no 100% control because you have a CMS controlling your site instead of writing your own HTML and CSS files. Then you have to pay for hosting and stress over things like storage and bandwidth, or pay enough money that you don't have to, and then stress over the money. On the other hand, you could run your own domain name with email and so forth (and then worry about storing all the spam you ever receive on the server and the fact that your hosting provider has terrible anti-spam systems). Or you could just point your domain to point at a Posterous and get Google Apps for your domain, spend 10 minutes playing with DNS settings and maybe an hour waiting for the DNS to propagate, and have a blog at your domain, the best email client in the world, and no stress. If I needed more control, I'd write my own CMS and do the same thing except with Heroku instead of Posterous, because that's more fun than hosting my own installation of someone else's CMS. If I needed even more control I might consider a VPS and my own CMS. But hosting your own wordpress doesn't fit anywhere useful in terms of fun, control, or convenience.
robryan 16y ago
There probably would have been others than got it but didn't invest because of the amount of competition in the blogging space. Sure it may be the easiest way to start up a blog online but your presented with plenty of different options if you decide to create a blog, each of which will serve the purpose. Also I think it is in area where there is a risk of someone like Facebook leveraging their large user base with an improved integrated version of their current notes feature. Posterous may well pay off nicely for investors but it's by no means a sure thing.

a4agarwal 16y ago

On the internet, there are few barriers to entry. It's incredibly cheap and easy to build most startups these days. That's not where the value is. The value is that you think you can do it bigger and better than anyone else. Except for maybe Google search, I can't think of a product that I couldn't build tomorrow if i wanted to enter that space.

starkfist 16y ago
The fact that there are fewer barriers to entry also make startups where there are barriers to entry more valuable. Some of the big successes this time around are e-commerce operations which require a lot of capital for the parts of the business associated with moving physical inventory.
ericd 16y ago
I don't know about this, if you're a new business trying to do something similar to an existing competitor that's well known and well liked, that's a big competitive advantage and barrier to entry for newcomers. Mindshare isn't very easily quantifiable, but it's very real. But maybe the barriers to entry you're talking about that VCs fret over are more traditional things that just don't really apply to the internet.