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Eric Ries was Co-Founder and CTO of IMVU which had 4 million active users and $40M in annual revenue at one point. I assume you knew that and just felt like ba

Eric Ries was Co-Founder and CTO of IMVU which had 4 million active users and $40M in annual revenue at one point. I assume you knew that and just felt like bashing him without adding any nuance to your point. That's a bad habit and you shouldn't do it.

codesushi42 8y ago
Speak for yourself. It looks like your startup, Javelin, is built entirely on spinning the Lean Startup methodology with "All-in-one Lean Startup and Customer Development software". I assume you knew that and just felt like defending him without adding any nuance to your point. That's a bad habit and you shouldn't do it.
- ehnto 8y ago
  You have done it again. Don't bash the person, make a solid argument against their argument.
- dang 8y ago
  Personal attacks will get you banned here. Please don't do this again. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - codesushi42 8y ago
    See parent. I was addressing a personal attack in that post with copypasta.
bborud 8y ago
I'm well aware of that and, to be quite honest, it isn't particularly impressive. But there is a piece of perspective that is perhaps missing. I've seen him preach to companies that have orders of magnitude more active users and orders of magnitude as much profit as he had revenue. And making people there believe that he somehow knows something about what it takes to make a company successful. To make a successful product. I've seen companies who had brilliant people who built more business for their company than this guy ever built for himself be told that "why can't you be more like that". Because it is always more attractive for some types of companies to listen to some outside hack than to actually pay attention to unglamorous people with far more potential. It is easier to admire something that comes with a book, ceremonies and eloquent salesmanship. And sadly, it is easier to take what they say seriously. I've worked on products that had an order of magnitude more users (products you might well have used) and wondered "why am I doing this again?" because at the company I was working, that wasn't really numbers indicative of a successful product. IMVU is 23 people. It is the equivalent of a mom and pop shop in this context. I'm sure his story is compelling to someone hacking together a product in their spare time and dreaming of doing a startup. But you do need to understand that he has very little to offer to the kinds of companies this cult does real damage to. Using the numbers you quote (they tend to vary) IMVU has an order of magnitude fewer users than MySpace. MySpace. The graveyard. That's 4 users for every copy of "The Lean Startup" book sold (well, probably fewer since I haven't kept up with his book sales). IMVU has fewer users than people who've seen Ries talk - live or online. IMVU is not a notable success. He is a successful seller of self help books. No doubt about that.

codesushi42 8y ago

Speak for yourself. It looks like your startup, Javelin, is built entirely on spinning the Lean Startup methodology with "All-in-one Lean Startup and Customer Development software". I assume you knew that and just felt like defending him without adding any nuance to your point. That's a bad habit and you shouldn't do it.

ehnto 8y ago
You have done it again. Don't bash the person, make a solid argument against their argument.
dang 8y ago
Personal attacks will get you banned here. Please don't do this again. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- codesushi42 8y ago
  See parent. I was addressing a personal attack in that post with copypasta.

bborud 8y ago

I'm well aware of that and, to be quite honest, it isn't particularly impressive. But there is a piece of perspective that is perhaps missing. I've seen him preach to companies that have orders of magnitude more active users and orders of magnitude as much profit as he had revenue. And making people there believe that he somehow knows something about what it takes to make a company successful. To make a successful product. I've seen companies who had brilliant people who built more business for their company than this guy ever built for himself be told that "why can't you be more like that". Because it is always more attractive for some types of companies to listen to some outside hack than to actually pay attention to unglamorous people with far more potential. It is easier to admire something that comes with a book, ceremonies and eloquent salesmanship. And sadly, it is easier to take what they say seriously. I've worked on products that had an order of magnitude more users (products you might well have used) and wondered "why am I doing this again?" because at the company I was working, that wasn't really numbers indicative of a successful product. IMVU is 23 people. It is the equivalent of a mom and pop shop in this context. I'm sure his story is compelling to someone hacking together a product in their spare time and dreaming of doing a startup. But you do need to understand that he has very little to offer to the kinds of companies this cult does real damage to. Using the numbers you quote (they tend to vary) IMVU has an order of magnitude fewer users than MySpace. MySpace. The graveyard. That's 4 users for every copy of "The Lean Startup" book sold (well, probably fewer since I haven't kept up with his book sales). IMVU has fewer users than people who've seen Ries talk - live or online. IMVU is not a notable success. He is a successful seller of self help books. No doubt about that.