3 ms·
Bump was such a silly idea. It's a miracle that they were able to get so many users. It's one of those ideas that sounds good at first glance but after thinking
by jondubois 8y ago
Bump was such a silly idea. It's a miracle that they were able to get so many users. It's one of those ideas that sounds good at first glance but after thinking about it for a couple of minutes, you understand that it's actually a very bad idea. Maybe it picked up because of all the YC hype.
I don't see how the act of physically bumping phones together to share content adds any value at all.
It's disturbing that the founder would then go on and write an article about the whole experience. This represents everything that's wrong with startup accelerators.
- mattmanser 8y agoIt took off because back then having an iPhone was an exclusive thing and Apple promoted it in one of their early app commercials. Being able to 'bump' was a mark of status and one which had a special "handshake". Not sure why you're picking on the accelerators.
- jondubois 8y ago>> It took off because back then having an iPhone was an exclusive thing and Apple promoted it in one of their early app commercials. I can guarantee 100% that if Bump was not associated with Y Combinator, they would not have been mentioned by Apple. It has more to do with business connections and network effects than actual usefulness to the consumer. >> Not sure why you're picking on the accelerators. Because often they create hype around products which aren't actually useful. In doing so, they take attention and funding away from other products that are actually useful.
- goldfeld 8y agoThere's still credit for the app being a visual marketing gimmick which executives like, which doesn't transfer to usefulness.
- lawnchair_larry 8y agoNobody would have considered “bumping” as a status signal then or now. And iPhones were anything but exclusive.