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If it's one thing that constantly surprises me with technology startups, it's how 'niche' targeted startups can be and still be profitable. I would never have t

by tobtoh 16y ago

If it's one thing that constantly surprises me with technology startups, it's how 'niche' targeted startups can be and still be profitable. I would never have thought that 'pick five colours' was a model that would be sustainable/profitable enough to warrant starting a business around. I suspect the Net played a bit part in enabling this to happen and the continued rise of smartphones and apps is furthering this capability.

dariusmonsef 16y ago
Had you asked me 6 years ago I wouldn't have thought there was a business in palettes either. But I built COLOURlovers to solve simple problems for creative folks? What color should I use for this? Does this color look good with that one? ...It was just a small idea for some creative folks I knew to play with... and it organically grew into the site it is today. Had we raised money out of the gate on the premise that there was a business in palettes... we probably would have executed differently and killed what we were growing. Instead it grew naturally and we took guidance from our users, creating new products and services for them. We're profitable because we're lean and don't need a lot of the large expenses some other founders have to deal with. This has been our greatest asset as we built COLOURlovers. Now, we have a thriving community of people, a solid amount of traffic and a business model that doesn't take anything away from the experience our users love and use. And another point about niche... when the whole world is your audience, even the most obscure interests can find a sizable market.
- loganfrederick 16y ago
  "Had we raised money out of the gate on the premise that there was a business in palettes... we probably would have executed differently and killed what we were growing." What was your reasoning for joining YC after you already had momentum?
  - aepstein 16y ago
    Darius actually wrote a blog post about our reasoning: http://whoabubs.com/should-we-do-ycombinator-were-further-along-t http://whoabubs.com/should-we-do-ycombinator-were-further-al...
phlux 16y ago
Wait till you see my startup: pick a number! -- Actually, the ability to pick a color out of a picture is quite cool - but would be better if you could pivot that selection to do further searching, such as "Pick a color, then show me all the pictures in my phone that contain that color" "Show me all the pictures that match this new palette I made" "tint selected picture with the color/palette I choose"

by tobtoh 16y ago

dariusmonsef 16y ago

Had you asked me 6 years ago I wouldn't have thought there was a business in palettes either. But I built COLOURlovers to solve simple problems for creative folks? What color should I use for this? Does this color look good with that one? ...It was just a small idea for some creative folks I knew to play with... and it organically grew into the site it is today. Had we raised money out of the gate on the premise that there was a business in palettes... we probably would have executed differently and killed what we were growing. Instead it grew naturally and we took guidance from our users, creating new products and services for them. We're profitable because we're lean and don't need a lot of the large expenses some other founders have to deal with. This has been our greatest asset as we built COLOURlovers. Now, we have a thriving community of people, a solid amount of traffic and a business model that doesn't take anything away from the experience our users love and use. And another point about niche... when the whole world is your audience, even the most obscure interests can find a sizable market.

loganfrederick 16y ago
"Had we raised money out of the gate on the premise that there was a business in palettes... we probably would have executed differently and killed what we were growing." What was your reasoning for joining YC after you already had momentum?
- aepstein 16y ago
  Darius actually wrote a blog post about our reasoning: http://whoabubs.com/should-we-do-ycombinator-were-further-along-t http://whoabubs.com/should-we-do-ycombinator-were-further-al...

phlux 16y ago

Wait till you see my startup: pick a number! -- Actually, the ability to pick a color out of a picture is quite cool - but would be better if you could pivot that selection to do further searching, such as "Pick a color, then show me all the pictures in my phone that contain that color" "Show me all the pictures that match this new palette I made" "tint selected picture with the color/palette I choose"