3 ms·

Well, it was 2005. Poll: In your opinion was is far easier to gain traction and scale in the early 2000's compared to now? Feels that way to me. For example,

Well, it was 2005. Poll: In your opinion was is far easier to gain traction and scale in the early 2000's compared to now? Feels that way to me. For example, I had a basic website on a billion dollar industry and we were page rank 1 for years for that industry keyword with zero extra effort.

dunkelheit 7y ago
> In your opinion was is far easier to gain traction and scale in the early 2000's compared to now? Looks like it was but a lot of goodwill has been burned since. PG writes "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog. And more to the point, nobody knows you're 22. All users care about is whether your site or software gives them what they want. They don't care if the person behind it is a high school kid." But today every sane person would ask "Why should I depend on your service? Where is the guarantee that you won't go out of business or get acquired in six months with your service sunsetted?"
- dkersten 7y ago
  That last point makes me very wary of using a startups services these days. Too many startups fail and out of the ones that don’t, a huge amount get shutdown after acquisition. Too risky. I’ve also experienced a number of cases in my own work where pretty great services were passed over for exactly those reasons. As somebody who has founded startups in the past, this makes me sad because it means my next attempt will be much tougher (and it’s already hard), but on the other hand, I’ve also learned that I don’t really want to run a venture backed startup anymore and would rather run a smaller lifestyle business that’s in it for the long term. I suppose it comes down to how that’s communicated to the potential customers.
  - mrfusion 7y ago
    It’s counterintuitive but to counter this fear as a startup make it really simple for your customers to get their data out of your service. And advertise that fact heavily.
    - dkersten 7y ago
      That’s a good point, yes. I definitely feel more at ease when I know there’s a migration path should it become necessary.
- helen___keller 7y ago
  > They don't care if the person behind it is a high school kid." But today every sane person would ask "Why should I depend on your service? Where is the guarantee that you won't go out of business or get acquired in six months with your service sunsetted?" Or store passwords in plaintext then lose them.
softwaredoug 7y ago
Sadly, I feel too users have a bias towards trusting services provided by the FAANGS of the world, which are now more vertically integrated, than startups.

dunkelheit 7y ago

> In your opinion was is far easier to gain traction and scale in the early 2000's compared to now? Looks like it was but a lot of goodwill has been burned since. PG writes "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog. And more to the point, nobody knows you're 22. All users care about is whether your site or software gives them what they want. They don't care if the person behind it is a high school kid." But today every sane person would ask "Why should I depend on your service? Where is the guarantee that you won't go out of business or get acquired in six months with your service sunsetted?"

dkersten 7y ago
That last point makes me very wary of using a startups services these days. Too many startups fail and out of the ones that don’t, a huge amount get shutdown after acquisition. Too risky. I’ve also experienced a number of cases in my own work where pretty great services were passed over for exactly those reasons. As somebody who has founded startups in the past, this makes me sad because it means my next attempt will be much tougher (and it’s already hard), but on the other hand, I’ve also learned that I don’t really want to run a venture backed startup anymore and would rather run a smaller lifestyle business that’s in it for the long term. I suppose it comes down to how that’s communicated to the potential customers.
- mrfusion 7y ago
  It’s counterintuitive but to counter this fear as a startup make it really simple for your customers to get their data out of your service. And advertise that fact heavily.
  - dkersten 7y ago
    That’s a good point, yes. I definitely feel more at ease when I know there’s a migration path should it become necessary.
helen___keller 7y ago
> They don't care if the person behind it is a high school kid." But today every sane person would ask "Why should I depend on your service? Where is the guarantee that you won't go out of business or get acquired in six months with your service sunsetted?" Or store passwords in plaintext then lose them.

softwaredoug 7y ago

Sadly, I feel too users have a bias towards trusting services provided by the FAANGS of the world, which are now more vertically integrated, than startups.