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I invested in Ikaria and feel like someone should speak up here. I was early investor with Chrys Bader previously on his startup Secret. He was a YC batchmate

by garry 7y ago

I invested in Ikaria and feel like someone should speak up here. I was early investor with Chrys Bader previously on his startup Secret. He was a YC batchmate of mine from 2008. I watched him build an initial prototype that had the chance to be a real social network that had very high long term retention, but in the end the company didn't invest deeply enough into moderation and the long term retention cohorts went down steeply past 6 months of use. Chrys is a great designer and product manager who caught lightning in a bottle previously, and lost it. Founders often catch lightning in a bottle and then fail to keep it because scaling operations like moderation, or sometimes even just keeping the servers online, through hyper scale, is hard. Many founders never find lightning in a bottle even once. Even in my experience I felt like we caught lightning in a bottle with Posterous and failed to properly bring it to the scale I wish we could have. I realize I am going out on a limb to defend him here, but founders going back into the arena deserve at least a little bit of defense because it's hard enough to take the chance to make anything ever. You'll hear more about how Ikaria really works, and I realize the post is light on details, but don't write this startup off before you actually try the software itself.

charliemil4 7y ago
Friendships are everything — keep them close and cultivate them. If it’s through investments, building tech, do it. The market is a beautiful thing; it will quickly and swiftly tell you if you’re right or not. No need to fret over any apologetic comment.
- davidajackson 7y ago
  I'm curious about whether the most successful products to solve loneliness will be ones that help people connect virtually, versus connect in person. Maybe a healthy balance of both?
  - 1propionyl 7y ago
    "Solve" loneliness. With a "product". Try to get out of your bubble. To anyone who isn't entirely immersed in that bubble this is absolutely insane talk. It sounds sociopathic and out-of-touch. Maybe, just maybe, this isn't a problem you can "solve" by engineering. And maybe, just maybe, the solution (if it exists) isn't a "product".
    - sgift 7y ago
      > Maybe, just maybe, this isn't a problem you can "solve" by engineering. And maybe, just maybe, the solution (if it exists) isn't a "product". Or maybe it is. In all your comments in the various threads here you fail to give a reasoning for your position which is not "it is my opinion". Instead you have now started attacking others. "sociopathic talk"? Really?
    - dageshi 7y ago
      For some percentage of people with that problem maybe this app will indeed solve it. Loneliness across a population not being something that can be solved with a silver bullet, but lots of lead bullets instead.
- 1propionyl 7y ago
  > The market is a beautiful thing; it will quickly and swiftly tell you if you’re right or not. No need to fret over any apologetic comment. I thought religion was unpopular here.
- onion2k 7y ago
  Friendships are everything — keep them close and cultivate them. And don't sabotage other people's.
- swiley 7y ago
  > The market is a beautiful thing; it will quickly and swiftly tell you if you’re right Is this why everyone seems to think the iPhone is so good?
Alex3917 7y ago
Do you think that catching lightning in a bottle still matters as much as it did in 2004 - 2013ish, or do you think there's an argument to be made that we're now in a post-lightning-in-a-bottle era?
- charliemil4 7y ago
  Asking the question implies you have an answer ... I’d love to know what you see
  - fxtentacle 7y ago
    Not the poster, but I keep getting snail mail advertisements by banks and VCs that want to invest in my next company, despite me not having done a single exit yet. My impression is that nowadays, there are more VCs than founders, so they will invest in pretty much anything.
- ttul 7y ago
  I mean, odds are you’re never going to catch lightning in a bottle. This has always been the case and always will be.
jonathankoren 7y ago
Serious question: Given that Badger and his cofounder Byttow famously pocketed almost 20% of the total investment in Secret ($3M each on $35M) shortly before shutting it down[0], what assurances do you have that he’s just not going to pocket the investment again instead of using it to improve the company? [0] https://techcrunch.com/2015/04/29/psst/ https://techcrunch.com/2015/04/29/psst/
1propionyl 7y ago
> I invested in Ikaria and feel like someone should speak up here. > ... but don't write the startup off before you actually try the software itself. Cool. So you want to protect your investment. I get it. But to be honest your comment reads like damage control from someone who is just realizing they might have made a bad investment. So I'm curious: why did you think this startup was ever a good idea to invest in? To anyone who isn't completely wrapped up in the SV investor culture it sounds foolhardy, naive, and maybe even idiotic on first blush. Chrys may be a great guy with the best of intentions, but that doesn't mean he's right. When you say "don't write this startup off" does that mean you believe it will actually help combat depression (i.e. are you that dumb)? Or does that mean you believe it might make you money (i.e. do you think the rest us are that dumb)? $36B can really dull the mind, huh.
- willmw101 7y ago
  >When you say "don't write this startup off" does that mean you believe it will actually help combat depression (i.e. are you that dumb)? How are comments like this even remotely productive or good faith?
  - jshevek 7y ago
    Nearly every comment made by this user in this thread, at this time, is at odds with HN community standards, particularly as they related to tone and substance.
    - 1propionyl 7y ago
      My apologies. I would go back and remove or edit them if I still could. I went overboard.
  - jimhi 7y ago
    I believe moderation is more relaxed when it's anything somewhat related to YC. It's a good policy.
- jimhi 7y ago
sbarre 7y ago
Beneath all the feel-good marketing, this app seems like it's going to be a marketplace for self-help professionals. I'm not making any kind of value judgement here, this could certainly be a good thing and I will take your advice and wait to see the app for myself. If I'm not wrong about this, can you comment on what you know about the process for vetting the quality and/or credentials of the professionals who will be featured/promoted on the platform? There are already tons of self-help scammers out there who are just looking to take money from desperate people.. How does this platform avoid becoming an enabler for quick-fix scams, while supporting credible programs?
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

by garry 7y ago

charliemil4 7y ago

Friendships are everything — keep them close and cultivate them. If it’s through investments, building tech, do it. The market is a beautiful thing; it will quickly and swiftly tell you if you’re right or not. No need to fret over any apologetic comment.

davidajackson 7y ago
I'm curious about whether the most successful products to solve loneliness will be ones that help people connect virtually, versus connect in person. Maybe a healthy balance of both?
- 1propionyl 7y ago
  "Solve" loneliness. With a "product". Try to get out of your bubble. To anyone who isn't entirely immersed in that bubble this is absolutely insane talk. It sounds sociopathic and out-of-touch. Maybe, just maybe, this isn't a problem you can "solve" by engineering. And maybe, just maybe, the solution (if it exists) isn't a "product".
  - sgift 7y ago
    > Maybe, just maybe, this isn't a problem you can "solve" by engineering. And maybe, just maybe, the solution (if it exists) isn't a "product". Or maybe it is. In all your comments in the various threads here you fail to give a reasoning for your position which is not "it is my opinion". Instead you have now started attacking others. "sociopathic talk"? Really?
  - dageshi 7y ago
    For some percentage of people with that problem maybe this app will indeed solve it. Loneliness across a population not being something that can be solved with a silver bullet, but lots of lead bullets instead.
1propionyl 7y ago
> The market is a beautiful thing; it will quickly and swiftly tell you if you’re right or not. No need to fret over any apologetic comment. I thought religion was unpopular here.
onion2k 7y ago
Friendships are everything — keep them close and cultivate them. And don't sabotage other people's.
swiley 7y ago
> The market is a beautiful thing; it will quickly and swiftly tell you if you’re right Is this why everyone seems to think the iPhone is so good?

Alex3917 7y ago

Do you think that catching lightning in a bottle still matters as much as it did in 2004 - 2013ish, or do you think there's an argument to be made that we're now in a post-lightning-in-a-bottle era?

charliemil4 7y ago
Asking the question implies you have an answer ... I’d love to know what you see
- fxtentacle 7y ago
  Not the poster, but I keep getting snail mail advertisements by banks and VCs that want to invest in my next company, despite me not having done a single exit yet. My impression is that nowadays, there are more VCs than founders, so they will invest in pretty much anything.
ttul 7y ago
I mean, odds are you’re never going to catch lightning in a bottle. This has always been the case and always will be.

jonathankoren 7y ago

Serious question: Given that Badger and his cofounder Byttow famously pocketed almost 20% of the total investment in Secret ($3M each on $35M) shortly before shutting it down[0], what assurances do you have that he’s just not going to pocket the investment again instead of using it to improve the company? [0] https://techcrunch.com/2015/04/29/psst/ https://techcrunch.com/2015/04/29/psst/

1propionyl 7y ago

> I invested in Ikaria and feel like someone should speak up here. > ... but don't write the startup off before you actually try the software itself. Cool. So you want to protect your investment. I get it. But to be honest your comment reads like damage control from someone who is just realizing they might have made a bad investment. So I'm curious: why did you think this startup was ever a good idea to invest in? To anyone who isn't completely wrapped up in the SV investor culture it sounds foolhardy, naive, and maybe even idiotic on first blush. Chrys may be a great guy with the best of intentions, but that doesn't mean he's right. When you say "don't write this startup off" does that mean you believe it will actually help combat depression (i.e. are you that dumb)? Or does that mean you believe it might make you money (i.e. do you think the rest us are that dumb)? $36B can really dull the mind, huh.

willmw101 7y ago
>When you say "don't write this startup off" does that mean you believe it will actually help combat depression (i.e. are you that dumb)? How are comments like this even remotely productive or good faith?
- jshevek 7y ago
  Nearly every comment made by this user in this thread, at this time, is at odds with HN community standards, particularly as they related to tone and substance.
  - 1propionyl 7y ago
    My apologies. I would go back and remove or edit them if I still could. I went overboard.
- jimhi 7y ago
  I believe moderation is more relaxed when it's anything somewhat related to YC. It's a good policy.
jimhi 7y ago

sbarre 7y ago

Beneath all the feel-good marketing, this app seems like it's going to be a marketplace for self-help professionals. I'm not making any kind of value judgement here, this could certainly be a good thing and I will take your advice and wait to see the app for myself. If I'm not wrong about this, can you comment on what you know about the process for vetting the quality and/or credentials of the professionals who will be featured/promoted on the platform? There are already tons of self-help scammers out there who are just looking to take money from desperate people.. How does this platform avoid becoming an enabler for quick-fix scams, while supporting credible programs?

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]