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Parler isn’t a tech startup like any other. It’s unlikely to ever be profitable. Why Mercer and others think it’s a good idea to plow money into it is the quest

Parler isn’t a tech startup like any other. It’s unlikely to ever be profitable. Why Mercer and others think it’s a good idea to plow money into it is the question.

disgruntledphd2 6y ago
So just like most consumer tech startups then?
- alkonaut 6y ago
  No tech startups at least aim to make money either from the operations or from increasing the value of the business.
  - disgruntledphd2 6y ago
    Having seen the decisions made by many of these startups, I'm extremely sceptical that this is the case.
in3d 6y ago
Twitter is ridiculously overstaffed for what they are and it resulted in very few improvements over the years. I really wonder what most people there do. And yes, I’ve run popular apps so I’m not underestimating anything. If Parler can grab a percentage of this market and not unnecessarily overextend themselves, they’ll be just fine.
- daniellarusso 6y ago
  Parler also never had expensive real estate holdings in SF.
- derwiki 6y ago
  You’ve run popular apps on the scale of Twitter? It’s left ambiguous, but personally or with a team that’s much smaller than Twitter? That sounds very impressive. Can you share more details?
  - in3d 6y ago
    Significantly smaller than Twitter of course but big enough to have a pretty good direct idea of sizes of various teams that are needed and also indirectly when working with larger apps of others. And for completeness I’ll admit that it was 3+ years ago. Twitter is not exactly going through explosive growth either.
wyoh 6y ago
Because they're not in for the money but for a space of freedom for their ideas?
- alkonaut 6y ago
  If it was crowdfunded somehow I’d think that. This is someone with plenty of room for their ideas (Mercers are pretty extreme in this sense!) so it’s someone making a space for others’ ideas in that case. But more likely it’s a scheme to create a platform to deliver ideas to a specific target group. Or a way of attacking the established actors and regulation in the space. Or a way of simply creating division. Or (my guess) all of the above.

Parler isn’t a tech startup like any other. It’s unlikely to ever be profitable. Why Mercer and others think it’s a good idea to plow money into it is the question.

disgruntledphd2 6y ago

So just like most consumer tech startups then?

alkonaut 6y ago
No tech startups at least aim to make money either from the operations or from increasing the value of the business.
- disgruntledphd2 6y ago
  Having seen the decisions made by many of these startups, I'm extremely sceptical that this is the case.

in3d 6y ago

Twitter is ridiculously overstaffed for what they are and it resulted in very few improvements over the years. I really wonder what most people there do. And yes, I’ve run popular apps so I’m not underestimating anything. If Parler can grab a percentage of this market and not unnecessarily overextend themselves, they’ll be just fine.

daniellarusso 6y ago
Parler also never had expensive real estate holdings in SF.
derwiki 6y ago
You’ve run popular apps on the scale of Twitter? It’s left ambiguous, but personally or with a team that’s much smaller than Twitter? That sounds very impressive. Can you share more details?
- in3d 6y ago
  Significantly smaller than Twitter of course but big enough to have a pretty good direct idea of sizes of various teams that are needed and also indirectly when working with larger apps of others. And for completeness I’ll admit that it was 3+ years ago. Twitter is not exactly going through explosive growth either.

wyoh 6y ago

Because they're not in for the money but for a space of freedom for their ideas?

alkonaut 6y ago
If it was crowdfunded somehow I’d think that. This is someone with plenty of room for their ideas (Mercers are pretty extreme in this sense!) so it’s someone making a space for others’ ideas in that case. But more likely it’s a scheme to create a platform to deliver ideas to a specific target group. Or a way of attacking the established actors and regulation in the space. Or a way of simply creating division. Or (my guess) all of the above.