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Tipjoy (YC winter 08) Founders on Passing the Hat

41 points by echair 18y ago

breck 18y ago
I miss the Total Amount Tipped number they used to display on their site. It was an easy way to check on how their model was working out. Understandable if they'd rather not share, but it was cool.
- babul 18y ago
  Too many envious eyes? ...people often think an idea sucks until they see how much money it makes, then suddenly it looks good and the competitors begin to mushroom up. Hence, sometimes it is not good to give out too much information?
  - axod 18y ago
    I'd love that to be true, but I don't think it is in this instance. Unless something is making millions, a lot of people may see it as a failure, even if it's still growing and adapting etc. I seem to remember some blog or comment jumping on tipjoy a bit for only getting a few thousand dollars in tips since starting or something... Maybe that's why.
    - d0mine 18y ago
      $2,519.01 (red arrow) is not a large sum of money. Compound that with the time period indicated by the blue arrow. Elsewhere in the site founders explain that they charge a 3% transaction fee. In other words they pulled in $75.57 over 4 months. </quote> http://jeffspost.wordpress.com/2008/05/25/why-didnt-it-take-off-pathology-of-a-floundering-web-20-startup/ http://jeffspost.wordpress.com/2008/05/25/why-didnt-it-take-...
      - ivankirigin 18y ago
        That post was a day before our second techcrunch article announcing a large new set of features. Someone that judges a startup a failure just a few months after launch doesn't know anything about startups.
  - breck 18y ago
    Absolutely. It is probably a good sign that they took that down. If you show you are making peanuts, it would discourage potential competitors. If you show you are making millions, you are asking for competitors to pour in. All I'm saying is that it is in my (selfish) interests to know how much they were making. Now that they don't display revenue, I won't decide to copy them until after they IPO, which will be too late, unfortunately.
- ivankirigin 18y ago
  Tip rates are accelerating. I think showing the total amount made people want to game the system more than it impressed people with the transaction volume. People giving ridiculous amounts has decreased while transaction rates are continuing to increase.
  - MaysonL 18y ago
    I wonder if it would be possible to change the dollar amount to the actual dollar amount that has changed hands.
gaika 18y ago
Glad that they are not passing the hat :) Title is so misleading. Recommendations that are backed by something tangible is the future of the social news sites. That not only eliminates all kinds of cheating, but aligns your stated interests with with what is really valuable. The site that is making recommendations can also take a cut from the tip, so there's no need to spam everybody with irrelevant ads.
- ivankirigin 18y ago
  We are actually looking for funding, so even the incorrect interpretation is somewhat correct.
babul 18y ago
It's really cool to build a community around your product and even cooler that they build things for you e.g. plugins. Just goes to show if you make things people want, they will make things you want too. :)
iamelgringo 18y ago
It's really nice to see other married couples pursue the startup life together.
- ivankirigin 18y ago
  I know two other married founders sets, and they love it too.
demandred 18y ago
@ivankirigin: any thought of changing the mascot? as a consumer -- amazing as it sounds -- i would not trust something with that silly logo with my money, without doing some pretty extensive research. in general, I feel that the look and feel of the logo, design, and mascot are just ...wrong. I can't put my finger on it exactly, but for a micro-payments service (or any that service that deals with real, hard, cash) I would surmise that presenting a reputable foot forward would go a long way in building trust and brand equity.
- ivankirigin 18y ago
  The front page is consumer facing. We have plans for another page that will show more directly the other ways to use Tipjoy. I think reputation will be largely built by distribution, and the mascot will not significantly affect distribution. Also, the star on the turtle's back is our favicon and used in places like friendfeed.
  - ivankirigin 18y ago
    Also, I think a MUCH bigger problem is that we have tip in the name but want to do more than tipping.
    - demandred 18y ago
      well I didn't like the name either, but I thought maybe it made sense for the tipping aspect. Seems like you're building a great product, and branding/positioning/messaging is obviously very important for what you two are doing.
- brlewis 18y ago
  I voted this comment up, not because I necessarily agree with it, but because feedback about the way something strikes you, even when you can't put your finger on it, is very valuable. I'd like to see more of this feedback on Hacker News, along with more stories about what people here are actually doing.
Prrometheus 18y ago
This is the most ambitious startup that I can remember seeing out of YCombinator. That may increase their chances of failure (I'm not sure if this is true), but it also raises the maximum level of success. These guys already have a revenue plan and they could get really big really fast.

41 points by echair 18y ago

breck 18y ago

I miss the Total Amount Tipped number they used to display on their site. It was an easy way to check on how their model was working out. Understandable if they'd rather not share, but it was cool.

babul 18y ago
Too many envious eyes? ...people often think an idea sucks until they see how much money it makes, then suddenly it looks good and the competitors begin to mushroom up. Hence, sometimes it is not good to give out too much information?
- axod 18y ago
  I'd love that to be true, but I don't think it is in this instance. Unless something is making millions, a lot of people may see it as a failure, even if it's still growing and adapting etc. I seem to remember some blog or comment jumping on tipjoy a bit for only getting a few thousand dollars in tips since starting or something... Maybe that's why.
  - d0mine 18y ago
    $2,519.01 (red arrow) is not a large sum of money. Compound that with the time period indicated by the blue arrow. Elsewhere in the site founders explain that they charge a 3% transaction fee. In other words they pulled in $75.57 over 4 months. </quote> http://jeffspost.wordpress.com/2008/05/25/why-didnt-it-take-off-pathology-of-a-floundering-web-20-startup/ http://jeffspost.wordpress.com/2008/05/25/why-didnt-it-take-...
    - ivankirigin 18y ago
      That post was a day before our second techcrunch article announcing a large new set of features. Someone that judges a startup a failure just a few months after launch doesn't know anything about startups.
- breck 18y ago
  Absolutely. It is probably a good sign that they took that down. If you show you are making peanuts, it would discourage potential competitors. If you show you are making millions, you are asking for competitors to pour in. All I'm saying is that it is in my (selfish) interests to know how much they were making. Now that they don't display revenue, I won't decide to copy them until after they IPO, which will be too late, unfortunately.
ivankirigin 18y ago
Tip rates are accelerating. I think showing the total amount made people want to game the system more than it impressed people with the transaction volume. People giving ridiculous amounts has decreased while transaction rates are continuing to increase.
- MaysonL 18y ago
  I wonder if it would be possible to change the dollar amount to the actual dollar amount that has changed hands.

gaika 18y ago

Glad that they are not passing the hat :) Title is so misleading. Recommendations that are backed by something tangible is the future of the social news sites. That not only eliminates all kinds of cheating, but aligns your stated interests with with what is really valuable. The site that is making recommendations can also take a cut from the tip, so there's no need to spam everybody with irrelevant ads.

ivankirigin 18y ago
We are actually looking for funding, so even the incorrect interpretation is somewhat correct.

babul 18y ago

It's really cool to build a community around your product and even cooler that they build things for you e.g. plugins. Just goes to show if you make things people want, they will make things you want too. :)

iamelgringo 18y ago

It's really nice to see other married couples pursue the startup life together.

ivankirigin 18y ago
I know two other married founders sets, and they love it too.

demandred 18y ago

@ivankirigin: any thought of changing the mascot? as a consumer -- amazing as it sounds -- i would not trust something with that silly logo with my money, without doing some pretty extensive research. in general, I feel that the look and feel of the logo, design, and mascot are just ...wrong. I can't put my finger on it exactly, but for a micro-payments service (or any that service that deals with real, hard, cash) I would surmise that presenting a reputable foot forward would go a long way in building trust and brand equity.

ivankirigin 18y ago
The front page is consumer facing. We have plans for another page that will show more directly the other ways to use Tipjoy. I think reputation will be largely built by distribution, and the mascot will not significantly affect distribution. Also, the star on the turtle's back is our favicon and used in places like friendfeed.
- ivankirigin 18y ago
  Also, I think a MUCH bigger problem is that we have tip in the name but want to do more than tipping.
  - demandred 18y ago
    well I didn't like the name either, but I thought maybe it made sense for the tipping aspect. Seems like you're building a great product, and branding/positioning/messaging is obviously very important for what you two are doing.
brlewis 18y ago
I voted this comment up, not because I necessarily agree with it, but because feedback about the way something strikes you, even when you can't put your finger on it, is very valuable. I'd like to see more of this feedback on Hacker News, along with more stories about what people here are actually doing.

Prrometheus 18y ago

This is the most ambitious startup that I can remember seeing out of YCombinator. That may increase their chances of failure (I'm not sure if this is true), but it also raises the maximum level of success. These guys already have a revenue plan and they could get really big really fast.