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I don't understand why everyone is so critical of what Guy has done and the steps he has taken to accomplish it. I am not a big fan of Truemors, but I really e

by fraXis 19y ago

I don't understand why everyone is so critical of what Guy has done and the steps he has taken to accomplish it. I am not a big fan of Truemors, but I really enjoyed reading about what he spent and the things he did to get it off of the ground.

dpapathanasiou 19y ago
I don't understand why everyone is so critical of what Guy has done He seems patronizing: his entire post reads like a satire, i.e., "Look, ma, I made a social networking site, too, just like the ones all the cool kids are visiting these days". Also, he seems to enjoy mocking the lower costs inherent in Web 2.0 by exaggerating how cheaply he built the whole thing. That may not be his intention, but that's certainly how it comes across.
- lindsayrgwatt 19y ago
  Do you think he's being insincere or just a showman? My feeling is that Guy likes to exaggerate everything to make a point: in this case, it's getting really cheap to fail, so take more risks. Thoughts?
  - dpapathanasiou 19y ago
    It smacks of insincerity, especially because he seems to enjoy the part about "no business plan". Any responsible investor, either angel or VC, will want to have some sense about that, even if revenues and profits "come later". YC gets a lot of criticism in that regard, but to their credit, they do ask applicants how they intend to make money with their project.
    - lindsayrgwatt 19y ago
      I totally agree that you need a business "model" - but do you really need a "plan" for a site that costs $12,000? If he can get 260K page views, even a 0.5% clickthru @ only $0.10 an ad is $130. Not great, but if you can do it every day you've got a site that's pulling in $50K in revenue a year. Not bad, but could be something to explore. I totally agree with you that you need to know where your business is going to go and if you want to get real funding you'd better have a business plan, but if you're running a $12K test, why not just make sure you think there's a model and then test it?
vlad 19y ago
I don't think users are being unnecessarily critical when they point out that Guy should have put the money he spent in development towards marketing (which includes advertising). Guy's own blog proves that would have been his best course of action--as the publicity he got was free and would have been so regardless of what language he used or who created his logo.
nikmacrrre 19y ago
Teenwag was launched with $1.2 million dollars http://teenwag.com http://teenwag.com

by fraXis 19y ago

dpapathanasiou 19y ago

I don't understand why everyone is so critical of what Guy has done He seems patronizing: his entire post reads like a satire, i.e., "Look, ma, I made a social networking site, too, just like the ones all the cool kids are visiting these days". Also, he seems to enjoy mocking the lower costs inherent in Web 2.0 by exaggerating how cheaply he built the whole thing. That may not be his intention, but that's certainly how it comes across.

lindsayrgwatt 19y ago
Do you think he's being insincere or just a showman? My feeling is that Guy likes to exaggerate everything to make a point: in this case, it's getting really cheap to fail, so take more risks. Thoughts?
- dpapathanasiou 19y ago
  It smacks of insincerity, especially because he seems to enjoy the part about "no business plan". Any responsible investor, either angel or VC, will want to have some sense about that, even if revenues and profits "come later". YC gets a lot of criticism in that regard, but to their credit, they do ask applicants how they intend to make money with their project.
  - lindsayrgwatt 19y ago
    I totally agree that you need a business "model" - but do you really need a "plan" for a site that costs $12,000? If he can get 260K page views, even a 0.5% clickthru @ only $0.10 an ad is $130. Not great, but if you can do it every day you've got a site that's pulling in $50K in revenue a year. Not bad, but could be something to explore. I totally agree with you that you need to know where your business is going to go and if you want to get real funding you'd better have a business plan, but if you're running a $12K test, why not just make sure you think there's a model and then test it?

vlad 19y ago

I don't think users are being unnecessarily critical when they point out that Guy should have put the money he spent in development towards marketing (which includes advertising). Guy's own blog proves that would have been his best course of action--as the publicity he got was free and would have been so regardless of what language he used or who created his logo.

nikmacrrre 19y ago

Teenwag was launched with $1.2 million dollars http://teenwag.com http://teenwag.com