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When they started YC they were "a video lecture platform for professors"

• onion2k 6y ago
  They pivoted. It happens. That doesn't tell you anything about what their plans are now.
  • rvz 6y ago
    Just ask AstroPad and f.lux who both have been targets of being 'sherlocked'. I can only see that these guys are at risk of being sherlocked by Calendar.app, Google Calendar and Calendar.exe. Wonder what their answer to YC was when they were asked about that risk.
    • the-dude 6y ago
      For the curious : https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sherlocked https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sherlocked
      • harperlee 6y ago
        Thanks a lot! Could you paste it here? Work firewall blocks that site.
        • cbsks 6y ago
          sherlocked to have developed a product and just started shipping it, only to have Apple come along and provide exactly the same functionality in a system update. It happened to Karelia Software twice. Once with Sherlock and again with iWeb.
        • SAI_Peregrinus 6y ago
          sherlocked To have developed a product and just started shipping it, only to have Apple come along and provide exactly the same functionality in a system update. It happened to Karelia Software twice. Once with Sherlock and again with iWeb. I'll bet the Pro HDR folks groaned and got drunk after the Apple event yesterday where they showed the HDR functionality built in to the OS. They got Sherlocked! by franketh September 02, 2010
        • no_wizard 6y ago
          sherlocked: to have developed a product and just started shipping it, only to have Apple come along and provide exactly the same functionality in a system update. It happened to Karelia Software twice. Once with Sherlock and again with iWeb.
    • onion2k 6y ago
      Wonder what their answer to YC was when they were asked about that risk. "Apple buy hundreds of companies every year. Being bought by Apple is a potentially a valid exit strategy."
      • mattnewton 6y ago
        Maybe, but Apple did not buy Sherlock.
      • FireBeyond 6y ago
        Most companies (the majority, I'd wager) who were Sherlocked were _not_ bought by Apple. Most companies basically got a "sucks to be you", that they found out along with everyone else at an Apple launch event where Apple had, sometimes shamelessly and brazenly, cloned their product. Sometimes, to add insult to injury, Apple would then remove that company's product from App Stores as "duplicating OS functionality".
        • onion2k 6y ago
          Allegedly Apple's strategy is often to make an offer to buy the company and acquihire some devs who understand the problem and have experience solving it, and if the answer is a no they implement the feature themselves. I have no idea if that's actually true, or if it happens a lot, but it could be the case that being "sherlocked" is what happens if you turn down an offer. If true, that would make being "sherlocked" irrelevant if the plan is to exit by being bought by Apple.
    • ttul 6y ago
      I commented on this risk. The founder smartly replied that they have much broader plans than just calendars. Still, anything that lives in the menu bar and serves such a core purpose as notifications is at risk of being “Sherlocked”.
    • notyourday 6y ago
      > Wonder what their answer to YC was when they were asked about that risk. if (yolo(money)) { pivot_me(money) } else { shutdown() }
      • krapp 6y ago
        more like (if (yolo money) (pivot-me money) (shutdown))