4 ms·
7 Months Into My 2nd Stint as a Startup CEO
- augustus 18y agoI love his execution advice and I have bookmarked it. The only problem is the site is no different than digg.
- lacker 18y agoThere certainly are a lot of digg clones nowadays. I wonder if it will be like search where everyone thinks it's a crowded market for a solved problem and then someone with an actually intelligent algorithm comes along and mops up.
- davidw 18y agoI think it's more than an algorithm problem: initially with a site like that, it's all about getting more people, because without them, the site is worth nothing. Then, all of a sudden, poof, you succeed, but you get a bunch of flaming morons, and the quality goes down the tubes. Maybe you're in a position to make some money, but I wouldn't consider something like reddit or digg an unqualified 'success' in terms of making the world a better place.
- michael_dorfman 18y agoI was thinking the same thing-- the article made me feel a bit guilty for not liking SocialMedian when I alpha-tested it.
- socialmedian 18y ago@Michael -- give it another whirl. We've gone a lot past the initial alpha features. Our repeat usage is very high right now -- about 30% of users returning daily.
- michael_dorfman 18y agoI'll do that.
- socialmedian 18y ago@augustus -- I encourage you to "dig" a little deeper. socialmedian = social news meets the social graph. Very different from Digg, although our roots are from their foundation. What we're trying to do here is personalized news at the topical level -- more about "me" informed by "we" vs. just a popularity contest. Poke around and would love your feedback.
- lacker 18y agoYou are currently forcing people to create an account to see anything besides the Digg-like front page. I recommend you let people explore around before forcing them to sign in. If you really do have something that's different than Digg, you have to let potential users see it.
- socialmedian 18y agoYes, we agree. We are working to get rid of all the registration requirements. It was just a holdover from our alpha.
- dmix 18y agoIf anyone outside of the tech world came to your site they would have no idea what it is. Social news network is meaningless to a surprising amount of people, which will probably make it very hard to market. Also, the constant user registration pop-ups kills your sites usability, and I consider myself an early adopter.
- socialmedian 18y agoAgree on all fronts. Right now it is an early adopter product with crappy registration requirements. And that's the founder writing this.
- briancooley 18y agoWow. $40K/month burn? 11 developers? That's a tight budget?
- socialmedian 18y agowith 12 people $40k/month total burn is like paying each person around $30k/year annual salary when you factor in other expenses like equipment, telecom, travel, etc. So yeah, that's pretty tight.
- briancooley 18y agoIt's not the $40K that's surprising, it's the 11 developers. I'd have guessed 3-4 (and consequently a lot lower burn). Burning over a quarter of a million in 7 months on a web app sounds like a lot these days, but I'm not out there doing it, so what do I know.
- dmix 18y agoI think that because part of his team being in India, he can keep expenses low.