5 ms·

Congrats on the launch, but you are attacking a difficult market, with a strong 'political' risk/factor as we can see in this thread. If I remember correctly th

by pierre 5y ago

Congrats on the launch, but you are attacking a difficult market, with a strong 'political' risk/factor as we can see in this thread. If I remember correctly there was a similar startup in YC S15 (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9903229 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9903229) that shutdown 2 years after (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15292534 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15292534, https://techpoint.africa/2017/09/22/afrostream-shut-down/ https://techpoint.africa/2017/09/22/afrostream-shut-down/). In streaming content is king and over priced this day due to the ongoing war between Netflix / Disney / Amazon / Hulu ... and if you read through Afrostream postmortem, the main issue is that new subscribers consume all the content relevant to them in three month (so you always have to acquire more content). I read that you plan to commission indie content, but how do you plan you be able to keep up? Will you focus more on content that is fast / cheap to product : live shows / reality TV, or do you have an other idea in mind? An unsolicited advice : If I was in your shoes, I would look at how to use deepfake to transform some content to fit your platform. For example, by trying to change some old cartoons, where licensing cost can be reduce, to match your niche taste. This will put you in a good position for the future of content war, if it ever go the way of fully generated content.

Uzo0312 5y ago
Yes! We've talked with that founder, and he certainly let us know it's a hard business. I think the important thing for us to find an audience for the content we're starting with. We identified a niche within black audiences that we think is particularly underserved, and we're trying to meet their demand. If we can get them, it gets us to a pretty decent level, and with that MRR, we can move into another niche, and then another, and then another...
- PebblesRox 5y ago
  I had an idea this morning for a referral mechanism to help with building an audience- what if you gave subscribers the ability to share a specific show with a friend for free? The friend would have access to that whole show (or maybe just a season) beyond the 7 day free trial and would presumably be coming back repeatedly to the site to watch it, giving them the opportunity to see other content they're interested in and subscribe. As a subscriber it's easier and more fun to tell people about the site because you can get your friends watching the same fun show with you without the barrier of them having to subscribe up front. I guess it would be hard to stop people from using a feature like this to watch whatever they want without having to subscribe - but maybe a subscriber would only get a limited number of 'shares' that refresh when the sharee converts. That way someone who's sharing multiple shows with the same friend would have a limit but someone whose shares are bringing in new subscribers would be equipped to invite more and more people.
wolverine876 5y ago
> you are attacking a difficult market ... there was a similar startup in YC S15 ... that shutdown 2 years after ... That applies to almost every startup ever. I expect that every founder can report hearing similar feedback. I did omit one factor that differentiates this startup, but every startup has extra risks particular to it.
- dmix 5y ago
  Most content startups like Reddit or Youtube are extremely difficult because of the chicken/egg problem (content/website visitors). With user generated content it’s usually free or close to free to acquire - most producers are happy with an audience and will upload themselves. This sort of startup has three problems: a constant stream of content wrapped and delivered in a pretty multi-platform product, middlemaning the production of content by building networks of producers and talent or buying existing IP and also paying them upfront or hoping they take a gamble on your platform and get a piece visitor counts, and then also finding users for the site. Each of those require some specialization.
spywaregorilla 5y ago
Deep faking art is extremely unlikely to work. There is a world of difference between "I can make this look like an original work" and "I can make this good art"
z3ncyberpunk 5y ago
Did you really just proposed to use deep fakes to do black face?! Wtf?!

by pierre 5y ago

Uzo0312 5y ago

Yes! We've talked with that founder, and he certainly let us know it's a hard business. I think the important thing for us to find an audience for the content we're starting with. We identified a niche within black audiences that we think is particularly underserved, and we're trying to meet their demand. If we can get them, it gets us to a pretty decent level, and with that MRR, we can move into another niche, and then another, and then another...

PebblesRox 5y ago
I had an idea this morning for a referral mechanism to help with building an audience- what if you gave subscribers the ability to share a specific show with a friend for free? The friend would have access to that whole show (or maybe just a season) beyond the 7 day free trial and would presumably be coming back repeatedly to the site to watch it, giving them the opportunity to see other content they're interested in and subscribe. As a subscriber it's easier and more fun to tell people about the site because you can get your friends watching the same fun show with you without the barrier of them having to subscribe up front. I guess it would be hard to stop people from using a feature like this to watch whatever they want without having to subscribe - but maybe a subscriber would only get a limited number of 'shares' that refresh when the sharee converts. That way someone who's sharing multiple shows with the same friend would have a limit but someone whose shares are bringing in new subscribers would be equipped to invite more and more people.

wolverine876 5y ago

> you are attacking a difficult market ... there was a similar startup in YC S15 ... that shutdown 2 years after ... That applies to almost every startup ever. I expect that every founder can report hearing similar feedback. I did omit one factor that differentiates this startup, but every startup has extra risks particular to it.

dmix 5y ago
Most content startups like Reddit or Youtube are extremely difficult because of the chicken/egg problem (content/website visitors). With user generated content it’s usually free or close to free to acquire - most producers are happy with an audience and will upload themselves. This sort of startup has three problems: a constant stream of content wrapped and delivered in a pretty multi-platform product, middlemaning the production of content by building networks of producers and talent or buying existing IP and also paying them upfront or hoping they take a gamble on your platform and get a piece visitor counts, and then also finding users for the site. Each of those require some specialization.

spywaregorilla 5y ago

Deep faking art is extremely unlikely to work. There is a world of difference between "I can make this look like an original work" and "I can make this good art"

z3ncyberpunk 5y ago

Did you really just proposed to use deep fakes to do black face?! Wtf?!