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Ask HN: Which startups are you most envious of?
This could be a good exercise on what motivates us and how founders view other founders...
- avjinder 15y agoSquare and Dropbox.
- mindcrime 15y agoOf companies that are still in "startup mode" it's hard to say. Of recent (or semi-recent) startups that have achieved success, or some degree of success: 1. Tesla Motors - because they build sweet products and have a CEO who I admire. 2. Facebook - because they've made their founders a metric buttload of money, and have impacted millions (if not billions) of people around the world. 3. Scaled Composites - Because they're on the forefront of doing something amazing... making space-travel dramatically more practical and accessible.
- trafficlight 15y agoI'm envious of any space startup that actually has working hardware. Scaled Composites, SpaceX, Armadillo, and Blue Origin are all super exciting.
- mindcrime 15y agoI'm envious of any space startup that actually has working hardware. Scaled Composites, SpaceX, Armadillo, and Blue Origin are all super exciting. Can't argue with that! I named Scaled Composites mostly because I'm more familiar with what they've done than I am with the others. But that's not to take anything away from the other space startups, for sure.
- twidlit 15y ago1. Tesla Motors - going after the throat of (harmful) giants 2. Kiva.org - very effective and very practical
- abbasmehdi 15y agoKhan Academy and Groupon.
- ahsanhilal 15y agoI guess it depends on what stage of startup you talk about. Early-stage: Pinterest and Instagram Growth stage: Tumblr Late Stage: Zynga
- BrandonMTurner 15y agoSquare 1) They solved a really hard problem. Basically they opened channels for merchants that used to only be able to take cash to credit cards. I have already used this twice on the consumer end. Once at a concert to buy a tshirt, once a cupcake food truck downtown. 2) They did an exceptional job of design in both hardware and software. 3) They had a real vision on their own, 'Apple Style' where they saw the problem and had a vision to a real solution. They didn't have to make a MVP and keep iterating (not that doing that is a bad idea) but have a vision that turns out to be true is always very impressive to me. 4) They executed in a exceptional time period. They had everything in place from from engineer to design and operation in the amount of time other startups take to make a webapp that is much less as sensitive (read: involves larges of amounts of money in a traditionally slow industry).
- Cyph0n 15y agoSquare, before anything else. I literally had a startup-gasm after the website was fully loaded. After that, I'd say SpaceX, for making private-owned space travel a reality, and then Dropbox, for revolutionizing (in a way) the way we synchronize our files between devices. The last two will (hopefully) be a basis for my future startup(s).
- nurik 15y agoAirBnB
- teletele 15y agoI would have been envious of Groupon if they sold to Google for $6 billion. Now? Not so much.