4 ms·

Diaspora asking for donations? What happened to the $200k and where is this new money going? Then again...NY can be an expensive place to start a company

de90 15y ago
That's really what this post should have been about. Where the money has gone, and what more will enable them to do. In my view (an outsiders) they haven't done anything of much significance with what they already got.
alexro 15y ago
see http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2976139 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2976139 for their financials report
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
adgar 15y ago
They got 178k after fees/taxes. Then, they had to spend 28k on Kickstarter's "fulfillment" requirements. So they had 150 to actually work with. They spent $114k on salaries, taxes, workers comp, etc. 8.5k on hosting and whatnot - how on earth are they using that the resources to justify that?! 8k on LUXr training. 2.5k on "Diaspora graphics/printing." Probably a waste, but you gotta spend the budget somehow, I guess. 14k on housing and travel... curious. So the 200k turned into 114k in their pockets, 14k of hotels/flights/etc, some training and a bunch of wasted hardware. Yeah, 29k is poverty, especially in NYC, but these are NYU students. There's plenty of financial aid to go around, but in reality, it's an overwhelmingly wealthy college. I'd be extremely surprised if their parents weren't already paying their rent/living expenses. And despite pocketing 76% of the cash, they don't have anything to show for it, and nobody's really believed they had a shot since that code release a year ago that showed they had no real technical skills to back up the project. Which probably explains the huge expenses for idle servers. I don't doubt their dedication or belief in themselves or the project, but for the love of god, stop indulging this fantasy.
- commandar 15y ago
  >nobody's really believed they had a shot since that code release a year ago that showed they had no real technical skills to back up the project. I really have no idea why people thought the project had a serious shot in the first place. From the get go they were talking up hugely ambitious features like video-chat while never explaining how they intended to deal with the core architecture of the project. Simple fact of the matter is that they happened to announce when being pissed at Facebook was a common sentiment, and people expressed their anger by throwing money at these kids. It really didn't take more than a cursory look to see that the chances of something worthwhile being built, let alone taking off, were minimal.
  - adgar 15y ago
    I don't disagree. I certainly didn't throw them any money. But after that code release, even the most desperate facebook-hater knew Diaspora was nothing but well-intentioned vapor.
    - Joeboy 15y ago
      > nothing but well-intentioned vapor. Why do people keep saying this? It exists. You can use it.

de90 15y ago

That's really what this post should have been about. Where the money has gone, and what more will enable them to do. In my view (an outsiders) they haven't done anything of much significance with what they already got.

alexro 15y ago

see http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2976139 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2976139 for their financials report

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

adgar 15y ago

They got 178k after fees/taxes. Then, they had to spend 28k on Kickstarter's "fulfillment" requirements. So they had 150 to actually work with. They spent $114k on salaries, taxes, workers comp, etc. 8.5k on hosting and whatnot - how on earth are they using that the resources to justify that?! 8k on LUXr training. 2.5k on "Diaspora graphics/printing." Probably a waste, but you gotta spend the budget somehow, I guess. 14k on housing and travel... curious. So the 200k turned into 114k in their pockets, 14k of hotels/flights/etc, some training and a bunch of wasted hardware. Yeah, 29k is poverty, especially in NYC, but these are NYU students. There's plenty of financial aid to go around, but in reality, it's an overwhelmingly wealthy college. I'd be extremely surprised if their parents weren't already paying their rent/living expenses. And despite pocketing 76% of the cash, they don't have anything to show for it, and nobody's really believed they had a shot since that code release a year ago that showed they had no real technical skills to back up the project. Which probably explains the huge expenses for idle servers. I don't doubt their dedication or belief in themselves or the project, but for the love of god, stop indulging this fantasy.

commandar 15y ago
>nobody's really believed they had a shot since that code release a year ago that showed they had no real technical skills to back up the project. I really have no idea why people thought the project had a serious shot in the first place. From the get go they were talking up hugely ambitious features like video-chat while never explaining how they intended to deal with the core architecture of the project. Simple fact of the matter is that they happened to announce when being pissed at Facebook was a common sentiment, and people expressed their anger by throwing money at these kids. It really didn't take more than a cursory look to see that the chances of something worthwhile being built, let alone taking off, were minimal.
- adgar 15y ago
  I don't disagree. I certainly didn't throw them any money. But after that code release, even the most desperate facebook-hater knew Diaspora was nothing but well-intentioned vapor.
  - Joeboy 15y ago
    > nothing but well-intentioned vapor. Why do people keep saying this? It exists. You can use it.