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AI 'Friend' Company Spent $1.8M and Most of Its Funds on Domain Name

12 points by adzicg 2y ago

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
cs702 2y ago
The startup raised $2.5M and immediately spent $1.8M of it on the domain name friend.com. That neatly sums up the priorities of many recent "AI" startups.
- JohnFen 2y ago
  Wow. That's a gigantic red flag for any startup, AI or otherwise.
  - retrocryptid 2y ago
    Maybe they know someone who will pay $1.9M on the domain name?
    - latexr 2y ago
      That would be an insane strategy, risking almost 2M for a potential pay off of just over 12K (the amount they paid was $1,887,843). Either way, if that were the case they wouldn’t have announced the company with the name. Plus, from the article it’s clear there was no such strategy in mind.
latexr 2y ago
> a screenshot of the transaction (…) shows he paid $1,887,843 for the domain So it’s closer to $1.9M. > "People just don’t get consumer, I view this as saving money. Much less money needs to be spent on marketing, it’s a one time thing," Schiffmann said. What’s the logic here? It doesn’t matter if your domain is imbecile.tld or something slightly less “premium”, you still have to tell people about it. No one is typing random domains in the address bar. Does anyone think Dropbox’s adoption was hampered by their initial domain being getdropbox.com? Also, this does say a lot about the founder’s priorities: that spending on marketing is at least three times more important than spending on improving the core offer. > The device also looks like a more specialized version of other AI companion devices like the Humane Pin and the Rabbit R1, both of which have had disastrous launches. If and when this fails, I wonder if they’s still claim they “get consumer”.
latexr 2y ago
https://archive.ph/20240730224955/https://www.404media.co/ai-friend-company-spent-1-8-million-and-most-its-funds-on-domain-name/#selection-761.0-773.45 https://archive.ph/20240730224955/https://www.404media.co/ai...
rasz 2y ago
Its a startup for constantly listening bluetooth speaker and some BS dystopian SaaS.

12 points by adzicg 2y ago

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

The startup raised $2.5M and immediately spent $1.8M of it on the domain name friend.com. That neatly sums up the priorities of many recent "AI" startups.

JohnFen 2y ago
Wow. That's a gigantic red flag for any startup, AI or otherwise.
- retrocryptid 2y ago
  Maybe they know someone who will pay $1.9M on the domain name?
  - latexr 2y ago
    That would be an insane strategy, risking almost 2M for a potential pay off of just over 12K (the amount they paid was $1,887,843). Either way, if that were the case they wouldn’t have announced the company with the name. Plus, from the article it’s clear there was no such strategy in mind.

latexr 2y ago

> a screenshot of the transaction (…) shows he paid $1,887,843 for the domain So it’s closer to $1.9M. > "People just don’t get consumer, I view this as saving money. Much less money needs to be spent on marketing, it’s a one time thing," Schiffmann said. What’s the logic here? It doesn’t matter if your domain is imbecile.tld or something slightly less “premium”, you still have to tell people about it. No one is typing random domains in the address bar. Does anyone think Dropbox’s adoption was hampered by their initial domain being getdropbox.com? Also, this does say a lot about the founder’s priorities: that spending on marketing is at least three times more important than spending on improving the core offer. > The device also looks like a more specialized version of other AI companion devices like the Humane Pin and the Rabbit R1, both of which have had disastrous launches. If and when this fails, I wonder if they’s still claim they “get consumer”.

latexr 2y ago

https://archive.ph/20240730224955/https://www.404media.co/ai-friend-company-spent-1-8-million-and-most-its-funds-on-domain-name/#selection-761.0-773.45 https://archive.ph/20240730224955/https://www.404media.co/ai...

rasz 2y ago

Its a startup for constantly listening bluetooth speaker and some BS dystopian SaaS.