6 ms·

Former Facebooker Scoops Up $1.4 Million for Freshplum (YC S11)

69 points by Sam_Odio 14y ago

Sam_Odio 14y ago
I started this company with two other friends from YC companies: Nick Alexander and Michael Yuan. It was really to scratch a personal itch: online pricing. When you're selling something online (especially a virtual good) choosing a fair price is hard. Most people (including me) seem to guess. I felt like there must be a better way, where econ & math is used instead of intuition. Freshplum grew out of that. After building the company to solve that need we realized that analytics can help online businesses in several different ways - not just pricing. We now how a more holistic focus on helping companies understand their online business through analytics.
- vlad 14y ago
  Congrats Sam. Sam and Nick have generously hosted me during previous Startup Schools, including during crunch-time of their first Y Combinator startups years ago, even though we barely knew each other, so I'm forever grateful. Are you guys going to post some visual or marketing on the product? When DropBox 'launched' on Hacker News, Drew posted just a video. Even though it didn't have any actual pictures of the product, it got me excited. Unrelated, I notice we have the same top color of abcdef. I read your user profile because I'm launching a Google Chrome extension for Hacker News (later today) that shows profiles via a popup inside the story. I'm currently working on my own demo video for it before I post the link, but maybe I should just launch now, too!
- mattjaynes 14y ago
  Congrats Sam! For any newcomers, Sam is one of the earliest HN members and has been around making great contributions to the community since the very very early days. All the best in your new venture!
- louhong 14y ago
  Sam, congrats on the raise. Can you elaborate on the pricing for online sales? Would this include subscription services as well or just (one time) virtual good/digital sales?
- rokhayakebe 14y ago
  Can you please tell us if and how you are using Freshplum to price Freshplum?
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
dataisfun 14y ago
Congrats Sam. I think this is an important and super cool venture.
hassy 14y ago
So what does it do exactly? Is it something like automated A/B testing on prices/segments of customers? ("let's see if we can charge visitors on Macs a dollar more?" type of stuff?) Love the design of the site.
alrondy 14y ago
You know what's cool? The only news about your company is that someone wrote it a check. Your website has fuck-all about what you're doing. Apparently I can sign myself up for some unspecified email content at some random point in the future, because I don't get enough email. Now it's on hn with some crap about how you've "since expanded"... great. Get back to me when you're in business.
- stuff4ben 14y ago
  geez what's with the hate? Read the article, be happy for the guy, and go about your life.
  - smartwater 14y ago
    Take a look at his comment history. He's just an angry dude.
- zithtar 14y ago
  You are a very angry little man, aren't you? EDIT: Downvotes and no replies? Come on.
- fletchowns 14y ago
  Looking at your previous comments on this site, you may want to lurk for awhile to get a better sense of how people generally conduct themselves here.
- polyfractal 14y ago
  While I disagree with how the parent worded his statement (there is really no need to be uncivil), I agree with the sentiment. I don't see how an announcement of funding in any way qualifies as worthy news for Hacker News. Regardless, congrats to the owners of Freshplum. Curious to see more about your product in the future.
- bosch 14y ago
  To all the people hating on this guy - he has a point. The company in the article is going about it's business quietly and PRODUCING while many companies on here do a lot of talking... So while his manner of discussing this was definitely not diplomatic, that doesn't deter from the fact he has a point.
volkk 14y ago
"not looking for ninjas, samurais, pirates or rockstars." i like this company already.
- dredmorbius 14y ago
  So ... by extension, there might just be a spot for a philologist on a distant world.
- rhizome 14y ago
  Mooted if they follow it up with, "we're just looking for the best of the best."
ktrgardiner 14y ago
Freshplum sounds very interesting and like something I may find useful in the near future, but I fear that this may be because of how vaguely it is described. "Virtual goods" isn't specific enough (in my opinion). I think everyone would be better served with some sort of concrete example of a good that was priced or even a list of the most common goods that Freshplum works with.
ssebro 14y ago
Clickable link to actual freshplum site : http://www.freshplum.com/ http://www.freshplum.com/
- timjahn 14y ago
  Always amazes me when I read an article online that's 100% about a website and there's no link to said website found in the article.
  - rhizome 14y ago
    Somewhat ironically, "selflinks-only" seems to be a common policy with news republishers.
huhtenberg 14y ago
Not to take away from the funding news, but you have a rather eclectic mix of three different faux-3D visual styles on your web page - the logo, the form/buttons and the map at the bottom. At the very least I would consider fixing the glossy stuff on the logo, it stands out the most and not in a good way. Something like this - http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/3535/freshplum.jpg http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/3535/freshplum.jpg (edit) I would also reconsider the use of Futura as your primary branding font. It's way off the mark. You are not a romantic movie subtitles :)
- Sam_Odio 14y ago
  Noted, thanks.
omi 14y ago
I was thinking that there should be a plugin LevelII stack for each good, say used computer hardware. you can hit someone's bid or put your offer away from last traded price. http://www.yourtradingjournal.com/images/nt/NinjaTrader_clip_image002.jpg http://www.yourtradingjournal.com/images/nt/NinjaTrader_clip... I'm sure that for virtual goods, delivery is more fluid and there would be less of difference say for an identical configuration of a server, but one server with 8GB vs 16GB ram.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
eps 14y ago
Who the hell changed the submission title? It was clearly stating that it was submitted by the founder. And now it has some ex-facebooker BS in it. Who cares he was with Facebook. The fact that he's on HN is what matters. Please stop. You are not helping. Keep it human.
brianbreslin 14y ago
Congrats Sam as a fellow UVA alum, always like to see these stories. Wahoo-wa!
goodweeds 14y ago
Man this guy's writing style is incredibly unclear and annoying.
- SnowLprd 14y ago
  Glad I wasn't the only one to notice that. How many annoying euphemisms for "receive" can an author use in one article? "Scooping up," "nabs," "snagging"... And then there's the outright spelling error: "Who is wiling to pay for it?"
jc4p 14y ago
Did the title of this post really just get changed? Was what the head of the company (and much more than just a "Former Facebooker") posted to announce his company coming out of stealth not a good enough title? Until there's some public announcement about things like this or some accountability, every front page post on this site is going to have a comment chain like this. This is ridiculous.
- cobrien 14y ago
  It was changed, yes -- and there was already a previous comment to this submission discussing it (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4163318 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4163318) ... and it was killed. I'm disappointed in the continued editing of submission titles as well. [Edit] And now the referenced comment has been un-killed. :-)
  - jc4p 14y ago
    If comments like mine are being killed just for pointing out flaws, I guess I should turn on showdead before I start blabbing!
aditiyaa1 14y ago
Just being curious. What type of companies use your service. The example the article gives "a pair of jeans" is still a physical good and is priced taking labor cost into account.

69 points by Sam_Odio 14y ago

I started this company with two other friends from YC companies: Nick Alexander and Michael Yuan. It was really to scratch a personal itch: online pricing. When you're selling something online (especially a virtual good) choosing a fair price is hard. Most people (including me) seem to guess. I felt like there must be a better way, where econ & math is used instead of intuition. Freshplum grew out of that. After building the company to solve that need we realized that analytics can help online businesses in several different ways - not just pricing. We now how a more holistic focus on helping companies understand their online business through analytics.

vlad 14y ago
Congrats Sam. Sam and Nick have generously hosted me during previous Startup Schools, including during crunch-time of their first Y Combinator startups years ago, even though we barely knew each other, so I'm forever grateful. Are you guys going to post some visual or marketing on the product? When DropBox 'launched' on Hacker News, Drew posted just a video. Even though it didn't have any actual pictures of the product, it got me excited. Unrelated, I notice we have the same top color of abcdef. I read your user profile because I'm launching a Google Chrome extension for Hacker News (later today) that shows profiles via a popup inside the story. I'm currently working on my own demo video for it before I post the link, but maybe I should just launch now, too!
mattjaynes 14y ago
Congrats Sam! For any newcomers, Sam is one of the earliest HN members and has been around making great contributions to the community since the very very early days. All the best in your new venture!
louhong 14y ago
Sam, congrats on the raise. Can you elaborate on the pricing for online sales? Would this include subscription services as well or just (one time) virtual good/digital sales?
rokhayakebe 14y ago
Can you please tell us if and how you are using Freshplum to price Freshplum?

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

dataisfun 14y ago

Congrats Sam. I think this is an important and super cool venture.

hassy 14y ago

So what does it do exactly? Is it something like automated A/B testing on prices/segments of customers? ("let's see if we can charge visitors on Macs a dollar more?" type of stuff?) Love the design of the site.

alrondy 14y ago

You know what's cool? The only news about your company is that someone wrote it a check. Your website has fuck-all about what you're doing. Apparently I can sign myself up for some unspecified email content at some random point in the future, because I don't get enough email. Now it's on hn with some crap about how you've "since expanded"... great. Get back to me when you're in business.

stuff4ben 14y ago
geez what's with the hate? Read the article, be happy for the guy, and go about your life.
- smartwater 14y ago
  Take a look at his comment history. He's just an angry dude.
zithtar 14y ago
You are a very angry little man, aren't you? EDIT: Downvotes and no replies? Come on.
fletchowns 14y ago
Looking at your previous comments on this site, you may want to lurk for awhile to get a better sense of how people generally conduct themselves here.
polyfractal 14y ago
While I disagree with how the parent worded his statement (there is really no need to be uncivil), I agree with the sentiment. I don't see how an announcement of funding in any way qualifies as worthy news for Hacker News. Regardless, congrats to the owners of Freshplum. Curious to see more about your product in the future.
bosch 14y ago
To all the people hating on this guy - he has a point. The company in the article is going about it's business quietly and PRODUCING while many companies on here do a lot of talking... So while his manner of discussing this was definitely not diplomatic, that doesn't deter from the fact he has a point.

volkk 14y ago

"not looking for ninjas, samurais, pirates or rockstars." i like this company already.

dredmorbius 14y ago
So ... by extension, there might just be a spot for a philologist on a distant world.
rhizome 14y ago
Mooted if they follow it up with, "we're just looking for the best of the best."

ktrgardiner 14y ago

Freshplum sounds very interesting and like something I may find useful in the near future, but I fear that this may be because of how vaguely it is described. "Virtual goods" isn't specific enough (in my opinion). I think everyone would be better served with some sort of concrete example of a good that was priced or even a list of the most common goods that Freshplum works with.

ssebro 14y ago

Clickable link to actual freshplum site : http://www.freshplum.com/ http://www.freshplum.com/

timjahn 14y ago
Always amazes me when I read an article online that's 100% about a website and there's no link to said website found in the article.
- rhizome 14y ago
  Somewhat ironically, "selflinks-only" seems to be a common policy with news republishers.

huhtenberg 14y ago

Not to take away from the funding news, but you have a rather eclectic mix of three different faux-3D visual styles on your web page - the logo, the form/buttons and the map at the bottom. At the very least I would consider fixing the glossy stuff on the logo, it stands out the most and not in a good way. Something like this - http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/3535/freshplum.jpg http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/3535/freshplum.jpg (edit) I would also reconsider the use of Futura as your primary branding font. It's way off the mark. You are not a romantic movie subtitles :)

Sam_Odio 14y ago
Noted, thanks.

omi 14y ago

I was thinking that there should be a plugin LevelII stack for each good, say used computer hardware. you can hit someone's bid or put your offer away from last traded price. http://www.yourtradingjournal.com/images/nt/NinjaTrader_clip_image002.jpg http://www.yourtradingjournal.com/images/nt/NinjaTrader_clip... I'm sure that for virtual goods, delivery is more fluid and there would be less of difference say for an identical configuration of a server, but one server with 8GB vs 16GB ram.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

eps 14y ago

Who the hell changed the submission title? It was clearly stating that it was submitted by the founder. And now it has some ex-facebooker BS in it. Who cares he was with Facebook. The fact that he's on HN is what matters. Please stop. You are not helping. Keep it human.

brianbreslin 14y ago

Congrats Sam as a fellow UVA alum, always like to see these stories. Wahoo-wa!

goodweeds 14y ago

Man this guy's writing style is incredibly unclear and annoying.

SnowLprd 14y ago
Glad I wasn't the only one to notice that. How many annoying euphemisms for "receive" can an author use in one article? "Scooping up," "nabs," "snagging"... And then there's the outright spelling error: "Who is wiling to pay for it?"

jc4p 14y ago

Did the title of this post really just get changed? Was what the head of the company (and much more than just a "Former Facebooker") posted to announce his company coming out of stealth not a good enough title? Until there's some public announcement about things like this or some accountability, every front page post on this site is going to have a comment chain like this. This is ridiculous.

cobrien 14y ago
It was changed, yes -- and there was already a previous comment to this submission discussing it (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4163318 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4163318) ... and it was killed. I'm disappointed in the continued editing of submission titles as well. [Edit] And now the referenced comment has been un-killed. :-)
- jc4p 14y ago
  If comments like mine are being killed just for pointing out flaws, I guess I should turn on showdead before I start blabbing!

aditiyaa1 14y ago

Just being curious. What type of companies use your service. The example the article gives "a pair of jeans" is still a physical good and is priced taking labor cost into account.