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Reminds me of http://www.foundersfund.com/the-future http://www.foundersfund.com/the-future

by jayunit 14y ago

zio99 14y ago
Exactly! This article just belittles the work of startups and is demeaning to all the work that founders are putting in. Groupon didn’t think that selling 2-for-1 pizza coupons were beneath them - that’s how they started out. And that’s how a lot of companies got to where they are now - through a series of incremental and attainable steps, often riddled with failures and in industries they are no longer in now. But each lesson helps them gain traction and find product/market fit along the way. It's not that 140 characters is of less value than a spaceship. The important thing is to start, not lose hope, and keep on trucking. Or we wouldn't have any of the conglomerates we have today.
- jfb 14y ago
  OK, this is tangential to your post and the OP but … using Groupon as an example of anything other than shell games and Ponzi schemes strikes me as more than a little bit naïve.
  - zio99 14y ago
    I think you may have misunderstood. I wasn't agreeing with the OP. And I wouldn't be naïve to recognize that Groupon is in the business of selling. There are a lot of skeletons in the closet for MySpace as well (their cursor icons that you downloaded in the 90s would be labelled as spyware today since they snooped on users and sold the information). I am not discounting that, but if the OP is to say that our solution to our stagnation is to simply "make software more meaningful" and has an Amy Hoy quote to back up his claim, then I would have to respectfully disagree with some examples below: From YC's recent batch, sure, we've got Makr.io and ReelSurfer that would be classified as "startup porn" by the OP, but you cannot discount Double, Dreamforge, Coco Controller are in the business of selling, addressing customer's pain points and actually being meaningful to its users. Customers are not naïve. His gross oversimplication of the startup industry by quoting Pinterest as dumbification of society is what bothers me.
    - jfb 14y ago
      OK, thanks for the clarification. On my bad days, I crabbily agree with the OP's general contention that the software startup industry is cramped and largely idea-poor. Most of the time, though, yeah. It's a pants argument.

Reminds me of http://www.foundersfund.com/the-future http://www.foundersfund.com/the-future

by jayunit 14y ago

Reminds me of http://www.foundersfund.com/the-future http://www.foundersfund.com/the-future

zio99 14y ago

Exactly! This article just belittles the work of startups and is demeaning to all the work that founders are putting in. Groupon didn’t think that selling 2-for-1 pizza coupons were beneath them - that’s how they started out. And that’s how a lot of companies got to where they are now - through a series of incremental and attainable steps, often riddled with failures and in industries they are no longer in now. But each lesson helps them gain traction and find product/market fit along the way. It's not that 140 characters is of less value than a spaceship. The important thing is to start, not lose hope, and keep on trucking. Or we wouldn't have any of the conglomerates we have today.

jfb 14y ago
OK, this is tangential to your post and the OP but … using Groupon as an example of anything other than shell games and Ponzi schemes strikes me as more than a little bit naïve.
- zio99 14y ago
  I think you may have misunderstood. I wasn't agreeing with the OP. And I wouldn't be naïve to recognize that Groupon is in the business of selling. There are a lot of skeletons in the closet for MySpace as well (their cursor icons that you downloaded in the 90s would be labelled as spyware today since they snooped on users and sold the information). I am not discounting that, but if the OP is to say that our solution to our stagnation is to simply "make software more meaningful" and has an Amy Hoy quote to back up his claim, then I would have to respectfully disagree with some examples below: From YC's recent batch, sure, we've got Makr.io and ReelSurfer that would be classified as "startup porn" by the OP, but you cannot discount Double, Dreamforge, Coco Controller are in the business of selling, addressing customer's pain points and actually being meaningful to its users. Customers are not naïve. His gross oversimplication of the startup industry by quoting Pinterest as dumbification of society is what bothers me.
  - jfb 14y ago
    OK, thanks for the clarification. On my bad days, I crabbily agree with the OP's general contention that the software startup industry is cramped and largely idea-poor. Most of the time, though, yeah. It's a pants argument.