4 ms·

Just because ChaCha got funding, doesn't necessarily make it a good idea. I've never used it before, so I decided to give both it, Google, Yahoo, Live Search a

by froo 18y ago

Just because ChaCha got funding, doesn't necessarily make it a good idea. I've never used it before, so I decided to give both it, Google, Yahoo, Live Search and Ask.com the same search phrase in response to this comment and see what the results are. What is the speed of light? - I felt a simple enough question. Google took just 0.11 seconds to give me an exact answer. Yahoo took 0.28 seconds Live Search has no timer, but it was much less than 1 second, I assume around the same speed as Yahoo Ask.com no timer, but same perceived speed as both Yahoo and Live Search Finally, I tried asking the question to ChaCha, I asked it around 4:16pm, it asked me to sign up, so I did, went through the signup process, confirmed my email address - now its sending me through an SMS to confirm my mobile.. EDIT - it's now 4:25pm, still no SMS on my mobile phone from ChaCha.. I think its fair to say that comparing 10 minutes to 0.11 seconds is a pretty clear indicator why human search isn't a good idea. Even if you take out the signup stage, human reaction time can't even compete with 0.11 seconds and that doesn't begin to factor in things like time it takes to read the question. EDIT #2 - 5:06pm, still no SMS...

pclark 18y ago
it's a bad idea, it's poorly executed, TC gave it a bad review, and it still got funding. It's so weird for people to base VC investments purely on "the team" -- I've always figured (as I gradully ramp my startup to my full time job) -- its great to have a great team -- and you know what else helps? having a fucking awesome idea.
- RiderOfGiraffes 18y ago
  I respectfully disagree in the detail of what you say. It's essential to have a great team. It's good to have an awesome idea, but if you have a great team then the ideas will come, and even if this one won't work, the next one probably will. VCs need to work with the team, need to have faith in the team, and need to have a sense that the ideas will come. The current idea is a good start, and an indication, but in the grander scheme of things, it's the team that reall counts. They're the ones that will make things work. A good team with an awesome idea is not investable. An awesome team with a good idea, is.
  - gravitycop 18y ago
    It's good to have an awesome idea, but if you have a great team then the ideas will come David Hornik (August Capital; Ventureblog) basically says this also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwY0ac5XI_0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwY0ac5XI_0 And, the truth is, A teams usually don't have B or C ideas, because they recognize, "Gee. We're looking at this thing. It's an interesting market. We have an idea. A particular approach." And, maybe it's an A-minus idea. Maybe you say, "Well, I'm not sure how that's going to evolve, but it'll probably evolve in an interesting way with this team," then I'm happy to invest and see how it goes, because, historically what's happened is they've figured out that there was some other twist, or there was a better market, or there was a better way to get to a group of people. And so I would always start with the people, first.
  - pclark 18y ago
    of course, sorry - by great I meant "mind blowingly great" :) Maybe I'm biased because I have no previous ventures and VC mildly interests me :)
gravitycop 18y ago
What is the speed of light? - I felt a simple enough question. Why didn't you try a non-simple question? Google is basically an almanac. When I have an almanac question, I don't hire a professional researcher. I consult an almanac.
- froo 18y ago
  I wasn't planning to ask it too difficult a question as I really don't feel like waiting hours for a response... although given the circumstances I don't think it matters. Its now 1:30am, I'm just about to head to bed and still have been unable to sign up for chacha (even though I've attempted to do so again with a different email address/username since I last updated my comment) I feel that I can quite comfortably say that I wont use them for my searching requirements anytime soon.

by froo 18y ago

pclark 18y ago

it's a bad idea, it's poorly executed, TC gave it a bad review, and it still got funding. It's so weird for people to base VC investments purely on "the team" -- I've always figured (as I gradully ramp my startup to my full time job) -- its great to have a great team -- and you know what else helps? having a fucking awesome idea.

RiderOfGiraffes 18y ago
I respectfully disagree in the detail of what you say. It's essential to have a great team. It's good to have an awesome idea, but if you have a great team then the ideas will come, and even if this one won't work, the next one probably will. VCs need to work with the team, need to have faith in the team, and need to have a sense that the ideas will come. The current idea is a good start, and an indication, but in the grander scheme of things, it's the team that reall counts. They're the ones that will make things work. A good team with an awesome idea is not investable. An awesome team with a good idea, is.
- gravitycop 18y ago
  It's good to have an awesome idea, but if you have a great team then the ideas will come David Hornik (August Capital; Ventureblog) basically says this also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwY0ac5XI_0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwY0ac5XI_0 And, the truth is, A teams usually don't have B or C ideas, because they recognize, "Gee. We're looking at this thing. It's an interesting market. We have an idea. A particular approach." And, maybe it's an A-minus idea. Maybe you say, "Well, I'm not sure how that's going to evolve, but it'll probably evolve in an interesting way with this team," then I'm happy to invest and see how it goes, because, historically what's happened is they've figured out that there was some other twist, or there was a better market, or there was a better way to get to a group of people. And so I would always start with the people, first.
- pclark 18y ago
  of course, sorry - by great I meant "mind blowingly great" :) Maybe I'm biased because I have no previous ventures and VC mildly interests me :)

gravitycop 18y ago

What is the speed of light? - I felt a simple enough question. Why didn't you try a non-simple question? Google is basically an almanac. When I have an almanac question, I don't hire a professional researcher. I consult an almanac.

froo 18y ago
I wasn't planning to ask it too difficult a question as I really don't feel like waiting hours for a response... although given the circumstances I don't think it matters. Its now 1:30am, I'm just about to head to bed and still have been unable to sign up for chacha (even though I've attempted to do so again with a different email address/username since I last updated my comment) I feel that I can quite comfortably say that I wont use them for my searching requirements anytime soon.