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The Pinboard Investment Co-Prosperity Cloud
- danso 14y agoBefore I joined it sometime this year or last, I thought Pinboard seemed like the silliest, most likely-to-peter-out trifle of a service. But now it stands alone from all the other pinning services I used to use, including Instapaper. In other words, I trust this guy with knowing how to execute (and to the point, probably recognize) successful minimally-viable products.
- programminggeek 14y agoOk, I'm in. I have an idea that will cost precisely $37 dollars to start. This is such perfect timing.
- mrkurt 14y agoIt seems like that might be too much money. You're in danger of having people coast along with no real hunger.
- jfb 14y agoI like the name. Too, I love the service.
- rtfeldman 14y agoMy application: "I'd use the $37 to buy $20 worth of stamps and envelopes, then $17 for a disposable camera and photo development costs. I'd photograph myself putting the stamps on the envelopes and get the photos developed. Then I'd put the photos in the envelopes and mail them to you."
- wilfra 14y agoMine: "I just received an email that Buddy's Cannabis in San Jose is having a special. 27 different strains are on sale for $29.99 per 3.5 grams. I think I'll go for that, and give the remainder to the first homeless person I see."
- toomuchtodo 14y agoInstagram Clone: check
- jfb 14y ago"It's Instagram for paper."
- toomuchtodo 14y agoPretty certain I'm going to drink too much Angry Orchard tonight and try to do this with the Camera app and Picplum on Android.
- potench 14y agoIf you manage to get a photo of yourself sealing the envelope with said photo of you sealing the envelope inside of the envelope... then we might have a winner. Could call it EscherGram
- tptacek 14y agoI would like to take this moment to announce PICPC-VC, which is an automatic follow-on investment, structured as uncapped convertible notes, of $50 available to any founder accepted into the PICPC program.
- toomuchtodo 14y agoI would like to take this moment to announce PICPC-VC-2, which is an automatic follow-on investment, structured as uncapped convertible notes, of $500 available to any founder accepted into the PICPC-VC program.
- jspthrowaway2 14y agoI like where this is going. The next step is $5,000, then we've entirely lost the plot.
- toomuchtodo 14y agoVery Inception-ish. "We've got to go 3 funding rounds deep."
- benatkin 14y agoWe're only up to $87 so far in my book. Pinboard and tptacek are legit; toomuchtodo has yet to show us credentials.
- pdog 14y ago$137. pmarca seems legit too.
- toomuchtodo 14y agoI'm being vetted as an "investor" on the HN comment board. Forgive me for thinking this situation is hilarious.
- toomuchtodo 14y agoAlready replied to this comment, but what the heck, I thought about what you said and had some more to add (since my original posts were "ha ha" funny, or at least I thought so). I don't have startup credentials. My last startup was 10 years ago; I built a hosting company and sold it to a consulting firm for a couple hundred grand. I'm still in IT, so I clearly haven't made enough to cash out yet (I'm an IT operations lead; paid well, but definitely not F-you money). I'll offer something better though; come to me with an idea I believe in, something that is going to change the world for the better. I'll provide free room and board for six months while you build it (my wife and I aren't great cooks, but practice makes perfect). If you get huge, awesome. I don't want any equity, I just want you to succeed. If it doesn't work out, head on over to a code school in SF that guarantees you a high five figure salary after your time with them. I can't offer credentials; I can offer to give what I can to help someone reach their goals/dreams. The startup scene needs an airbnb.com for founders who don't need cash, just time and a place to live, and for people who are willing to host said founders at no (or very little) cost to help with their goals. startupbnb.com?
- wilfra 14y agoI applied. Anybody have tips for the interview??? Can any alumni put in a word for me??? What if I use my product to deliver a 6-pack to one of the pinboard founders, will that improve my chances??? Please help!!!
- tptacek 14y agoI recommend sending him oyster mushrooms instead of canned beer.
- aeden 14y agoWould canned oyster mushrooms work?
- lazerwalker 14y agoI've developed iMaciej, a PIC-PC interview simulator. It can help you prepare for your interview by asking you the same sort of hard-hitting questions Maciej has been known to ask in previous batch interviews such as "What?" and "I don't understand" and "Where's the tea?".
- justhw 14y agoIs there a get-together day to meet fellow applicants? Perhaps a dinner?
- jarek 14y agoA hang-out on IRC
- itslogic 14y agoThat's $37 on Internet fees.
- matthuggins 14y agoYes, but it costs $37.
- evv 14y agoI'll wait for the blog post inviting hardware startups too, followed by a post about how $37 gives founders too much runway, and half as much ought to do it.
- geargrinder 14y agoThis is $1 less than it takes to sponsor a child for one month through Compassion International (an organization that supports 1.2 million children in the most poverty-stricken areas of the world). Would the money be better spent sponsoring a child or sponsoring a startup?
- shantanubala 14y agohttp://lesswrong.com/lw/3gj/efficient_charity_do_unto_others/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/3gj/efficient_charity_do_unto_others...
- bmelton 14y agoWhat if this sponsorship enables an IT project that is then able to save the lives of two poverty-stricken children a month. Does that make it worthwhile? More abstractly, what if this sponsorship enables an IT project to build a new kind of internet, that then enables Compassion International to work much more efficiently such that they are able to sponsor 200% more children on the same donations they currently receive?
- justhw 14y agoIf you get rejected, shoot us an email pinboard@funnelpanel.com for a forever free funnel analytics platform.
- nthitz 14y ago> Is this a joke? It is not a joke. > I have no understanding of the concept of humor... So it is a joke.. Or at the very least tongue in cheek. (With some exceptions,) I doubt hosting is what most VC funding is spent on. Edit: as he said, "The biggest obstacle to creating something useful is finding the time to build it and attracting an initial pool of paying customers." If you have access to those you probably have $37. I get that he is trying to say technical costs can be negligible for startups. I fail to see how Investment Co-Prosperity Cloud helps anyone in anyway. And thus, I think it's a joke (even if the funding is real).
- jfb 14y ago"I doubt hosting is what most VC funding is spent on." You might be surprised.
- munger 14y agoConsider something like the start of instagram - no revenue and huge data transfer costs after getting tons of users. Although I realize OP is suggesting building something with revenue that is sustainable.
- skrebbel 14y ago> I doubt hosting is what most VC funding is spent on. I doubt that was the point.
- kryptiskt 14y agoThis is the value the winners get: "What else will I get? I will feature the six successful applicants on the Pinboard blog, and give them whatever additional help I can in making contacts in computerland and attracting an initial pool of customers." His point is that a lot of money isn't needed, but publicity is (and a cool service of course).
- msbarnett 14y ago>If you have access to those you probably have $37. I get that he is trying to say technical costs can be negligible for startups. I fail to see how Investment Co-Prosperity Cloud helps anyone in anyway. You've managed to recapitulate his point while simultaneously missing it. As you say, costs are negligible. Time to build something is hard to find, but nobody can help you find it. Attention is what's really valuable and really hard to get, as a startup. Maciej is highlighting this by making an offer to startups that puts what's really valuable for building a sustainable business (I'll drive attention your way) front-and-center, while mocking the valley's mentality of take-huge-wads-of-funding-cash-and-bet-it-all-on-winning-the-growth-lottery approach to business creation with his "I'll throw in $37" offer.
- zdgman 14y agoThinking of applying as a single non-technical founder. All I have is an idea but I am sure with the $37 dollars I could hire an awesome programmer to put it together for me! EDIT: Seeking technical co-founder to help build out idea. Must be prepared to sign NDA before equity can be discussed.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- zdgman 14y agoEDIT 2: Funny/telling this is my highest rated comment on HN.
- ececconi 14y agoIs $37 an ode to 37 signals?
- troymc 14y agoSee http://www.thirty-seven.org/ http://www.thirty-seven.org/
- notatoad 14y agomost important bit from that link: "37 gets used a lot because it somehow feels random"
- waterlesscloud 14y agoThere's a bit in James P Hogan's novel Code Of The Lifemaker about a charlatan mentalist, asking a crowd to pick a number under certain circumstances. Because of the way he structured it most people picked 37. See here for excerpt- http://jm.home.xs4all.nl/37/cotl.html http://jm.home.xs4all.nl/37/cotl.html I got excited when I read that book the first time since I'd decided at about age 15 or so that 37 was "the most random number" and used it everywhere I could as some sort of odd prank.
- jarek 14y agosix successful applicants at $37 each = $201
- solutionhn 14y ago
- mmelin 14y agoWatch out for the PICPC Mafia.
- bobfunk 14y agoGreat idea :) From Webpop we'll offer a free project and a startup template (http://app.webpop.com/themes/startup http://app.webpop.com/themes/startup) for anybody accepted into the program. For some people this might be enough to completely skip the Linode and buy one more beer.
- lucisferre 14y ago> How is this different from other incubators? > Participants receive almost no money, and are expected to do everything themselves. So not really all that different than many (most?) incubators.
- tibbon 14y agoSomeone should start a similar fund, but instead of just throwing large amounts of money at the companies like PICPC, they should help introduce them to their vast network of highly engaged people... perhaps on Twitter.
- danielpal 14y agoIt does seem like cost are negligible today, but on deeper analysis theres a lot of costs beyond simply hosting. Just from memory for my startup (Authy.com), initial costs were: Domain: $1000+ Design: $3000 Video: $3000 Hosting: $400 Depending on your skills this initial costs will vary. An although I agree you don't need external investment to cover them, you should at least plan to invest $10,000US to cover your initial costs.
- codewright 14y agoI was looking at Authy the other day. What does it do exactly? I couldn't figure it out from the website and I churn through a lot of landing pages.
- gaborcselle 14y agoIt's a way to add two-factor authentication to your website or app. Instead of having people log in with just username and password, they'll also have to enter a code. They get the code from the Authy app on their phone. (PS I'm not affiliated with Authy, just trying to be helpful.)
- codewright 14y agoTwo-factor auth as a service for what is likely software as a service?
- msbarnett 14y agoBasically, yeah. Goes well with platform-as-a-service for software-as-a-service, full-text-indexing-as-a-service for software-as-a-service, payment-as-a-service for software-as-a-service, etc. Easier to snap these components together than roll your own.
- notJim 14y ago"Authy is a simple API to add two-factor authentication to your website or app" Two-factor auth is a thing where when you log in to something, you also get a text message, or open an app on your smartphone, and type that into the app you're trying to log into. The purpose of this is that even if someone figures out your password, they can't get access to your account, because they don't have the 2nd form of auth (hence two-factor.)
- il 14y ago"The project aims to draw attention to the fact that if you have access to technical labor, the startup and operating costs for an online project in 2013 are negligible. The biggest obstacle to creating something useful is finding the time to build it and attracting an initial pool of paying customers." Good thing that in the brave new future world of 2013 labor and marketing are completely free of all costs, opportunity and otherwise.
- samstokes 14y ago"Dear angel investor, I need to raise $500k to cover my opportunity costs while I work on this startup."
- rdl 14y agoFortunately opportunity costs can be paid in equity. Rent, car insurance, and groceries can't.
- jarek 14y agoYou just need a more risk-seeking landlord and grocer.
- jaggederest 14y agoWhen I close on my house, I'll have to offer housing-for-equity. I wonder if that works.
- rdl 14y agoDuring the 1998-2001 bubble, landlords (and lawyers, etc.) wanted warrants on top of normal (inflated) cash costs.
- praptak 14y agoI call them Mum & Dad.
- pc 14y agoStripe will happily waive the first $37 in fees.
- akavi 14y agoPagerDuty will similarly offer a $37 credit towards an account with us.
- marcamillion 14y ago5KMVP will offer $37 off the building of your MVP.
- solutionhn 14y agoThe value in accepting $37 from pinboard or a16z is in getting a lot of exposure and not the money. Are you serious or joking when you made this offer? Either you guys missed the point or you want to put your name on the meme of the day. Can you give me a compelling reason for me to accept the $37 from you?
- marcamillion 14y agoWell....just like with pinboard, it is partly tongue-in-cheek. Although, in the spirit of low friction, I would gladly honor any such requests for a discount.
- zdgman 14y agoNow, what would be really great is if all of you guys were offering these services for $37 for the first month or so :)
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- obilgic 14y agoI just sent my idea, let's see he agrees with me to spend my entire winter break just working on this idea... Mostly, because of motivational purposes
- rdl 14y agoWill you be offering $1.12 in expense reimbursement for the interviews? Will you do checks or cash? ($1.12 won't even cover the minimum BART or Muni or VTA fares now, I think, unless you're a child or senior or disabled or something)
- andrewcross 14y agoTo take this to the next level, I vote for crowd-funding at the end of it all. I'd put $20 behind my favourite startup from the class and cheer them on. Almost like fantasy sports, but for startups.
- arsey 14y agoWould that as applicant idea be too meta?
- troymc 14y agoI would use the money to buy signals. Since they're a buck, I could buy 37 signals.
- khet 14y agoWe're in a bubble.
- dudurocha 14y agoDo you accept startups from Brazil? I would love to apply!
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- kanamekun 14y agoJust a note on word choices... the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" was the name of the colonial empire that Japan built through conquests and occupation starting in 1940. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_East_Asia_Co-Prosperity_Sphere http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_East_Asia_Co-Prosperity... Not sure if this is part of a joke or not, but Japan's history of war-time brutality during World War 2 is pretty extreme.
- jonathanyc 14y agoNoticed this as well... "Co-Prosperity _____" should sound hauntingly familiar to anyone with any amount of knowledge about WWII. It seems like the "Co-Prosperity Cloud" is a joke, but even if it is, it's a joke in poor taste considering the atrocities committed by Japan, and not even an especially clever one (annexation and abuse for profit is not really the same idea - I hope - that Pinboard is expressing).
- jessaustin 14y agoConsidering that > 90% of the people who witnessed said atrocities are no longer with us (and 100% don't read HN), the time for jokes has come at last. Actually there have been numerous humorous takes on WWII for decades now. In "jokes", people often state propositions that seem opposed to what we would hope they believe.
- kanamekun 14y agoRegarding atrocities, you clearly have no idea how deeply the wartime atrocities impacted many Asian families. Many Korean families I know refuse to buy Japanese cars or products (my mom is Japanese, so I've been told this many many times). My Korean father-in-law was an orphan because of the Japanese occupation. In any case, the above fails the first rule of jokes... they're supposed to be funny. I thought the post was funny enough. But the reference to a co-prosperity system didn't add much (any?) humor to it. Just pointing that out to the OP...
- 14y ago
- jere 14y agoHow I hacked the Pinboard Co-Prosperity Cloud
- jacques_chester 14y agoWhat I Learned From Being Upvoted on Hacker News After Hacking the Pinboard Co-Prosperity Cloud
- rmoriz 14y ago14 steps to get accepted by Pinboard Co-Prosperity Cloud
- jacques_chester 14y agoHow Redis, Node.js and Backbone.js Saved My Application to PCPC
- collypops 14y agoWhat I learned from being rejected by PICPC
- lubujackson 14y agoBravo Presents "Co-Prosperity Valley"
- krobertson 14y agoAaron Sorkin is jotting down ideas. Watch for something in theaters in 2014.
- hmexx 14y agoWhy getting rejected from PICPC was the best thing that ever happened to me...
- brackin 14y agoWhy doesn't PICPC-VC have a Dropbox or Airbnb in their alumni yet?
- harichinnan 14y agoPerhaps you could all use the money/freebies to fund this. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4924650 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4924650
- shail 14y agoI am building a bookmarking site. Can I apply?
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- jeswin 14y agoApplied! :) Wrote a poem about it on the Collaborative Poetry app that I just launched. http://poe3.com/38 http://poe3.com/38
- aiurtourist 14y agoThis is wrong for a variety of reasons. First, you should never accept angel investment from non-accredited investors (i.e., individuals with a net worth of at least one million cents). Second, the real value of the investors is their network. In this case, Maciej Cegłowski's network is a collection of links featured in an indexed, polished, simple-to-use product. Why accept money from him when his network is already available for free? Third, seeking outside investment prior to building a prototype has been heralded as a path to madness. You should at least have some sort of Bootstrap-based splash page on a .io domain before you accept his sizable investment.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- chmike 14y agoI don't understand people ridiculing him. This funding is for entrepreneurs and business projects with a particular profile. A project like Pinboard. When Y combinator started the amount of money was also ridicule. What you get with his funding is visibility and this is rapidly growing in value because everybody will now look with high curiosity what are the 6 selected projects. It looks like he is attempting to undercut Y combinator and might succeed. Look how he targets a niche market that is discarded by Y combinator : single founder projet. He applies all the advises given by PG himself. I'm looking forward to see how he will execute, but this is already a very good start. If I had a close to finished project and no traction because of no visibility I would apply. Because the visibility will be much bigger than with an article in techcruch.
- itslogic 14y agoI don't understand all this angel investment speak but the thing I am curios the most is simple. I apply I make it "big" Does pin board owns any of my company because they invested $37 a month and provided exposure? I really don't understand who doesn't have $37 a month to be self-funded but I'm interested on exposure.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- rm445 14y agoI believe it is a one-time $37 investment, not monthly. If I understood the discussion elsewhere in this thread, he states that the investment is a form that gets converted to $37 worth of shares at the next fundraising valuation. So if you raised venture capital at a million dollars valuation, he would own $37 worth of shares, which later if the company was sold for a billion would give the investor a cool $37,000. Basically he is trying to make a point rather than make big profits.
- rdl 14y agoI'd like to take this opportunity to offer PICPCReject membership to anyone rejected by the horrible elitists at PICPC. We don't have any funding yet, so we can't make any specific promises, but I hear the dumpsters behind Denny's have a wide variety of semi-rotten food available for "Tuesday dinners".
- rmoriz 14y agoMy company will offer $38 to every PICPC reject (1) as a bold signal to the industry to not undervalue the vibrant entrepreneurial spirit our community is made of! (1) requires additional investment criteria to be fulfilled, left to our descretion
- rdl 14y agoSomeone needs to do PICPC-T next. That was one of the oddest things of the past 18 months.
- cwiz 14y agoI'm announcing microcrowdfunding flush-investment platfrom Flushstart. We all have pockets full of change by the end of the day. To participate in Flushstart you you just flush all the change down the toilet and Flushstart employees collect your investments in the sewers. You automatically get equity in all projects listed in Flushstart. I just started the platform by flushing 10 cents.
- gregpilling 14y agoI have emailed and offered support of $20 per startup, plus use of my manufacturing facility. I think this is a great idea, and since I started my company with a credit card I can relate to the unfunded startup.
- paul 14y agoThis seems perfect for my recipe site. I hope my application gets accepted.
- davemc500hats 14y agothis could have been so much more fun at $42 instead of $37 or $50... #justsayin
- quadlock 14y agoI would like to see it at $1337
- GPBenoit 14y agoThis article is a waste of time.
- scheff 14y agoMaciej Ceglowski is the Flounder of Pinboard.in - http://idlewords.com/resume.htm http://idlewords.com/resume.htm We all flounder sometimes, but it's good to admit upfront that it's your full time (pre)occupation.
- cdcarter 14y agoThis is flawless. I have a little script that I've been working on that has helped my life immensely and I know it could help others too. I've been too lazy to make it into anything more, though. This is giving me just enough to actually write down what it is and why it's helpful, and if I get it will totally make me go further.
- toddynho 14y agoWait, I'm confused - I'd at least expect you to mention something about us getting into the PR circle jerk as part of the program? Is that not part of it?
- debacle 14y agoThe PR speak bit was golden. I'm thankful to have not read enough start-up news to write something similar.