3 ms·

An Interview with Mark Fletcher, founder of Bloglines and ONEList

14 points by rjurney 17y ago

bendyer 17y ago
Points well made. Great interview by RJurney.
celiadyer 17y ago
Great interview. Thanks, Mark. Always wanted to go to Buck's Woodside.
brunnock 17y ago
Neither ONEList nor Bloglines had any revenue. Why are they considered "successful" companies?
- rjurney 17y ago
  Because they were pretty big acquisitions, built at a time when building to get acquired by bigger internet companies was a completely viable business model.
  - brunnock 17y ago
    The IRS doesn't recognize that business model. If a business has no expectation of making a profit, then it's a hobby. http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=169490,00.html http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=169490,00.html
    - rjurney 17y ago
      At the time, eyeballs had a premium dollar value. Being 2 for 2, Mark is comfortably rich. Clearly in today's market one would need a more concrete revenue model than eyeballs. Do you have a point?
      - brunnock 17y ago
        Of course. The purpose of a business is to generate a profit. Anything else is a con. You might as well post an interview with the founders of Kozmo.
        rjurney 17y ago
        Both these businesses generated a large profit for their founders. Maybe if you learned from guys like Mark, as opposed to the IRS, you'd make a better Hacker News commenter and... I daresay, a better entrepreneur?
    - gojomo 17y ago
      Both services, or their descendants, are still in operation at the profitable, ad-driven acquirers, years later. We can thus assume they have been profitable or fit strategic goals which generate profits elsewhere for these companies.
      - brunnock 17y ago
        Like GeoCities?
gojomo 17y ago
Fletcher also had a entrepreneurs' community site called Startupping that came on the scene about the same time as News.YC (back when HN was called 'Startup News'). Compare the sites in February 2007: http://web.archive.org/web/20070224011950/http://www.startupping.com/ http://web.archive.org/web/20070224011950/http://www.startup... http://web.archive.org/web/20070221033032/http://news.ycombinator.com/ http://web.archive.org/web/20070221033032/http://news.ycombi...
- rjurney 17y ago
  Startupping got off to a great start. Unfortunately spam took it over. :(

14 points by rjurney 17y ago

bendyer 17y ago

Points well made. Great interview by RJurney.

celiadyer 17y ago

Great interview. Thanks, Mark. Always wanted to go to Buck's Woodside.

brunnock 17y ago

Neither ONEList nor Bloglines had any revenue. Why are they considered "successful" companies?

rjurney 17y ago
Because they were pretty big acquisitions, built at a time when building to get acquired by bigger internet companies was a completely viable business model.
- brunnock 17y ago
  The IRS doesn't recognize that business model. If a business has no expectation of making a profit, then it's a hobby. http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=169490,00.html http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=169490,00.html
  - rjurney 17y ago
    At the time, eyeballs had a premium dollar value. Being 2 for 2, Mark is comfortably rich. Clearly in today's market one would need a more concrete revenue model than eyeballs. Do you have a point?
    - brunnock 17y ago
      Of course. The purpose of a business is to generate a profit. Anything else is a con. You might as well post an interview with the founders of Kozmo.
      - rjurney 17y ago
        Both these businesses generated a large profit for their founders. Maybe if you learned from guys like Mark, as opposed to the IRS, you'd make a better Hacker News commenter and... I daresay, a better entrepreneur?
  - gojomo 17y ago
    Both services, or their descendants, are still in operation at the profitable, ad-driven acquirers, years later. We can thus assume they have been profitable or fit strategic goals which generate profits elsewhere for these companies.
    - brunnock 17y ago
      Like GeoCities?

gojomo 17y ago

Fletcher also had a entrepreneurs' community site called Startupping that came on the scene about the same time as News.YC (back when HN was called 'Startup News'). Compare the sites in February 2007: http://web.archive.org/web/20070224011950/http://www.startupping.com/ http://web.archive.org/web/20070224011950/http://www.startup... http://web.archive.org/web/20070221033032/http://news.ycombinator.com/ http://web.archive.org/web/20070221033032/http://news.ycombi...

rjurney 17y ago
Startupping got off to a great start. Unfortunately spam took it over. :(