6 ms·

"While everyone else was doing social media, music, video or the startup de jour, we tried to ground ourselves in what any business should be doing: solve a rea

by mixmax 17y ago

"While everyone else was doing social media, music, video or the startup de jour, we tried to ground ourselves in what any business should be doing: solve a real problem for people." This is good advice for all aspiring entrepreneurs.

zaidf 17y ago
While I can see where he is coming from(and have myself grown tired of the social media stuff), his tone is kind of condescending. Cool he sold his "real problem" startup; but to suggest YouTube, facebook aren't solving "real problems" is interesting in the least.
- modoc 17y ago
  If I woke up tomorrow and one of those sites was down for good, Mint is the one I'd miss the most.
  - axod 17y ago
    Your comment isn't really useful :/ you're obviously an outlier. Most people would go insane if they couldn't access youtube or facebook. Social media, music, video are real problems that people have, and need solutions to. The problem comes when a startup doesn't really solve anything new and just copies existing stuff.
    - modoc 17y ago
      I guess you and I have differing opinions on what "real problems" are. Personal finance, yup. Facebook feed, not so much. Out of people who use Mint and who use YouTube, I'd bet many would pick Mint over YouTube if they had to pick one. Honestly, if youtube or facebook vanished, and in this magical world, no one propped up a replacement. People would moan for a week, and then they'd go back to the same things they did before YouTube existed, with no change to anything practical in their life. People wouldn't go insane, they'd simple find other ways to waste time.
      - axod 17y ago
        Perhaps some of it is the fact that in the US you have to file your own taxes, so there's much greater emphasis on accounting. Maybe that's why it's valued more there :/ (In the UK I'm not sure most people would see the value in it). Facebook+youtube aren't just about wasting time. They're about communication and sharing information, which as social beings, is pretty important to most of us.
      - zaidf 17y ago
        Out of people who use Mint and who use YouTube What if you ask 1000 random people between YouTube and Mint?
      - krschultz 17y ago
        Exactly. Vimeo & Hulu replace all the value of YouTube. It is commodity free video hosting, there is no community at YouTube. Facebook is useful for me, but I wouldn't pay for it if I had to. I'd gladly pay for Mint. Mint has nothing to do with taxes like axod says. It is about budgeting and tracking expenditures. I used to get a statement in the mail each month from 4 different institutions related to bank accounts, credit cards, and investments. (Or check online at 4 different places). Then I would reconcile them with my checkbook / some pile of receipts to double check. Now I go to one place 1-2 times a week and check against my receipts right away. It never builds up and takes significantly less time. It also helps budget and gives you data to figure out where you are spending your money. If you are not one of those people who has money to keep track of or you don't balance your checkbook, then sure the value is hard to see. But if you actually take care of your money it is immensely helpful and saves me time and money.
        axod 17y ago
        >> "Mint has nothing to do with taxes like axod says." >> "If you are not one of those people who has money to keep track of or you don't balance your checkbook, then sure the value is hard to see." I was really trying to work out why Mint seems to be valued highly in the US. I can see some of the differences now. The idea of having a 'checkbook' is incredibly quaint to most people in the UK. No one uses checks anymore here, not for 10-20 years, we're used to free banking, online account management, direct debits/transfers, etc. The majority of people have direct debits (Automated bill payments) setup for all their bills. They have their pay paid automatically into their bank by transfer (All free of course). Banks provide all the tools we need to manage our money for free generally. Some online banking tools even allow you to access other banks that you may have accounts with (With your approval), so you can see all your accounts from one interface, and get a better picture. I still think the added burden of having to file your own taxes would make you more likely to need something like mint, but it's probably more the extreme differences in consumer banking that's the bigger reason. If I had to pay my bills by check, I'd go insane.
    - TriinT 17y ago
      "Your comment isn't really useful :/ you're obviously an outlier. Most people would go insane if they couldn't access youtube or facebook." Facebook has 200 million users or so. The world has over 6 billion people. Hence, only 3% or so of the world's population uses Facebook. Moreover, Facebook is basically a rolodex. If Facebook disappeared tomorrow, people would use email instead. They would have no other choice. Let's talk of real problems. Over 1,000 million people live in extreme poverty. That's 5x the total number of Facebook users. So you talk of people going insane if they lost Facebook, and I find that extremely distasteful when 100s of millions of parents everyday struggle to feed their children. I am not being sensationalist, I am just putting things in perspective. Americans whine when unemployment reaches record levels and they can no longer afford Starbucks coffee everyday, but guess what, some people have real problems, like lack of food, lack of potable water, drought, disease, war, etc. I suggest you take some months off and go backpack around this world to see how fortunate we spoilt Americans / Western Europeans truly are...
      - axod 17y ago
        >> "Let's talk of real problems. Over 1,000 million people live in extreme poverty." Lets not. This is hacker news.
        TriinT 17y ago
        Please! You are the one who called lack of Facebook a "real problem". I merely pointed out that there are actual real problems. Sure, I agree that this is HN and that this is NOT the place to discuss actual real problems (the truly real problems cannot be solved by software), but your reply was rather unintelligent and unimaginative. You used to do better than that...
      - teej 17y ago
        You are confusing a "real problem" from an entrepreneur's point of view, and a "real problem" from a global social perspective. I have been to Africa. I have fed the hungry, healed the sick, and vaccinated children myself with my own two hands. Interestingly enough, I wouldn't be in contact with the friends I made over there without -Facebook-. So don't tell me that Facebook "is basically a rolodex", because for me it isn't.
  - zaidf 17y ago
    Precisely my point. What is a "real problem" varies from person to person. Me, I'm not even on Mint. But I couldn't go without facebook. Note I never said facebook was the "biggest" real problem or even one of the biggest. That is the poster's gross distortion of my post to strengthen his argument.
  - wensing 17y ago
    Sean Ellis has said that a startup has achieved product/market fit when >40% of its visitors would be 'very disappointed' if the product were no longer available. http://startup-marketing.com/the-startup-pyramid/ http://startup-marketing.com/the-startup-pyramid/
- TriinT 17y ago
  When I think of solving "real problems", I think of: - curing cancer - cheap water purification - vaccines for tropical diseases (the U.S. / European pharma companies have very little incentive to work on them) - energy-efficient desalination - energy-efficient computing systems - efficient solar panels and cheap fuel cells - easy access to high-quality learning materials (MIT OCW rocks) and you think of YouTube, Facebook. Do you want to include Twitter, too? For Christ's sake, the "social media" virus has infected a lot of minds here on HN. Let's put things this way: 5,000 people die everyday all over the world of preventable water diseases, and you're talking of social media as a real problem?
  - zaidf 17y ago
    You are completely distorting my point. It's like if I said I love chocolate, you'll say "OMG the things you should really love is your family blabla." Indeed. You can love chocolate and your family. Just like you can view facebook, mint AND curing cancer as "real problems".
    - TriinT 17y ago
      So, Facebook is to chocolate what curing cancer is to one's family. That's an interesting view. I get your original point, and I still believe a more careful choice of words would have been more appropriate... An outsider who accidentally finds HN will probably think this is a community of slightly emotional retarded, detached, autistic nerds living in a complete fantasy world where the problems are server outages and the discussions circle around social media and childish Python Vs. Ruby drivel. I am a hardware guy and sometimes I think HN'ers have lost their sense of reality. Imagine what a more normal person would think...
      - biohacker42 17y ago
        I'm hoping a more normal person would simply not be interested in most of the topics that appear here. Another term for normal is that mythical average person, who by definition of average does not share your well beyond average and deep interest in subject X. Having taken a brief look at your submission, I find them great, and hope no outsiders are voting them down because they are too technical.
- thwarted 17y ago
  I like the easy access to videos that Youtube provides as much as the next guy, but to think that Youtube and facebook are on the utility scale anywhere near where Mint is is also "interesting". Youtube and facebook are much closer to entertainment and time wasting, at least from the user standpoint, than they are to "real problems". Obviously, businesses can get much more "real problem solving" out of Youtube and facebook (at least in terms of marketing), but that is not a significant subset of their users.
- adharmad 17y ago
  They are not problems as such. youtube/facebook are more on the entertainment side of things. Nothing wrong with that........most of the money is in entertainment.
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]

by mixmax 17y ago

zaidf 17y ago

While I can see where he is coming from(and have myself grown tired of the social media stuff), his tone is kind of condescending. Cool he sold his "real problem" startup; but to suggest YouTube, facebook aren't solving "real problems" is interesting in the least.

modoc 17y ago
If I woke up tomorrow and one of those sites was down for good, Mint is the one I'd miss the most.
- axod 17y ago
  Your comment isn't really useful :/ you're obviously an outlier. Most people would go insane if they couldn't access youtube or facebook. Social media, music, video are real problems that people have, and need solutions to. The problem comes when a startup doesn't really solve anything new and just copies existing stuff.
  - modoc 17y ago
    I guess you and I have differing opinions on what "real problems" are. Personal finance, yup. Facebook feed, not so much. Out of people who use Mint and who use YouTube, I'd bet many would pick Mint over YouTube if they had to pick one. Honestly, if youtube or facebook vanished, and in this magical world, no one propped up a replacement. People would moan for a week, and then they'd go back to the same things they did before YouTube existed, with no change to anything practical in their life. People wouldn't go insane, they'd simple find other ways to waste time.
    - axod 17y ago
      Perhaps some of it is the fact that in the US you have to file your own taxes, so there's much greater emphasis on accounting. Maybe that's why it's valued more there :/ (In the UK I'm not sure most people would see the value in it). Facebook+youtube aren't just about wasting time. They're about communication and sharing information, which as social beings, is pretty important to most of us.
    - zaidf 17y ago
      Out of people who use Mint and who use YouTube What if you ask 1000 random people between YouTube and Mint?
    - krschultz 17y ago
      Exactly. Vimeo & Hulu replace all the value of YouTube. It is commodity free video hosting, there is no community at YouTube. Facebook is useful for me, but I wouldn't pay for it if I had to. I'd gladly pay for Mint. Mint has nothing to do with taxes like axod says. It is about budgeting and tracking expenditures. I used to get a statement in the mail each month from 4 different institutions related to bank accounts, credit cards, and investments. (Or check online at 4 different places). Then I would reconcile them with my checkbook / some pile of receipts to double check. Now I go to one place 1-2 times a week and check against my receipts right away. It never builds up and takes significantly less time. It also helps budget and gives you data to figure out where you are spending your money. If you are not one of those people who has money to keep track of or you don't balance your checkbook, then sure the value is hard to see. But if you actually take care of your money it is immensely helpful and saves me time and money.
      - axod 17y ago
        >> "Mint has nothing to do with taxes like axod says." >> "If you are not one of those people who has money to keep track of or you don't balance your checkbook, then sure the value is hard to see." I was really trying to work out why Mint seems to be valued highly in the US. I can see some of the differences now. The idea of having a 'checkbook' is incredibly quaint to most people in the UK. No one uses checks anymore here, not for 10-20 years, we're used to free banking, online account management, direct debits/transfers, etc. The majority of people have direct debits (Automated bill payments) setup for all their bills. They have their pay paid automatically into their bank by transfer (All free of course). Banks provide all the tools we need to manage our money for free generally. Some online banking tools even allow you to access other banks that you may have accounts with (With your approval), so you can see all your accounts from one interface, and get a better picture. I still think the added burden of having to file your own taxes would make you more likely to need something like mint, but it's probably more the extreme differences in consumer banking that's the bigger reason. If I had to pay my bills by check, I'd go insane.
  - TriinT 17y ago
    "Your comment isn't really useful :/ you're obviously an outlier. Most people would go insane if they couldn't access youtube or facebook." Facebook has 200 million users or so. The world has over 6 billion people. Hence, only 3% or so of the world's population uses Facebook. Moreover, Facebook is basically a rolodex. If Facebook disappeared tomorrow, people would use email instead. They would have no other choice. Let's talk of real problems. Over 1,000 million people live in extreme poverty. That's 5x the total number of Facebook users. So you talk of people going insane if they lost Facebook, and I find that extremely distasteful when 100s of millions of parents everyday struggle to feed their children. I am not being sensationalist, I am just putting things in perspective. Americans whine when unemployment reaches record levels and they can no longer afford Starbucks coffee everyday, but guess what, some people have real problems, like lack of food, lack of potable water, drought, disease, war, etc. I suggest you take some months off and go backpack around this world to see how fortunate we spoilt Americans / Western Europeans truly are...
    - axod 17y ago
      >> "Let's talk of real problems. Over 1,000 million people live in extreme poverty." Lets not. This is hacker news.
      - TriinT 17y ago
        Please! You are the one who called lack of Facebook a "real problem". I merely pointed out that there are actual real problems. Sure, I agree that this is HN and that this is NOT the place to discuss actual real problems (the truly real problems cannot be solved by software), but your reply was rather unintelligent and unimaginative. You used to do better than that...
    - teej 17y ago
      You are confusing a "real problem" from an entrepreneur's point of view, and a "real problem" from a global social perspective. I have been to Africa. I have fed the hungry, healed the sick, and vaccinated children myself with my own two hands. Interestingly enough, I wouldn't be in contact with the friends I made over there without -Facebook-. So don't tell me that Facebook "is basically a rolodex", because for me it isn't.
- zaidf 17y ago
  Precisely my point. What is a "real problem" varies from person to person. Me, I'm not even on Mint. But I couldn't go without facebook. Note I never said facebook was the "biggest" real problem or even one of the biggest. That is the poster's gross distortion of my post to strengthen his argument.
- wensing 17y ago
  Sean Ellis has said that a startup has achieved product/market fit when >40% of its visitors would be 'very disappointed' if the product were no longer available. http://startup-marketing.com/the-startup-pyramid/ http://startup-marketing.com/the-startup-pyramid/
TriinT 17y ago
When I think of solving "real problems", I think of: - curing cancer - cheap water purification - vaccines for tropical diseases (the U.S. / European pharma companies have very little incentive to work on them) - energy-efficient desalination - energy-efficient computing systems - efficient solar panels and cheap fuel cells - easy access to high-quality learning materials (MIT OCW rocks) and you think of YouTube, Facebook. Do you want to include Twitter, too? For Christ's sake, the "social media" virus has infected a lot of minds here on HN. Let's put things this way: 5,000 people die everyday all over the world of preventable water diseases, and you're talking of social media as a real problem?
- zaidf 17y ago
  You are completely distorting my point. It's like if I said I love chocolate, you'll say "OMG the things you should really love is your family blabla." Indeed. You can love chocolate and your family. Just like you can view facebook, mint AND curing cancer as "real problems".
  - TriinT 17y ago
    So, Facebook is to chocolate what curing cancer is to one's family. That's an interesting view. I get your original point, and I still believe a more careful choice of words would have been more appropriate... An outsider who accidentally finds HN will probably think this is a community of slightly emotional retarded, detached, autistic nerds living in a complete fantasy world where the problems are server outages and the discussions circle around social media and childish Python Vs. Ruby drivel. I am a hardware guy and sometimes I think HN'ers have lost their sense of reality. Imagine what a more normal person would think...
    - biohacker42 17y ago
      I'm hoping a more normal person would simply not be interested in most of the topics that appear here. Another term for normal is that mythical average person, who by definition of average does not share your well beyond average and deep interest in subject X. Having taken a brief look at your submission, I find them great, and hope no outsiders are voting them down because they are too technical.
thwarted 17y ago
I like the easy access to videos that Youtube provides as much as the next guy, but to think that Youtube and facebook are on the utility scale anywhere near where Mint is is also "interesting". Youtube and facebook are much closer to entertainment and time wasting, at least from the user standpoint, than they are to "real problems". Obviously, businesses can get much more "real problem solving" out of Youtube and facebook (at least in terms of marketing), but that is not a significant subset of their users.
adharmad 17y ago
They are not problems as such. youtube/facebook are more on the entertainment side of things. Nothing wrong with that........most of the money is in entertainment.

deleted 17y ago

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