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Samuel Colt's “YC app” for the Summer 1851 batch
- madaxe_again 12y agoAh, they have revenue and users!? This sounds like a feasible business model. Rejected.
- wehadfun 12y agoSo would they get in?
- Houshalter 12y agoWould YC fund weapons?
- angersock 12y agoOnly if the company is really killing it.
- arfliw 12y agoAccording to sama, they would fund anything that can become a $10bn company.
- igorgue 12y agoThey'd probably in 1851 like everybody else.
- chaostheory 12y agoIf I were to guess, I'd say no based on one of YC's cofounders, Trevor. To my knowledge, his company Anybots has resisted that easier to get DOD money.
- prjw 12y agoFunny idea. Are there more examples of fictional YC applications of historical or modern companies?
- steakejjs 12y agoI think it would be hilarious to see fictional "failed" historic YC apps, especially those that made it big in their time.
- tlrobinson 12y agoOr even better, real applications from ultimately successful companies that failed to get into YC.
- jmckib 12y agoBuffer's app is one example, but I'd like to see others. https://open.bufferapp.com/buffers-y-combinator-application/ https://open.bufferapp.com/buffers-y-combinator-application/
- Toast_ 12y agoI really need to see a Tesla vs. Edison (AC vs. DC) themed YC app.
- nicholasdrake 12y agosomeone should do this for apple/microsoft/general motors/general electric/xiaomi etc.
- csours 12y agoThe GM pivot in 2008 would be hilarious. Disclosure: I work for GM.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- hedgew 12y agoSounds neat, but.. - How are you going to scale production to meet demands? Does not look like you could reach the kind of growth YC wants. - Who is this guy and why should I trust his guns? How do I tell how many bullets I have left? - Seems like rearming would be a pain! Reloading just one chamber is already difficult.
- erispoe 12y agoDo things that don't scale.
- w1ntermute 12y ago"I worry, I worry."
- tdaltonc 12y agoGood on them to for resisting the urge to preempt every reasonable objection. Kill your darlings.
- tiffanyricks 12y agoHilarious!!! I did not like the application. I am glad it was a joke.
- sparkzilla 12y agoSomeone just showed us an idea like this right before you guys. We don't like it. What else do you have?
- tlb 12y agoThat's a well-written app. It clearly explains what they're doing, why it's important, and why they're the right team to execute on it.
- PhantomGremlin 12y agoSo is it the first "killer app"? I've previously heard something like: God made men Sam Colt made them equal But Colt itself says[1]: Abe Lincoln may have freed all men, but Sam Colt made them equal [1] http://www.colt.com/Company/History.aspx http://www.colt.com/Company/History.aspx
- tdaltonc 12y agoCompared this to apps friends have shown me, this is really concise.
- tdaltonc 12y agoI can't believe they didn't mention their big US navy contract! Cartridged rounds are a big plus at sea!
- Sanddancer 12y agoI'm thinking that this is an "application" from prior to that contract, hence discussing the endorsement of the Texas Rangers. So a product that is pretty much done that could use a bit of help with marketing and polish, such as moving away from the squareback trigger guard the early models had.
- mcguire 12y agoColt (and Remington, and other early revolvers) had a muzzle-loaded, cap-lock design for guns up until after the US Civil War, IIRC. (Also, IIRC, I don't think paper cartridges were ever a big thing for revolvers. Colt's early guns removed the cylinder to reload, which meant you could theoretically carry spare loaded cylinders; Remington guns had a built-in loading lever.) In fact, "In 1852 an employee of Colt's, Rollin White, came up with the idea of having the revolver cylinder bored through to accept metallic cartridges. He took this idea to Colt who flatly rejected it and ended up firing White within a few years.[18] Colt historian RL Wilson has described this as the major blunder of Sam Colt's professional life.[19] Rollin White left Colt's in December 1854 and registered a patent on April 3, 1855 in Hartford, Connecticut, as patent number 12,648: Improvement in Repeating Fire-arms.[20] On November 17, 1856 White signed an agreement with Smith & Wesson for the exclusive use of his patent. The contract stipulated that White would be paid 25 cents for every revolver, but that it was up to him to defend his patent against infringement as opposed to Smith & Wesson.[21]" ...(from Wikipedia) with the result that patent licensing meant that Colt couldn't make or convert metallic cartridge guns until well after the Civil War (IIRC).
- johngalt 12y agoSeems like the barrel is a single point of failure. How is this better than simply carrying more than one pistol? Allowing complete fail-over in case of a malfunction. Pretty design, but the proprietary projectiles breaks compatibility with existing arms.
- mcguire 12y agoHow do these guys think they're going to avoid gang-firing the whole cylinder and blowing up the pistol?
- sophacles 12y agoRejected, doesn't know the market: It's much safer and more reliable than flintlock, which is what people are using now. In the enterprise of war, we use percussion caps these days.
- philwelch 12y agoPercussion caps were only invented in the early 1800s and weren't widespread until the 1830's, so this is not as wrong as it sounds. Flintlocks were still widespread when the Colt revolver was invented.
- sophacles 12y agoFair enough, but the military (an similar orgs, e.g. texas rangers) were using percussion mostly by then right? The big customers they list are the military.
- mirimir 12y agoPercussion cap revolvers are very prone to dangerous cross firing in the cylinder. Mr. Colt should have emphasized that.
- hrayr 12y agoI opened the video link in the background while I read the application. For the first two minutes I thought the drive in my macbook pro was going bad.
- bluerail 12y agoWow, really neat and well executed. I was thinking of doing an similar product but couldn't get time for it.. All the best for you guys. BTW, Are you planning for global reach or targeting only local?
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- tehchromic 12y agotough competition this batch
- tehchromic 12y agotough competition this batch
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- chug2k 12y agoPretty funny, but I've been working on this post about the same thing for the Wright Brothers: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9291316 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9291316. Great minds think alike. Maybe if we could put some guns on a plane...
- sparkzilla 12y agoGood read. BTW, the HN link says 1802 instead of 1902.
- chug2k 12y agoArgh. I wish I could fix it. Thanks for the heads up, though.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- lucozade 12y agoRejected. Won't move to SV. Takes to long. Now if someone would only hack the isthmus of Panama...Hmmm
- Devthrowaway80 12y agoI don't see this being a viable product. 1) For a machine shop owner, you can already build such a "multi-shot gun" yourself quite trivially. I have a setup in my barn where I can spot-weld seven rifles together along the length of the barrel. I then use a bunch of loops of baling wire that run from the triggers to the end of the stock so that I can fire the correct rifle without any awkwardness. I haven't tried this with pistols but the general approach should be the same. 2) My system also has the benefit of me not being tied to one company's proprietary standard of "interchangeable" parts. If you buy a Colt, you're stuck buying Colt parts forever. With my system, I can weld together any guns I want. 3) It does not seem very "viral".
- EGreg 12y agoI think they have done a great job doing things that don'f scale. Also they have a lot of paying customers and traction. But I am worried that this might be a solo founder type team. We invest in teams, not just products. You'd be surprised how many times an idea changes midway through the project, and you will need each other to keep going.