3 ms·

Many of these are good, but a couple are wrong. We've funded both a social network (http://dailybooth.com http://dailybooth.com) and a travel site (still only

by pg 17y ago

Many of these are good, but a couple are wrong. We've funded both a social network (http://dailybooth.com http://dailybooth.com) and a travel site (still only soft launched) and they're both doing well so far.

bhousel 17y ago
In regard to social networking, I think the author means "Don't build a generic social network (Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, Friendster, etc)" We have enough of those, and I think Social Booth doesn't really fit in to that category. All useful modern web apps have elements of "social network" in them.
- cpach 17y ago
  Good point. Facebook can't be all things to all people, so I definitively think there's room for niched community sites. Facebook hasn't crushed Flickr, for example.
tjogin 17y ago
He's not really saying it's impossible to succeed at these things. Only that there are other ideas out there with far better conditions and chances.
- teej 17y ago
  I simply don't see the reasoning behind high competition = low chances. The whole idea of web startups is to be able to move fast around big, slow competition.
  - tjogin 17y ago
    Then by all means, out-facebook Facebook. I'll be cheering for you.
alexro 17y ago
And Posterous can be counted as a counter-example too, couldn't it?
flooha 17y ago
I imagine having YC behind you makes a significant difference.
- cpach 17y ago
  Could you be more specific, please? I too think YC backing can be a great advantage, but surely it's not impossible to »make something people want« without it.
projectileboy 17y ago
I hate to be the one to defend Java, but he's so wrong about this one that it's laughable. He and I and you and all kinds of people use Java apps every single day; they just happen to be server-based.