asanwal

61 ms·

571.
by asanwal 16y ago
In theory, this is an interesting idea. I'm not sure an entrepreneur who has (or believes they have) a truly big, scalable idea would want to give up 50% of his/her company for a first round of funding, no matter how large.
572.
by asanwal 16y ago
With respect to recent grads (bachelors, master, PhD), if you have loans to pay off, the allure of Wall Street is significant and understandable as it puts more money in your pocket tmw vs. 99% of startups. In the case of these grads, it's
573.
by asanwal 16y ago
Bloggers is a highly heterogeneous group so it's important to understand the true addressable market (how many on wordpress, how many write content that is review-worthy, how frequently do they write, do they have their own domain, are they
574.
by asanwal 16y ago
Have you validated there is a market for this and which segment of bloggers that is? And that people would be willing to pay for reviews of drafts? I'd imagine people like blogging for many reasons including: * it's free-form and easy * it
575.
by asanwal 16y ago
Don't see social proof or trust factors to be honest. The reddest flag - "We expect 95% of college students will be active users within 4-8 months." And no insight into how they feel they can do this. Claiming market share of any kind is a
576.
Taliban tourism - entrepreneur takes tourists to Afghanistan(outsideonline.com)
1 points by asanwal 16y ago|0 comments
577.
by asanwal 16y ago
The fact that BuyWithMe wasn't able to raise a large substantial round in the wake of Groupon/LivingSocial's funding success was a signal of stress or things not being what they should be at BWM. And the CEO ultimately was held accountable
578.
When a competitor raises big money ($175M) and you don't, this is coming(businessinsider.com)
2 points by asanwal 16y ago|2 comments
579.
by asanwal 16y ago
At the most basic level, the cardinal rule if you want to work and succeed at a company is to make your boss' job easier. When asked, "what can you help with?", you said "you'll do anything they need" and thus transferred the work to them
580.
by asanwal 16y ago
Fair enough. The use of Re: is def a bit manipulative/not truly representative.
581.
by asanwal 16y ago
Personalization of this type is pretty common in marketing communications of all types (direct mail, emails, etc). Calling it a lie seems a stretch.
582.
by asanwal 16y ago
So is the alternative/your expectation that they send each developer a custom email? If Twilio was to do that, that doesn't sound practical, scalable or smart.
583.
A list of data markets(blog.datamarket.net)
1 points by asanwal 16y ago|0 comments
584.
by asanwal 16y ago
My lord - this is why I love HN and why it's unlike any other place on the web. Just emailed you. Given the outpouring of offers, you may have found something (congrats if you have). If not, look forward to hearing from you.
585.
by asanwal 16y ago
For folks thinking of working at a startup where stock options (and their potential) are part of the decision criteria, it is important to ensure that there is at least high-level alignment of goals and incentives between employees and foun
586.
What's a lifestyle business? A condescending term used by VCs(chubbybrain.com)
3 points by asanwal 16y ago|0 comments
587.
7% of Startup Names End in .ly, -ify or .sy(chubbybrain.com)
4 points by asanwal 16y ago|0 comments
588.
by asanwal 16y ago
The best examples I've seen are Tom's Shoes and Better World Books where the 'do good' element is part of their business. Tom's Shoes gives a free pair of shoes and Better World Books does similar things with books. In these cases, their
589.
by asanwal 16y ago
Paulus Hook, Exchange Place-area, Journal Square and Newport (all Jersey City) are all quite safe. As you go further from the River, it can get dodgier.
590.
by asanwal 16y ago
Interesting idea - Any sense for how many startups on TC get more than 1 article?
591.
by asanwal 16y ago
We always leave some payment upon completion. If they are expecting payment, bug fixes and other issues won't fall totally off the radar for them. It helps ensure incentive alignment. And if the provider is adamant about not taking some po
592.
by asanwal 16y ago
Mailchimp? Their API allows for a great deal of flexibility...Not sure on phone # verification, however.
593.
by asanwal 16y ago
Be extremely clear about requirements - to the point of overdoing it. We've had some success with outsourcing but when it's failed, it's been due to us not giving specific enough requirements and "assuming" certain things are obvious. Noth
594.
Do we need a social browser? RockMelt debuts(gigaom.com)
4 points by asanwal 16y ago|0 comments
595.
by asanwal 16y ago
Two things (from perspective of a data startup founder) - Datasets needn't be huge to be high value. In these instances, scale is not and should not be your primary worry (esp day one). - Figure out if people want your data before worrying
596.
Analysis of 1173 startups seeking funding - demographic data(chubbybrain.com)
3 points by asanwal 16y ago|0 comments
597.
by asanwal 16y ago
This would be tremendous, BUT, many companies have struggled and do struggle to do one of these things right, i.e., determine most important emails, most interesting news headlines, etc Trying to do all of these is much easier said than don
598.
Jay Adelson (of Digg) to fix Silicon Valley. It needs fixing?(wired.com)
2 points by asanwal 16y ago|0 comments
599.
by asanwal 16y ago
Thanks for catching that.
600.
by asanwal 16y ago
Beyond attention spans and the like, the underlying premise of AngelGate was flawed. There are not 10 angel investors in the Valley that make 100% of deals which is what was asserted in the original post. The supply of capital is incredibl

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