avichal

11 ms·

31.
by avichal 14y ago
I just realized that Google won on search the way Apple has won on smartphones. They control the full stack -- frontend, relevance, indexing, advertising -- and tightly couple these pieces. Inktomi couldn't control the user interface the wa
32.
Algae-Powered Street Lamps Suck Up C02(earthtechling.com)
8 points by avichal 14y ago|0 comments
33.
by avichal 14y ago
Really great writeup. Congrats Rand and the whole team! I'm impressed the VCs were ok with Rand publishing so much data publicly. I hope more companies are this transparent with information...it really helps level the playing field for star
34.
by avichal 14y ago
I assumed they were doing it not for the donors, but for potential recipients. For example, suppose someone you know needs a kidney. You could look and see which of your friends would be willing to donate one, or ask them to post a message
35.
by avichal 14y ago
This seems like the wrong thing to brag about...if I lived near a nuclear power plant, I would want it to have been built in a way that maximizes safety, not minimizes cost.
36.
Citibank shareholders sue CEO, directors(msnbc.msn.com)
2 points by avichal 14y ago|0 comments
37.
by avichal 15y ago
Left in 2007. Started an online education company, built a highly profitable business, scaled to 20 full time employees, sold it in 2011. Started Spool (www.getspool.com) with a friend from college. We're now at 7 people full time and on a
38.
by avichal 15y ago
Can you share any more details? Where in SoMa your office is located? Rough intersection should be ok. What time did the robberies happen? What ethnicity is he?
39.
by avichal 15y ago
That's very interesting. Nice find. Definitely a step in the right direction
40.
by avichal 15y ago
Transferring an H1B to a company that the government thinks is legitimate is very straightforward. I was just hoping to outline the steps to getting a company considered legitimate. So if you can get your company off the ground and consider
41.
by avichal 15y ago
Background: I've hired many many people on H1B and helped friends on visas start businesses. TL;DR - In practice, this is very difficult to pull off. There are some chicken and egg issues that make it very difficult and the government is a
42.
Pat Robertson thinks marijuana should be legal(nytimes.com)
11 points by avichal 15y ago|2 comments
43.
by avichal 15y ago
I've tracked them for a long time. They do a an amazing job of PR. Their product did not deliver anything for years but with the massive amount of cash they have, it was bound to get somewhere eventually. Today it's way beyond where it was
44.
by avichal 15y ago
High level advice: - If you want a place that's walking distance, stick to the lowered number streets in that area. The Mid-Market area (5th and Market to 9th and Market) is not so great at night. That's why SF has given tax breaks for comp
45.
by avichal 15y ago
Great link. Not surprising actually, considering the demographics of iOS users and that iOS includes iPod Touch and iPad. Google usually talks Android numbers vs. iPhone. Apple usually talks about total iOS devices and often emphasizes the
46.
by avichal 15y ago
It's not dumping because it's not Amazon doing predatory pricing across geographies. It's subsidization. They're subsidizing the cost of the hardware to drive sales on Amazon.com
47.
by avichal 15y ago
Amazon needs an icon on the Kindle Fire that says "store." They want to use this as a gateway to get you to go to Amazon.com and buy all sorts of other things besides apps. Google is making a push in music and video (through YouTube), which
48.
by avichal 15y ago
Thanks for taking the time to respond. Android 4.0 and beyond is designed to run on both tablets and phones. From Google’s perspective they are gateways to search so it’s completely reasonable to compare them to each other. From Amazon’s pe
49.
by avichal 15y ago
Amazon will do very well on digital goods sales. But apps are actually a small chunk of dollars in the grand scheme of things -- especially on tablets. Amazon is going to recoup their costs through additional commerce on Amazon.com. That's
50.
by avichal 15y ago
I do understand the points being made. I'm saying those points are not really the points that matter. Positioning Amazon's moves as having deep ramifications on developers misses the real implications of Amazon's moves. Everything you've ou
51.
by avichal 15y ago
Apps are easy to replace, the web is not. Google thrives in a massively fragmented world because that's where search matters. Google dies in a single platform world owned by Apple. Fragmentation makes developers' lives more difficult, makes
52.
by avichal 15y ago
Unfortunately third party developers will have to play in whichever app store ends up winning on a platform. The only real leverage we have is en masse, and that kind of growth/death in a developer ecosystem tends to take a long time to pla
53.
Amazon owning app distribution is irrelevant(avichal.com)
55 points by avichal 15y ago|32 comments
54.
by avichal 15y ago
That seems pretty inconsistent with how most companies and founders talk about their business. Amazon started with Bezos wanting to build the biggest e-commerce platform in the world. Apple wanted to put a computer on every desk. Larry Page
55.
by avichal 15y ago
Facebook, Twitter, etc. also have to build something that their users want to use and this follows the same paradigm. Google could build something to make every advertiser happy but if it pissed off all of their users it would kill their bu
56.
by avichal 15y ago
I actually had almost exactly this in the original version of the article. I changed it because there are lots of products/solutions that don't require people to pay for them but where the same framework still applies -- Google, Facebook, a
57.
by avichal 15y ago
No - I state in the post that you can't know this looking forward. You can take educated guesses based on observed patterns though. Ships don't float around the ocean randomly. They have captains and crews. If they hit an iceberg, there's u
58.
by avichal 15y ago
Spot on. I'm a big fan of the "Why me" as well
59.
by avichal 15y ago
@steventruong It's not just about building. How you build and what you build are dramatically different on the spectrum from small/lifestyle to massive/global. There's a big difference between Google or Apple and 37Signals. The way a compan
60.
by avichal 15y ago
Entrepreneurship is an art form and a means of self expression. Not everyone needs to be a paint, write, draw, sing...but painters gotta paint.

More ›