jon_dahl

25 ms·

211.
by jon_dahl 16y ago
OP here. I probably shouldn't have made my argument sound quite so mathematically rigorous. :) You're right that a well-designed UI can decrease the complexity of additional features. That said, I think it's usually true that additional fea
212.
Why services should offer marginal features (with apologies to 37signals)(zencoder.com)
86 points by jon_dahl 16y ago|35 comments
213.
by jon_dahl 16y ago
This is the key phrase to me: What does an aspiring entrepreneur do now knowing that his idea can still work but has no motivation to continue without short-term incentives? Startups are 1% idea, 6% brilliant founders, and 93% tenacity[1]
214.
by jon_dahl 16y ago
Sort of. X% of the market is a terrible growth strategy, but it's a decent gut-check to size a market. The previous poster was complaining that this gut-check wasn't big enough. The problem with that is thinking that a company is stuck with
215.
by jon_dahl 16y ago
I wouldn't worry about that. If they control 10% (or even 5%) of all car purchases in the US, they're going to be well positioned to do a ton of other interesting things.
216.
by jon_dahl 16y ago
Agreed on the metered components. Chargify's metered billing system is not ready for primetime. I love the idea of a subscription management services, but this is still a very young space, unfortunately.
217.
How many formats do I need for HTML5 video?(zencoder.com)
72 points by jon_dahl 16y ago|22 comments
218.
by jon_dahl 16y ago
Yes, given the right attitude and ambition.
219.
by jon_dahl 16y ago
Zencoder (YC W2010) is looking for: 1. an awesome salesperson. Tenacious, resourceful, ambitious, but also comfortable with learning, discovery, and building a model (rather than following a model). 2. a junior designer. Someone with HTML/C
220.
by jon_dahl 16y ago
We tried a while ago. My suggestion: only use it if you're specifically selling to Amazon users (e.g. a EC2 image for Solr). If you're just selling a general SaaS or server product, it's hard enough to get someone to sign up for your servic
221.
by jon_dahl 16y ago
Great link. It's specifically for HTTP Streaming, so you can get away with higher quality for videos downloaded before being watched. But even for regular old HTTP Progressive Download, these guidelines are very useful.
222.
How to encode video for mobile devices (iPhone/iPad, Android, etc.)(zencoder.com)
46 points by jon_dahl 16y ago|11 comments
223.
by jon_dahl 16y ago
I don't know how your software works, so this may or may not be appropriate, but: Open source the software. Promote it via a technical blog, Hacker News, meetups, and conferences. Become a thought leader in the GIS space. Keep running your
224.
by jon_dahl 16y ago
You'd be surprised how helpful people will be if they don't think you're trying to sell them. Make a list of 10-20 companies that might possibly be users, search for their developers (search Google, look for a blog, look for a Twitter accou
225.
by jon_dahl 16y ago
The other is to spell out clearly the policy of working on outside projects (to bring in some money) during the YC 3-month period. Leaving it ambiguous keeps out people who need a part-time gig to bring in some money but could spend the re
226.
by jon_dahl 16y ago
Most of the dinners and office hours are focused on building a great startup, not raising money. There is structure around raising money (angel day, demo day, sequoia, etc.), but it's definitely a minority of the focus. I'd also say that ev
227.
by jon_dahl 16y ago
It's rather obvious that for Sacca his relationship with Conway is more valuable than anything he does for the startups or his freaking charities. The purpose of his long, very long essay is the damage control of the relationship with Conw
228.
by jon_dahl 16y ago
At the moment, I don't hear/see ninjas sneaking up on me, hackers taking down my web app, a terrorist plot, or the shadow government spying on me. Oh crap.
229.
by jon_dahl 16y ago
Isn't that no-strings angel funding predicated on the idea that there's going to be either a round of financing or an exit? Really depends on the investor. Some angels explicitly want you to go Series A -> Series B -> $100M ->
230.
by jon_dahl 16y ago
This is mostly true, but I think it leaves one thing out: risk. You can get a programmer for $40K that will be as good as a $80K programmer if you're willing to take a risk - e.g. folks early in their career who haven't proven themselves
231.
Zencoder (YC W2010) is hiring a design intern(zencoder.com)
25 points by jon_dahl 16y ago
232.
by jon_dahl 16y ago
(Not sure if this is a joke, so I'm not going to vote up or down. I hope it's a joke.)
233.
by jon_dahl 16y ago
Good question. My guess: age helps put other accomplishments in context. "Worked at Google for 6 years" means different things if you're 35 than if you're 21.
234.
by jon_dahl 16y ago
Angel funding, on the other hand, generally comes without strings. If you take $1M of convertible debt, you don't have to give up a board seat, special rights, etc. If you do it right, you get some runway and some awesome advisors. That's i
235.
by jon_dahl 16y ago
Personally, I found his babbling rant highly coherent. That's just his style. He's a really smart guy and a good investor.
236.
by jon_dahl 16y ago
Up to you. Would you rather have full control over the video (encoding quality, size, hosting, player), or a one-stop solution? Each has a place. (Vimeo explicitly forbids commercial content, or used to, but you could s/vimeo/another_provid
237.
by jon_dahl 16y ago
Signal answered. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1714863
238.
by jon_dahl 16y ago
The real question would be their investment market share, right? There might be 500 companies building operating systems, but a Microsoft/Apple merger would probably be a monopoly concern. That said, while their market share is certainly la
239.
by jon_dahl 16y ago
Am I the only one who sometimes feels like you might as well have skipped college if you didn't go to Stanford, MIT, or some other top school? I don't think so. MIT or Stanford help a little (like 10% when raising money or looking for a j
240.
by jon_dahl 16y ago
Not really, because I haven't mastered that. But if you're trying to build a startup in the (say) server monitoring space, a great bootstrapping approach would be to do a bunch of server monitoring contracts and keep the IP (which isn't too

More ›