mlinsey

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391.
by mlinsey 16y ago
I was one of the people who downvoted you (though it looks like the crowd is back on your side again), so here's an explanation: First and mostly unrelated to your post: I have big issues with the Social Network's accuracy in its storytelli
392.
by mlinsey 16y ago
Those are angel investors as well as advisors.
393.
by mlinsey 16y ago
Interesting. Can I see your figures? As far as I know Amazon has never released any, only to say that it is be best selling SKU on Amazon. And they are selling it in Target stores now as well...
394.
by mlinsey 16y ago
I am reluctant to join because I'm in one group with around 40 people and it makes my whole Facebook experience a bacon+toast hell, especially with the group chat - can anyone figure out how to opt out of chat for a group without going offl
395.
by mlinsey 16y ago
OpenTable had a global chicken-and-egg problem where they needed restaurants on board to entice customers to use the site, but needed customers on the site to convince lots of restaurants that it was worthwhile. Opzi's chicken-and-egg probl
396.
by mlinsey 16y ago
Unfortunately, I don't think it's uncommon to take out a new payday loan to pay off an old one, in which case the raw dollar amounts become more significant quite quickly.
397.
by mlinsey 16y ago
Agreed with everything you say here, except I'd add one thing: It's not just for "average folks" either. From what I understand, there used to be a YC Wiki that was used actively among founders in each batch to share information with each o
398.
by mlinsey 16y ago
What constitutes a minimum viable product depends on the space. You still have a MVP even if you are in an ambitious space and building something with deep technology. Clustrix is a YC company and I assume they don't qualify as a bottom-fee
399.
by mlinsey 16y ago
An under-emphasized detail is what your college's policy is on leave-of-absences, or allowing dropouts to return. For me, dropping out to try my first startup and returning to school after it failed was literally filling out a single-sided
400.
by mlinsey 16y ago
Fascinating, informative interview, that validates most of what TC said in their first article over the weekend. Arrington is on a roll lately.
401.
Yes, there is a Superangel Conspiracy [to get attention](chrisyeh.blogspot.com)
2 points by mlinsey 16y ago|0 comments
402.
by mlinsey 16y ago
Seems strange to say that investors would be unhappy with having a clear business model, selling products people want, and having a clear path to long-term, sustainable profitability! (Some) investors dislike the above when it comes at the
403.
by mlinsey 16y ago
I think GinzaMetrics is aiming to be pretty big! YC doesn't fund companies aiming to be "Mom and Pop shops". Even the ones which seem that small when they launch* are just launching with a minimum viable product and definitely have bigger a
404.
by mlinsey 16y ago
The point is that outsourcing the manufacturing (like Apple) is extremely different from outsourcing the hardware design. That the iPhone's hardware and software is designed under one roof is a huge advantage. It's extremely unlikely that
405.
by mlinsey 16y ago
I'm still waiting for the long-rumored Facebook gmail-killer. Wasn't there a rumor of a Facebook browser at one point too? So I'm not holding my breath on this one-although a Facebook-branded version of Android might make sense.
406.
by mlinsey 16y ago
Letting any third party have the ability to put stuff on the right panel would be awesome, even if it would lead to FarmVille on Twitter pretty quickly...
407.
by mlinsey 16y ago
I don't think funding changes the situation either - if anything they could have used even more money so they could hire someone more senior that would help guide their development. Perhaps the problems also lie in the expectations of tho
408.
by mlinsey 16y ago
I agree with you up until your last paragraph "a startup was probably the worst endeavor for them". The sheer gumption to throw yourself whole-heartedly at problems you are unqualified to solve is one of the most important characteristics
409.
by mlinsey 16y ago
The closest thing to a startup that solves this problem is meetup.com. I'd recommend tech meetups, like Super Happy Dev House: http://superhappydevhouse.org/ You say you don't just want to talk tech, but in my experience random meetups on
410.
Details of Google Social Layer emerge, to be centered around Buzz(techcrunch.com)
4 points by mlinsey 16y ago|2 comments
411.
by mlinsey 16y ago
A diaspora isn't just about leaving a place and going somewhere else; it means roughly "a scattering" in Greek and means that a group of people are leaving one central homeland and going all around the world. Even if they win, the distribut
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by mlinsey 16y ago
You're unfortunately right. I say unfortunate because I really, really like the name: it sounds good and conveys their mission very well, but ease of spelling is probably paramount.
413.
by mlinsey 16y ago
I would expect the exact opposite. In 2005 many were skeptical of the whole YC model, and consequently would have had a much more difficult time attracting investors and already-successful startups. The first demo day was twelve investors,
414.
by mlinsey 16y ago
The article hints that many frequent tests might actually be that middle ground. While one or two high-stakes tests that determine your entire career lead to a ton of stress and probably aren't a good measure of overall learning, many freq
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by mlinsey 16y ago
I think that Quora's advertising model could be similar to Google in that there is potentially a high degree of purchase intent associated with asking or even browsing certain questions. It will probably never achieve the same scale, but I
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by mlinsey 16y ago
"shoots", "feeds", "Tip-Ex" (or "writes", "rewrites"), "strikes", "tickles", "pisses off" (this one's a little gross) Doing a bogus word is also great.
417.
by mlinsey 16y ago
PG was asked a question at the YC event that essentially boiled down to: "What are the best startups that will make use of Instant Personalization?" His answer was that it was impossible to predict but whatever it was, it would be something
418.
by mlinsey 16y ago
I was going to mention the Putnam as well. The median for the test is sometimes zero. (Keep in mind that only college students with serious interest in mathematics attempt the exam.) My freshman year of college, the median score was three p
419.
by mlinsey 16y ago
Well, Apple's core OS was severely lacking, and they did need to make a major switch to really start turning things around. Unfortunately, the analogous thing to what Apple did would have been to acquire Palm and use its underlying architec
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by mlinsey 16y ago
In fact, Ray was the one who wrote the blog post circulated around here a couple weeks ago about single founder startups: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1489341 Great job, Ray!

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