startingup

9 ms·

31.
by startingup 17y ago
What this acquisition demonstrates is that there is a lot of established vendors who have cash burning a hole in their pocket, but no organic sources of growth. Years of bureaucratic culture - I would have said marketing culture but Apple d
32.
by startingup 17y ago
I agree completely. I am shocked by the amount of food they serve here in the US. I went out with a customer recently to one of those Mexican chain restaurants. Basically I was "done" at the appetizer stage. They proceeded to have the main
33.
by startingup 17y ago
I would say "overproduction", on the expectation of high valuation (i.e valuation compared to the accumulated paycheck sacrificed). I do believe there is such a thing as "too many start-ups", a problem that will self-correct.
34.
by startingup 17y ago
Hey, hey, let's go easy on the "superstition" part, OK? :) One man's religion is another man's superstition, I guess! And shaving off the hair is pretty harmless, as "superstitions" go -I mean, I got a lot of friends pretty non-superstitiou
35.
by startingup 17y ago
I will accept that Facebook did not think this way (ie. it is cheaper to hire developer than acquire). But to be fair to me, until this parent comment, nowhere had you actually mentioned that you knew exactly why Facebook passed on the acqu
36.
by startingup 17y ago
"frickin Aspergers asylum ... " - you had me in splits on that one! Upvoted.
37.
by startingup 17y ago
These are what outsiders know: a) Facebook and many acquirers looked at the company and passed b) Company ran out of money c) Facebook hired the developer, who also posts in the blog that his idea would work far better as part of Facebook o
38.
by startingup 17y ago
In my mind, brand value equates to user traction. User traction alone isn't enough for valuation (particularly in sober times), particularly when the acquirers have massive user-bases themselves. Microsoft's historical acquisitions were of
39.
by startingup 17y ago
Basically it appears like Facebook made the rational calculation that hiring the developer at retail is a lot cheaper than buying the company wholesale. That is consistent with what I have argued in HN comments: with the glut of start-ups (
40.
by startingup 17y ago
Exactly the same way I have felt about both Scribd and Justin.tv. Here is another "algorithm" to gain traction, last seen at Ning: 1) allow adult content - in their case adult oriented social networks 2) gain traction, 3) jettison the adult
41.
by startingup 17y ago
For good or ill, GPL reflects RMS' personality, in much the same way start-ups reflect their founder's personality. GPL is a polemical, political statement, not just a software license. That reflects the fact that RMS is a moral philosoph
42.
by startingup 17y ago
You may be surprised to hear this: that part about "stay in one place, do not talk to each other and look straight down" is true even in Japan and Korea, even in many high tech office settings. My vivid recollection when I worked in Japan w
43.
by startingup 17y ago
I am fluent in two languages, and I have encountered the exact problem described in the article: I am trying to recall a word, and find that I can't. At times I can recall the beginning letter, even the rough sound of the word, but not the
44.
by startingup 17y ago
Several southern Indian states have achieved even more impressive population control (below replacement level fertility in a part of India that accounts for about 30% of the population) without any coercion at all. Even in northern states
45.
by startingup 18y ago
This is a company that I am just very uncomfortable with. Just so much pirated content. If they get anywhere close to popular, they are going to get sued. I hope they have a big war-chest. I know the immediate answer - YouTube. Just becau
46.
by startingup 18y ago
In the best of times, companies like Digg with fairly massive traffic have found it difficult to actually make a profit. And Digg is a poster-child of web 2.0. Where does that leave the others dependent on similar user-generated-content-wit
47.
by startingup 18y ago
To be fair, some of us saw this coming. Did you ever read blogs like Mish, Daily Reckoning, Prudent Bear etc. I have read them for years (at least 7 years in some cases), and they have been saying these things, based on very rational consid
48.
Ask YC: YC (Dropbox) vs YC (ZumoDrive)?
29 points by startingup 18y ago|33 comments
49.
by startingup 18y ago
Exactly the response I meant by "hiding behind the DMCA". To call Scribd an ISP is a stretch. They pretty much invite anyone to upload anything, and it is not clear they take any step to take out copyrighted content ( entire books can be
50.
by startingup 18y ago
I will be charitable here (you can tell I am not a huge fan either!). I have seen a couple of people use the site, and they use it to publish short stories and such. They could always post it to a blog, but I think Scribd gives them nice se
51.
by startingup 18y ago
I have seen some Bangladeshi immigrants in Japan speaking Japanese fluently. They got to Japan well in their twenties. Necessity, mother & invention come to mind.
52.
by startingup 18y ago
I would like to believe Paul's thesis, but in the back of my mind, why do I get the feeling "He is trying to scare investors into putting money"?! Seriously, I think over-supply of start-ups will crash prices. Yes, there is no limit to weal
53.
by startingup 18y ago
SugarCRM is open source? They offer an open source version as a kind of sampler/taster, but their main offering is not open source.
54.
by startingup 18y ago
PG overstated the case IMO. Having good bosses helps many people, and being independent helps a (I believe a smaller number of) other people. One of the problem with managers today is the MBA and the management ideology that it has spread.
55.
by startingup 18y ago
Government and market are both human institutions. Market is really a convenient shorthand for "distributed, decentralized, uncoordinated economic transactions between consenting parties with an interest in the outcome", while government is
56.
by startingup 18y ago
Yahoo is a classic 1990s land-grab story: go public, use the inflated stock to grab as much territory as possible. In that game, they out-executed everyone else (Lycos, Infoseek, Excite ...) Keep in mind Viaweb was one of their minor land-g
57.
by startingup 18y ago
Sun's current cost structure doesn't begin to be supported by revenue. It has ~32,000 employees, and makes $12 billion in hardware revenue, with declining gross margins (Dell, Rackspace etc. are commoditizing servers). Their "strategy" for
58.
by startingup 18y ago
Sun's current cost structure doesn't begin to be supported by revenue. It has ~32,000 employees, and makes $12 billion in hardware revenue, with declining gross margins (Dell, Rackspace etc. are commoditizing servers). Their "strategy" for
59.
by startingup 18y ago
I was using Circuit City & Mervyns as strawmen examples. Realize that AmEx employees are some of the highest paid in America, while Mervyns' people are among the lowest paid. A government loan (by definition on more favorable terms than
60.
by startingup 18y ago
By now, we should really be concerned about the immorality of it all. AmEx is one of the richest corporations in the world, serving mostly well-to-do clientele. On what moral basis do they get this aid? What is wrong with letting them do th

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