wensing

10 ms·

31.
by wensing 13y ago
The founder is surely already rich. The real losers in these cases are the employees with options. The outcome for them is very binary.
32.
by wensing 13y ago
Is there any way to know with any degree of confidence whether something is a flash in the pan or a viable company? It isn't just about growth is it?
33.
by wensing 13y ago
You aren't taking into account the value of money to people that are already rich. Also, they have the scale to start testing monetization, but they are not, because they'd rather increase the value of their exit to an acquirer by
34.
by wensing 13y ago
Or 4) I'm already so wealthy as a founder that's sold stock through multiple rounds of funding that I might as well wait for the $5B offer.
35.
by wensing 13y ago
Revenue (or lack thereof) doesn't determine "startup" status and I never said it did. A startup according to Blank is a group if people in search of a business model. I am making the claim that SnapChat is not searching for
36.
by wensing 13y ago
Snapchat isn't being valued on revenues or potential monetization, but rather as a piece of someone else's (eg Facebook's) business model. In the Steve Blank sense I don't think it's even right to call Snapchat or a
37.
by wensing 13y ago
Most web apps are not that difficult to program. What needs the most innovation in a startup is the business model. Communicating that locally is hard enough. Remote? No thank you.
38.
by wensing 13y ago
If you can't convince an investor like Evan Williams could, then you need to either be extremely frugal and keep your day job for a while, or quit your job and bet your life savings, or don't bother. There isn't a "boot
39.
by wensing 13y ago
I'm guessing the effort to switch to a different cloud wasn't something they wanted to invest in?
40.
by wensing 13y ago
I've never used it. Is there not a network effect, like Facebook, where leaving is costly "because all my friends use Snapchat"? This switching cost is what ultimately allows social networks to place ads without people jum
41.
by wensing 13y ago
So what's the link between charging money and growth? P/M-fit is easier to achieve when price is $0.00, but that isn't a sustainable business model. Perhaps the ideal is achieving P/M-fit in a large market at price that
42.
Everpix, Snapchat, and the Startup Lie(subimage.com)
195 points by wensing 13y ago|89 comments
43.
by wensing 13y ago
When it has discovered a business model that works at scale.
44.
by wensing 13y ago
If your app uses maps, it's time to get on board the MapBox rocket. Resistance is futile.
45.
by wensing 13y ago
Cloud services have gotten cheaper but talented hires have gotten more expensive, and the latter is always the largest expense in scaling. And no, you can't scale a company and keep head count ultra tiny, there's just too much to
46.
by wensing 13y ago
Based on our experience, this all rings true. And may I suggest zero touch until you get to $XXX/mo or you are very, very confident that Mr $50/mo will almost never ever cancel.
47.
by wensing 13y ago
That's an exciting model when it works. But it's worth warning founders that choosing where to draw the line between free and paid is the life-or-death tricky part, and it's not always obvious. I wrote a fairly popular articl
48.
Segmenting Investors for Love and Profit(wensing.tumblr.com)
5 points by wensing 13y ago|0 comments
49.
Escape Velocity at Stormpulse(wensing.tumblr.com)
10 points by wensing 13y ago|0 comments
50.
by wensing 13y ago
Also fine.
51.
by wensing 13y ago
Thanks. Now that we are in a subthread I guess it's no longer off-topic to say that I'd be happy to answer any questions about it. :) (Or email me -- email in HN bio).
52.
by wensing 13y ago
Definitely exceptions. I was a humanities major. Listing edited. :)
53.
by wensing 13y ago
Stormpulse – Austin, TX – Full-time, permanent – ( http://www.stormpulse.com ) Our mission: To interpret the Earth's most threatening data. -- Senior Python Developer -- About us: We tell our customers when bad weather is goi
54.
by wensing 13y ago
Oh my goodness -- you too?! I spent many a summer day matching blue paper against printed sheets and the occasional Mylar! I found the same zone you're talking about. Except ... did you ever get a paper cut and then reach over the amm
55.
by wensing 13y ago
No, not weird. A mission statement is a "calling" that can be fulfilled through a variety of business models.
56.
by wensing 13y ago
They did not get 'venture returns.'
57.
by wensing 13y ago
"The pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled." --Stevenson
58.
by wensing 13y ago
So we can probably all: (A) see through the sensationalism and be happy for the youngin' or (B) react to the sensationalism or (C) both. I'm cool with A or C. B seems lame.
59.
by wensing 13y ago
We had 6.5 million free uniques per year and ~200 paid customers on a freemium model and went to free trials / $279/yr. Revenue almost tripled YoY. I wrote about it here: http://wensing.tumblr.com/post/2683027
60.
by wensing 13y ago
Maybe we could just be happy for the kid and imagine what she could be making at 25?

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