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How to determine what's turning people off about your service? | neovintage: I think you're looking in the wrong place. Who cares about what the consumers think who've decided not to sign up? Personally, I don't think users know exactly what they want or how to convey how they feel about something. Dont get me wrong you need their input, but take it with a grain of salt.Before thin... |
What are you YC S10 applicants doing now? | atiw: Working on finding out newer ways my technology could be used.
Already know and have tested 4 applications. Thought of another silly use while replying to rtm thus sunday.
I actually have been trying to get back to coding, but things are not so good. Hoping to kick off some of the 8-10 hour streaks of coding some... |
What's actually "defendable" about web startups these days? | noodle: not much. some stuff is defensible, but generally, success seems to comes from being innovative and having a good team that executes well. |
Would you pre-order GridSpy power monitoring? | waivej: Cost for me... I really enjoy our TED (http://www.theenergydetective.com) which aims more at a residential market. ($150 US) The instant feedback has been great for learning. The web interface isn't a big draw.I imagine that commercial markets would be better for your product...especially in classrooms or co... |
Would you pre-order GridSpy power monitoring? | noodle: the only way you'll convince me is if you can convince me that by paying for this expensive product and for the monthly subscription, that i will be saving money in the long run.and of this i'm not convinced, as a residential power user. |
What's actually "defendable" about web startups these days? | patio11: This question does not exactly keep me up at night, but if it did, my answer might sound like "Our most important product isn't the one we're selling, it is the processes we use to make and market the product(s) we're selling and will sell in the future, and those processes are non-trivial and so ridiculously ... |
HN alternatives to basecamp? | RobGR: Is there something with functionality similar to basecamp that allows you to use your own domain, not a sub-domain, and to theme the interface in a custom way to completely match your company's colors and branding ? |
Would you pre-order GridSpy power monitoring? | waivej: I know a small data center (tiny) that might be interested for monitoring the air conditioners. Though that's a bit of a stretch and they probably wouldn't want to spend the $.But, it makes me wonder if that might be good for other things like monitoring commercial refrigerators... especially if it could send ... |
What are you YC S10 applicants doing now? | amazonfx: I'm giving our servers their nightly bath. It's important to keep them clean. |
What are you YC S10 applicants doing now? | benologist: In the technical sense I've done but not shipped a major API update, I'm still re-tooling some components of the interface to better suit the new API capabilities. I also scaled out to a second server to help accommodate the 50 million events being logged a day. But really I haven't worked so much on the ... |
Mario AI, Google AI like contests ? | togelius: The new Mario AI contest is at http://www.marioai.org |
What's actually "defendable" about web startups these days? | lunaru: What keeps Coke defensible from Pepsi?Sure, "execution" is a loaded word, but if you break it down, a successful startup is a magical combination of marketing, product, design, distribution, customer service, analytics, market knowledge, positioning, network effects etc. All of which, when executed well, streng... |
How do you like the new design on NXdom? | stjarnljuset: Better branding.
There's been multiple occasions when I thought of your website but couldn't remember the name. |
What IRC client do you use, with scripts ? | aditya: irssiwhat are you trying to automate? |
How to determine what's turning people off about your service? | patio11: Are you collecting email addresses? You can presumably figure out which users have not logged in in a week. Send them an email saying "Hey, this is George from Skritter. My friends and I are trying to make the best thing ever for Chinese language learners. We'd really appreciate if you could give us two mi... |
How would you promote a social network start-up? | olalonde: Build a ChatRoulette like feature. |
How do I avoid the Second System Effect? | pmiller2: Build a third system. UNIX is the result of the "third system effect." |
How would you promote a social network start-up? | revorad: The Vaynerchuks have some very good advice:http://mixergy.com/wine-library-tv-gary-vaynerchuk/http://mixergy.com/aj-vaynerchuk-vaynermedia/http://vimeo.com/4671951In one word, care. |
How would you promote a social network start-up? | rythie: Well what's the name of it? Surely everywhere you go, you should be telling people about it as a start |
Space in the market for luxury public transit? | rdl: I drive even when I live in San Francisco. A (nice) car costs about $1k/mo to keep in SF (parking, registration, insurance, payment) before the first mile driven, but it is how I would spend my marginal $1k at $5k/mo.1) I need 24x7 access to datacenters, some of which are in super sketchy parts of town (200 Paul,... |
How would you promote a social network start-up? | ankeshk: Buy all the Russian school and college name domains. Allow members to add content to those domain names (Ning style) if they have joined that particular school group - from your social network website itself.Then do the same thing with Russian city names. |
ASK HN: All the VC Blogs that I read, in one place. Thoughts? | shafqat: Is this useful? For those of you who follow these blogs, how do you do it?I just got tired of RSS readers. While a lot of news comes to me via twitter, this seems to work well for me.EDIT: I'm the cofounder of NewsCred and we're experimenting with our consumer site. So looking for feedback in general as well. |
ASK HN: All the VC Blogs that I read, in one place. Thoughts? | vijayr: http://venture-capital.alltop.com/ |
cofounders as couples ? | mseebach: What's your own take? Good/bad idea? |
How would you promote a social network start-up? | bgnm2000: Start innovating. Figure out a core offering and stick to it. Read rework by 37signals, it might help you out. |
cofounders as couples ? | nkohari: My wife and I are co-founders of our company. She handles the non-technical side, and I handle the technical side. |
cofounders as couples ? | yummyfajitas: My favorite restaurant (Rachel, in Jersey City) was just such a situation. The hostess/owner and the cook were dating. They broke up.I miss their shakshuka, french toast, the brie and avocado sandwiches. Anyone know where to get good (and spicy) Shakshuka in NYC? |
ASK HN: All the VC Blogs that I read, in one place. Thoughts? | shafqat: As a tangential question, how else can this sort of information (i.e. "blogs I read" be shared).Not talking about twitter or delicious - looking for a platform to share a curated set of feeds in a nice, presentable style. A "shareable feedly" would be cool, but I don't think it's possible is it? |
cofounders as couples ? | tptacek: Erin isn't my cofounder, but she works for us full-time (both of us in technical roles). It works. |
Is there a point to school? | bavcyc: The point of school is to learn how to think in a certain way. If you study engineering then you learn to think as an engineer. Ideally you will learn to learn, but not everyone that finishes a degree is good at teaching their own self new ideas and thoughts. Take classes outside your major to see other meth... |
cofounders as couples ? | aditya: Ivan and Abby Kirigin of the (now defunct) TipJoy seemed to do pretty well. |
cofounders as couples ? | icey: My wife helps me get perspective on lots of problems. She's not technical so it's good for me to solicit her views. |
cofounders as couples ? | kungfooey: I'm pretty sure Ravelry was founded by a couple. |
cofounders as couples ? | noonespecial: If you're in a startup and happen to be married, your spouse is a cofounder whether you like it or not. So are the spouses of all the founders.This applies both from a legal perspective and an emotional one. Plan for it. Write it in to the original agreement. Don't wait for divorce or (worst case) death t... |
What's actually "defendable" about web startups these days? | rlpb: How about their customers/users or comprehensiveness of data? The biggest thing that stops me moving from Facebook to competitor X is that all my friends are on Facebook and not competitor X. Similarly, would you prefer to use Foursquare with stuff and people already in your city, or competitor Y in which your ci... |
cofounders as couples ? | iskander: My parents started a company together. My mom had more drive and interest in managing, so as they grew she became CEO while my dad continued to tinker with IT. They've been working together for ~16 years, their company is doing OK, but my dad hasn't seemed happy about the situation in a long time. |
cofounders as couples ? | robfitz: I've run into several happy founding couples (not married, just dating). They rarely publicize it, so at first glance it seems to be less common than it actually is. |
cofounders as couples ? | goodgoblin: My wife and I cofounded our company. She is very good at product development and relationship building and I handle the technical side.Plus since we have a near psychic connection our meetings are very short. |
ASK HN: All the VC Blogs that I read, in one place. Thoughts? | nfnaaron: It's great as far as it goes.Would be better if the sum were greater than the parts, i.e. more than a static list of interesting site/blogs. There's the obvious "if you liked that, here's something else you might like." Set the WayCool to 11 and see what you come up with.But it's a good start, done well. |
What's actually "defendable" about web startups these days? | imp: Why can't someone answer with "our team" or "they way we execute"? If your competitor is always a step behind you copying features you wrote last month, doesn't that guarantee that you'll always be ahead of them? |
What are the most important business metrics for your startup? | il: Ideally the same metrics any small business uses:-Revenue
-Conversion Rate
-Ad CTR
-Time on site
-Clickthroughs to order page
-CPC/CPA
-CLV |
What are the most important business metrics for your startup? | charlesju: The two major ones that matter are:Cost Per Acquisition and Average Revenue Per User. |
What kind of geo-focused APIs would you like to see? | abyssknight: One idea that I've thrown around, and seen out there, is the ability to send in a polygonal area that I want to search in and have the API return the houses for sale/rent in that area. Letting the user pick the neighborhood or even the side of the street they want to live on is really powerful.The funny th... |
cofounders as couples ? | rglovejoy: Cisco Systems was started by a married couple, Sandy Lerner and Len Bosack. |
What are the most important business metrics for your startup? | petervandijck: On a social site: active users (defined as having visited the site in the past week).ps: we are building a business dashboard soon, looked around and couldn't find anything. We'd want (for multiple products), on one page:- traffic- revenue- new subscribers/memberswith some kind of historic info, data com... |
cofounders as couples ? | garply: My longtime gf and I co-own our business. I run the technical side, she runs the business side. It works well, but you definitely need a strong relationship for it to work.Also, since I do business in China and I'm a white foreigner, her presence as a native mainlander is absolutely essential. I have yet to mee... |
cofounders as couples ? | sabat: The founders of SixApart (TypePad, Vox, etc.) are married. She originally did the design, he wrote the code. They're still married. |
cofounders as couples ? | idlewords: Sometimes, late at night, maybe you're pair programming with your co-founder and your hands accidentally touch. And before you know it you're in a full-on agile scrum, burning down the back log, one of you the chicken, one of you the pig.It happens. It's extreme. |
How would you promote a social network start-up? | foulmouthboy: Obviously, if you're just going to copy Facebook's offerings, you might as well copy Facebook's launch plan and marketing. Their high level marketing strategy is very well documented and most of the tactics can be inferred.Secondary suggestion: Pick a niche and focus on it. |
Review my lead-mining webapp, LeadNuke | JangoSteve: I'm very interested in seeing what everyone's take is on my new webapp, as I don't think I could ask for any better feedback than from the people here. It's far from complete in terms of functionality, but it does essentially what I needed it to do. I'm currently using it for both of my companies, and have ... |
cofounders as couples ? | vessenes: When one of my businesses took a major nosedive in 2003, my wife worked for me, she did the bookkeeping while I tried to keep the business alive (successfully, in the end). We fought a lot, but I have always appreciated that time -- I think it was a big help to our relationship for her to understand some of t... |
Review my lead-mining webapp, LeadNuke | icey: I think it looks pretty good over all. You might want to put a video demo on the front page or something. There's a lot going on in your front page; I like something that succinctly tells me what the product is and why I should be using it. |
Review my lead-mining webapp, LeadNuke | officemedium: I'd recommend making the design a little more "welcoming". It's very bare and plain - makes the site look cheap which reflects on the service. I'd also recommend simplifying the information and features on the home page - try to really get across what your app does, what it will help us do, and why we sho... |
Review my lead-mining webapp, LeadNuke | jsm386: It seems that your 2nd to last how it works image ('Turn leads into sales') implies that you're pulling The Federal Reserve out of a CNN article as an example of how the app works to generate one type of personalized email. Maybe you want a more realistic example? I know it's not a big thing, but it just struck... |
Review my lead-mining webapp, LeadNuke | jrockway: I read that is Pb-mining. I thought it was a new World of Warcraft-like game.Incidentally, cold lead fits in the microwave. |
Review my lead-mining webapp, LeadNuke | shpxnvz: Sounds interesting, and I was about to sign up for a free account to give it a whirl until I saw that the basic (and even some paid) accounts have no security.I know that some well-known companies get away with this, but to me it says that you believe security for my personal information is something to be bar... |
Do you think Reddit will sue me for my URL shortener? | tbgvi: I think that's ambiguous enough that it's probably not infringing on their trademark. That doesn't prevent them from saying it does though.Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer! |
cofounders as couples ? | dariusmonsef: Collis & Cyan from Envato are an awesome and successful married founder team.An interview with them is here: http://psd.tutsplus.com/articles/news/birthday-interview-wit... |
Review my lead-mining webapp, LeadNuke | Vindexus: The home page doesn't really tell me what it does. It's all marketing style corporate speak that I don't really understand.You should really change your tagline to be more of a description of your service than a marketing phrase. "Since cold leads don't fit in the microwave" tells me nothing about your servic... |
Review my lead-mining webapp, LeadNuke | NEPatriot: Here are my $.02. Great idea. Warms leads are very valuable and if you can help you have a winner. Your voice came out very well.I am wondering why the videos are hidden on the pricing page?
I'm a big believer in showing the video up front so I can take 2 mins to decide if this is for me. I'd also recommend ... |
cofounders as couples ? | hikari17: My wife and I have been co-founders of our nights/weekends startup from day one. She runs customer support (phone and e-mail) and is the prototype "seller" in our online marketplace. I handle product development, marketing, finances and some front-end design.We spend most evenings laptop-to-laptop in "Genligh... |
Review my lead-mining webapp, LeadNuke | swombat: I read through most of the first page and I'm still not quite clear what this app does. Where does it get the leads from? Do you have to generate the leads yourself? If so, is this basically a CRM tool? (in that case, why call it something else?) |
Review my lead-mining webapp, LeadNuke | jordanf: First thought: your logo looks like an envelope stuffed with excrement.Also, my eye is drawn the the sad faces on your landing page. Without reading, it looks like a feature list for your product, not a comparison. It took my awhile to figure out that I had to click to see the good. |
Do you think Reddit will sue me for my URL shortener? | vorador: Excuse me but, how do you expect redditors to use your shortener ?
Reddit is about sharing links and, for some people, your service may seem to get in the way between them and content. |
Review my lead-mining webapp, LeadNuke | og1: I also thought the name was referring to the element. One thing I think should be changed is the section that compares "Traditional Email Marketing" vs. "The Lead Nuke Way". I don't think most people are going to realize that you click to view the information for "The LeadNuke Way". And with how the headings are s... |
Review my lead-mining webapp, LeadNuke | teye: Tell me exactly what your product does in the tagline. Make this sentence shorter and sweeter and put it center stage.LeadNuke is a streamlined process that helps you find, track, and follow-through with news articles, blog posts, and RSS feeds from your industry, turning them into meaningful sales leads. |
What's the difference between president and CEO? | jasonlbaptiste: pretty much. |
I'm visiting Silicon Valley. Where should I hang out, who should I meet? | ww520: Drive down Sand Hill road from Hwy 280 to Stanford; check out the VC buildings along the way. Audit some classes in Stanford. Just walk in. The lecture halls are huge and no one will notice. The etl.stanford.edu has guest speaker every week. |
What's the difference between president and CEO? | coryl: http://ask.yahoo.com/20050830.html |
Review my lead-mining webapp, LeadNuke | prodigal_erik: The phrase "(less) risk of spamming" doesn't sit right with me. If I don't have an ongoing relationship with the recipient, nor do I know for a fact they have solicited such messages, I am definitely spamming, not merely risking it. Then again, your target market might not believe they're doing anything ... |
What's the best way to phrase "back to the homepage"? | agustinf: I would go for "Home" or "Front Page".. cheers! |
What's the best way to phrase "back to the homepage"? | anigbrowl: My 'home page' is gmail. Perhaps this is why people are confused? I suggest 'back to our front page'.'The' implies some mutually understood single object; eg we could take the bus [route] or the car (that we own) or get a taxi (which one? doesn't matter). |
cofounders as couples ? | ivankirigin: Have a life outside of the startup. You really shouldn't talk business 24x7.Some investors are assholes about women. Some investors have scar tissue from other couples. That is largely an incorrect view - when founders that are just friends break up a company, there is no reason to hate friends who are fou... |
IP, employment contracts and side projects | ryduh: A lot of it depends on the actual contract you signed. I would take a look at that to start off. Maybe post your findings back here if you feel open. |
How to interview programmers | neiljohnson: I found this post by Steve Yegge to be really helpful, it's aimed at phone screening but you can easily extend it to a face to face interviewhttp://steve.yegge.googlepages.com/five-essential-phone-scre... |
Ideas for monetizing a website I am developing? | ismarc: The problem with monetizing dating-style sites is the same as trying to make money with health care. Your system is at its best when people have one short trip and don't come back. This lack of repeat use means that it has to work so phenominally well that success stories are regularly referring their friends... |
IP, employment contracts and side projects | nobuwa: It says.... any and all work created by me... while employed... will be owned by XXX company....Is that the clause I should be looking at? It doesn't seem like there are any explicit exceptions to this written into the contract. |
Review my lead-mining webapp, LeadNuke | bryanh: Cool concept! I like the idea and just signed up. Will definitely give it a spin and give some deeper insight.The design is sparse (almost in a good way). If I were you, I'd think of some ways to tighten up the feel. Rip off some other webapps' design features (header/footer style). I know this is sort of a "fe... |
How do stories get on to HN's RSS feed? | mbrubeck: The RSS feed is just the top 10 stories from the front page, so yes, the criteria are the same, and one vote is often enough to (briefly) put a story in the top 10. |
Freemium: how far upwind should I stay | p01nd3xt3r: I would look at what the feature cost me to offer and use that as the basis of my decision. |
Freemium: how far upwind should I stay | nfnaaron: I was actually wondering that today with Lead Nuke: http://www.leadnuke.com/signupTheir free and $10/mo plans both include "standard security." The $30/mo plan includes "Enhanced (SSL) security."Specifically I was wondering if the cost of an SSL certificate that browsers like was what influenced not including... |
Freemium: how far upwind should I stay | skennedy: The approach I have always been taught is to make it so the user does not hit the "pay wall" within the first hour. First full day of use is preferable. If they are using the product for that full hour, their use of the site/product is becoming more than a passing interest. In which case, when they get to tha... |
How to interview programmers | eneveu: I'd bookmarked those posts:
- http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/GuerrillaInterviewing...
- http://www.inter-sections.net/2007/11/13/how-to-recognise-a-... (was a good post, but does not seem to be available anymore - it's in google cache though)Also, since xmarks told me that those links were well ranked i... |
What are the most important business metrics for your startup? | DenisM: I sell iPhone apps.Revenue is a poor metric - lag between actions and outcome is measured in weeks if not months. It's good to track over months, but does nothing in short term, so is not actionable.I want to know what is the expected "time to stop using the app" at any given day. If this time is getting longer... |
Freemium: how far upwind should I stay | patio11: I segmented my probable market into two groups of customers, one which was numerically numerous and one which I felt would get the most value out of the application, and chose my pricing scheme such that the free version is close to worthless for group #2 except insofar that it demonstrates they'll have a posi... |
cofounders as couples ? | luckydude: I run a company that makes money.My wife works for me and I work for her and it works great.She is on my board so she is part of the team that can fire me.She does the books (accounting) for the company so she works for me.She's a very smart person and I value her opinion and every time she says that we shou... |
How would you promote a social network start-up? | kimfuh: What's your target demographic? |
Ideas to monetize my site? | tocomment: Where do the games come from? You could try relevant affiliate links? |
What application do you use to take/store notes? | corruption: org-mode. Nothing else even comes close. |
I'm visiting Silicon Valley. Where should I hang out, who should I meet? | mbrubeck: The Googleplex is fun to visit, if you know (or meet) someone who works there. |
Is there a point to school? | tigerthink: I agree. In fields other than computer programming like physics, school makes sense because there genuinely are years of knowledge you need to acquire before being useful. This isn't true in computer programming since you tap into those years of knowledge by--get this--programming with libraries. And usi... |
What application do you use to take/store notes? | nedwin: I've been using xPAD for a while. It's simple but very useful. My housemate swears by Evernote but I'm not convinced yet. |
Books on human nature that changed your interactions | Alex3917: That 48 Laws of Power book is BS. C.f. pg's How To Make Wealth essay or else Dee Hock's essay on leadership:http://futurepositive.synearth.net/leader-follower/ |
Books on human nature that changed your interactions | wturner: Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War. |
Best way to find sales/biz dev people? | cgherb911: I would
1) attend networking events
2) go to trade shows
3) put up an ad on craigslist
4) use social media (and hn) to networkGood luck
-Chris (at) phonehalo.com |
Is this idea worth pursuing ? | cgherb911: Pardon the obvious question, but what jobs require this unique combination of skills? |
What application do you use to take/store notes? | cianestro: Google Wave. |
Would you pre-order GridSpy power monitoring? | stakent: Short answer:For home use - no. Price is to high, subscription fee is show stopper for me.Long answer:Home useWhy will be home owner or tenant bothered by power use?First group - people bothered by energy cost. The calculation is simple: the cost of hardware and accumulated subscription fees has to be recouped... |
What application do you use to take/store notes? | ScottWhigham: Oh man - what's wrong with OneNote? I've used it for years and can't live without it. What is better on Windows? |
cofounders as couples ? | fun2have: Our startup Webnographer is run by my partner and me. It works well. We have had the funny situation of having separate hotel rooms booked, as a client did not know that we where together. |
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