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A comment on Ask HN: Examples where you make something people want, but are unable to profit?.

Re:Ask HN: Examples where you make something people want, bu... by jeromec on Sunday December 06, 2009 @06:13PM (#980322)
A huge thing to note, even with a large number of unprofitable cases, is not that the YC mantra is flawed, but more likely systems may not yet be in place to facilitate profitability. For example, if there were an awesome micropayment solution I'll bet a lot of currently unprofitable sites could find profitability.
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Re:Ask HN: Examples where you make something people want, bu... by ericd on Sunday December 06, 2009 @07:30PM (#980418)
Agreed - I think the minimum viable visa charge (due to high minimum fee) and the increased abandonment rate due to the hassle of using your CC is holding a lot of things back.

I think this is a very necessary startup, but one that's going to be very difficult to pull off well, and will require serious cash.

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Re:Ask HN: Examples where you make something people want, bu... by ephermata on Thursday December 10, 2009 @08:50PM (#989020)
There are a lot of broken bodies on the micropayment road. Millicent & Peppercoin come to mind to start. Maybe the world has changed since then, but if you were doing a company on micropayments and came to me, I'd want a clear answer as to what you would do that everyone else did not.
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Re:Ask HN: Examples where you make something people want, bu... by pmorici on Sunday December 06, 2009 @06:25PM (#980341)
You're ignoring the fact that 'want' is just one of many considerations people make when spending money. Things like 'need' and 'affordability' are going to factor in too. Want is probably just the strongest.
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Re:Ask HN: Examples where you make something people want, bu... by jeromec on Sunday December 06, 2009 @06:48PM (#980372)
I probably should have given another example, as micropayments was just one. Another example would be having a self-serve ad space selling system where sites could negotiate directly with advertisers rather than rely on AdSense percentages.
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