Everest
Re:Getting rejected
on Sunday September 12, 2010 @11:42AM (#1683812)
Are there areas outside of applying for jobs, biz dev partnerhips, etc.. where this works?
Say you are a programmer, how any opportunities do you have to get rejected 100 times
Ask HN: Is Gmail becoming unusable for you?
I'm getting to the point where Gmail is so slow that its borderline unusable. I've followed all the Internet advice on how to speed things up, but to no avail. Its particularly frustrating because our startup uses Gmail....Just thought I would vent...
Re:Shotput Ventures 2.0
on Saturday May 01, 2010 @01:12PM (#1310799)
why not just choose a different time of the year to run your program? You wouldn't have to convince the top companies to choose Shotput in Atlanta over Y Combinator and Techstars (a battle which you'll lose until you develop brand). The reality is that there are enough entrepreneurs who desperately need money at all times of the year. These companies may not want to wait until the summer application process and could be convinced to do shotput instead.
There are some benefits of having a 8-10 week "accelerator" program. As you mentioned, there's the feeling of camaraderie between the startups but also its easier to line up speakers, have a Demo day, and get good office space when its a 10 week program.
Re:Pure Genius: Southwest Airlines Baggage Strategy
on Friday March 26, 2010 @08:52PM (#1222381)
More consumers are using kayak, bing/travel, and other flight aggregators. Airlines are competing on the price of tickets so they tack on extra charges at checkout. Southwest doesn't play in the aggregation game so they can factor the price of storing luggage into the price of the ticket. Southwest doesn't want to commoditize their product by making their flights available to aggregators and part of that is offering a differentiated consumer experience.
This isn't the point that the author makes but could explain Southwest's strategy with luggage....
Re:Must-See Movies for Entrepreneurs
on Sunday March 21, 2010 @05:52PM (#1208682)
What about Glengarry Ross?
"'Cause only one thing counts in this world: get them to sign on the line which is dotted."
SeatGeek and data-driven PR
TC50 startup SeatGeek raises money
Re:We Have Been De-googled
on Wednesday December 02, 2009 @03:06PM (#972774)
Its ridiculous to assume that a popular newsletter and site which had been running for 15 years would be "left with no alternative but to shut down" because one search engine won't index their content. I don't buy that for a second. Does ALL their traffic comes from organic search?
Also, as someone else pointed out this company's meta tag structure is awful. They've clearly invested no time in trying to optimize their site for search engines.
This is a ploy to get media attention. Why am I contributing to the probelm?
Re:Milo.com Raises $4 Million… without revenue plan
on Wednesday November 25, 2009 @12:25AM (#960685)
Agreed...reminds me of the story of Kayak. Apparently, when Kayak launched the airlines had no affiliate plans and did not plan on paying Kayak (which they viewed as a threat). Eventually, Kayak started dumping serious numbers of users at their door and the airlines woke up and realized that they would have to pay Kayak. Milo is in an even better position because its more difficult for a competitor to establish relationships with mom and pops stores AND gain a customer base.
Re:Is Passion Serendipitously Discovered or Painstakingly Constructed?
on Tuesday November 24, 2009 @08:24PM (#960391)
I find it hardest to be passionate about my work when I'm doing mundane, uninteresting work. No job involves doing something interesting and challenging at all times. If I was 10x better at my job, it wouldn't improve how I felt about doing mundane work. In fact, I might detest it more because I would feel like my time could be spent doing higher-level work.
In-text advertising that doesn't make you vomit
Ask HN: Biz dev tips?
As our startups grow, my co-founder and I are moving into more operational and business development roles. We are at the point where forming partnerships and cutting deals is a full time job. I would love to hear any suggestions folks here have on how to best reach out to potential partners. I've had terrible luck cold calling. Also, any general advice on how to close deals would be helpful....
Ask HN: Website awards, any recommendations?
Hi, I occasionally see sites reference awards in their press section. This might include Webby, Time 50 Coolest Sites, SIIA Codie Awards, etc... I think they add a lot of credibility to sites and probably could increase conversions in an e-commerce site like ours. Have any companies applied to these awards? Any recommendations on for paid and unpaid awards? Did you feel ultimately feel like...
Re:Dustin Curtis's new web app
on Saturday October 31, 2009 @10:43PM (#914570)
A couple thoughts
1). I usually love Dustin's work but am acutally underwhelmed by the design. I hate the black on white. It hurts my eyes
2.) Snail mail is meaningful becasue it shows that the person took time to WRITE and then send a letter. Its not nearly as meaningful if its typed up.
Optimizing homepage for returning and first-time visitors
Hi,our site displays a "how it work" diagram as the entire above-the-fold content of the homepage. This is really useful for first time visitors and makes our sites value prop crystal clear. However, after a user visits the site a few times, the "how-it-works" isn't very useful and it takes up the most prime real estate on our site. We were thinking about dropping a cookie for all visitors...
Re:What Google Can't Copy (Easily)
on Wednesday October 28, 2009 @09:32PM (#909294)
People don't bookmark pages because search engines make it so easy to find content. So rather than bookmark the php manual page on date formatting, I'll just type php dates into Google knowing that it will pop up in the first ten results. However, I also notice that I regularly have trouble locating content this way when I go back for it. This is usually when I am looking for something very specific and forget the exact query string that generated that result.
On the other hand, there are times when I'm searching for a datapoint and am frustrated that Google keeps throwing the same links at me. I have to constantly hit "next" to get the results that I want.
I wonder if there is an opportunity for a search engine to heavily invest in either providing people with completely fresh info every time they query for something or provide them just the results they've seen before.
This is probably not relevant to Duck Duck Go but thought I'd throw it out there.
Re:Ask HN: Best startup space in NYC?
on Tuesday October 13, 2009 @01:30AM (#878439)
We've actually hired some employees so we do have to get an office. And we have hit ramen profitability (yay)
Ask HN: Best startup space in NYC?
Hi, I am the co-founder of a startup in the process of moving to NYC. We spent the summer at the incubator DreamIT Ventures in Philadelphia and loved the experience of sharing space with other entrepreneurs. Does anyone know of any great shared space / incubators in downtown NYC or Brooklyn? Any startups have any space that they are leasing?
Ask HN: Improve your concentration?
Hi, I've noticed that my concentration tends to lapse after spending 12+ hours in front of a computer. At a startup thats a way of life so I want to find good ways to concentrate better and remain focused even while working long hours. So far, I've tried drinking a lot of water throughout the day, eating a lot of light meals, avoiding sugar. Also, I try to avoid multi-tasking. Its hard to...
Ask HN: How to reduce sloppy mistakes?
Hi,I make a ton of sloppy mistakes when I code. Stuff that leaves me kicking myself when I spend 20 minutes trying to debug it. Even though I've gotten better at programming, the number of sloppy mistakes I make is still way too high and its my biggest time drain.I think part of the problem comes from writing code, glancing through it quickly, and then testing it with a large number of "F5s"....
Opening external links in new window?
Re:The Internet Is Dead (As An Investment)
on Sunday July 19, 2009 @12:20PM (#713084)
Fred's response example of Google Maps really bothered me. I hate when Internet companies say "but if we wanted to make money we could advertise" Google Maps is not a recent product. Why aren't they advertising if its so easy for them to do? Wouldn't it be illogical for them to pass up revenue? the answer is that Google worries sticking ads throughout Google Maps may diminish the user experience -- which is why they can't decide to monetize on a whim.
I would expect VCs hear pitches all the time where entrepreneurs say that they haven't tried monetizing but easily can. And I imagine most of the time those pitches go in the garbage. So its interesting that Fred uses Google Maps as an example of how Internet companies can make money.
Re:Applications open for winter 2010 YC funding
on Tuesday July 14, 2009 @05:17PM (#704634)
I don't think that this system necessarily would require a strict yes / no vote. I would imagine interesting commentary and feedback springing up around each idea. This system would give the entrepreneur a chance to defend his/her idea or iterate on some of the shortcomings others address. PG et al are betting on this iterative process occurring during YC anyway, why not accelerate it by making it part of the application process?
Re:Review my project: tweethegame | stream the NBA Finals, Stanley Cup...
on Friday June 12, 2009 @01:40PM (#655051)
Very cool site...has application beyond games too. For example, you could see your company vs. a competitor.
But love the idea and implementation.
Ask HN: When to release?
I've been toiling with this question this morning and curious to hear the thoughts of HN. This isn't a purely academic exercise as I'm planning on launching a startup in the next couple months and this is an issue I have to grapple with. Rather than speaking in generalities I'll layout an example. Say you are Pandora and you are building the first music recommendation engine or you are...
Re:Tweeting Too Hard is digg for self-important tweets
on Wednesday May 20, 2009 @02:30PM (#619033)
ha for your revenue model you can charge people who want their tweet to be removed from your site.
I say this only half-jokingly.
Re:Curse of class of '09
on Saturday May 09, 2009 @07:26PM (#601576)
Wow no one has said "thats why a recession is the best time to start a business"
Re:How to beat that exhausted feeling
on Tuesday May 05, 2009 @03:02PM (#594547)
I also want to dispute the notion that life today is so incredibly busy and challenging. Sure, we work 8-10 hours a day but for the most part its doing higher level thinking and interesting work (at least for people on this board). On the other hand, jobs at other times in history required probably the same number of hours but in more labor-intensive pursuits (farming, construction, etc..).
Whether we want to believe this or not, all of us could leave our job and find something easier. We might have to downgrade our lifestyle a little but we would survive. So not only do we work jobs that really aren't that tough but we have the flexibility to leave at any time. In short, we need to stop being whiners.
Re:India's richest men lose billions
on Sunday May 03, 2009 @06:51PM (#591495)
Yeah I find this article meaningless as well. An exceedingly wealthy person lost half of his wealth and in relative terms to everyone else is still incredibly wealthy. I'm sure that billionaries in Russia, USA, and Middle East had similar experiences last year--who cares if the billionaires were from India?