parker

You can check out my response on my blog for the clarification. I suppose it was a bit awkwardly worded at first.

I'd guess around 12-14 hours of actual thinking and working time. At a normal startup as an employee, I'm guessing you'd average around 10 hours, but more around crunch time

Yeah, the 18 hour days reference was simply to imply that starting a startup is a full-time, front-of-mind undertaking.

I think it's safe to say that this guy took it a bit out of context.

Does every company need to make a smartphone in order to survive in the new marketplace? I hear Quaker Oats has a really sweet handset in the works...

I believe this is none other than news.YC's ojbyrne, am I correct :)?

Guy, check the stats.

According to compete, Friendster is doing 400 Million page views per month and growing.

Revenue for WebVan in the 2000 fiscal year was $259.7 Million: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2001_Jan_25/a...

Sorry dude, but you must not remember them vividly, because the majority of these sites did actually have a user base and did actually make revenue. In some cases (WebVan for instance), they actually made quite a bit of revenue.

They were simply prey to illogical economics. They had all created machines that were too large for the revenues to support.

As for Friendster, I know it's been fun to say that they've failed for the last 3 years, but as far as I can tell their story isn't even close to being over. They have billions of pageviews and a growing userbase. I'm guessing you'd probably switch places with them right now.

It's simple user psychology. So much of traffic on social networking sites is lurking around on other people's pages, especially those that you're 'interested' in. I'd rather not let other people know that I've been looking at their page, especially when I've been looking at their page a lot. If I know that they know, it dis-incentivizes me from surfing around at all, killing page views.

In other words, social networks need to do everything they can to nurture their creepers.

Yeah, I'm not sure what the hell he's talking about either. The fact that specific funds exist for both iPhone and Facebook applications kind of obliterates his point.

This dissertation on how not to feel like a worthless gnat because of simple turns of phrase makes me think of another mantra I use to feel better about myself:

Get serious.

I think the idea is that early adopters can evangelize your product and create its foothold, but it's the late adopters who play mass market kingmakers.

I got the inspiration for this post after talking to some non-tech people about how they find and use new software. You realize that they live in a different world, without all the chatter.

I'm not implying that what we're doing is going to shake the foundations of the planet, because it won't -- simply relaying what I'm thinking about as we work.

Yeah this list is pretty old -- it doesn't have 'social media consultants'.

That may be the best quote I've read in awhile. I've convinced that profit is a function of creating happiness, both with your customers and within your company.

Thanks for sharing that.

You're exactly right. They paid the third founder $700,000 to go away after their Series A. Smart, but I actually didn't respect him leaving his friends out to dry and forcing them into awkward conversations with their investors. I guess that lesson is make sure your founding team is committed before you dole out the stock certificates :).

What about IPOs, or a leveraged management buyout? Just because acquisitions are the 'en vogue' liquidity event doesn't mean it's the only kind.