Viewing profile — cmcewen

I think Exec and TaskRabbit share(d) a similar problem in that they are so broad that consumers aren't sure what to use the platform for. Renewed focus on a single service makes se…

I think the author hasn't researched the topic very well - there are a ton of startups who have tried this "stuff-sharing/selling model" and it hasn't really worked out. I wrote a …

If you think of it in terms of the 1 or 2 pawn shops you might have access to, eBay's initial audience of 100 or 1000 as well as the usenet groups Omidyar would post to provides si…

Shameless plug - trying to help marketplaces with that problem with Credport ( https://www.credport.org/ ).

Airbnb is pretty much the standard: https://www.airbnb.com/safety#features

Trust is a big problem for any peer to peer situation. eBay, Airbnb, and Paypal all had to figure out ways to jumpstart trust in their communities - if Bitcoin can do the same, the…

Sorry - I meant to clarify stickiness when asked to pay. Freemium conversion is like 1-5%, so I'd imagine somewhere closer to 1% with you guys. With 30ish people, let's say you bur…

Do you expect those users to be sticky? The barrier to entry for making a to-do list is negligible, and having a long history of completed tasks is of very little value.

There's also plenty of college left to work on after ideas. Maybe taking a break is a better term, but I don't understand why "dropping out" means you will never get a degree.

To me, this just demonstrates the problems that arise when you say you're trying to tackle this huge gigantic problem. There's a ton of building hype, and then people are disappoin…

It's awesome that App.net is trying to build something new, but I think the Hacker News market is somewhat saturated considering how many articles have been on the front page latel…

This criticism does seem to be more harsh than is necessary, but I don't see what the problem is in seeking the advice from those with more experience teaching. Khan has created so…

I can't speak from experience about getting acquired, but I definitely see how it could be an attention drain. I was more speaking to the stickiness of the product. Socialcam grew …

Most people seem confused by Autodesk part of this headline. Am I the only one confused by the $60M? Look at the traffic decline: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/socialcam.com My und…

I honestly think people focus too much on pain relief/solving problems vs. making people happy. Most ideas can be described in either paradigm, and there's really no reason to argu…

Sorry, should have been a bit more clear. Some of the spaghetti being thrown against the wall (companies taking crowdsourced money) will stick (be successful), but the people who t…

If you throw enough spaghetti against the wall, some of it will stick. That doesn't mean you get to eat the spaghetti, nor does it mean the spaghetti on the floor has no cost.

I don't see a sticker telling me what kind of processor is in inside, nor do I see a sticker telling me which version of Windows this is. I'm a bit confused.

Might as well have VCs looking at 5th graders instead of NBA scouts. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-03-30/sports/ct-spt-...

This can also be done by using LEDs and smartphone cameras, which actually gives a higher resolution. http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/39685/

"Europe's policymakers have blundered in the control of a delicate machine, the workings of which they do not understand. They're not evil. But they're almost certainly wrong." How…