How A Student With $1,100, Launched Whitepages.com, A $57 Mil A Year Business
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Re: How A Student With $1,100, Launched Whitepages.com, A $57 Mil A Year Business
#2I thought we convinced mixergy to both stop making crazy headlines and to remove the "VOTE FOR ME!" link on pages? :-\
Re: How A Student With $1,100, Launched Whitepages.com, A $57 Mil A Year Business
#3I thought we convinced mixergy to both stop making crazy headlines and to remove the "VOTE FOR ME!" link on pages? :-\
I actually didn't realize I used this formula for my headlines until someone pointed it out here on HN. Now that I notice it, it saves me so much time to search for an alternative.
Re: How A Student With $1,100, Launched Whitepages.com, A $57 Mil A Year Business
#4Impressive interview, very inspiring. Mixergy is an awesome site.
Re: How A Student With $1,100, Launched Whitepages.com, A $57 Mil A Year Business
#5I thought we convinced mixergy to both stop making crazy headlines and to remove the "VOTE FOR ME!" link on pages? :-\
I actually didn't realize I used this formula for my headlines until someone pointed it out here on HN. Now that I notice it, it saves me so much time to search for an alternative.
I don't know if you need to change much Andrew -- there is nothing factually incorrect or misleading about your headlines. Perhaps the same "unfunded startup makes it big anyway" formula is overused but its a damn good formula and there's a reason it works so well. And its not like your headlines are like Mashable -- the quality of your content is consistently very high and very thoughtfully done.
Though your interviews are unlike other interviews in traditional media, they are totally helpful and inspiring for those of us slogging away who haven't quite crossed the line yet. I'm a big fan, especially of the fact that you don't let go of questions very easily and that you do nice things like provide transcripts or make your interview videos embeddable.
Re: How A Student With $1,100, Launched Whitepages.com, A $57 Mil A Year Business
#6I thought we convinced mixergy to both stop making crazy headlines and to remove the "VOTE FOR ME!" link on pages? :-\
I actually didn't realize I used this formula for my headlines until someone pointed it out here on HN. Now that I notice it, it saves me so much time to search for an alternative.
FWIW, the title really puts me off. Similar titles that put me off:
"How I built a startup in N hours"
"How I built a business with just $N"
where N is designed to be small to increase click through.
In society we're all looking for too many short cuts. Too many easy fixes. Fat? Nah - don't exercise and eat healthily, get a diet pill!
Also the whole rags to riches story is a really tiresome angle to take on things IMHO. I'd say that most startups are built by people without any money :/
(Having said that I do really like the interviews you do. Very interesting).
Re: How A Student With $1,100, Launched Whitepages.com, A $57 Mil A Year Business
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
I actually didn't realize I used this formula for my headlines until someone pointed it out here on HN. Now that I notice it, it saves me so much time to search for an alternative.
FWIW, the title really puts me off. Similar titles that put me off: "How I built a startup in N hours" "How I built a business with just $N" where N is designed to be small to increase click through. In society we're all looking for too many short cuts. Too many easy fixes. Fat? Nah - don't exercise and eat healthily, get a diet pill! Also the whole rags to riches story is a really tiresome angle to take on things IM…
Agreed but if you listen to Mixergy the #1 message that I hear from the guests is that they put so much hard work into their businesses.
The titles get people to click the links but the interviews stand for themselves after that.
Keep up the great work Andrew!
Re: How A Student With $1,100, Launched Whitepages.com, A $57 Mil A Year Business
#8Whitepages.com always seems to recruit very aggressively at career fairs at my school (U of WA). They'll be at a booth nestled in between Intel and Google pitching their hearts out. Commendable, to say the least.
However, they majorly over-played the "rockstar programmer" meme by handing out branded drumsticks and guitar picks last year. I always laugh upon noticing my pair of Whitepages.com drumsticks when unpacking my snare drum.
Re: How A Student With $1,100, Launched Whitepages.com, A $57 Mil A Year Business
#9I thought we convinced mixergy to both stop making crazy headlines and to remove the "VOTE FOR ME!" link on pages? :-\
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Re: How A Student With $1,100, Launched Whitepages.com, A $57 Mil A Year Business
#10I thought we convinced mixergy to both stop making crazy headlines and to remove the "VOTE FOR ME!" link on pages? :-\
I dont see anything wrong with "vote for me" type links/ icons. Mixergy, which has very good and relevant content to HN readers, has the right to promote its content just like any other site, as long as its done respectfully and unobtrusively. We really need to get over this anti-marketing bias - like it or not, its an integral part of startup success.