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Of all the partners at YC, I ran the startup that was the most different from everyone else. And my approach might be more aligned with your values. If you were seriously interested, I'd be delighted to work with you.
I know you're ribbing us, but paying for a Pinboard account is like buying shares in Berkshire Hathaway. It's for true believers. I think there's always opportunity in concentrations of users like that. Of all the partners at YC, I ran the startup that was the most different from everyone else. And my approach might be more aligned with your values. If you were seriously interested, I'd be delighted to work with you.
I feel like after seven years, I have a pretty good sense of what bookmarking/archiving needs people have, but am at the limits of what I can personally build. If the votes swing my way, I'd be happy to have a good-faith conversation with you.
Since a hosted bookmarking service obviously scales well, that can't be the heart of the Pinboard value prop. What does Pinboard do that no one does, that seems totally nonscalable?
How about @Pinboard? He's just one man, hand-crafting tweets about the SF tech industry in his spare time... it can't possible scale to every city and industry, can it? (Can it?) And bonus: the Twitter handle is producing $0 revenue!
The answer is clear: $100 million of investment. $50 million for a machine learning system that will ingest the @Pinboard snarky tweet corpus, and output tweets adapted to other industries and localities. And $50 million for a custom ad bidding system that injects subtle product placements into the tweets at the ###### possible CPC.
###### - If you are an investor, please read this as "highest". If you are a customer, please read this as "lowest."
EDIT - My numbers are all wrong. It should $20 million for the AI, $20 million for the ad system, $55 million for marketing and signing bonuses, and $5 million for the cafeteria.
"Do Things That Don't Scale" http://paulgraham.com/ds.html Since a hosted bookmarking service obviously scales well, that can't be the heart of the Pinboard value prop. What does Pinboard do that no one does, that seems totally nonscalable? How about @Pinboard? He's just one man, hand-crafting tweets about the SF tech industry in his spare time... it can't possible scale to every city and industry, can it? (Can it?)…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You are very hard to understand. You have many times criticized HN and YC for many different things (the most memorable examples being objecting to how HN uses the word "startup", and to PG hellbanning you), and yet here you are, cleverly using "Apply HN" to raise awareness about Pinboard in the community you dislike while having no intention of being part of YC.
I am hoping to attract a certain protest vote of the silent majority who enjoy this community, but are uneasy about the values of its founders and more broadly, Silicon Valley. As far as HN proper, I don't dislike this community at all, particularly since dang took the reins. It's an interesting place and I've tried to contribute in good faith for many years now, besides just making fun of it.
I'm pretty sure Silicon Valley are quite well aware that privacy is an issue and a growing number of users are uncomfortable with the surveillance-as-a-service business model, but it pays the bills so why would they change? How can you create this demand so that the pro-privacy business model works?
I'm curious to see what you can make of the opportunity, if one even exists here.
What steps would you take to make sure Pinboard is taken to the next level? Where would the money go? Would you consider investing, assuming you get the funding, at least $1m into a $plashy landing page? Finally, what is your strategy (and God help you if you do not have it) towards convincing potential investors to give you $80m and not think about the revenue?
For Pinboard, the next level is 'get an office and a sysadmin'. Spending $1M on a landing page sounds like a fun challege. If that pledge makes people invest, I'm happy to make it. I realize that having revenue makes many investors uneasy. If that remained a stumbling block, I would consider moving to some kind of free plan.
$41? $43? Sky's really the limit here.
"Co-Prosperity Cloud 2: the Trickle-Down"
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For Pinboard, the next level is 'get an office and a sysadmin'. Spending $1M on a landing page sounds like a fun challege. If that pledge makes people invest, I'm happy to make it. I realize that having revenue makes many investors uneasy. If that remained a stumbling block, I would consider moving to some kind of free plan.
Now tell us how this would affect your plans for the next round of Co-Prosperity Cloud awardees. $41? $43? Sky's really the limit here. "Co-Prosperity Cloud 2: the Trickle-Down"
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am hoping to attract a certain protest vote of the silent majority who enjoy this community, but are uneasy about the values of its founders and more broadly, Silicon Valley. As far as HN proper, I don't dislike this community at all, particularly since dang took the reins. It's an interesting place and I've tried to contribute in good faith for many years now, besides just making fun of it.
Let's say you attain this goal and the protest votes are in, signalling to YC that a (no longer) silent majority feel this way. Now they get the message that the community is "uneasy about the values of its founders and more broadly, Silicon Valley". What's next? I imagine reading posts by the community here does not play a huge role in day-to-day operations at the company, they still have day jobs and financial pres…
I would call what I do 'impure trolling', since I run an actual business, and have given an earnest series of talks calling for regulations on mass surveillance.
Following in this earnest vein, I live a life of independence and fun, and would like to encourage young technical people to live that life too, rather than wasting their youth in pursuit of a one-in-ten-thousand shot at plutocracy.
I was a bookmarking skeptic before I signed up for Pinboard. In fact, I think I got my Pinboard account as repayment for a favor Erin and I did for Maciej. But now, I have no idea what I would do without it. Pinboard has more or less become a search engine for my life.
Part of what makes Pinboard great is knowing it isn't going to break; it's going to keep doing what it says on the label, pretty much the way it does, and I'm never going to have to switch to some crazy iOS app or download an Electron shell or really even click or scroll on anything.
If you're not already using something like Pinboard, I think you should consider starting, right away, and probably the thing like Pinboard you should use is Pinboard.