YC’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide • Hacker News Board

Re: YC’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide

#81

Post by munificent » Mon, Nov 28, 2016, 7:10 PM UTC

dpark wrote: post #6

koolba wrote: post #2

Unless there's a significant financial incentive to do so (ex: 2-to-1 match), don't give people gift cards. Gift cards are the biggest scam ever pulled by the retail industry, or more specifically, perpetuating the idea that giving cash is taboo. The one exception would be giving a preloaded credit card to someone who otherwise doesn't have access to one (ex: a niece/nephew that's far away) and only if there are no f…

> Unless there's a significant financial incentive to do so (ex: 2-to-1 match), don't give people gift cards. Gift cards are the biggest scam ever pulled by the retail industry, or more specifically, perpetuating the idea that giving cash is taboo. The problem is that cash often feels like not giving a gift at all. If you exchange fifty-dollar bills with a sibling, it feels pointless. Gift cards can alleviate that fe…

The only reason I think gift cards feel more like a gift is because it means the giver put some thought into what you might want to spend it on. Thoughtfulness is important.

But gift cards themselves suck. They are strictly worse than cash. If you want to be thoughtful but give them something more useful, give them cash with a card that says, "I thought you might enjoy spending this on ___."

Re: YC’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide

#82

Post by kdamken » Mon, Nov 28, 2016, 7:16 PM UTC

I feel like I'm looking at a Sharper Image catalog. Lots of neat, expensive, completely useless things (for the everyday person) that I'm surprised anybody buys.

Re: YC’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide

#83

Post by avivo » Mon, Nov 28, 2016, 7:17 PM UTC

munificent wrote: post #81

dpark wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unless there's a significant financial incentive to do so (ex: 2-to-1 match), don't give people gift cards. Gift cards are the biggest scam ever pulled by the retail industry, or more specifically, perpetuating the idea that giving cash is taboo. The problem is that cash often feels like not giving a gift at all. If you exchange fifty-dollar bills with a sibling, it feels pointless. Gift cards can alleviate that fe…

The only reason I think gift cards feel more like a gift is because it means the giver put some thought into what you might want to spend it on. Thoughtfulness is important. But gift cards themselves suck. They are strictly worse than cash. If you want to be thoughtful but give them something more useful, give them cash with a card that says, "I thought you might enjoy spending this on ___."

Someone should make realistic looking fake gift cards that you can put cash bills inside. Or for the HN crowd, perhaps bitcoin wallet info.

Re: YC’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide

#84

Post by Symbiote » Mon, Nov 28, 2016, 7:20 PM UTC

dpark wrote: post #6

koolba wrote: post #2

Unless there's a significant financial incentive to do so (ex: 2-to-1 match), don't give people gift cards. Gift cards are the biggest scam ever pulled by the retail industry, or more specifically, perpetuating the idea that giving cash is taboo. The one exception would be giving a preloaded credit card to someone who otherwise doesn't have access to one (ex: a niece/nephew that's far away) and only if there are no f…

> Unless there's a significant financial incentive to do so (ex: 2-to-1 match), don't give people gift cards. Gift cards are the biggest scam ever pulled by the retail industry, or more specifically, perpetuating the idea that giving cash is taboo. The problem is that cash often feels like not giving a gift at all. If you exchange fifty-dollar bills with a sibling, it feels pointless. Gift cards can alleviate that fe…

Some of my relatives would give cash, with a request that I spend it on books, or a restaurant, or at the pub. That seemed a good balance: my aunt doesn't have to pick a CD or limit me to a single store.

The UK has a national book tokens scheme, essentially gift cards that are accepted at almost all book shops (national chains and independents). This was a common prize for winning a competition at school, or similar. http://www.nationalbooktokens.com/

Re: YC’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide

#85

Post by Symbiote » Mon, Nov 28, 2016, 7:23 PM UTC

avivo wrote: post #83

munificent wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only reason I think gift cards feel more like a gift is because it means the giver put some thought into what you might want to spend it on. Thoughtfulness is important. But gift cards themselves suck. They are strictly worse than cash. If you want to be thoughtful but give them something more useful, give them cash with a card that says, "I thought you might enjoy spending this on ___."

Someone should make realistic looking fake gift cards that you can put cash bills inside. Or for the HN crowd, perhaps bitcoin wallet info.

Just use any greetings card and a paper clip, or cut a slot with a knife.

Sometimes you can buy the right kind of cards in the places you normally buy greetings cards. Search "money enclosed greetings card".

Re: YC’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide

#86

Post by gina650 » Mon, Nov 28, 2016, 7:24 PM UTC

YC backed Scaphold.io is a backend as a service platform powered by GraphQL They have a freemium mode to check out as well as $25 code "HappyHolidays2016" (exp.1/15/17) Visit their slack channel that the founders use to teach you how to start scapholding!

https://scapholdslackin.herokuapp.com/?email=

Re: YC’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide

#87

Post by qwertyuiop924 » Mon, Nov 28, 2016, 7:31 PM UTC

ryanlol wrote: post #73

qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not having credit cards? It's fairly common. Even Debit cards are not the sort of things you give to kids. As for prepaid Visas, they're a relatively recent thing, and generally less known.

>Not having credit cards? It's fairly common. Even Debit cards are not the sort of things you give to kids. Must be a huge pain in the ass. With modern electronic only debit cards it's really easy to give your kids cards and makes managing money within the family so much easier. Kid texts you after school and says they need $5 to go out with friends? Sure, pull up your phone app and instantly put $5 to their card. It…

>but at this point they're just as available as "normal" gift cards.

Sure, but they haven't entered the public consciousness in the same way yet.

Re: YC’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide

#88

Post by outworlder » Mon, Nov 28, 2016, 7:31 PM UTC

gamache wrote: post #11

Aside from the Donations section (YC's nonprofits), having much of the YC portfolio collected like this really deflates a lot of the cachet about YC, its companies, and its place at the Silicon Valley cool-kids table. I look at this list and I see problems that never needed solving, middlemen -- sorry, curators -- reselling cheap Chinese crap, and a cult of jamming Bluetooth and USB into just about anything that hold…

To be fair, the list is only about "gift ideas". I'm sure that doesn't represent the whole YC portfolio. That said, it's a bit weird when a list from a top-tier Silicon Valley "seed accelerator" (as per Wikipedia) is indistinguishable from random stuff you'd find on Groupon.

Perhaps I(we?) should adjust our expectations? From the point of view of "funding smart people" and letting they pivot until they find a market, I see nothing wrong with any of the above. If they are indeed selling "chinese crap" and being middle man adding no value, the market will say so.

Re: YC’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide

#89

Post by david_mitchell » Mon, Nov 28, 2016, 7:31 PM UTC

xiaoma wrote: post #30

The thing that really strikes me about this list is how nearly everything on it is offered at a premium price. One thing I loved about the tech world while I was growing up was that it was consistently doing more with less. Wikipedia displaced Encyclopaedia Brittanica by being both better and free. Hotmail was a clear win over AOL and Yahoo's offerings and then Gmail was faster and handled spam better while giving mo…

What came to mind when I saw the list was what is might say about the founders that YC is selecting.

You could easily conclude from this list that it's rich peoples kids creating solutions to imaginary problems - "Oh, how could my poor feet possibly survive the arduous journey from my front door to the uber in an off the shelf pair of shoes? I need a tailor!".

I think we should give them the benefit of the doubt though since these companies are presumably a small subset of those they've invested in.

A more charitable explanation might be that since these companies are in SV then it makes sense for them to start out selling stuff to affluent customers who are not overly price sensitive.

Re: YC’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide

#90

Post by Ayraa » Mon, Nov 28, 2016, 7:32 PM UTC

Random: I'm surprised that Boosted Board is still using "perfect for the last mile of your commute" in their marketing slogan.

All the influencers I've seen with it (like Casey Neistat) use it to commute pretty long distances! Their biggest benefit is, you can quickly travel from point a and b, especially in a conjested city, on something that you can carry under your arm or in a backpack. No need for bikes, public transit or cars.