Soundboks link does not work. It points to https://bookface.ycombinator.com/company/974 which is locked.
YC’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide
201–210 of 229 posts
Re: YC’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide
#202The 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 thou…
Keep in mind this list is about gifts, and so naturally the companies on it won't do run-of-the-mill stuff.
Re: YC’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with most of this and probably shouldn't have included that last bit because I see that it might indicate otherwise and shift focus from what I think is a more important point. I guess our disagreement is that I'm not ready to label the wine delivery company as frivolous. It provides, of course, a purely luxury product, but I'm not sure that providing (or investing in) a purely luxury product is ethically or…
Frivolous or not, though, is it sustainably profitable? I'm not convinced that it could be, and I think that that's the core of CPLX's doubt as well. A silly but profitable project can fund basic research that would be too expensive on its own; but a project that's neither particularly valuable in its own right, nor able to fund others, isn't good for very much. (Old-style luxury goods also provide work for artisans…
I disagree. I think CPLX is disappointed not because he thinks YC is picking losers, but because, in his opinion, YC isn't accounting for certain ethical, moral, humanitarian, philanthropic, etc (I'm not sure what the correct word is) ideals when it makes its picks. Or maybe: taking risks on inherently frivolous ventures in lieu of more valuable ones is disappointing. Weighing in on the accuracy of these sentiments does make for interesting discussion.
I think "YC says investment X is +EV, I say it's -EV" is usually an uninteresting statement unless it's made outside of the context of ROI and profitability. I know the HN crowd is well-informed and knowledgeable, which is why the forums are so interesting, but an extremely small number of us are qualified to critique YC's investments in terms of financial ROI.
So my initial response was w.r.t the sentiment that these companies are frivolous, regardless of whether they're profitable. If you're correct, then I must have missed CPLX's point.
Re: YC’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide
#204Unless 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…
I own a pair of the Solemn Derbies ( https://themarkhor.com/products/solemn-derbies ) and I love them. I was in the market for a pair of made-in-the-usa Allen Edmonds but I bought them instead. They're high quality, great construction, responsibly sourced, and the look great. I get compliments when I wear them out. Apologies for the terrible collage: http://imgur.com/UoFEy80
thanks TJ, Sidra here (co-founder Markhor).
Appreciate you buying our shoes and sharing the experience. The shoes indeed look great on you.
Re: YC’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide
#205Unless 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…
>All that aside, Markhor looks interesting. I don't recall seeing them on HN (guess it's less "tech" than most YC companies) but the loafers look nice. Anybody here have any experience with them? Always on the look out for a better pair of shoes... Googling 'site:styleforum.net "markhor"' only finds one hit, and sites like reddit are equally empty. Does this company actually exist? They've supposedly been around for…
Fair point Ryan, in early days of our business we invested time in Styleforum/Reddit but the ROI was very low, so we changed our focus. But it looks like we need to get back to them, especially our new products will be very relevant to the community.
Our current target customers are more on the lifestyle sites like GearPetrol and Racked.
Let me know if you have any question, I am sidra (at) themarkhor.com
Re: YC’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide
#206A note to any future startup founders reading some of the broadly skeptical and pessimistic comments on this HN discussion thread: The people commenting here are not your customers. For every 1 person posting a snarky comment, there are 100+ simply browsing the gift guide. A few are saying "Hey, that's neat!", and a few are making purchases today or in the near future, either for themselves or as gifts. It's their be…
Bwahahhahahaha...
go back to where you came from, eh? Your wife's kid is waiting for you. CUCK ^^^
Re: YC’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide
#207Interesting mix of gift stuff. Some of it definitely piqued my interest and I will probably return and consider it. It's all sort of semi-luxury goods, but that's, well a holiday gift kind of thing. And it's hard to make money selling to people who don't have a lot of money.
Wheely's Cafe is probably the most interesting gift there to me. It appears to be a franchise-in-a-box. I wonder if there's one in Seattle! Probably an ideal gift for an 18 year old with a work ethic and lack of academic passion.
Re: YC’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with most of this and probably shouldn't have included that last bit because I see that it might indicate otherwise and shift focus from what I think is a more important point. I guess our disagreement is that I'm not ready to label the wine delivery company as frivolous. It provides, of course, a purely luxury product, but I'm not sure that providing (or investing in) a purely luxury product is ethically or…
Frivolous or not, though, is it sustainably profitable? I'm not convinced that it could be, and I think that that's the core of CPLX's doubt as well. A silly but profitable project can fund basic research that would be too expensive on its own; but a project that's neither particularly valuable in its own right, nor able to fund others, isn't good for very much. (Old-style luxury goods also provide work for artisans…
box-a-month clubs are a pretty solid business model, if you can do it. I floated around a business subreddit, and a number of people had quite a solid side business doing box-a-month setups.
Further, I am very very tempted by the whisky subscription deal; I'm just not enough of a whisky drinker to bite the bullet.
Re: YC’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide
#209Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would question someone's actual motives if they demolished a house so they could build a new one in name of sustainability. How much time would it take to recuperate that full rebuild vs. just retrofitting the already existing house?
Embodied energy is certainly worth considering, but major retrofits of homes built in the 60's or earlier are hugely inefficient and result in a home that looks better, but performs no better energy wise. You CANNOT retrofit to Zero Energy with out significant cash outlays or at all. Putting a new carb and a dash mat on a 70's Oldsmobile will not justify the embodied energy argument. Melt that sucker down and build a…
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Re: YC’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide
#210Earlier quoted context omitted.
Eh, if I get cash I feel compelled to put it in my bank account and use it for normal daily expenditures (bills, etc)... but with a gift card I feel like I have permission to buy things that are just fun (especially if it's something like an iTunes gift card where you can't even buy something useful if you wanted to, unlike Amazon).
Worse still is a paper check. I have to deposit that in my checking account to spend it. Once it is in there, it immediately becomes indistinguishable from the cash used to pay the utilities. Here, I want to buy you three cans of tuna, 75 kWh of electricity, and 4 gallons of gasoline. Enjoy! At least with cash, I could theoretically put it in a special envelope that is exclusively for fun expenses. Also, cash-equival…
> Worse still is a paper check. I have to deposit that in my checking account to spend it. Once it is in there, it immediately becomes indistinguishable from the cash used to pay the utilities. Here, I want to buy you three cans of tuna, 75 kWh of electricity, and 4 gallons of gasoline. Enjoy!
> At least with cash, I could theoretically put it in a special envelope that is exclusively for fun expenses.
Deposit check while simultaneously take out the same amount in cash and put it in your wallet / envelope / hidden pocket; problem solved. If you don't have enough cash on hand to do the "conversion", then maybe you should consider spending it on utilities and expenses.
> Also, cash-equivalent gifts are a great way to tell your friends and family "I value our relationship at exactly $x/year."
While I understand your sentiment, and culture background also plays into it, I wouldn't frame it that way. It is a gift: you're not entitled to it, and it is the giver's prerogative to choose what to give. At worst, you could fault the giver for not being thoughtful, but at least they thought enough to give you something when they could also give you nothing. Moreover, the value / expense of the gift is a poor indicator of the strength or "value" of my relationship with the giver IMO.
> But the worst gift of all is lottery scratch-off tickets.
Agreed. And in the (extremely) unlikely event that you actually win big, fighting over who "owns" the ticket would be inevitable...