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Angie's List Acquired for $500M by IAC
41–50 of 129 posts
Re: Angie's List Acquired for $500M by IAC
#42a
Re: Angie's List Acquired for $500M by IAC
#43I attempted to use Angie's List once as a paying customer; I found that it was outright deceptive: https://mobile.twitter.com/tnorthcutt/status/567747019726409...
duct cleaning is kinda of a scam anyway
Re: Angie's List Acquired for $500M by IAC
#44For a split second, I misread the headline as IAC buying AngelList and my brain went "whoa!", wondering why that crew sold to IAC of all organizations, what this meant for angel investing, what chaos would ensue, etc. Then I blinked and re-read the headline with relief.
Yeah, I read this as well. And I was really confused, because IAC owns Match and a ton of dating company properties.
Re: Angie's List Acquired for $500M by IAC
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
The "How I Built This" is an incredibly well done podcast. I know this is a little off topic but it's likely a podcast many at HN would find interesting as it's about how entrepreneurs built their businesses. I highly recommend!
It's definitely interesting, but it's been rough to get through a few of them. Some of guests spout sage-like advice with complete ignorance of any survivorship bias. Other ones, just when I think they're going to go that way, make humble admissions that there was a confluence of people and ideas that they combined with hard work to get to where they were at. So there are some good ones. That all could be my side-lin…
I think your criticism is very fair. I listen to a lot of podcasts that interview founders and I find there are some who are humble and don't try to give out advice and others who feel entitled to give everyone advice.
Ultimately what worked for one founder may never work for others. I try not to take any of them as gospel and just enjoy the stories that I find interesting.
Re: Angie's List Acquired for $500M by IAC
#46As somebody that worked for a competitor and knows a lot about both of these companies, I can't say for certain what company is going to "win" local services but I can promise you both of these companies will lose (or I guess you could say Angie's List has now already lost). Angie's List went from a membership based review service and tried to unsuccessfully turn it into a marketplace which never worked. In the proce…
I have some of the same sentiment and concerns (my previous comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14242737), mainly around their lack of real technology, differentiated product, and questionable financials. Appreciate your insider knowledge (since you were the original CTO of Thumbtack).
Re: Angie's List Acquired for $500M by IAC
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think this is why TripAdvisor is better, in my experience, for restaurants than Yelp. If I'm not mistaken, TripAdvisor makes most of its money off of hotel booking referrals.
Foursquare is my secret weapon whenever I need to impress with restaurant selection.
I use 4sq & Swarm a bunch.
4sq's venue ratings is hit or miss. I've definitely found some good places to eat at (that I would've otherwise not found), but I've also eaten at a ton of places that are highly rated but nothing special. For the latter, perhaps they are good relative to the immediate area, but not really that good.
Re: Angie's List Acquired for $500M by IAC
#48I have used Angie's List for a few recent jobs, if for nothing else, a yellow pages of businesses with at least some feedback attached. I'm aware of potential, if not clear, risk of bias, but I struggle finding other alternatives that have both quantitative and unbiased feedback.
And unfortunately, I've not had much luck historically going off word of mouth.
Has anyone else had any luck with alternatives?
Re: Angie's List Acquired for $500M by IAC
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think this is why TripAdvisor is better, in my experience, for restaurants than Yelp. If I'm not mistaken, TripAdvisor makes most of its money off of hotel booking referrals.
TripAdvisor does the same thing, businesses can even pay to "favorite" reviews which makes them appear at the top.
Those reviews are clearly labelled as such.
Re: Angie's List Acquired for $500M by IAC
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
The "How I Built This" is an incredibly well done podcast. I know this is a little off topic but it's likely a podcast many at HN would find interesting as it's about how entrepreneurs built their businesses. I highly recommend!
Yes, this was really good and very motivational. It's amazing to hear success stories like "so I started selling this door to door". I think it can be a great brain food to start the day. Any other resources you would recommend like this?
> Any other resources you would recommend like this?
So I personally listen to the following which is all in a similar vain:
- Start-up from Gimlet Media (first season outlined their start, subsequent seasons have been a mixture of other companies)
- TWiST (This Week in Start-ups) by Jason Calacanis. I know people have various opinions on him here but I find his interviews great
- The Pitch which is a podcast where people come on and pitch real investors to get feedback (and the most recent season actual investments)
- a16z I find is a hit or a miss so I occasionally cherry pick their podcasts.
- Recode Decode by Kara Swisher (which is a little different but that's because she interviews founders as well as many other types of people)