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All 50 startups from Y Combinator’s Summer 2017 Demo Day 1

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Re: All 50 startups from Y Combinator’s Summer 2017 Demo Day 1

#41

Post by sysdyne »

travisjungroth wrote: post #37
sysdyne wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>the endless sea of video chat experts websites wasn't enough This is what annoys me about the current "innovation" worshiping cult. Everybody just takes a already existent idea and changes just a simple variable. "Uber/Airbnb of X" style of thinking should just be put to rest forever. This is obviously happening because our current way of thinking is a mistake in itself. Everything should be modular and Jef Raskin w…

You want a lot of people to do a lot of work that benefits you and pay them little to nothing.

Streaming a movie for 0.9 cent is something I would hardly call a steal seeing how Netflix fee is 9 usd/month and a streamed video isn't something you can rewatch. Also a lot of websites make money out of ads and your personal data but image that build in payment system that I described could be used to pay for my facebook use. All those annoying ads and data collection goes away. Facebook/Linkin/twitter are storing systems that present data in a certain way along with a address booking system. Since they are all storing system that means that they are similar in cost with G Drive that costs 100GB/3 usd/month. 3 usd per month to use Facebook without data collection and ads!? Where do I sign up?

Re: All 50 startups from Y Combinator’s Summer 2017 Demo Day 1

#42

Post by CJefferson »

eps wrote: post #30

Gopher is a poorly chosen name for a platform - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_(protocol) Dropleaf (Netflix for indie games) - at $10/mo for a 50-game bundle I can't see how this can attract any of the quality games and devs.

Games sales, like movie sales, are mostly made in the first month. I can imagine like Netflix, lots of people with good 18 month old games might be happy to put them on this service.

Further, I might seriously consider using it if they ban in-app purchases (or at least psy-to-win in app purchases), because they are increasingly hard to avoid.

Re: All 50 startups from Y Combinator’s Summer 2017 Demo Day 1

#43

Post by sysdyne »

ringaroundthetx wrote: post #33
sysdyne wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>the endless sea of video chat experts websites wasn't enough This is what annoys me about the current "innovation" worshiping cult. Everybody just takes a already existent idea and changes just a simple variable. "Uber/Airbnb of X" style of thinking should just be put to rest forever. This is obviously happening because our current way of thinking is a mistake in itself. Everything should be modular and Jef Raskin w…

The reason people don't do that is because VCs can't fund that. Disintermediating or removing the middle man means "you can't make money from this". Well your shares don't have value anyway, you as an individual might make some money though. VCs tried to fund a bunch of dreamers decentralizing and modularizing everything in their blockchain apps. Many organizations conduct ICOs or token sales so they are able to secu…

I believe the current system is already over saturated and the online players Amazon, Apple, Google, Netflix, Tencent, Alibaba, Facebook and Microsoft are already encroaching on each others territories. Also a lot of the companies already posses powerful network effects and product synergies that make the entry of newcomers almost impossible. I'm force to remember every time I see a new VC investment that the purpose of VC is not to make the next tech giant like a Microsoft but to rapidly make a exit. I'm really sad by the current investment in tech but perhaps the real investments in disease treatment/space exploration are being ignored by the mass media.

Re: All 50 startups from Y Combinator’s Summer 2017 Demo Day 1

#44

Post by travisjungroth »

sysdyne wrote: post #41
travisjungroth wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You want a lot of people to do a lot of work that benefits you and pay them little to nothing.

Streaming a movie for 0.9 cent is something I would hardly call a steal seeing how Netflix fee is 9 usd/month and a streamed video isn't something you can rewatch. Also a lot of websites make money out of ads and your personal data but image that build in payment system that I described could be used to pay for my facebook use. All those annoying ads and data collection goes away. Facebook/Linkin/twitter are storing…

Do you mean 0.9 cents or 0.9 dollars (90 cents)? One is equivalent to a tenth of a Netflix subscription, the other a thousandth. If you're talking about the higher amount, I misunderstood you.

But why doesn't it "just work"? Why isn't the internet more simple? It comes down to two things: this way is more profitable, and stuff is hard.

I don't believe that these companies have a personal data fetish. They have a money fetish. If they believed they could make more money by charging every user a flat rate and keeping their data secret, they'd do it. And I'm pretty sure they're right. If simple pricing and privacy was the better option, it would have won by now. There is no shortage of people who want to try a new twist on things in the tech world.

As for the second item, the hardness. Indexing data is hard. There isn't enough value for every given website to do it. So, Google does the work for them and also extracts the value.

You want a video site to charge your ISP. So they'll have to integrate with every ISP? That's quite a task. Maybe a company will come in and help with that. They'll integrate with every ISP and then allow every movie streamer to use them as a service. And perhaps to simplify things, they'll charge the thing you use to pay your ISP bill (credit card) instead of adding to the bill. Cut out a middle man. Maybe they'll even let you use any credit card you choose and hide them from the merchants you're purchasing from. Of course, this is a good idea, so they'll have competition.

Oh shit. Now you have all those payment processing companies you're tired of. It's hard.

Re: All 50 startups from Y Combinator’s Summer 2017 Demo Day 1

#46

Post by icebraining »

sysdyne wrote: post #41
travisjungroth wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You want a lot of people to do a lot of work that benefits you and pay them little to nothing.

Streaming a movie for 0.9 cent is something I would hardly call a steal seeing how Netflix fee is 9 usd/month and a streamed video isn't something you can rewatch. Also a lot of websites make money out of ads and your personal data but image that build in payment system that I described could be used to pay for my facebook use. All those annoying ads and data collection goes away. Facebook/Linkin/twitter are storing…

Streaming a movie for 0.9 cent is something I would hardly call a steal seeing how Netflix fee is 9 usd/month

Well, at nine cents, that'd mean you'd only pay the $9 if you watched 100 movies per month. Most people don't watch nearly that much, so you've just heavily decreased the price per movie. Even if you hadn't, a fixed subscription is probably much better for them than variable income; it's not like Netflix couldn't just let you buy "credits" and then spend them, even while using existing payment providers. Chances are they don't want to suffer from the "app store problem", ie, users having to make a spending decision on every item.

Also, what makes you think your ISP would be cheaper than whatever payment provider they're using now?

Re: All 50 startups from Y Combinator’s Summer 2017 Demo Day 1

#47

Post by audiometry »

bluker wrote: post #23

Relationship Hero is hilarious to me. We're going to solve the unpredictability of human relationships with a "light-weight" solution. Oh and we assume no responsibility for the advice given or the actions you take. Luckily no one reads the ToS and it's a huge market - everyone has relationship problems. So they'll make millions because most of the population isn't rational enough to understand that at a base-level t…

This sounds like that wretched YC Startup, "Dating Ring" that was subject to Gimlet's season 2 series. The idea being some interviews and questionnaires would give an employee enough insight to designate a dating match.

Don't even see how it's scaleable, even if they manage to find someone capable of that intuition.

Re: All 50 startups from Y Combinator’s Summer 2017 Demo Day 1

#49

Post by adjkant »

t0mbstone wrote: post #14

I find it interesting that "Honeydue" is in the list, when there are multiple free apps already in existence such as Buxfer and Splitwise that have already been available for years. Both Buxfer and Splitwise serve the exact same functions as Honeydue (splitting bills/expenses with room mates and/or partners), and both of them are free to use. Sadly, neither app has found a way to be all that profitable after all thes…

Splitwise user who absolutely loves it here. I wouldn't think to do budgeting on it at all. Its purpose is splitting expenses, nothing more. It does it great and the single function is a part of why I use it. Hooking up with Venmo, big plus. People here are talking modularity, and those two services are great examples.

Honeydue looks to be budgeting and larger finance management targeted at couples. I don't know Buxfer well, but it looks like the couples targeting is the variation it has over it.

As someone in a long term relationship who expects to be sharing finances relatively soon, Honeydue looks like a very interesting option. Currently we are separate but discuss and keep tabs on spending together, and have one giant splitwise going. The majority of that budgeting is done on Excel / Sheets - good for customizability, but a bit of a pain. Once we merge accounts and the like, that Splitwise goes away and Honeydue may just come in now that I know about it. It if was just me, I would have no need for Buxfer.

Re: All 50 startups from Y Combinator’s Summer 2017 Demo Day 1

#50

Post by icebraining »

travisjungroth wrote: post #44
sysdyne wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Streaming a movie for 0.9 cent is something I would hardly call a steal seeing how Netflix fee is 9 usd/month and a streamed video isn't something you can rewatch. Also a lot of websites make money out of ads and your personal data but image that build in payment system that I described could be used to pay for my facebook use. All those annoying ads and data collection goes away. Facebook/Linkin/twitter are storing…

Do you mean 0.9 cents or 0.9 dollars (90 cents)? One is equivalent to a tenth of a Netflix subscription, the other a thousandth. If you're talking about the higher amount, I misunderstood you. But why doesn't it "just work"? Why isn't the internet more simple? It comes down to two things: this way is more profitable, and stuff is hard. I don't believe that these companies have a personal data fetish. They have a mone…

I'm not the previous poster, but the ISP charging thingy could probably be done with a standard protocol, a bit like OAuth. The site would emit a payment request, then redirect to the ISP (you could have a generic URL that each ISP would redirect to their own payment system) that would sign it and redirect back. Then the sites could take those signed tokens and charge the ISP in a lump sum.

Still, the ISPs would definitively charge something for the service, so it's unclear if it would actually be cheaper.

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