Thanks for the feedback. I've closed the service
discuss.joelonsoftware.com
Thanks for the feedback. I've closed the service
1–10 of 43 posts
Re: Thanks for the feedback. I've closed the service
#2As the great warrior-poet Jay-Z once said: "on to the next one, on to the next."
Re: Thanks for the feedback. I've closed the service
#3There is still room for quality payment services like this. In particular, high-risk and micro-payments, would be great niches to get into.
The primary problem is that to do this right, you will need to spend a lot on legal fees or find a lawyer to work for equity in your idea(you wouldn't even have a single customer yet).
I've run the scenario a million times and I would love to create a start-up that can disrupt, maybe even revolutionize the payment processing industry. My friend runs one of the big PayPal sucks sites, and makes several million collecting residuals by forwarding angry PayPal customers to open a real merchant account. I've seen first hand every possible complaint and gripe you can imagine.
Someone find me a VC that wants in on this. I'll take a $1 salary.
Re: Thanks for the feedback. I've closed the service
#4Can you imagine how much worse this could have been if they’d never posted this and simply plowed ahead?
Knowing when you’re in over your head is crucial and it looks like they caught it early enough since they opened up the feedback thread. Hopefully they’ll take this, regroup, and have a bit more ground to stand on in the next phase or project.
Re: Thanks for the feedback. I've closed the service
#5Can you imagine how much worse this could have been if they’d never posted this and simply plowed ahead? Knowing when you’re in over your head is crucial and it looks like they caught it early enough since they opened up the feedback thread. Hopefully they’ll take this, regroup, and have a bit more ground to stand on in the next phase or project.
Totally, a few days and a bit of embarrasment here is much better than ploughing months of work in with no return.
Re: Thanks for the feedback. I've closed the service
#6There is still room for quality payment services like this. In particular, high-risk and micro-payments, would be great niches to get into. The primary problem is that to do this right, you will need to spend a lot on legal fees or find a lawyer to work for equity in your idea(you wouldn't even have a single customer yet). I've run the scenario a million times and I would love to create a start-up that can disrupt, m…
As a consumer it's easy to say "PayPal sucks!" because you only see one side of things. If you try to create a replacement you would see just how incredibly difficult it is to run a worldwide online bank. If you're ok lying back and serving as a money laundering conduit up until the point that every government in the industrialized and developing world shuts you down, then fine. Otherwise you've got a lot of legwork to do.
Re: Thanks for the feedback. I've closed the service
#7There is still room for quality payment services like this. In particular, high-risk and micro-payments, would be great niches to get into. The primary problem is that to do this right, you will need to spend a lot on legal fees or find a lawyer to work for equity in your idea(you wouldn't even have a single customer yet). I've run the scenario a million times and I would love to create a start-up that can disrupt, m…
Yes, and no.
I had a startup in this industry, and I still work in it. Here's your biggest problem. It isn't PayPal or Google or any online service.
It's the credit card companies and the banks that control this. The best part is, your entire business will be based on the premise that the bank lets you process. They can drop you for whatever reason. It's not hard. Trust me, they'll manufacture whatever evidence they need to. Sure, you could take them to court, but meanwhile, you are without processing.
No. You cannot disrupt an industry when you rely on that industry to help you disrupt it.
Of course, you could bypass the credit card companies all together. A lot of companies do this with prepaid cards. Not only does it allow those without a credit card purchase their service. You could create a generic pricing card. But then you have to convince merchants to use your system, a system that has no users. And users need to buy your cards with no merchants on board. It's a chicken and egg problem.
Honestly, I think social networks will play a part in this in some manner. Flattr, while using credit cards, shows a unique angle on micro-payments, and is probably the first really innovative payment scheme I've seen since... well, ever since credit cards. Being positioned in Europe probably helps matters.
Re: Thanks for the feedback. I've closed the service
#8There is still room for quality payment services like this. In particular, high-risk and micro-payments, would be great niches to get into. The primary problem is that to do this right, you will need to spend a lot on legal fees or find a lawyer to work for equity in your idea(you wouldn't even have a single customer yet). I've run the scenario a million times and I would love to create a start-up that can disrupt, m…
Obviously, a good payment service like this is not a simple problem, but the market is there. PayPal gets a lot of really well deserved hatred, and I can tell you from experience that they treat their merchants just as much like garbage as they treat consumers. How they manage to remain in business with everybody hating them boggles my mind, but it also screams opportunity.
Re: Thanks for the feedback. I've closed the service
#9Everybody here seems in agreement with the guy just shutting down the service.
My first reaction was WTF. In fact, I think the OPs last comment is a little rude. None of the commenters were advising him to shut down the service. They were trying to help improve the service ...
Altogether it's just weird.
Re: Thanks for the feedback. I've closed the service
#10I love to see reactions like that from entrepreneurs because sometimes that's what should happen. Some ideas -- at least in their present form and in the present context -- are just dumb and need to be abandoned so folks can move on to something else.