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My Start-Up: 3000 unique users a day, only 3 offers?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: My Start-Up: 3000 unique users a day, only 3 offers?

#11

Post by coryl »

citizenkeys wrote: post #6
cperciva wrote: post #4

Remember that the best way to get money is to not need it. Investors aren't interested in "helping you out"; they're interested in making money, and broadcasting "we were rejected from YC and we're desperate for money" isn't a very good way to convince potential investors that you can make them rich(er).

They call it "angel money" for a reason. If you were "ramen profitable", then you wouldn't need angel money, you'd need legitimate venture capital to get big fast. "Ramen profitable" right now is about 500 bucks a week. I also indicated I was looking for work. If I had some outside work, I could self-fund my ventures. With all these deep silicon valley pockets, I'm surprised nobody offered me any sort of work.

Maybe your project just isn't interesting enough, or has little commercial potential.

Re: My Start-Up: 3000 unique users a day, only 3 offers?

#12

Post by answerly »

citizenkeys wrote: post #9
answerly wrote: post #7

Just to contribute a data point: We were lucky enough to be accepted to YC a couple batches ago. It took us about 2 months of constant pitching and investor wrangling to close our seed round after demo day. It is great that the original post brought you some initial visibility. It is not clear to me that you have done much to proactively capitalize on that.

Well... that's what this particular thread is all about. What exactly should I do "to proactively capitalize" my "initial visibility"?

For example...

I just looked up your LinkedIn profile and you have a contact that is connected to 5 entrepreneurs that I happen to also know who have raised seed funding. Have you tried reaching out to that person to get intros to those entrepreneurs (4 of which have raised money in the last 3-6 months)?

Re: My Start-Up: 3000 unique users a day, only 3 offers?

#13

Post by bfung »

I've seen some posts about wikitorrents the past few days; finally went to see the site. Perhaps the amount of unique page views (especially on that page) is a side effect of ycombinator brand and timing of events and investors trying to see what kind of companies ycombinator wants to invest in (in an effort to better their own investments).

What are the unique page views from other pages? Or the entire site in general? Why should someone use this site as oppose to something like facebook or del.icio.us? Aside from combining two buzzwords together (wiki and torrent), I can't actually tell what the site is really about (and there's nothing that would point me to some description...) or the value it would provide. Also, I don't really see what it has to do with bittorrent except for a banner on the right side.

Hope this feedback helps.

Re: My Start-Up: 3000 unique users a day, only 3 offers?

#14

Post by timelinex »

citizenkeys wrote: post #10
jim_h wrote: post #8

What exactly is your project? I looked at your link, but it seems like it's just a collection of videos. I went to the main site, but it seems like it's a blog.

The project is user-created lists of downloadable videos. The main page looks like a blog because I'm presently redesigning the main page. "User-created lists of downloadable videos" may sound simple, but it's deceptive simplicity will make it the twitter and/or instragram of its day, I am entirely certain of it.

Ok, what is it sustainable competitive advantage?

How do you plan on getting traction?

What are the legal implications?

How much have you personally invested both in terms of time and money into this project?

What previous projects have you completed?

Can you get a friend to co-found this with you?

Show us something that would indicate you punch above your weight class, eg Academics, Social, Hacking.

Re: My Start-Up: 3000 unique users a day, only 3 offers?

#15

Post by citizenkeys »

answerly wrote: post #12
citizenkeys wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well... that's what this particular thread is all about. What exactly should I do "to proactively capitalize" my "initial visibility"?

For example... I just looked up your LinkedIn profile and you have a contact that is connected to 5 entrepreneurs that I happen to also know who have raised seed funding. Have you tried reaching out to that person to get intros to those entrepreneurs (4 of which have raised money in the last 3-6 months)?

My personal belief is that a broad "anybody want to help" approach is better than a creepy "in your face" approach to a particular person. I would think that singling-out a particular person and harassing them would result in burning all sorts of bridges. That's just my particular belief.

Seriously, What other suggestions you got?

Re: My Start-Up: 3000 unique users a day, only 3 offers?

#16

Post by citizenkeys »

timelinex wrote: post #14
citizenkeys wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The project is user-created lists of downloadable videos. The main page looks like a blog because I'm presently redesigning the main page. "User-created lists of downloadable videos" may sound simple, but it's deceptive simplicity will make it the twitter and/or instragram of its day, I am entirely certain of it.

Ok, what is it sustainable competitive advantage? How do you plan on getting traction? What are the legal implications? How much have you personally invested both in terms of time and money into this project? What previous projects have you completed? Can you get a friend to co-found this with you? Show us something that would indicate you punch above your weight class, eg Academics, Social, Hacking.

Sustainable competitive advantage is that we don't incur the costs of bandwidth or storage. Videos are stored on any other site on the Internet. Another advantage involves some API possibilities.

Traction is people creating lists. Yes, the ycombinator list got 3000 uniques a day. But ANYBODY can create a very particular list of videos that draws that many uniques or more. More traffic equals more traction.

I have invested a year of work into this project. Self-funding is my development time and hosting costs.

I don't have much in previous projects worth showing off.

Why do I need a co-founder?

Re: My Start-Up: 3000 unique users a day, only 3 offers?

#17

Post by citizenkeys »

bfung wrote: post #13

I've seen some posts about wikitorrents the past few days; finally went to see the site. Perhaps the amount of unique page views (especially on that page) is a side effect of ycombinator brand and timing of events and investors trying to see what kind of companies ycombinator wants to invest in (in an effort to better their own investments). What are the unique page views from other pages? Or the entire site in gener…

WikiTorrents doesn't really have much to do with bittorrent. It's an evolving idea.

The idea is simple: if you can come up with a good, unique, specific list of videos, then you can translate that easy into lots of traffic. Traffic = traction = money.

Re: My Start-Up: 3000 unique users a day, only 3 offers?

#18

Post by citizenkeys »

coryl wrote: post #11
citizenkeys wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They call it "angel money" for a reason. If you were "ramen profitable", then you wouldn't need angel money, you'd need legitimate venture capital to get big fast. "Ramen profitable" right now is about 500 bucks a week. I also indicated I was looking for work. If I had some outside work, I could self-fund my ventures. With all these deep silicon valley pockets, I'm surprised nobody offered me any sort of work.

Maybe your project just isn't interesting enough, or has little commercial potential.

Tell that to twitter, instagram, or even youtube.

A website where people can only type 140 characters at a time in a little box? Forget it.

A mobile app that lets you take one picture and post it online? Been done already.

A video sharing site that may never be legimately profitable? No way.

Re: My Start-Up: 3000 unique users a day, only 3 offers?

#19

Post by answerly »

citizenkeys wrote: post #15
answerly wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For example... I just looked up your LinkedIn profile and you have a contact that is connected to 5 entrepreneurs that I happen to also know who have raised seed funding. Have you tried reaching out to that person to get intros to those entrepreneurs (4 of which have raised money in the last 3-6 months)?

My personal belief is that a broad "anybody want to help" approach is better than a creepy "in your face" approach to a particular person. I would think that singling-out a particular person and harassing them would result in burning all sorts of bridges. That's just my particular belief. Seriously, What other suggestions you got?

Unfortunately, your belief in this regard is the exact opposite of what investors tend to suggest when asked how they can be reached. Investors want a genuine introduction from a single trusted source like a portfolio CEO or another investor that they have done deals with.

The good news is that entrepreneurs typically really like helping out other entrepreneurs with advice and connections when they can. But, entrepreneurs also tend to very, very busy running their startups. So, leaving it up to someone else to take the initiative in order to secure the outcome you want may not be the best course of action.

Re: My Start-Up: 3000 unique users a day, only 3 offers?

#20

Post by coryl »

citizenkeys wrote: post #18
coryl wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe your project just isn't interesting enough, or has little commercial potential.

Tell that to twitter, instagram, or even youtube. A website where people can only type 140 characters at a time in a little box? Forget it. A mobile app that lets you take one picture and post it online? Been done already. A video sharing site that may never be legimately profitable? No way.

Listen Patrick, maybe you're upset that you were rejected and that's why your lashing out. I don't know. I was rejected from YC last summer; in hindsight, the idea we had was garbage and we deluded ourselves into buying our own hype.

You've bought into your own hype. I've been to your site, I have no idea what it does or why its useful. It looks like a bunch of wikipedia scraped articles thrown together. It doesn't solve any problems or make life easier or fun for anyone.

Don't try to cite examples like Twitter or Youtube, they are freak chances and you CANNOT simply replicate patterns to success. So humbly, and as politely as I can say, I suggest you wake up and stop bullshitting yourself. Stop whining, step away from the computer, and either change your project or kill it.

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