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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?

#51

Post by answerly »

citizenkeys wrote: post #48
cheald wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No offense, but unless you're working 3 jobs to cover food and rent, you can work hard on an idea without seed money. Stop watching TV (seriously, unplug it and put it in a closet). Stop playing video games (same deal). Stop going out barhopping. Devote your evenings and lunch breaks to working on your idea. You have plenty of time that you're not utilizing. You'll find that most startup founders - especially new ent…

I don't watch tv, don't play video games, nor do I drink or go "barhopping". To paraphrase paul graham (yet again), you can't realistically run a start-up and work a day job. If you do, then you're not really running a start-up. And if you don't work a day-job, then eventually you're likely to run out of money until the start-up gets profitable.

I'd just stop if I were you. Dismissing every helpful piece of advice out of hand makes you seem like a very unreasonable person.

Good luck with your startup. I hope everything works out for the best.

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

#52

Post by cheae »

citizenkeys wrote: post #26
bobf wrote: post #22

It may be harsh, but here's some honest feedback: I don't see the value of WikiTorrents. (That probably doesn't mean anything, as I wouldn't have considered Twitter to be a huge winner either, but it is a data point for you nonetheless.) The name is non-intuitive, as it doesn't have much to do with torrents - or wikis in the traditional sense. Manually compiled/user-submitted lists of videos seems to be easily duplic…

It's very tao... Some people look at the empty bowl and say "this bowl is empty and therefore worthless." Other people look at the bowl and say "this bowl is empty. How useful to have an empty bowl that I can fill." I'm a member of the second group. The site has little to do with wikis and/or torrents. The value of wikitorrents.org is the lists of videos, not the simplicity of the site. One good list of videos, regar…

isn't it easy to replicate?

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

#53

Post by YuriNiyazov »

citizenkeys wrote: post #31

My final comment about the value proposition before I go to Thursday NightLife at the California Academy of Sciences ( http://www.calacademy.org/events/nightlife/ ): The value proposition of WikiTorrents.org is that you can easily find a continually evolving list of videos about whatever topic you're researching, no matter how specific or obscure the topic and no matter what sites actually have the videos.

"before I go to Thursday NightLife at the California Academy of Sciences"

Nice. And you wonder why you are not getting funding?

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

#54

Post by jim_h »

citizenkeys wrote: post #38
ABrandt wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To put it simply, your value proposition doesn't exist. Maybe after years of seeding the site with content, but right now I cannot "find a continually evolving list about whatever topic." In order to gain traction among users, you must provide me value _now_. I know you might feel like you're getting beat up in this thread, but every comment I've read has been constructive criticism. Take it in stride and don't disco…

The paradox, as is frequently explained, is that many of the most successful sites are those that people spend almost no time on. Lets say you go to google, find a search result, and click to leave google. If you do all that within a coule seconds, then google was successful even though you spent almost no time on google. This is similar to that. Remember, too, to paraphrase paul graham for at least the fourth time i…

One thing to take into account is that Jerry Yang and David Filo did their Yahoo directory in 1994 when there was a great need for search engines and people just didn't know what was out there. Their directory gave people a way of seeing what was there.

They also have great timing. They did it in Jan. 1994, only a few months after the first few search engines. So lots of people not knowing about their other options and a great need for a 'directory' of the relatively unsearchable web made their company very popular.

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

#55

Post by perucoder »

citizenkeys wrote: post #38
ABrandt wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To put it simply, your value proposition doesn't exist. Maybe after years of seeding the site with content, but right now I cannot "find a continually evolving list about whatever topic." In order to gain traction among users, you must provide me value _now_. I know you might feel like you're getting beat up in this thread, but every comment I've read has been constructive criticism. Take it in stride and don't disco…

The paradox, as is frequently explained, is that many of the most successful sites are those that people spend almost no time on. Lets say you go to google, find a search result, and click to leave google. If you do all that within a coule seconds, then google was successful even though you spent almost no time on google. This is similar to that. Remember, too, to paraphrase paul graham for at least the fourth time i…

I've avoided posting because there's really nothing more to say, but c'mon! Are you really comparing yourself to Jerry Yang? That was in the 90's and he was one of the first. That bus has come and gone. Just like if I put up a list of my favorite links. No way in hell is that going to turn into allenslist.com and make me a million bucks for doing nothing.

There is way more competition now. Listen to what people are telling you.

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

#56

Post by zbruhnke »

Ok Patrick, here goes. I do not know your entire situation and i would like to start off by saying I am no "expert" in the field of UI or UX, but I can tell you that your site has some usability issues that you said you were going to address which is a good thing, but you need to do that sooner rather than later.

As someone who has been down this road (and yes I was turned down by Ycombinator tuesday too) I know that hardly anyone succeeds the first time they try something. The idea itself may succeed in the long run, but the implementation must change for it to work. You NEED to know that.

If you are dead set on your ideas working as is you will probably never have them actually work.

Keep in mind that everyone feels that their idea is wonderful and it will succeed, I believed that so much to the point that I took jobs selling cars on the weekends and working at geeksquad at night just to pay my bills while trying to make it. Ultimately I did so, but I would argue it was the tenacity I had that made my success a reality (I was also very lucky like most entrepreneurs). If you are not willing to do anything and everything it takes to succeed including eating cans of soup 1/2 can at a time in order to stretch meals out for several days and sleeping on your bedroom floor because you sold your bed on craigslist to pay your server bills chances are you are not the kind of entrepreneur anyone is interested in investing in.

Listen to some of the stories of the guys who made it but just barely. My recent favorite is Brian Chesky who is one of the founders of AirBnB ... truly a teriffic story where they believed in their idea enough to sell CEREAL to make a software company stay alive.

That my friend is wanting it and THAT is the kind of spirit and tenacity that the "deep pockets" in SV are looking for.

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

#57

Post by LabSlice »

citizenkeys wrote: post #23

I think many of you are missing the forest for the trees. If the idea were profitable, I wouldn't be looking for seed money. If the implementation of my idea were very refined, then it would be a mature product and not a working prototype. The idea now is a working prototype of a site where users can create lists of videos. That's all the idea is supposed to be. Right now, it's very rough around the edges with lots o…

Every startup has the chicken and egg problem -- It's worth a million dollars, but only if it had the customers/dollars/advertising/partnerships to make it succeed.

You've obviously got belief and vision for the project, which are great traits to have. But consider yourself being an investor. How do you calculate the ROI? Will giving you $500/week (peanuts) generate a future return of $1,000/week or $20,000/week, or maybe just $10/week? Investors are business people, so they need some way to guesstimate a ROI. If I sponsor you, then how can you convince me that I will at least break even on the investment within the next 2 years?

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

#58

Post by sanswork »

citizenkeys wrote: post #16
timelinex wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 inv…

Are you getting 3000 unique impressions every day to your yc list or just on the day you posted it? Whats the fall off like?

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

#59

Post by gallerytungsten »

citizenkeys wrote: post #16
timelinex wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 inv…

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

Maybe that is part of the problem.

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

#60

Post by gallerytungsten »

citizenkeys wrote: post #47

You all criticize my idea and yet "workflowy" is a YC-funded site devoted to making lists: http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/04/workflow/ http://hackerne.ws/item?id=1870473

I checked out your site, and also checked workflowy just now.

Let's compare and contrast.

1. They have at least a somewhat clear and professional design. One that's focused on just the one problem they're solving. (I do have to criticize the horrible kerning between the "W" and "o" of their name though.) Minor quibbles like that aside, your site design is awkward at best.

2. They have a video that explains the problem they are trying to solve; and you only need to watch the first fifteen seconds or so to understand that they are an online outlining tool. Does the world need that? I don't know. But it seems they are definitely solving a problem. Your site is unclear and lacks this kind of focus.

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