Groupon, because they found a simple multi-billion dollar business hiding in plain sight.
> hiding in plain sight.
Ah! I like that expression!
Which start-up inspired you most in 2010?
31–40 of 55 posts
Re: Which start-up inspired you most in 2010?
#32Groupon. I consulted briefly for them when they were ThePoint.com and I thought their original idea for ThePoint was a really bad one and they were going nowhere. Within a few months they had completely changed their business model and were profitable. Then they became massively profitable and Google wanted to buy them for $4 billion. What I love about Groupon is that in the world of Google they've proven there is st…
Kickstarter seems to be getting some traction. Do you still think that's a bad model?
Re: Which start-up inspired you most in 2010?
#33Kickstarter - I can post a project, and potentially get thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars...without loosing equity?! Game changer.
losing equity
Re: Which start-up inspired you most in 2010?
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Upvoting this not because I agree, but because someone downvoted the parent. This is an opinion based thread - why are people downvoting people when they disagree with an opinion? Especially in a thread like this one?
Not that I dis-agree, but do you consider facebook a startup? They seem like they've entered out of that phase to me.
By a loose definition of a startup, I'd say Facebook still is one. They haven't had an exit and took money from DST as recent as last year.
Re: Which start-up inspired you most in 2010?
#35When it comes to inspiration, it's hard for me to name any startup other than YCombinator, even in 2010.
Re: Which start-up inspired you most in 2010?
#36Groupon. I consulted briefly for them when they were ThePoint.com and I thought their original idea for ThePoint was a really bad one and they were going nowhere. Within a few months they had completely changed their business model and were profitable. Then they became massively profitable and Google wanted to buy them for $4 billion. What I love about Groupon is that in the world of Google they've proven there is st…
Yeah, their story is pretty inspiring. Going from basically a dead-end product to the top of the world in a matter of one year. Basically whenever I get close to losing hope, I just think of Groupon.
Re: Which start-up inspired you most in 2010?
#37Heroku, because their comparatively monstrous exit fully validated the YC model.
Re: Which start-up inspired you most in 2010?
#38MineCraft
i concur.
It's always been discouraging to to build an entire video game and be mildly popular. Then comes a guy to single handedly accomplish this. Certainly gives me a lot of hope.
Re: Which start-up inspired you most in 2010?
#39Wikileaks, since a tiny group of people with limited resources has had such a big impact on politics, media, diplomacy, and war. I don't like or agree with some of what they have done, but they have undeniably changed the world.
Quora, for developing an amazing realtime UI and a great core of startup industry content and community.
Groupon, for breakout mass market commercial success from basically obscurity.
Re: Which start-up inspired you most in 2010?
#40Although its been overexposed in the media, the reality for me is Facebook. Not since Google have we seen a company expand to that magnitude of usage within the wider population. Facebook was probably the first truly bubble 1.0 company to reach that milestone, and will pave the way for many other companies to do the same.
Facebook is not a startup.