I am now using this as a task/bug/idea tracker internally. It could work out really well. :-)
I would love to hear how it does.
Y Combinator’s Slinkset Launches Hosted Reddits For The Masses
31–40 of 41 posts
Re: Y Combinator’s Slinkset Launches Hosted Reddits For The Masses
#32In the future the site hopes to integrate drag-and-drop widgets and ad placement, but with a company that currently consists of only two co-founders, these are probably a ways off. Yeah, that sounds impossible for two people to implement. rolls eyes
Yeah... this was an odd Techcrunch review, it sounds like they were negative just because they couldn't think of anything obviously positive to say. Techcrunch has mostly stopped covering startups at Slinkset's level, but Y Combinator is interesting.
Re: Y Combinator’s Slinkset Launches Hosted Reddits For The Masses
#33I am now using this as a task/bug/idea tracker internally. It could work out really well. :-)
I would love to hear how it does.
Honestly so far it seems to be really good. The voting enables anonymous feedback, which already, only one day in, has lead to some surprises in how we perceive our priorities. For example, I thought I should do a mipmapped particle system, but it turns out at least two people disagree with me.
Also, it's as easy to use as basecamp (and an order of magnitude easier than bugzilla or trac) so lots of people are using it.
Re: Y Combinator’s Slinkset Launches Hosted Reddits For The Masses
#34In the future the site hopes to integrate drag-and-drop widgets and ad placement, but with a company that currently consists of only two co-founders, these are probably a ways off. Yeah, that sounds impossible for two people to implement. rolls eyes
Yeah... this was an odd Techcrunch review, it sounds like they were negative just because they couldn't think of anything obviously positive to say. Techcrunch has mostly stopped covering startups at Slinkset's level, but Y Combinator is interesting.
If you ask me, TC's proclivity toward reviewing very early stage YC startups is a bit questionable; what about those startups that are just as interesting, yet didn't have the good fortune of being part of the YC lineup? I guess that's what your 2-10% buys you, beyond the seed money.
Re: Y Combinator’s Slinkset Launches Hosted Reddits For The Masses
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah... this was an odd Techcrunch review, it sounds like they were negative just because they couldn't think of anything obviously positive to say. Techcrunch has mostly stopped covering startups at Slinkset's level, but Y Combinator is interesting.
If you ask me, TC's proclivity toward reviewing very early stage YC startups is a bit questionable; what about those startups that are just as interesting, yet didn't have the good fortune of being part of the YC lineup? I guess that's what your 2-10% buys you, beyond the seed money.
Questionable, sure, but there's an easy answer. Right now on the Techcrunch homepage there are two stories about small startups. One is a blog and one has $1MM worth of funding.
Techcrunch doesn't really cover prefunded startups anymore. They do more mainstream news about Facebook and Yahoo and Apple. As far as pre or microfunded startups go, YC is as good as it gets, so Techcrunch covers YC startups. Certainly they are much better than the average unfunded or microfunded startup.
Re: Y Combinator’s Slinkset Launches Hosted Reddits For The Masses
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you ask me, TC's proclivity toward reviewing very early stage YC startups is a bit questionable; what about those startups that are just as interesting, yet didn't have the good fortune of being part of the YC lineup? I guess that's what your 2-10% buys you, beyond the seed money.
Questionable, sure, but there's an easy answer. Right now on the Techcrunch homepage there are two stories about small startups. One is a blog and one has $1MM worth of funding. Techcrunch doesn't really cover prefunded startups anymore. They do more mainstream news about Facebook and Yahoo and Apple. As far as pre or microfunded startups go, YC is as good as it gets, so Techcrunch covers YC startups. Certainly they…
Well, I'd have to disagree. The only difference between a YC startup and a non-YC startup is (1) access to advising resources, and (2) a bit of pre-filtering due to the selection process. Of course, there is also the $15k of funding-- but for many entrepreneurs, getting 10-20k of seed money is really not too hard (you could probably drum up that much "dumb" money from family and friends-- after all, how many jobless or underpaid teenagers do you know who were able to persuade their folks to buy them cars?).
For your statement to be true, it seems that either the advice dispensed by YC advisors is sufficient to transform a bad idea into a good idea or alternatively, that the YC selection committee only selects ideas destined for success. While these points do hold /some/ water (good advice never hurts, and pg et. al. clearly know a thing or two about entrepreneurship), it is still important to note that YC makes mistakes from time to time and that (participated in YC) -> (good startup) does not imply that (NOT participated in YC) -> (NOT good startup). Heck, even the first implication is a fallacy.
Regardless, at the end of the day, you're asking me to assume that founders who either don't make the cut for YC or whom didn't apply in the first place are either inferior entrepreneurs or are pushing a bad idea. This is simply not true.
Entrepreneurship has been around for a LONG time and plenty of people are working their butts off for a shot at launching a successful, growing startup. For some, YC provides the perfect opportunity to actually sit down and execute an idea; for most, YC is either not an option or is simply not necessary.
In the past couple of weeks, TechCrunch has reported on YC startups with surprising frequency. Given that it is fairly difficult to get TC to profile one's startup, it seems a little suspicious that whenever a YC app launches, it gets a (typically positive) write-up. In light of this, my conclusion that YC and Arrington have some sort of friendly or financial relationship leading to a lowered-barrier-to-article for YC-funded startups is sound if not altogether true.
Re: Y Combinator’s Slinkset Launches Hosted Reddits For The Masses
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you ask me, TC's proclivity toward reviewing very early stage YC startups is a bit questionable; what about those startups that are just as interesting, yet didn't have the good fortune of being part of the YC lineup? I guess that's what your 2-10% buys you, beyond the seed money.
Questionable, sure, but there's an easy answer. Right now on the Techcrunch homepage there are two stories about small startups. One is a blog and one has $1MM worth of funding. Techcrunch doesn't really cover prefunded startups anymore. They do more mainstream news about Facebook and Yahoo and Apple. As far as pre or microfunded startups go, YC is as good as it gets, so Techcrunch covers YC startups. Certainly they…
Connections are always important. In an ideal world, ideas and startups would stand on their own merit. It wouldn't matter who you know.
In practice, it can't work that way. It's not that people are evil, it's just a question of how to be efficient. I can't spend my time listening in detail to every pitch of every person who says he has a great idea. It's jut not possible. I need filters to spend the little time I have on interesting stuff. Filters include my friends recommending me something. That gets my attention.
At the corporate level, a good filter is YCombinator: if you made it through their selection process, it tells me something. It's not a guarantee that you will succeed, but at least you passed some basic smoke check. Which in turn gives you an unfair advantage, because now you get easier access to smart employees, advisors, business partners, etc...
Alain - fairsoftware.net
Re: Y Combinator’s Slinkset Launches Hosted Reddits For The Masses
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Questionable, sure, but there's an easy answer. Right now on the Techcrunch homepage there are two stories about small startups. One is a blog and one has $1MM worth of funding. Techcrunch doesn't really cover prefunded startups anymore. They do more mainstream news about Facebook and Yahoo and Apple. As far as pre or microfunded startups go, YC is as good as it gets, so Techcrunch covers YC startups. Certainly they…
Well, I'd have to disagree. The only difference between a YC startup and a non-YC startup is (1) access to advising resources, and (2) a bit of pre-filtering due to the selection process. Of course, there is also the $15k of funding-- but for many entrepreneurs, getting 10-20k of seed money is really not too hard (you could probably drum up that much "dumb" money from family and friends-- after all, how many jobless…
>Regardless, at the end of the day, you're asking me to assume that founders who either don't make the cut for YC or whom didn't apply in the first place are either inferior entrepreneurs or are pushing a bad idea. This is simply not true.
No, I'm not. I'm saying Techcrunch doesn't cover startups anymore.
>In light of this, my conclusion that YC and Arrington have some sort of friendly or financial relationship leading to a lowered-barrier-to-article for YC-funded startups is sound if not altogether true.
No, they don't. Techcrunch covers YC startups out of laziness and journalistic inadequacy. They want to give the appearance that they still cover early stage startups, but they don't. They only cover YC startups. YC offers an easy filter for TC to have some stories to give the outward appearance that their blog hasn't changed over time.
Re: Y Combinator’s Slinkset Launches Hosted Reddits For The Masses
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, I'd have to disagree. The only difference between a YC startup and a non-YC startup is (1) access to advising resources, and (2) a bit of pre-filtering due to the selection process. Of course, there is also the $15k of funding-- but for many entrepreneurs, getting 10-20k of seed money is really not too hard (you could probably drum up that much "dumb" money from family and friends-- after all, how many jobless…
>Regardless, at the end of the day, you're asking me to assume that founders who either don't make the cut for YC or whom didn't apply in the first place are either inferior entrepreneurs or are pushing a bad idea. This is simply not true. No, I'm not. I'm saying Techcrunch doesn't cover startups anymore. >In light of this, my conclusion that YC and Arrington have some sort of friendly or financial relationship leadi…
"Certainly they are much better than the average unfunded or microfunded startup."
If you aren't saying what I've asserted you're saying, please explain the above. Also, did you edit your original comment? Perhaps I misread it.
In any event, it remains awfully convenient to chalk up the evident YC fetish at TechCrunch to mere editor laziness: I've seen plenty of seed-funded or non-funded startups in the past months-- heck, TC pays folks to sort through the mountains of press releases that arrive every day; I'm sure that there is no dearth of interesting, upstarting startups to profile.
I've always gotten the impression that TechCrunch serves up a fairly decent mixed bag-- except when they seem to exclusively cover YC-funded startups. Hence, my prior remarks.
Re: Y Combinator’s Slinkset Launches Hosted Reddits For The Masses
#40Someone please explain to me how your personal reddit, hosted or not, is different from any other forum software such as, say, phpBB2, just as an example. Maybe other forums aren't quite as focused on the voting aspect (though it does exist). Some people see that as an advantage, though. I guess the whole point of having your own social news a.k.a. forum site is so you can dictate what can be posted and what not, to…
Forums treat all threads as equal. Usually they are listed by the time of the last post. You can get any thread back to the top by "bumping" it. Within threads all posts are equal and listed by time of entry. In a long thread the only way to see the best comments is to read the whole thing. Voting mechanisms are either poorly implemented and almost useless or not available. For many subjects a 'social news site' styl…
You are right as are the other commentors. However it seems that the difference between a 'social news' site and a forum aren't huge, i.e. forum software could be spruced up with a few lines of php and they'd be the same.