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Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund

ycombinator.com

221–230 of 401 posts

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund

#221
"When the only sources of news were the wire services and a few big papers, it was enough to keep writing stories about how the president met with someone" -- Wire services produce thousands of articles everyday from all over the world but sadly only 20% of the content that moves on the wire is ever published. Papers have a believe that their audience is only interested in who the President met with. I don't think its new news that we need we just need better methods for getting the interesting stuff out

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund

#222
post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry on the first 10 or so pages I saw just blah blah. Don't spam the forum here if you have nothing to offer.

To give you one idea about the design and how it would treat people like you within it, (I notice that your kama on HN (jerry5) is -10) The creatocracy recognizes that one size does not fit all, treats all according to their history and respect. You would find that your voice counted less with regards voting rights and you may well find that if your attitude became a burden on others that your tax level would rise hi…

The karma system is a popularity contest as discussed in the various Hacker-News-is-going-down-the-drain discussions that have been popping up here a lot as of late. To any one who grew up with /. that's not a surprise.

In that respect I found kuro5hin quite interesting in, as it seperates out how many people voted the post/comment up or down. I wrote posts that had a lot of people agree (5 points) and a lot disagree (1 point) with very few in the middle ground, i.e. the audience was divided. I loved that. It means you are not sucking up to the majority yet not writing utter crap. Had you just computed the point average then that information would've gotten lost.

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund

#223
post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the critical mass really a problem for dating sites? In Germany, the big dating sites simply spend a lot of money on advertising, which seems to work well enough. Also, I would expect that people frequently switch dating sites, so new sites should have relatively good odds of attracting new members.

I was just going off of what Graham wrote- "But no one wants to use a dating site with only 20 users—which of course becomes a self-perpetuating problem. So if you want to do a dating startup, don't focus on the novel take on dating that you're going to offer. That's the easy half. Focus on novel ways to get around the chicken and egg problem." Since I have no specific familiarity with dating sites, all I could sugge…

may be i'm asking a stupid question but can someone clarify what is the chicken and egg problem with dating sites?

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund

#224
post #216
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To make a go of that kind of thing in a startup though, you'd have to make sure that it's something Google won't or can't execute on, something I'm not sure I would bet on. Part of the idea of 'disruptive technologies' is that they aren't incremental improvements that the current leaders will just copy, but big changes that get ignored by the current leaders.

I certainly agree with that. The way to displace Google is to work on something they despise as inconsequential, the way the "portals" in the late 90s did search. There are lots of things they despise as inconsequential: stupid consumerish stuff like celebrity gossip, cool design, things that aren't technically demanding, etc...

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Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund

#225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was just going off of what Graham wrote- "But no one wants to use a dating site with only 20 users—which of course becomes a self-perpetuating problem. So if you want to do a dating startup, don't focus on the novel take on dating that you're going to offer. That's the easy half. Focus on novel ways to get around the chicken and egg problem." Since I have no specific familiarity with dating sites, all I could sugge…

may be i'm asking a stupid question but can someone clarify what is the chicken and egg problem with dating sites?

It's difficult to attract people to a dating site that has very few members. You have to implement a non-tech solution, such as a huge mass-media advertising campaign (e.g. Dating Direct have ads in the breaks in Gray's Anatomy), which is hugely expensive. Or you have to have a viral idea, like OkCupid offering quizzes to LJers and getting them to create profiles as an aside.

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund

#226
post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry on the first 10 or so pages I saw just blah blah. Don't spam the forum here if you have nothing to offer.

it seems to me that you have really nothing to offer, considering you can only manage 10 pages and a one line comment. If you only want the design and not the reasons for it then you can start here, http://web.archive.org/web/20060615193321/creatocracy.com/pr...

No one needs the reasons spelt out for them. That the current system has deficiencies is more or less painfully obvious to everyone. I may read some of your stuff later.

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund

#227
post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is pretty much what universities do, especially the more elitist kind. Alumni don't have a contractual obligation to pay x% of their income, but in practice they end up making donations to their alma mater for the rest of their life. However I don't like this idea at all, it's what creates elitism and closed circles in the first place. Our society already is institutionalized to the hilt, I wished people again f…

"I wished people again found their natural ability to create trust relationships, from scratch." I completely agree with this. I don't honestly feel people of good faith need to deal with complicated rules or institutions. But not everyone is willing to go that route, so this is an idea which might serve the other 99%. First off, it might be the case that anyone could be worth investing in (in time, money, energy, ex…

> I completely agree with this. I don't honestly feel people of good faith need to deal with complicated rules or institutions. But not everyone is willing to go that route, so this is an idea which might serve the other 99%.

I sometimes wonder whether it isn't that 1% that carries the weight of society. And the Internet lowers the barrier to creating new trust relationships from scratch. If you were interested in that sort of thing, be my friend.

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund

#228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Um, to determine what is listened to the most, don't they need to track the listening habits of every American? Ignoring that, do you really want guys like Al Gore (want to censor Prince), Hillary Clinton (wants to censor GTA) or John McCain (wants to censor the Sopranos) having the ability to stop payments to artists they don't like?

You raise a valid point. Implementation counts for a lot, as it does in everything, I suggested the data be anonymized. So, the govt. knows how many people have downloaded something, but not who. If that is being abused or music is being censored, I'm obviously not in favor of that. My argument for why nothing should be excluded or censored, is that it isn't presently censored, and since fans of every type of music a…

Anonymized, sure. But of course, they need a back door to track child pornography and terrorists. Both McCain and Obama seem to agree that spying is awesome.

And I understand you promote doing this in a content neutral way. Perhaps it will be content neutral at first. Then Bill O'Reilly (a popular Fox pundit) or Oprah play "objectionable" songs, and point out (correctly) to their viewers that their taxes are paying for it.

(Some examples, selected from one of my favorite artists.)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8hPvtuu9CbM

http://youtube.com/watch?v=R37H38bMVec

http://youtube.com/watch?v=lk06_ll_vgo

Remember, it's for the children. If we don't do it, little johnny will grow up to be a gay cannibalistic terrorist! Censorship is another thing McCain and Hillary can agree on.

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund

#229
post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is pretty much what universities do, especially the more elitist kind. Alumni don't have a contractual obligation to pay x% of their income, but in practice they end up making donations to their alma mater for the rest of their life. However I don't like this idea at all, it's what creates elitism and closed circles in the first place. Our society already is institutionalized to the hilt, I wished people again f…

I disagree with you and I want to say most elite universities have done a bad job except Standford. Elite universities just can't give what market wants because of politics. But unfortunately the only thing matter for a startup to survive is demand and supply of market. While a startup for startup has to meet what market wants, instead of protecting alumni, professors and students.

Well go read above-linked article and tell me whether Yale does a good job in the "Human Resources Investment" idea posited by the parent comment.

Re: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund

#230
post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it seems to me that you have really nothing to offer, considering you can only manage 10 pages and a one line comment. If you only want the design and not the reasons for it then you can start here, http://web.archive.org/web/20060615193321/creatocracy.com/pr...

No one needs the reasons spelt out for them. That the current system has deficiencies is more or less painfully obvious to everyone. I may read some of your stuff later.

strangely, this seems to be a new awaking, when originally written and project started in about 2002, it was painful how ignorant people were in general of the impending doom. That said I take on board your point that there is no longer need for an introduction.
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