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Has Y Combinator lost its way when the latest company is a Mac only widget?

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Re: Has Y Combinator lost its way when the latest company is a Mac only widget?

#61

Post by bombcar »

2cb wrote: post #43
eitland wrote: post #30

2 observations: - I happily paid for a very similar product about 10 years ago (it was full screen width and had a brilliant timeline feature but otherwise very similar. It was broken when Snow Lion or something was released. I still look for an equivalent.) - Monthly payments forever for standalone apps is a big no no in my book. I get annoyed even just writing about it. Monthly payments for feature upgrades, perpet…

> Monthly payments forever for standalone apps is a big no no in my book. I get annoyed even just writing about it. Same. I often see good software then see they run on a subscription model and nope right out of there. If it was a one-off reasonable price I'd pay. Sometimes I am happy to pay a small yearly fee if it's real nice software and I wanna support the dev. But monthly subscriptions is stupid to me.

A subscription has to provide SOMETHING that I consider “ongoing” to be of value to me - 1Password syncing for example, or email - before I’ll consider it. Otherwise I’m looking for another option as I can’t be five and dimed to death by little subscriptions.

Re: Has Y Combinator lost its way when the latest company is a Mac only widget?

#62

Post by tootie »

onion2k wrote: post #13

Literally every time you see a startup release a product that seems trivial it's because that's not the full story. You're judging without complete information. For example, the public face might be a simple Mac calendar widget, but that could be the gateway to calendar sharing, native office apps, meeting booking, event management, ticket sales, corporate flight sales etc. Building an audience with a cheap tool that…

Lo these many years, Twitter still seems like an utterly trivial application.

Re: Has Y Combinator lost its way when the latest company is a Mac only widget?

#63

Post by 2cb »

WrtCdEvrydy wrote: post #42
MattGaiser wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they build a unified notification inbox, I will pay for that. I had one of those when I used a Blackberry and I miss it as I now have to check 10 sites periodically to stay on top of things.

Yeah, I worked at BB during that time when the Blackberry Hub on BB10 came out. Shit was awesome to see internally.

Man I really wish BB10 had come to the market earlier. I honestly don't doubt it'd still be around today if it wasn't for the fact it entered the market so late. BB were too busy dragging their feet for years after iOS and Android hit the scene. If they started work on BB10 as soon as the iPhone was released, I think we'd still have BlackBerries and more importantly a third platform. The Apple/Google duopoly benefits no one except Apple and Google.

I still have a Q10 somewhere, it's such a nice phone too.

Re: Has Y Combinator lost its way when the latest company is a Mac only widget?

#64

Post by [deleted] »

onion2k wrote: post #13

Literally every time you see a startup release a product that seems trivial it's because that's not the full story. You're judging without complete information. For example, the public face might be a simple Mac calendar widget, but that could be the gateway to calendar sharing, native office apps, meeting booking, event management, ticket sales, corporate flight sales etc. Building an audience with a cheap tool that…

[deleted]

Re: Has Y Combinator lost its way when the latest company is a Mac only widget?

#65

Post by spacemanmatt »

tootie wrote: post #62
onion2k wrote: post #13

Literally every time you see a startup release a product that seems trivial it's because that's not the full story. You're judging without complete information. For example, the public face might be a simple Mac calendar widget, but that could be the gateway to calendar sharing, native office apps, meeting booking, event management, ticket sales, corporate flight sales etc. Building an audience with a cheap tool that…

Lo these many years, Twitter still seems like an utterly trivial application.

you aren't the customer

Re: Has Y Combinator lost its way when the latest company is a Mac only widget?

#66

Post by koluna »

Kind of a ridiculous product to find. When asked why a user needs to pay $10/mo, the answer was “We'd like to fall into the category of other consumer SaaS products”

That’s the reason? Just shows how jokes become reality - everything is a subscription because you can squeeze more money that way, not because of actual value.

Re: Has Y Combinator lost its way when the latest company is a Mac only widget?

#67

Post by WrtCdEvrydy »

2cb wrote: post #63
WrtCdEvrydy wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I worked at BB during that time when the Blackberry Hub on BB10 came out. Shit was awesome to see internally.

Man I really wish BB10 had come to the market earlier. I honestly don't doubt it'd still be around today if it wasn't for the fact it entered the market so late. BB were too busy dragging their feet for years after iOS and Android hit the scene. If they started work on BB10 as soon as the iPhone was released, I think we'd still have BlackBerries and more importantly a third platform. The Apple/Google duopoly benefits…

There's still a lot of things I can't talk about because some of the people who I worked with, who are great people still work there.

Internally, 33% of every dollar went to the Blackberry Wireless division because Blackberry was created before commoditized mobile chips existed. In effect, this means we paid for the chips, paid an extra fee to unlock it just so we could flash our software.

It was an ongoing battle between the spec for Bluetooth being released and having our own version, validating it against every single thing out there that could connect to it and then shipping it out. This made it extremely pricy to deliver a feature on the wireless stack and often things just weren't supported which came with the original chipset.

It's difficult to turn the ship around without just firing everyone involved and going "just grab what's there just like Android is doing"

Re: Has Y Combinator lost its way when the latest company is a Mac only widget?

#68

Post by adenozine »

Was there ever a time where YC only boosted deeply meaningful companies that were focused on uplifting humanity?

I mean, no disrespect on yc, but it performs what it says on the tin. It's a business for businesses.

Idk. I have tempered expectations moreso than some I guess.

You've got a point, I just wonder how egregious is TOO much.

Re: Has Y Combinator lost its way when the latest company is a Mac only widget?

#70

Post by secondbreakfast »

I clicked through thinking I'd agree this is silly, but this is an incredibly compelling app.

Downloaded and got it set up in less than 2 minutes. Already in love. Weighing if $10/mo is worth it and my immediate reaction isn't "No"

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