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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?

#141

Post by dave_aiello »

1123581321 wrote: post #126
dave_aiello wrote: post #100

I'm going to repeat that Fantastical does 95% of what Superpowered claims to do. And Fantastical has features that Superpowered clearly does not have, such as a really good natural language mechanism for event and task creation. And subscription costs are less. https://flexibits.com/fantastical

Flexibits' weakness is engineering, though. They could get eaten by a competitor that works its way up to a full calendar with a stronger foundation. Fantastical 3's move upmarket in response to Calendar.app improvements hasn't been easy for them so I don't know how much further they could push themselves. That's not to say that a new competitor will put Flexibits out of business, but if the market for calendar manag…

I think part of the reason they evolved this way is because iOS has a shared calendar database which is surfaced by the API called EventKit, https://developer.apple.com/documentation/eventkit.

This also exists on macOS and WatchOS, but I think it existed in iOS first.

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

#142

Post by ryneandal »

antoniuschan99 wrote: post #136
llaolleh wrote: post #113

Jesus Christ people. Give it a break. I hate this Reddit post. You're not going to build the next Apple today by making your first product a full fledged competitive modern computer. Remember that Microsoft started with a BASIC interpreter. Apple themselves started with a niche computer back then that sold to less 500 hobbyists at a hobbyist computer shop. The next Apple would also have to build something extremely n…

It’s not a knock on the product but moreso on ycombinator. It’s questioning why such a product is being funded (at least at this stage when it’s so niche and only available on mac) and if there’s a bigger issue in the ycombinator system funding “trivial” startups The other side of the coin could be they’re getting funded because yc likes the founders :)

> The other side of the coin could be they’re getting funded because yc likes the founders :)

I think you're entirely correct. It's akin to hiring, sometimes the best prospect isn't the one with the most relevant experience.

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

#143

Post by sgc »

908B64B197 wrote: post #121
tim333 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed the founder says: >We’ve only solved a small part of a bigger problem. The SaaS platforms we use for work don't work well together. It shouldn’t take cycling through ten different apps and Chrome tabs to stay on top of everything. >We’re now looking to bring Slack and GitHub into a unified notification inbox in the menu bar. We want to better organize everything you use as we’ve done with Google Calendar.

> The SaaS platforms we use for work don't work well together. Try O365. It just works. Seems like every app works well with the other ones. >>We’re now looking to bring Slack and GitHub into a unified notification inbox in the menu bar. We want to better organize everything you use as we’ve done with Google Calendar. That's risky. Major OS already have notification centers/aggregators.

O365? Outlook.com is terrible. Crazy a** js that doesn't mark messages as read with no discernible way to reliably trigger that, shows me the email message version from before spell check as I am waiting for it to send, super laggy, arcane hover triggered menus that want to do a million undocumented things, just to get an email address from an email chain, etc. The only two worse online experiences for me are logging in to att.com and trying to shop on homedepot.com. Microsoft should not be in a discussion with those two head-lice.

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

#144

Post by fuzzer37 »

llaolleh wrote: post #113

Jesus Christ people. Give it a break. I hate this Reddit post. You're not going to build the next Apple today by making your first product a full fledged competitive modern computer. Remember that Microsoft started with a BASIC interpreter. Apple themselves started with a niche computer back then that sold to less 500 hobbyists at a hobbyist computer shop. The next Apple would also have to build something extremely n…

Yeah, they built things that were useful. This is a calendar widget.

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

#146

Post by vbezhenar »

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…

$10/month is not a cheap tool. I'm paying $90/year for Intellij Idea which is my main development tool. IMO that cost is extremely prohibitive for most users and it's definitely not a way to get plenty of people on board to monetize it later.

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

#147

Post by ajsharp »

This is an MVP, v1 of the product and v0.1 of the company. Judge it as such, with the understanding that things will evolve and grow, or not.

2 thoughts on YC, 1 on the company.

ON YC:

YC's model is: place lots of small bets. They have presumably grown considerably in the last 10+ years, and are likely now managing a lot more capital than they were initially, which means they need to place many more tiny bets than they initially were. YC accepts many teams who just apply as a team.

In other words, YC is not really in the business of evaluating ideas; they evaluate founders and give them money depending probably 80% on the founding team and 20% on the idea.

ON THE COMPANY:

On the company/product, calendar-ing is a relatively high leverage problem. Everyone on the (digital) planet uses a calendar every single day. Scheduling stuff is a nightmare. Being on time for stuff is a nightmare. Apple Calendar sucks. Google Calendar sucks. I assume Microsoft Office calendar also sucks. If you solve this problem in a better way to the extent people are willing to pay for it (not to be underestimated, see Superhuman), there is a large direct and indirect market for such software. Now, if you have a successful calendar app, you could do something like calendly, which is already a billion dollar company.

Try to remember, a lot of companies that come out of YC are in MONTH 3 of their lifecycle. The initial footprint can look small, but dig a little deeper and a lot there. Small footprint, big ideas.

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

#148

Post by peterthehacker »

llaolleh wrote: post #113

Jesus Christ people. Give it a break. I hate this Reddit post. You're not going to build the next Apple today by making your first product a full fledged competitive modern computer. Remember that Microsoft started with a BASIC interpreter. Apple themselves started with a niche computer back then that sold to less 500 hobbyists at a hobbyist computer shop. The next Apple would also have to build something extremely n…

It’s too early in the morning to yell. If you disagree with the OP, then calmly explain your disagreements with the post and cite sources if needed.

Edit: From the HN guidelines [0]

> In Comments: Be kind. Don't be snarky. Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine. Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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

#149

Post by llaolleh »

antoniuschan99 wrote: post #136
llaolleh wrote: post #113

Jesus Christ people. Give it a break. I hate this Reddit post. You're not going to build the next Apple today by making your first product a full fledged competitive modern computer. Remember that Microsoft started with a BASIC interpreter. Apple themselves started with a niche computer back then that sold to less 500 hobbyists at a hobbyist computer shop. The next Apple would also have to build something extremely n…

It’s not a knock on the product but moreso on ycombinator. It’s questioning why such a product is being funded (at least at this stage when it’s so niche and only available on mac) and if there’s a bigger issue in the ycombinator system funding “trivial” startups The other side of the coin could be they’re getting funded because yc likes the founders :)

If you want a crazy win, then you have to invest in some crazy things. Crazy simple also makes sense.

YC is doing what they were created to do. To invest in extremely early stage startups no one is willing to bet on. But maybe their product is questioning a fundamental assumption that is outdated that has not been thrown out yet, given current technological advances. Who knows.

You could be right on founders. Founders are hungry people. If there is one thing I've learned in my short time on Earth is do not underestimate hungry people.

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

#150

Post by frakkingcylons »

antoniuschan99 wrote: post #136
llaolleh wrote: post #113

Jesus Christ people. Give it a break. I hate this Reddit post. You're not going to build the next Apple today by making your first product a full fledged competitive modern computer. Remember that Microsoft started with a BASIC interpreter. Apple themselves started with a niche computer back then that sold to less 500 hobbyists at a hobbyist computer shop. The next Apple would also have to build something extremely n…

It’s not a knock on the product but moreso on ycombinator. It’s questioning why such a product is being funded (at least at this stage when it’s so niche and only available on mac) and if there’s a bigger issue in the ycombinator system funding “trivial” startups The other side of the coin could be they’re getting funded because yc likes the founders :)

YC cares more about funding people/teams rather than specific products. The people are what drives the growth of a successful company in the long run, not their very first product.
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