30kloc and $0 revenue. Lessons from my failed startup (& code release) • Hacker News Board

Re: 30kloc and $0 revenue. Lessons from my failed startup (& code release)

#81

Post by mgkimsal » Sat, Jul 09, 2011, 10:23 PM UTC

denysonique wrote: post #70

denysonique wrote: post #43

Why haven't you used Rails for this project? I can see on GitHub that you know Rails. I believe that using it you would have developed the app faster.

I asked a question, why are you down-voting it?

I'm not much of a fan of downvoting, but I suspect it was downvoted because trying to make this in to a "Rails rocks!" thread is pointless. That may not have been your intent, but it would have gone that way.

"I believe that using it you would have developed the app faster."

"Faster" than what? Using a fairly well-established PHP MVC framework with a large community and presumable decent PHP knowledge under his belt? Just because he knew Rails doesn't mean he doesn't know how to be productive in PHP. I'd also further add that Rails in 2008 is a far cry from where it is today. Hosting for PHP was a far better story than Rails in 2008, just to point to one facet.

There was nothing in the OP story that pointed to the tech choice having been a factor in the demise of the project. In fact, the whole point is that focusing on tech at the expense of finding paying customers is a surefire recipe for failure.

Bringing up the tech is not useful, which is probably the reason for the downvote.

Re: 30kloc and $0 revenue. Lessons from my failed startup (& code release)

#82

Post by EwanG » Sat, Jul 09, 2011, 10:37 PM UTC

suking wrote: post #79

timruffles wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you got a blog? Always interested to read about the process.

Maybe one day, too busy now and I don't really enjoy writing. Have some good stories though. I'd probably start with "How I turned a $60 bottle of scotch into $2mm".

Yes, I think many of us would like to hear that one even if it's followed by the usual punchline:

1) Start with $4mm

2) Drink $60 worth of scotch

3) End up with $2mm

:-)

Re: 30kloc and $0 revenue. Lessons from my failed startup (& code release)

#83

Post by suking » Sat, Jul 09, 2011, 11:29 PM UTC

EwanG wrote: post #82

suking wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe one day, too busy now and I don't really enjoy writing. Have some good stories though. I'd probably start with "How I turned a $60 bottle of scotch into $2mm".

Yes, I think many of us would like to hear that one even if it's followed by the usual punchline: 1) Start with $4mm 2) Drink $60 worth of scotch 3) End up with $2mm :-)

not even close: how a $60 bottle of scotch got me an intro to someone who in turn invested 2mm. there, my first blog post is live.

Re: 30kloc and $0 revenue. Lessons from my failed startup (& code release)

#84

Post by mdpm » Sun, Jul 10, 2011, 12:45 AM UTC

First: a time / value mismatch; students don't want to spend more time doing something, then waiting before they get feedback, and your PhD students are taking longer to crit, annotate, explain their reasoning etc. through an interface than they would take vocally. In fact, a paid telephonic [ VOIPic? - Ed. ] mentorship service would probably do better.

Second: you didn't understand the market, not just your customers. The market is _everyone_ you have to deal with, not just those that buy the bread.

Third: I'd place PG's #5 (Obstinacy) covers both your 'knowing how to code' problem, and the fixated / obliviousness.

Knowing how to do something is just knowledge. Knowing why, when, and when not to is wisdom. In the end, it sounds like you're glad that you could afford the lessons.

Re: 30kloc and $0 revenue. Lessons from my failed startup (& code release)

#85

Post by slowcpu » Sun, Jul 10, 2011, 1:06 AM UTC

pigbucket wrote: post #66

Completely missing from your postmortem (from which I learned a lot and for which I am very grateful) is the fact that the service you offer, to judge from the demo alone, is frankly not very good. Perhaps your analytics show that few visitors bothered to look at the demo, so maybe the point is moot, but I think the demo is awful, and if I wanted to take over this business, I would completely redo it, or remove it al…

Another troubling fact is that the advice given in the demo also suffers from numerous grammatical errors. This is unlikely to give a potential customer much confidence in the quality of the advice.

Re: 30kloc and $0 revenue. Lessons from my failed startup (& code release)

#86

Post by mitko » Sun, Jul 10, 2011, 1:07 AM UTC

socillion wrote: post #36

pnathan wrote: post #21

Someone called Humourisok posted this, but it is dead for some reason. I thought it was a good idea, so repost: ---- Humourisok 20 minutes ago | link [dead] from the tech point of view you have an open platform to share and annotate scanned docs. Sort of "web 2.0 Sharepoint". The niche that I see for such a service is legal. Lawyers can receive, annotate and remark on clients drafts for proposals, contracts etc. So i…

That would be HN's version of hellbanning. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2619641 (and http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2620156 particularly) discusses it. well phrased description from that article: "A hellbanned user is invisible to all other users, but crucially, not himself. From their perspective, they are participating normally in the community but nobody ever responds to them. They can no longer disrup…

I wonder why the pnathan was able to see the post then?

Re: 30kloc and $0 revenue. Lessons from my failed startup (& code release)

#87

Post by econgeeker » Sun, Jul 10, 2011, 1:35 AM UTC

socillion wrote: post #36

pnathan wrote: post #21

Someone called Humourisok posted this, but it is dead for some reason. I thought it was a good idea, so repost: ---- Humourisok 20 minutes ago | link [dead] from the tech point of view you have an open platform to share and annotate scanned docs. Sort of "web 2.0 Sharepoint". The niche that I see for such a service is legal. Lawyers can receive, annotate and remark on clients drafts for proposals, contracts etc. So i…

That would be HN's version of hellbanning. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2619641 (and http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2620156 particularly) discusses it. well phrased description from that article: "A hellbanned user is invisible to all other users, but crucially, not himself. From their perspective, they are participating normally in the community but nobody ever responds to them. They can no longer disrup…

I was hellbanned in the past and i was not trolling. I had over 1,000 karma earned in 6 months. My average karma per post was well over 6.

I was not trolling. My posts were not getting voted down, despite often taking unpopular positions.

I was, however, taking a position that one of the moderators of this site disagreed with, and (without realizing it) wrote a response making an argument in response to a post from one of the Y combinator people.

I was hellbanned for disagreeing with the politburo. It was pure censorship because pg, et. al, cannot tolerate people who disagree with them on a political topic. Ironically, I was taking the pro-startup, pro-capitalist position.

Since people are aware of hellbanning, they should be aware that it is used to silence people for disagreement, not just against trolls.

Re: 30kloc and $0 revenue. Lessons from my failed startup (& code release)

#88

Post by muyyatin » Sun, Jul 10, 2011, 2:21 AM UTC

mitko wrote: post #86

socillion wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be HN's version of hellbanning. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2619641 (and http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2620156 particularly) discusses it. well phrased description from that article: "A hellbanned user is invisible to all other users, but crucially, not himself. From their perspective, they are participating normally in the community but nobody ever responds to them. They can no longer disrup…

I wonder why the pnathan was able to see the post then?

Probably had the "showdead" option on in HN preferences.

Re: 30kloc and $0 revenue. Lessons from my failed startup (& code release)

#89

Post by pnathan » Sun, Jul 10, 2011, 2:43 AM UTC

muyyatin wrote: post #88

mitko wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder why the pnathan was able to see the post then?

Probably had the "showdead" option on in HN preferences.

Correct. I am looking to see alternative viewpoints. Usually all I get is stupid one-liners or spam.

This time it was good.

Re: 30kloc and $0 revenue. Lessons from my failed startup (& code release)

#90

Post by ivansavz » Sun, Jul 10, 2011, 3:47 AM UTC

timruffles wrote: post #71

pigbucket wrote: post #66

Completely missing from your postmortem (from which I learned a lot and for which I am very grateful) is the fact that the service you offer, to judge from the demo alone, is frankly not very good. Perhaps your analytics show that few visitors bothered to look at the demo, so maybe the point is moot, but I think the demo is awful, and if I wanted to take over this business, I would completely redo it, or remove it al…

Interesting. Looking at the demo now you're right: the first bit of feedback on screen is trite, and the rest is a bit wishy-washy. I had a look at the analytics, and most people went for more info rather than the demo. However, those pages are really, really bad and sparse. Should have worked on those a lot - I remember I was planning to add tutor profiles. Software myopia again. BTW if anyone wants to look at the a…

I would be interested to hear more about the web analytic.

Also, I am wondering if anyone has tried the "fliers on campus" or "ads on message board" advertisement campaign for a e-learning or tutoring-related website. I would like to know how to know what kind of visitors one can expect from the idea mentioned earlier by jdietrich.