Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Bushido (YC S11): An App Store For The Web That Can Kickstart Your Side Projects

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 39 posts

Re: Bushido (YC S11): An App Store For The Web That Can Kickstart Your Side Projects

#11

Post by sgrove »

chc wrote: post #10

I thought it sounded intriguing until I realized your entire codebase has to be public. Are there actually any popular SaaS products that are 100% open-source? Releasing open-source components and libraries spun off from your app is one thing, but open-sourcing the whole codebase that constitutes the core of your business? Is that done?

There are a ton of benefits to the model - it won't be for everyone, but it'll be for a lot more people once we get going at full speed. Open source is, in general, just more practical.

And yeah, there are a handful of SaaS products that are open-sourced, but most aren't maintained to a high-enough quality for our tastes. We'll work with developers to up the standard.

Re: Bushido (YC S11): An App Store For The Web That Can Kickstart Your Side Projects

#12

Post by pwim »

callmeed wrote: post #6

I remember when Bushido made the front-page of HN a few months ago (search for details). I was pretty pumped then and am even more so now. One thing that's been on my mind lately is help desk software. The current leaders are way overpriced IMO ($9 to $49 per month per agent –are you serious?) [1], especially when it's best for everyone at a startup to wear the support hat now and then. Not to mention the fact that s…

The current leaders are way overpriced IMO ($9 to $49 per month per agent–are you serious?)

I'm assuming these services are targeting companies with people working full time on support, where that $9 to $49 is a drop in a bucket compared to their salary.

Re: Bushido (YC S11): An App Store For The Web That Can Kickstart Your Side Projects

#14

Post by did »

I'm Didier Lafforgue, the guy behind LocomotiveCMS, one of the 2 first open source projects handled by Bushi.do. So I will speak for the open source developer inside me. I won't say that building an open source project is quite easy but the coding part is definitively the easiest one for me. Unfortunately, a developer does not live with fresh water and (coding) love. So when Sean and Kevin came to me and shared with me their vision about monetizing open source projects, it was obvious I had no choice than to say yes. Simply because their idea is brillant. Actually, it lets the freedom for the authors of open source web applications to continue their development roadmap and at the same time, Bushi.do provides all the tools to promote and monetize the applications. I see that as a win-win situation. And to go further, that could be become a game changer in the world of the open source web applications. One last thing, the 2 guys behind Bushi.do are developers first and very nice guys....

Re: Bushido (YC S11): An App Store For The Web That Can Kickstart Your Side Projects

#15

Post by [deleted] »

did wrote: post #14

I'm Didier Lafforgue, the guy behind LocomotiveCMS, one of the 2 first open source projects handled by Bushi.do. So I will speak for the open source developer inside me. I won't say that building an open source project is quite easy but the coding part is definitively the easiest one for me. Unfortunately, a developer does not live with fresh water and (coding) love. So when Sean and Kevin came to me and shared with…

[deleted]

Re: Bushido (YC S11): An App Store For The Web That Can Kickstart Your Side Projects

#16

Post by kalid »

pwim wrote: post #12
callmeed wrote: post #6

I remember when Bushido made the front-page of HN a few months ago (search for details). I was pretty pumped then and am even more so now. One thing that's been on my mind lately is help desk software. The current leaders are way overpriced IMO ($9 to $49 per month per agent –are you serious?) [1], especially when it's best for everyone at a startup to wear the support hat now and then. Not to mention the fact that s…

The current leaders are way overpriced IMO ($9 to $49 per month per agent–are you serious?) I'm assuming these services are targeting companies with people working full time on support, where that $9 to $49 is a drop in a bucket compared to their salary.

Exactly. Does the app save an hour of an agent's time/sanity per month? If so, it's worth it.

Re: Bushido (YC S11): An App Store For The Web That Can Kickstart Your Side Projects

#18

Post by callmeed »

pwim wrote: post #12
callmeed wrote: post #6

I remember when Bushido made the front-page of HN a few months ago (search for details). I was pretty pumped then and am even more so now. One thing that's been on my mind lately is help desk software. The current leaders are way overpriced IMO ($9 to $49 per month per agent –are you serious?) [1], especially when it's best for everyone at a startup to wear the support hat now and then. Not to mention the fact that s…

The current leaders are way overpriced IMO ($9 to $49 per month per agent–are you serious?) I'm assuming these services are targeting companies with people working full time on support, where that $9 to $49 is a drop in a bucket compared to their salary.

That's the problem. Even small startups use them. Imagine a 4-person startup with 2 co-founders, another engineer and another designer. No full-time support staff, so everyone jumps in from time to time. Unless you make a generic agent account (which is lame for assignment/follow-up), you're talking $100/mo for support.

I don't discount the value extracted but to me it reeks of enterprise, per-seat licensing a bit.

I just think an OS, unlimited agent option would be nice for small startups.

Re: Bushido (YC S11): An App Store For The Web That Can Kickstart Your Side Projects

#19

Post by sgrove »

callmeed wrote: post #18
pwim wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The current leaders are way overpriced IMO ($9 to $49 per month per agent–are you serious?) I'm assuming these services are targeting companies with people working full time on support, where that $9 to $49 is a drop in a bucket compared to their salary.

That's the problem. Even small startups use them. Imagine a 4-person startup with 2 co-founders, another engineer and another designer. No full-time support staff, so everyone jumps in from time to time. Unless you make a generic agent account (which is lame for assignment/follow-up), you're talking $100/mo for support. I don't discount the value extracted but to me it reeks of enterprise, per-seat licensing a bit. I…

Just as an additional anecdote, I've heard this sentiment repeated just about everywhere in SF, especially where companies try to involve developers in support in a rotating fashion.

Like I said, definitely contact me, I think there could be something very interesting for everyone here :)

Re: Bushido (YC S11): An App Store For The Web That Can Kickstart Your Side Projects

#20

Post by chc »

aashay wrote: post #17

This may be somewhat petty but...isn't using the term "App Store" a bit risky? Apple owns the trademark on that: http://www.apple.com/legal/trademark/appletmlist.html It's lame, I know, but better safe than sorry.

Apple is currently involved in a legal battle over whether it legitimately owns that mark and has failed to get injunctions against its use.
Post reply on HN