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

Curebit (YC W11) Raises $1.2 Million For Online Referral System

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 89 posts

Re: Curebit (YC W11) Raises $1.2 Million For Online Referral System

#51

Post by ahoyhere »

allangrant wrote: post #25
wlll wrote: post #5

Your new designer will be able to have a crack at an original homepage ;) http://i.imgur.com/fRI8Q.jpg http://i.imgur.com/KbQo0.jpg

Hey - I'm one of the founders of Curebit, and yes - it was a boneheaded move.. We had a different homepage, were a/b testing different pages, came across the 37signals post and were like 'wow we should see how that converts!' We are big fans of rails and what 37signals is doing and did not really think through the implications of what we were doing. We just kind of thought about it as a fun test to run. Clearly it wa…

The real lesson here is a hidden one for YCombinator startups:

YC gives you money, but they apparently do not provide you with advisors, handlers, lawyers or PR people who will intervene to stop you from making such a boneheaded, potentially explosive move, nor step in and help you figure out how to gracefully recover from a mistake.

Seriously? Credit where credit is due? Ha ha, it was stupid, we stole your design AND your assets, hee, aren't we a trip, funding, something something, TechCrunch, split testing makes it alllll better.

Re: Curebit (YC W11) Raises $1.2 Million For Online Referral System

#52

Post by keesmacklin »

allangrant wrote: post #25
wlll wrote: post #5

Your new designer will be able to have a crack at an original homepage ;) http://i.imgur.com/fRI8Q.jpg http://i.imgur.com/KbQo0.jpg

Hey - I'm one of the founders of Curebit, and yes - it was a boneheaded move.. We had a different homepage, were a/b testing different pages, came across the 37signals post and were like 'wow we should see how that converts!' We are big fans of rails and what 37signals is doing and did not really think through the implications of what we were doing. We just kind of thought about it as a fun test to run. Clearly it wa…

Looks like you were using the design for a new product as well (http://www.sharebooster.com).

http://i.imgur.com/MXCuN.png

You going to take that down also?

Re: Curebit (YC W11) Raises $1.2 Million For Online Referral System

#53

Post by [deleted] »

alexwolfe wrote: post #50

This is really upsetting for so many reasons. The intent to use these site designs took time and effort to implement. There had to be hours of time that they knew without a doubt they were stealing work they did not produce. To feign ignorance in this case in unacceptable. Furthermore these guys have raised 1.2 million dollars. To think that someone in this position would raise that amount in capital and pull this ki…

[deleted]

Re: Curebit (YC W11) Raises $1.2 Million For Online Referral System

#54

Post by ahoyhere »

nomadomatic wrote: post #41
outworlder wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, these guys get YCombinator and other investors to give them $1.2M and they still have to rip off 37 signals' design. I wonder which startup got rejected in their place.

What if curebit copied highrise's product - not the design mind you, but the core functionality of the product - and used a completely different, original design to dress up the product? Would you throw a similar tantrum? This is something that's always perplexed me. Companies copy other companies' business models and compete for the same customers all the time, but that's considered fair game. But if a design is cop…

Wait, do you think that there aren't already 10s, maybe even a 100+ products out there with the same basic functionality as Highrise? Because there are. There were before Highrise, and now, after. There are more every year.

The concept of a CRM is not something you can "copy" because it simply exists. And most web-based software works in roughly the same way. So far, most 37signals products have very few truly unique features, because their focus is on simplicity and less software.

Accordingly, 37signals doesn't care if somebody launches a new CRM.

They also don't seem to care when live chat apps like Hipchat have one or two features that 37signals pioneered.

Stealing a design outright, on the other hand, is not growing or improving or adopting a concept (e.g. "contact management that tracks deals", "it should x when you y") but their actual IP.

Re: Curebit (YC W11) Raises $1.2 Million For Online Referral System

#56

Post by earbitscom »

Serving the assets was a big mistake, but isn't this the same forum that overwhelmingly says copying isn't stealing and that no harm is done to the original creator when you duplicate their work? Now, suddenly everyone's a hard ass about IP? In this case more than all the others argued here, if you exclude the assets problem, there was zero detriment caused by using this design. It's not a competing product, and it did nothing to the value of the original work. If you can write off the assets issue as a bad mistake, and it was, I just don't see how 99% of the HN crowd can suddenly take the high road on appropriation of creative work. Have some consistency.

Re: Curebit (YC W11) Raises $1.2 Million For Online Referral System

#57

Post by mp3jeep01 »

jcampbell1 wrote: post #48
wlll wrote: post #5

Your new designer will be able to have a crack at an original homepage ;) http://i.imgur.com/fRI8Q.jpg http://i.imgur.com/KbQo0.jpg

Thanks for that. Now I am far less sad about stealing Curebit's concept. Their idea is fantastic, but I found it easier to just copy the concept than integrate with their APIs. Does anyone else find it strange that the article claims they have 1000 customers, and minimum pricing of $50/month, but they raised $1.2M? Why bother raising money if you are already close to a run-rate of $1M? My guess is they have closer to…

I doubt very many people find it strange -- just because you have revenue, or are profitable, does not mean you're "in the clear". Companies typically raise additional capital so they can accelerate their growth. Your assumption that companies only raise because they aren't cash-flow positive is misguided.

Re: Curebit (YC W11) Raises $1.2 Million For Online Referral System

#58

Post by redguava »

earbitscom wrote: post #56

Serving the assets was a big mistake, but isn't this the same forum that overwhelmingly says copying isn't stealing and that no harm is done to the original creator when you duplicate their work? Now, suddenly everyone's a hard ass about IP? In this case more than all the others argued here, if you exclude the assets problem, there was zero detriment caused by using this design. It's not a competing product, and it d…

I think there is a difference about being inspired by ideas or concepts in a design and plain ripping it off completely. That for me is the big difference.

As for no harm done, I don't agree with that. A lot of 37signals audience and marketing is through their audience that loves to hear what they say about design amongst other things. Having a cutting edge marketing website and blogging about it helps to generate interest in what they do. For someone that didn't know 37signals is the original designer of that style of site, no credit would go to them. The guy from Curebit even stated that he was planning to write up a blog about how the testing goes... why should they get the credit and pageviews for reviewing the a/b testing on someones elses design?

Go read @allangrant recent twitter posts and see if you still feel sympathetic.

Re: Curebit (YC W11) Raises $1.2 Million For Online Referral System

#59

Post by redguava »

jcampbell1 wrote: post #48
wlll wrote: post #5

Your new designer will be able to have a crack at an original homepage ;) http://i.imgur.com/fRI8Q.jpg http://i.imgur.com/KbQo0.jpg

Thanks for that. Now I am far less sad about stealing Curebit's concept. Their idea is fantastic, but I found it easier to just copy the concept than integrate with their APIs. Does anyone else find it strange that the article claims they have 1000 customers, and minimum pricing of $50/month, but they raised $1.2M? Why bother raising money if you are already close to a run-rate of $1M? My guess is they have closer to…

Revenue is not the same as profit, they could very easily be running at a loss even with that amount of revenue. We have seen this in extremes with companies like Groupon lately.

Re: Curebit (YC W11) Raises $1.2 Million For Online Referral System

#60

Post by dissident »

earbitscom wrote: post #30
timsally wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We'll take it down if DHH insists! It is personally my fault for not including a credit to Highrise for the design Lesson to us: add credits Crediting someone for their property doesn't make stealing it ok. By default, stealing is wrong. Waiting for an objection and/or linking to the owner doesn't change that. This seems like a problematic worldview for a young company.

It's not stealing , it's copying . 37signals still has their original. Let's get an upvote here because I know everyone in this forum agrees.

I actually don't care that they copied the design, but that YC actually funded people who thought that was a professional thing to do.
Post reply on HN