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

Going from $0 to $500k in 1 Year with no VC Money

thenextweb.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 86 posts

Re: Going from $0 to $500k in 1 Year with no VC Money

#41

Post by jasonkester »

In case the Flow guys are reading this, please please please put out a simple HTML version of your thing.

Flow sits at the top of my "most annoying web app ever" list, because it follows the pattern of loading an empty shell, then populating it. I bet this works amazingly well for the guys developing it from their local dev server, but for those of us across the Atlantic from your servers it's really really painful.

Workflow involves clicking a link to look at a task. Then hitting the back button. Then waiting several seconds for the list to slowly repopulate itself. Then trying to scroll down (which is no easy feat since there's no scroll bar), and just before you get back to where you wanted to be, the list jumps back to the top. Repeat (scroll/jump/scroll/jump) several times before the page settles down, usually cutting the last item in half with no way to see it.

So yeah, Step One: HTML in a table. So that the back button works, and the page otherwise behaves like a web page.

Step two: Un-reinvent the scrollbar. The javascript thing you have in place that only works with the mousewheel just plain doesn't work.

Glad to see you're doing well for yourselves, but I'm sorry to report that I'm one of the people in your "churn" column.

Re: Going from $0 to $500k in 1 Year with no VC Money

#43

Post by drumdance »

dkrich wrote: post #39
TDL wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The only exception to this is when you are first to market with something unique." The "first mover" advantage is largely a myth. Many successful companies that dominate their market segments weren't the first entrants in that segment.

> The "first mover" advantage is largely a myth. Many successful companies that dominate their market segments weren't the first entrants in that segment. I think this depends upon how granularly you bucket the different companies. If you just use broad strokes and say "Apple wasn't the first to make a cell phone", then what you are saying is true, albeit at ignoring the fact that they were the first to make a cell p…

You don't have to be the market leader to be successful. Some friends of mine started an online survey product similar to SurveyMonkey (but better in many ways) years after SurveyMonkey. It's a very profitable business.

Obligatory plug: http://www.surveygizmo.com

Re: Going from $0 to $500k in 1 Year with no VC Money

#44

Post by ericd »

Zakuzaa wrote: post #42

>>"Going from $0 to $500k in 1 year.." Congrats. Great work. >>"..with no VC Money" What makes it something to be proud of? Doesn't that imply taking VC money is bad? Why?

It's more challenging to make and grow a business without much money than with.

Re: Going from $0 to $500k in 1 Year with no VC Money

#45

Post by TDL »

dkrich wrote: post #39
TDL wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The only exception to this is when you are first to market with something unique." The "first mover" advantage is largely a myth. Many successful companies that dominate their market segments weren't the first entrants in that segment.

> The "first mover" advantage is largely a myth. Many successful companies that dominate their market segments weren't the first entrants in that segment. I think this depends upon how granularly you bucket the different companies. If you just use broad strokes and say "Apple wasn't the first to make a cell phone", then what you are saying is true, albeit at ignoring the fact that they were the first to make a cell p…

I was thinking more Pampers (P&G) vs. Chux (JnJ). In fact P&G is an example of successfully being a "me-too" player. The "me-too" companies are often the innovators that create better products.

I have no idea why you are being down voted.

Re: Going from $0 to $500k in 1 Year with no VC Money

#46

Post by marknutter »

jasonkester wrote: post #41

In case the Flow guys are reading this, please please please put out a simple HTML version of your thing. Flow sits at the top of my "most annoying web app ever" list, because it follows the pattern of loading an empty shell, then populating it. I bet this works amazingly well for the guys developing it from their local dev server, but for those of us across the Atlantic from your servers it's really really painful.…

I'm guessing you don't actually use flow day to day. I'm also guessing that if they made an HTML version you probably wouldn't use that either; you probably have your own way of managing your projects and todos. I'm also guessing you're using this post as a sounding board for your gripes with single page javascript applications. Are any of these guesses accurate?

Re: Going from $0 to $500k in 1 Year with no VC Money

#47

Post by guynamedloren »

> We usually clock between four and six hours a day, and most of us don’t even get to the office before noon.

Realllly interested to hear more about this. Can anybody from Flow elaborate? How well does this work? How did 4-6 hours come about? Why not 5-7 hrs? Or 3-5? How do salaries work - is everybody full time?

> We believe in working smart, not hard, and having lives outside the office.

Why can't you work smart and hard? Couldn't you accomplish in 8 hours what other teams could accomplish in 8-16 hrs?

Please share :)

Re: Going from $0 to $500k in 1 Year with no VC Money

#48

Post by marknutter »

dkrich wrote: post #35
dkrich wrote: post #30

Sorry, this is just a shameless ripoff of 37Signals and Rework. This whole "you only have to work a few hours a day" philosophy will only take you so far. That's just simple economics. If something is that easy to build it means there are very low barriers to entry. When there are very low barriers to entry, profits eventually get squashed to zero. The only exception to this is when you are first to market with somet…

Aww, I guess I hurt some feelings. Sorry about that. (Not really, downvote away!)

Always a good idea to follow up a negative post with a post bitching about down-votes.

Re: Going from $0 to $500k in 1 Year with no VC Money

#49

Post by TamDenholm »

guynamedloren wrote: post #47

> We usually clock between four and six hours a day, and most of us don’t even get to the office before noon. Realllly interested to hear more about this. Can anybody from Flow elaborate? How well does this work? How did 4-6 hours come about? Why not 5-7 hrs? Or 3-5? How do salaries work - is everybody full time? > We believe in working smart, not hard, and having lives outside the office. Why can't you work smart an…

One of the problems with old school thinking is that working hard means working long, which is absolute rubbish. Personally I can't be productive for 8 hours a day and I'm pretty sure nobody can, all the time you're not being productive you're generally wasting time by making coffee, checking emails, attending meetings etc. So why not actually just work the time that you're productive and then go and enjoy the rest of the time instead of just using up time doing things of little consequence.

That's working smart, IMO working longer just for the sake of it is working stupid because long and constant working hours aren't just wasted time, they negatively impact the time you wouldve been productive.

Re: Going from $0 to $500k in 1 Year with no VC Money

#50

Post by leptons »

marknutter wrote: post #46
jasonkester wrote: post #41

In case the Flow guys are reading this, please please please put out a simple HTML version of your thing. Flow sits at the top of my "most annoying web app ever" list, because it follows the pattern of loading an empty shell, then populating it. I bet this works amazingly well for the guys developing it from their local dev server, but for those of us across the Atlantic from your servers it's really really painful.…

I'm guessing you don't actually use flow day to day. I'm also guessing that if they made an HTML version you probably wouldn't use that either; you probably have your own way of managing your projects and todos. I'm also guessing you're using this post as a sounding board for your gripes with single page javascript applications. Are any of these guesses accurate?

My guess is you sound like a troll.
Post reply on HN