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Dalton Caldwell: Announcing an audacious proposal

daltoncaldwell.com

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Re: Dalton Caldwell: Announcing an audacious proposal

#11

Post by ofrasergreen »

mgkimsal wrote: post #9

Seems to me that 'ad supported' is always going to be more attractive to funders/investors, because the potential is effectively unlimited (certainly by comparison with paid-for services). With pay-for services, there's a much smaller number of people who are going to (or be able to) pay, and when you start looking at those numbers, it's never the fabled 'hockey stick to heaven' that people dream of. What if twitter…

Or the revenue could implode. Companies making money selling stuff people want face competition from other companies making better stuff. Companies relying on advertising as their main source of income compete with every other company selling advertising space. For example, Old Media isn't hemorrhaging money just because someone's selling better newspapers.

Re: Dalton Caldwell: Announcing an audacious proposal

#12

Post by fusiongyro »

tgrass wrote: post #3

..the takeaway here is that the services provided by SourceForge/Github are too important to its users to be ad-supported. Why muddy the waters like that? The takeaway is that the incentives a company adopts are consequential and will define the culture and the product.

Because this is a pitch. I read it as: the takeaway here is that the services provided by SourceForge/Github are too important to its users [and me and app.net] to be ad-supported.

Re: Dalton Caldwell: Announcing an audacious proposal

#13

Post by state »

I love this idea, but the only reason I can come up with that you need half a million dollars to do it is that it's a pivot, and not a bootstrapped enterprise.

If GitHub is being used as the example in this line of argument, then why not follow their lead and build something people need and raise money later? Wouldn't you then be even more likely to convince hackers — the primary community you're trying to serve?

Re: Dalton Caldwell: Announcing an audacious proposal

#14

Post by tomjen3 »

danso wrote: post #10

I hate to be old school media here...but I wish this was announced on Monday or any other time besides Friday afternoon, when it will get less notice. Because it's a great announcement.

That may actually be the best time for geeks, since this will be one of the last things people read before they go home, turn the chair in front of the computer and start hacking.

And what do geeks like to hack on? New, exciting projects.

Re: Dalton Caldwell: Announcing an audacious proposal

#15

Post by pbreit »

mgkimsal wrote: post #9

Seems to me that 'ad supported' is always going to be more attractive to funders/investors, because the potential is effectively unlimited (certainly by comparison with paid-for services). With pay-for services, there's a much smaller number of people who are going to (or be able to) pay, and when you start looking at those numbers, it's never the fabled 'hockey stick to heaven' that people dream of. What if twitter…

For something like this that grows in value with more users, free is absolutely required.

Re: Dalton Caldwell: Announcing an audacious proposal

#16

Post by benatkin »

Seems odd to not actually use KickStarter. Won't running a homegrown fundraising platform distract from solving the messaging problem? And don't you have to make a case for something that KickStarter already spent a lot of time making a case for? (I was turned off when I first heard about KickStarter, and I still am, to a lesser extent, but I finally pitched in for two projects.)

Re: Dalton Caldwell: Announcing an audacious proposal

#17

Post by drhayes9 »

benatkin wrote: post #16

Seems odd to not actually use KickStarter. Won't running a homegrown fundraising platform distract from solving the messaging problem? And don't you have to make a case for something that KickStarter already spent a lot of time making a case for? (I was turned off when I first heard about KickStarter, and I still am, to a lesser extent, but I finally pitched in for two projects.)

From the FAQ:

  Why aren't you using Kickstarter?
  We wish we could, we

Re: Dalton Caldwell: Announcing an audacious proposal

#18

Post by scribu »

state wrote: post #13

I love this idea, but the only reason I can come up with that you need half a million dollars to do it is that it's a pivot, and not a bootstrapped enterprise. If GitHub is being used as the example in this line of argument, then why not follow their lead and build something people need and raise money later? Wouldn't you then be even more likely to convince hackers — the primary community you're trying to serve?

What exactly do you mean by "follow Github's lead"? Github had a paid tier and was profitable for years (and then raised money to expand), which sounds exactly like the plan for app.net.
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