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Protect Kids, Get F*cked

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Re: Protect Kids, Get F*cked

#41
post #2

This sounds like the story Jessica Livingston mentioned at Startup School 2012 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4699862 >, if I remember correctly -- business in Texas got a term sheet, moved to California, investors pulled out when their user acquisition metric changed. Anyone have more color on this?

I thought I had remembered this from Startup School, interesting story.

Re: Protect Kids, Get F*cked

#42

We received email after email from parents thanking us for saving their children’s lives, literally. Yes, please tell me more about all these children whose lives your service saved. Just like To Catch A Predator's ridiculous premise (that digusting, fat 50 year-old men who live in their parents' basement are hooking up with hot teenagers), yours reeks of trumping up a problem that only exists on the extreme fringe.…

Indeed, tell us more about these children's lives you saved. I've done extensive research on these occurrences when my first startup internet provider first encountered these claims in the nineties. We never found any evidence whatsoever. We did find an overwhelmingly large number of people ready to go on a witch hunt or lynch these so called perpetrators, but that's been going on for thousands of years now.

Has anyone claiming child pornography online ever actually found something? Again, please show us, they would be my first datapoints ever in our assisting of the police in investigating these.

The business model of the OP is itself predatory on the fears and underbelly feelings of uninformed parents. Better to explain to those parents how to raise children so that they are cautious about anything they encouter online.

Re: Protect Kids, Get F*cked

#43
I'm confused. Did they protect kids? I don't remember if he said that or not.

Anyway, a few comments:

- They paid for free users with no business model in place

- They failed to complete requirements of their previous investment deals

- Handshakes don't matter, term sheets don't matter; nothing matters until the check clears

Re: Protect Kids, Get F*cked

#44
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real problem was they had no business model; spending money to get users when you don't even know what your return is? That's ludicrous. That's a core business issue from day one.

twitter, google & facebook might disagree

Twitter/Facebook grew virally, not through paid marketing to acquire users.

Re: Protect Kids, Get F*cked

#45
I really enjoyed reading this article. More articles like this need to be on HN, rather than the run of the mill startup success stories. It's refreshing and visceral to hear how a startup can fail, being so close to success.

Re: Protect Kids, Get F*cked

#46

I can add a bit more color to this story as I was intimately involved in it. I worked at the company that was bought by HP in Oregon and then later in Texas. It was called RLX technologies and created the first blade server. After it was purchased by HP I stayed on for a few months before moving on to a startup in Oregon. It seemed like a great idea as they moved me back to Oregon. My best friend, who got me on at RL…

Wow, that's resilience.

Also, now I wish I were in the market for a new car. I'll probably just get a Tesla in a couple years, which CarWoo can't really help with.

Re: Protect Kids, Get F*cked

#47
post #42

We received email after email from parents thanking us for saving their children’s lives, literally. Yes, please tell me more about all these children whose lives your service saved. Just like To Catch A Predator's ridiculous premise (that digusting, fat 50 year-old men who live in their parents' basement are hooking up with hot teenagers), yours reeks of trumping up a problem that only exists on the extreme fringe.…

Indeed, tell us more about these children's lives you saved. I've done extensive research on these occurrences when my first startup internet provider first encountered these claims in the nineties. We never found any evidence whatsoever. We did find an overwhelmingly large number of people ready to go on a witch hunt or lynch these so called perpetrators, but that's been going on for thousands of years now. Has anyo…

I used to work for a content filtering company. Yes child porn exists, and it's one of your worst days when these sites start popping up in what you're reviewing, no, we can't send the links to others to "prove" it exists. I no longer work there and I'm glad I don't have days like that anymore.

Re: Protect Kids, Get F*cked

#48
I know how you feel exactly. I had a business in the same position except in the payment industry: we were processing roughly $1m a day until one day we had a frightening call from the bank. Two weeks later we were in liquidation and I was facing bankruptcy. Like you are saying (in an essence): the rug was being pulled from under you.

Thank you for sharing your story - by sharing, it it helps the whole startup community :)

Re: Protect Kids, Get F*cked

#49
post #42

We received email after email from parents thanking us for saving their children’s lives, literally. Yes, please tell me more about all these children whose lives your service saved. Just like To Catch A Predator's ridiculous premise (that digusting, fat 50 year-old men who live in their parents' basement are hooking up with hot teenagers), yours reeks of trumping up a problem that only exists on the extreme fringe.…

Indeed, tell us more about these children's lives you saved. I've done extensive research on these occurrences when my first startup internet provider first encountered these claims in the nineties. We never found any evidence whatsoever. We did find an overwhelmingly large number of people ready to go on a witch hunt or lynch these so called perpetrators, but that's been going on for thousands of years now. Has anyo…

You're confusing issues. The argument here was whether the OP was misrepresenting occurrence of "grooming", not about illegal pornography.

Re: Protect Kids, Get F*cked

#50
Age? Sex? Location? That’s how predators started their hunt.

It's also how teenagers started conversations with each other in chat rooms a decade ago. It may still be, but I haven't been a teenager in a while. I imagine predators open with the same question, but actually using it as a filter would produce an unacceptable amount of noise.

This is a useful story about some of the mistakes one can make dealing with VCs, but it sounds like the product itself was a little questionable.

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