111–120 of 148 posts
I am afraid that the logical end of this race to the bottom in terms of technology is the end of the Silicon Valley (perhaps something like Hollywood for "new media" replacing technology)
You may as well be reading about a rock band here. This story does not and will not apply to you. This is the one in a thousand/million fairy-tale of the frivolous app dreamed up in coffee shops, fuelled by rapid investment and sold for vast sums to a tech giant without so much as a whiff of a business model.
My story is the total opposite... Where giants squash and step on the little guy innovator.
See thread I posted below https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5661273
You may as well be reading about a rock band here. This story does not and will not apply to you. This is the one in a thousand/million fairy-tale of the frivolous app dreamed up in coffee shops, fuelled by rapid investment and sold for vast sums to a tech giant without so much as a whiff of a business model.
Indeed this is one in a million. My story is the total opposite... Where giants squash and step on the little guy innovator. See thread I posted below https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5661273
You may as well be reading about a rock band here. This story does not and will not apply to you. This is the one in a thousand/million fairy-tale of the frivolous app dreamed up in coffee shops, fuelled by rapid investment and sold for vast sums to a tech giant without so much as a whiff of a business model.
The name of the publication is "Vanity Fair".
You may as well be reading about a rock band here. This story does not and will not apply to you. This is the one in a thousand/million fairy-tale of the frivolous app dreamed up in coffee shops, fuelled by rapid investment and sold for vast sums to a tech giant without so much as a whiff of a business model.
I see. Let's say I see a big incumbent who's UNIQUE selling point is 'we have everyone's private photos. people have to come to us if they want to see their friend's photos.' I start threatening them. They pay and buy us. I get rich. The incumbent gets to keep everyone's photos. At what point in the above do we not have a business model? Oh, you mean it can't possibly WORK! Except that it just did. Well, I'm sorry, b…
Being bought because you're shiny? Not a business model. To say Instagram has a business model is to insult every hacker/doer/entrepreneur who is actually trying to build a real business.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The direct reason that this doesn't work outside silicon valley is that outside silicon valley you, will1000, will not work for me for equity and no salary. That is only possible in Silicon Valley. Right, because only in Silicon Valley will people work for equity and no salary. They live off the air. Explain to me how talented coder 'x' (whoever, maybe will1000) will be able to live without any compensation whatsoe…
The portion you refer to is pocket change - it would not retain these employees outside Silicon Valley, where such caliber of employees are willing to give great weight to equity. Read http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2127882/Meet-OTHER-n... and it becomes clear that the 18 employees were recruited mostly with equity. Hiring the quality of talent that we're talking about, in will1000's market, just doesn't hap…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I see. Let's say I see a big incumbent who's UNIQUE selling point is 'we have everyone's private photos. people have to come to us if they want to see their friend's photos.' I start threatening them. They pay and buy us. I get rich. The incumbent gets to keep everyone's photos. At what point in the above do we not have a business model? Oh, you mean it can't possibly WORK! Except that it just did. Well, I'm sorry, b…
What you've just stated is, essentially, the business equivalent of the lottery. You could almost replace any reference to business terms in your post with "lottery" and have the same amount of truth applied. The whole point of a "model" is that it's repeatable and definable. "Getting acquired because they fear us" isn't a business model.
It is absolutely possible to undermine the business model of a company like Facebook by winning a marginal piece of their business away from them.
Economists are so fervently engaged in trying to eliminate cash-flow/economic/business cycles because deficits have non-linear consequences when they manifest.
With that, instagram had only one possible exit strategy to execute and they did.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What you've just stated is, essentially, the business equivalent of the lottery. You could almost replace any reference to business terms in your post with "lottery" and have the same amount of truth applied. The whole point of a "model" is that it's repeatable and definable. "Getting acquired because they fear us" isn't a business model.
Nature and capitalism share a structural characteristic: both require equilibrium or over-production to self-sustain. Any sustained deficit and the organism or economic entity suffers catastrophic failure. It is absolutely possible to undermine the business model of a company like Facebook by winning a marginal piece of their business away from them. Economists are so fervently engaged in trying to eliminate cash-flo…
> Nature and capitalism share a structural characteristic: both require equilibrium or over-production to self-sustain. Any sustained deficit and the organism or economic entity suffers catastrophic failure.
What does this actually mean in the context of this discussion? What does this have to do with anything?
> It is absolutely possible to undermine the business model of a company like Facebook by winning a marginal piece of their business away from them.
Nobody is denying that Instagram were a threat to Facebook. What people are saying are that the chances of becoming a threat are incredibly small and very much based on luck. There were many other well-executed apps that did not achieve the same success. That, and combined with the absence of a genuine business model, is why people mention the similarity to a lottery ticket.
> Economists are so fervently engaged in trying to eliminate cash-flow/economic/business cycles because deficits have non-linear consequences when they manifest.
Please explain to me what this means. What does it mean for a deficit to have a non-linear consequence?