In a town of gamblers, Mattermark is counting cards
venturebeat.com
In a town of gamblers, Mattermark is counting cards
1–10 of 17 posts
Re: In a town of gamblers, Mattermark is counting cards
#2> I really think I’m building a multibillion dollar company
AWESOME! :-D
Re: In a town of gamblers, Mattermark is counting cards
#3Can someone explain the relevance of Mattermark to me - no businessy bullshit?
To me it just sounds like another meaningless score, much like technorati was back in the day or klout (albeit more business minded than both). Is it an attempt to use big data to determine winners in the startup game? That also sounds like a terrible idea.
(The above is my initial reaction - I haven't researched this and I might be woefully wrong; which I why I ask for some explanations.)
Re: In a town of gamblers, Mattermark is counting cards
#4Can someone explain the relevance of Mattermark to me - no businessy bullshit? To me it just sounds like another meaningless score, much like technorati was back in the day or klout (albeit more business minded than both). Is it an attempt to use big data to determine winners in the startup game? That also sounds like a terrible idea. (The above is my initial reaction - I haven't researched this and I might be woeful…
At this point, I agree with you. Right now it's a score based on a combination of publicly accessible metrics. With that said, I think they are still very early stage and their vision to provide robust growth metrics to the investor community is much needed.
Now, if they can pull it off or not is yet to be seen.
Re: In a town of gamblers, Mattermark is counting cards
#5Can someone explain the relevance of Mattermark to me - no businessy bullshit? To me it just sounds like another meaningless score, much like technorati was back in the day or klout (albeit more business minded than both). Is it an attempt to use big data to determine winners in the startup game? That also sounds like a terrible idea. (The above is my initial reaction - I haven't researched this and I might be woeful…
At this point, I agree with you. Right now it's a score based on a combination of publicly accessible metrics. With that said, I think they are still very early stage and their vision to provide robust growth metrics to the investor community is much needed. Now, if they can pull it off or not is yet to be seen.
If you could provide information useful enough to provide a competitive advantage in investing, why provide it at all? Just invest in the companies yourself and put the millions in your own pocket.
To me, what it looks like (not saying it's true) is that it's a ycombinator shill company the backers of ycombinator are using to pump up other companies. After all, a lot of these companies are successful/bought out because of self fulfilling prophecies: they're successful because people think that they're successful.
Re: In a town of gamblers, Mattermark is counting cards
#6 On the enterprise or business to business side, signals are weaker, and signs of traction are harder to identify. However, Mattermark has found that tracking sales support materials (videos, whitepapers, and other documentation) is a signal and makes it easier to view traffic as an exhaust of the sales process.
Through this method, Mattermark listed cloud hosting startup Digital Ocean as its top pick for a pre-Series A company. The company raised a healthy round a few months later, mainly because of its success with developers.
For new investors, Mattermark and Dashboard.io aim to be a check on a startup’s performance. Both companies are also experimenting with their notifications system. Based on an investors’ specifications, they may be able to alert customers to a hot opportunity.
One of Morrill’s favorite examples is Instagram, a startup that was acquired by Facebook for a cool $1 billion, making its investors extremely rich. Back in Instagram’s early days in 2010-11, before the founders raised any significant funding, the photo-sharing app was growing its Twitter following at a double-digit percentage each month.
“It would have been a great signal that consumers were hooked, [and] the reality is that we could have identified it,” says Morrill.
The idea that Mattermark or a similar service could have identified Systrom and company before they were tapped into top-tier funding sources, enabling a less-than-well-connected angel or second or third-tier venture firm to get in on Instagram's Series A, is utterly unrealistic.
The serious angels and firms are actively engaged in the market and talking to founders on a daily basis, and serious founders looking for funding are making the rounds on Sand Hill Road, volunteering the most salient data that is almost never shared publicly (think revenue, revenue growth, etc.).
Mattermark's proposition seems to be "There are a couple of young guys who are wet behind the ears in a garage somewhere with a hot app, and if you call them up, you might be able to convince them to take your money before [insert prominent angel or firm] discovers them." That is a flawed proposition because this is simply not how the game works.
Re: In a town of gamblers, Mattermark is counting cards
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
At this point, I agree with you. Right now it's a score based on a combination of publicly accessible metrics. With that said, I think they are still very early stage and their vision to provide robust growth metrics to the investor community is much needed. Now, if they can pull it off or not is yet to be seen.
If you could provide information useful enough to provide a competitive advantage in investing, why provide it at all? Just invest in the companies yourself and put the millions in your own pocket. To me, what it looks like (not saying it's true) is that it's a ycombinator shill company the backers of ycombinator are using to pump up other companies. After all, a lot of these companies are successful/bought out becau…
The best way to get rich in a gold rush is to sell the shovels.
Re: In a town of gamblers, Mattermark is counting cards
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
At this point, I agree with you. Right now it's a score based on a combination of publicly accessible metrics. With that said, I think they are still very early stage and their vision to provide robust growth metrics to the investor community is much needed. Now, if they can pull it off or not is yet to be seen.
If you could provide information useful enough to provide a competitive advantage in investing, why provide it at all? Just invest in the companies yourself and put the millions in your own pocket. To me, what it looks like (not saying it's true) is that it's a ycombinator shill company the backers of ycombinator are using to pump up other companies. After all, a lot of these companies are successful/bought out becau…
Great question and it does make you think. I did notice the story quickly made the front page with very little up votes or maybe I just don't understand the ranking algorithm that HN uses.
Re: In a town of gamblers, Mattermark is counting cards
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
At this point, I agree with you. Right now it's a score based on a combination of publicly accessible metrics. With that said, I think they are still very early stage and their vision to provide robust growth metrics to the investor community is much needed. Now, if they can pull it off or not is yet to be seen.
If you could provide information useful enough to provide a competitive advantage in investing, why provide it at all? Just invest in the companies yourself and put the millions in your own pocket. To me, what it looks like (not saying it's true) is that it's a ycombinator shill company the backers of ycombinator are using to pump up other companies. After all, a lot of these companies are successful/bought out becau…
A competitive advantage is not a sure thing, its just an edge. Their tech could make a 90%/10% fail/win risk a 85%/15%, which would be a huge boon, but extremely dangerous for someone to place their life's savings on.
Speaking of, just because I may know a good investment, doesn't mean I have the resources to actually capitalize on it. I may know a likely way to make 10 Million/year, but if the buy in is 5 million, I'd be out of luck. Might as well sell that information to someone with 10 Million and make a cool 50k/100k for myself in the process.
During the goldrush, selling pickaxes and pans to miners was often a better way to get rich than to actually take the risk of mining yourself. You can see a modern day parallel in the custom bitcoin rigs. The companies selling them could just fire the machines up themselves. In the long run however, its better to sell the machine that could make 10k/yr for a guaranteed 2k in your pocket.
A bird in hand is better than two in the bush.
Re: In a town of gamblers, Mattermark is counting cards
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you could provide information useful enough to provide a competitive advantage in investing, why provide it at all? Just invest in the companies yourself and put the millions in your own pocket. To me, what it looks like (not saying it's true) is that it's a ycombinator shill company the backers of ycombinator are using to pump up other companies. After all, a lot of these companies are successful/bought out becau…
The best way to get rich in a gold rush is to sell the shovels.
Not if you know where the gold is buried and no one else does (which is what their purpose is). In your analogy, the shovels would be something like Meteor, or one of those "learn to rails in 24 hours!" startups.