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YC Demo Day Session 1

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Re: YC Demo Day Session 1

#81

Post by joshmlewis »

chvid wrote: post #67

I am the only who is thinking that we most be near the end of a cycle when the business ideas become more and more blantly illegal? I mean: Backpack - tax evasion. Unwind Me - the world's oldest profession. Here are two new ideas for the next round at ycombinator: Wind me up - natural herbs and mushrooms for expanding your mind brought to you in an anonymous brown package at the confort of your home. Not sure where y…

You named two out of the dozens of companies funded as your examples. Of the two you named you are assuming unwind.me is a cover for sexual services. Have any proof of this? No, you don't. It's quite disrespectful to people in that profession to assume doing their job will turn into offering sexual services. Come on.

And what about tax evasion? You still pay taxes on the items that are bought. The point is getting access to items not normally available in other countries for international shipping. Again, any proof of tax evasion? I don't think so.

Take your negative comments to Reddit or 4chan where you can mindlessly share mindless opinions with no merit. This isn't the place for that. If you want to have a productive discussion, offer some proof to back up your wild claims.

Re: YC Demo Day Session 1

#82

Post by ashraful »

alexchamberlain wrote: post #6

>> Backpack is a company that arbitrages the cost of goods in different countries by using international travelers as a distribution network I don't understand this one - with a world focused on security and import taxes, how does this work out?

The founders are from Bangladesh, where this is becoming a very common practice, although the practice is rather informal. Usually you'd ask your friends and family to find out if anyone they know will be traveling from US to Bangladesh and then you ask them to buy whatever you want.

In the last two years I have also seen facebook groups pop up to expand the network beyond family and friends so its incredibly smart of them to formalize the process and make it more accessible to everyone.

While it's technically breaking the law, its no more so than AirBnb and Uber/Lyft. And the demand is just as high if not more.

Re: YC Demo Day Session 1

#83

Post by Cookingboy »

pbreit wrote: post #77
benologist wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. The entire purpose is to save money by not paying taxes on items by illegally not declaring those items when you enter a country. It may break US exporting laws and embargos, or international laws too. It's almost certain the founders and everyone near them is going to end up arrested and probably imprisoned like any other smuggling organization.

Hyperbolic much? At least a portion of the purpose access to items that might be difficult or impossible to obtain. Further, it's entirely legal to bring home modest quantities of various items for possible resale, in some cases at a profit, others not.

"At least a portion of the purpose access to items that might be difficult or impossible to obtain" I'm sure that argument can be applied to things such as drugs, firearms, dangerous animal, etc, pretty much anything restricted by export/import laws of a country.

And for your last point, no, it's not entirely legal without paying a tax in all countries. Please research your own country's custom laws before making a statement like that.

Re: YC Demo Day Session 1

#84

Post by chvid »

mind_heist wrote: post #78
chvid wrote: post #67

I am the only who is thinking that we most be near the end of a cycle when the business ideas become more and more blantly illegal? I mean: Backpack - tax evasion. Unwind Me - the world's oldest profession. Here are two new ideas for the next round at ycombinator: Wind me up - natural herbs and mushrooms for expanding your mind brought to you in an anonymous brown package at the confort of your home. Not sure where y…

Well, I guess thats a pretty harsh take on unwind.me Has there been any reports of such things happening ..? using unwind me .. You could make a similar statement about AirBnb too.

I have no idea wrt. the concrete company. I was making a general / humorous comment.

But don't be naive about the message industry - in the big tabloid newspapers which are by numbers the biggest newspapers - the section with message advertisement is huge. It takes a big industry with plenty of money to buy those ads. While you can probably get a kosher message at some of the places - sleeze is what creates the money.

For an electronic version of these tabloid ads to be profitable and have airbnb-style growth they would have to tap into that market regardless of them starting off with a more polished front.

Re: YC Demo Day Session 1

#85

Post by chvid »

joshmlewis wrote: post #81
chvid wrote: post #67

I am the only who is thinking that we most be near the end of a cycle when the business ideas become more and more blantly illegal? I mean: Backpack - tax evasion. Unwind Me - the world's oldest profession. Here are two new ideas for the next round at ycombinator: Wind me up - natural herbs and mushrooms for expanding your mind brought to you in an anonymous brown package at the confort of your home. Not sure where y…

You named two out of the dozens of companies funded as your examples. Of the two you named you are assuming unwind.me is a cover for sexual services. Have any proof of this? No, you don't. It's quite disrespectful to people in that profession to assume doing their job will turn into offering sexual services. Come on. And what about tax evasion? You still pay taxes on the items that are bought. The point is getting ac…

Are you sure you are not the one who is negative?

Re: YC Demo Day Session 1

#86

Post by Cookingboy »

ashraful wrote: post #82
alexchamberlain wrote: post #6

>> Backpack is a company that arbitrages the cost of goods in different countries by using international travelers as a distribution network I don't understand this one - with a world focused on security and import taxes, how does this work out?

The founders are from Bangladesh, where this is becoming a very common practice, although the practice is rather informal. Usually you'd ask your friends and family to find out if anyone they know will be traveling from US to Bangladesh and then you ask them to buy whatever you want. In the last two years I have also seen facebook groups pop up to expand the network beyond family and friends so its incredibly smart o…

"While it's technically breaking the law, its no more so than AirBnb and Uber/Lyft. And the demand is just as high if not more."

That's is absolutely not correct. Please do not compare individual countries' custom law to your local city's taxi law or hotel code. Lying on custom declaration form is an imprisonable offense in most countries.

When it's an informal practice it works because it's hard to prove and there is no paper trail. But when it's a real company doing the service all the customers data has a paper trail to it with financial records for each transaction, involving the monetary amount paid by the customer, received by the carrier, earned by the company, etc. It's literally a prosecutor's wet dream.

At least in China, these kind of organized smuggling rings do exist, but they exist very much underground with no paper trail, because if caught, the ring leaders (founders of Backpack in this case) would be subject to from prison terms to execution depends on the amount of tax they evaded.

Re: YC Demo Day Session 1

#87

Post by ashraful »

Cookingboy wrote: post #86
ashraful wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The founders are from Bangladesh, where this is becoming a very common practice, although the practice is rather informal. Usually you'd ask your friends and family to find out if anyone they know will be traveling from US to Bangladesh and then you ask them to buy whatever you want. In the last two years I have also seen facebook groups pop up to expand the network beyond family and friends so its incredibly smart o…

"While it's technically breaking the law, its no more so than AirBnb and Uber/Lyft. And the demand is just as high if not more." That's is absolutely not correct. Please do not compare individual countries' custom law to your local city's taxi law or hotel code. Lying on custom declaration form is an imprisonable offense in most countries. When it's an informal practice it works because it's hard to prove and there i…

You are right. I suppose I meant to say its no more unethical (in my opinion) than Airbnb or Uber.

Re: YC Demo Day Session 1

#89

Post by idlewords »

edgyswingset wrote: post #76
ryanSrich wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And rightfully so. Some laws exist to protect the consumer. Most laws exist to extort money and funnel it to a very specific group of people.

Care to explain which of those "most laws" exist to extort money? It's common to hear this sentiment parroted around, but never does it come with anything backing it up. Until that point, people like me have to assume that sentiments such as that are purely self-serving.

Worse, this kind of sentiment is undemocratic. The sheeple pass the laws, and the few Nietzschean supermen with the guts (and money) to do it disregard them, to prove they're wrong.

Re: YC Demo Day Session 1

#90

Post by Cookingboy »

idlewords wrote: post #89
edgyswingset wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Care to explain which of those "most laws" exist to extort money? It's common to hear this sentiment parroted around, but never does it come with anything backing it up. Until that point, people like me have to assume that sentiments such as that are purely self-serving.

Worse, this kind of sentiment is undemocratic. The sheeple pass the laws, and the few Nietzschean supermen with the guts (and money) to do it disregard them, to prove they're wrong.

Not sure if you are being sarcastic or not. I thought democracy == people rules, but it seems like you are suggesting we discard "sheeple"'s opinion and follow the lead of a few "supermen with guts and money".

Not sure who's being undemocratic here.

Also, whenever someone uses the word "sheeple" in their argument they lose all credibilities in my eyes.

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