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Mint founder on Silicon Valley

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Re: Mint founder on Silicon Valley

#21

Post by axod »

modoc wrote: post #19
zaidf wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I can see where he is coming from(and have myself grown tired of the social media stuff), his tone is kind of condescending. Cool he sold his "real problem" startup; but to suggest YouTube, facebook aren't solving "real problems" is interesting in the least.

If I woke up tomorrow and one of those sites was down for good, Mint is the one I'd miss the most.

Your comment isn't really useful :/ you're obviously an outlier. Most people would go insane if they couldn't access youtube or facebook.

Social media, music, video are real problems that people have, and need solutions to. The problem comes when a startup doesn't really solve anything new and just copies existing stuff.

Re: Mint founder on Silicon Valley

#23

Post by TriinT »

zaidf wrote: post #18
mixmax wrote: post #3

"While everyone else was doing social media, music, video or the startup de jour, we tried to ground ourselves in what any business should be doing: solve a real problem for people." This is good advice for all aspiring entrepreneurs.

While I can see where he is coming from(and have myself grown tired of the social media stuff), his tone is kind of condescending. Cool he sold his "real problem" startup; but to suggest YouTube, facebook aren't solving "real problems" is interesting in the least.

When I think of solving "real problems", I think of:

- curing cancer

- cheap water purification

- vaccines for tropical diseases (the U.S. / European pharma companies have very little incentive to work on them)

- energy-efficient desalination

- energy-efficient computing systems

- efficient solar panels and cheap fuel cells

- easy access to high-quality learning materials (MIT OCW rocks)

and you think of YouTube, Facebook. Do you want to include Twitter, too? For Christ's sake, the "social media" virus has infected a lot of minds here on HN. Let's put things this way: 5,000 people die everyday all over the world of preventable water diseases, and you're talking of social media as a real problem?

Re: Mint founder on Silicon Valley

#24

Post by modoc »

axod wrote: post #21
modoc wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I woke up tomorrow and one of those sites was down for good, Mint is the one I'd miss the most.

Your comment isn't really useful :/ you're obviously an outlier. Most people would go insane if they couldn't access youtube or facebook. Social media, music, video are real problems that people have, and need solutions to. The problem comes when a startup doesn't really solve anything new and just copies existing stuff.

I guess you and I have differing opinions on what "real problems" are. Personal finance, yup. Facebook feed, not so much.

Out of people who use Mint and who use YouTube, I'd bet many would pick Mint over YouTube if they had to pick one.

Honestly, if youtube or facebook vanished, and in this magical world, no one propped up a replacement. People would moan for a week, and then they'd go back to the same things they did before YouTube existed, with no change to anything practical in their life. People wouldn't go insane, they'd simple find other ways to waste time.

Re: Mint founder on Silicon Valley

#25

Post by TriinT »

axod wrote: post #21
modoc wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I woke up tomorrow and one of those sites was down for good, Mint is the one I'd miss the most.

Your comment isn't really useful :/ you're obviously an outlier. Most people would go insane if they couldn't access youtube or facebook. Social media, music, video are real problems that people have, and need solutions to. The problem comes when a startup doesn't really solve anything new and just copies existing stuff.

"Your comment isn't really useful :/ you're obviously an outlier. Most people would go insane if they couldn't access youtube or facebook."

Facebook has 200 million users or so. The world has over 6 billion people. Hence, only 3% or so of the world's population uses Facebook. Moreover, Facebook is basically a rolodex. If Facebook disappeared tomorrow, people would use email instead. They would have no other choice.

Let's talk of real problems. Over 1,000 million people live in extreme poverty. That's 5x the total number of Facebook users. So you talk of people going insane if they lost Facebook, and I find that extremely distasteful when 100s of millions of parents everyday struggle to feed their children. I am not being sensationalist, I am just putting things in perspective. Americans whine when unemployment reaches record levels and they can no longer afford Starbucks coffee everyday, but guess what, some people have real problems, like lack of food, lack of potable water, drought, disease, war, etc. I suggest you take some months off and go backpack around this world to see how fortunate we spoilt Americans / Western Europeans truly are...

Re: Mint founder on Silicon Valley

#26

Post by thwarted »

zaidf wrote: post #18
mixmax wrote: post #3

"While everyone else was doing social media, music, video or the startup de jour, we tried to ground ourselves in what any business should be doing: solve a real problem for people." This is good advice for all aspiring entrepreneurs.

While I can see where he is coming from(and have myself grown tired of the social media stuff), his tone is kind of condescending. Cool he sold his "real problem" startup; but to suggest YouTube, facebook aren't solving "real problems" is interesting in the least.

I like the easy access to videos that Youtube provides as much as the next guy, but to think that Youtube and facebook are on the utility scale anywhere near where Mint is is also "interesting". Youtube and facebook are much closer to entertainment and time wasting, at least from the user standpoint, than they are to "real problems". Obviously, businesses can get much more "real problem solving" out of Youtube and facebook (at least in terms of marketing), but that is not a significant subset of their users.

Re: Mint founder on Silicon Valley

#28

Post by [deleted] »

mixmax wrote: post #3

"While everyone else was doing social media, music, video or the startup de jour, we tried to ground ourselves in what any business should be doing: solve a real problem for people." This is good advice for all aspiring entrepreneurs.

[deleted]

Re: Mint founder on Silicon Valley

#30

Post by axod »

TriinT wrote: post #25
axod wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment isn't really useful :/ you're obviously an outlier. Most people would go insane if they couldn't access youtube or facebook. Social media, music, video are real problems that people have, and need solutions to. The problem comes when a startup doesn't really solve anything new and just copies existing stuff.

"Your comment isn't really useful :/ you're obviously an outlier. Most people would go insane if they couldn't access youtube or facebook." Facebook has 200 million users or so. The world has over 6 billion people. Hence, only 3% or so of the world's population uses Facebook. Moreover, Facebook is basically a rolodex. If Facebook disappeared tomorrow, people would use email instead. They would have no other choice. L…

>> "Let's talk of real problems. Over 1,000 million people live in extreme poverty."

Lets not. This is hacker news.

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