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Mint founder on Silicon Valley

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Re: Mint founder on Silicon Valley

#41

Post by psyklic »

modoc wrote: post #24
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.

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 di…

Finance is important, but Facebook is such an essential networking tool, professionally and personally, that I completely disagree with you. Facebook solves a multitude of "real problems" -- just because some people "waste time" on it does not mean it isn't a serious tool. Without Facebook, for instance, I simply would not know nearly as much about the lives of my old friends and professional acquaintances -- this alone makes it very practical.

Not only this, but Facebook helps me organize the many people I meet each day, lets me easily keep in touch with people I care about, lets me know who is in each city I visit so I can arrange meetups, facilitates much of my social life (invites/mixers/who's going to what), provides introductions, etc.

Mint did not even exist two years ago, and people dealt with their finances then just fine. The difference between using Mint and not (in finance) is the same as the difference in using Facebook or not (in networking), in my opinion.

Re: Mint founder on Silicon Valley

#42

Post by TriinT »

zaidf wrote: post #36
TriinT wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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, Fac…

You are completely distorting my point. It's like if I said I love chocolate, you'll say "OMG the things you should really love is your family blabla." Indeed. You can love chocolate and your family. Just like you can view facebook, mint AND curing cancer as "real problems".

So, Facebook is to chocolate what curing cancer is to one's family. That's an interesting view. I get your original point, and I still believe a more careful choice of words would have been more appropriate...

An outsider who accidentally finds HN will probably think this is a community of slightly emotional retarded, detached, autistic nerds living in a complete fantasy world where the problems are server outages and the discussions circle around social media and childish Python Vs. Ruby drivel. I am a hardware guy and sometimes I think HN'ers have lost their sense of reality. Imagine what a more normal person would think...

Re: Mint founder on Silicon Valley

#43

Post by adharmad »

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.

They are not problems as such. youtube/facebook are more on the entertainment side of things. Nothing wrong with that........most of the money is in entertainment.

Re: Mint founder on Silicon Valley

#44

Post by jhancock »

aditya wrote: post #15

Here’s to the Mint team, from New Zealand, from France, Tunisia, Armenia, Ukraine, Russia, Canada, Greece, and all over the U.S. Hm. So, they got their start in the valley and then hired people all over the world? It reads like an ode to the valley absolutely till the last paragraph...

Perhaps the value of the story is that it pays to have your headquarters and founders in the valley. Your programmers, content writers, etc, can be anywhere. For many startups, having your labor outside the valley may be critical. Is this a trend?

Re: Mint founder on Silicon Valley

#45

Post by riffer »

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…

Yes, there are a lot of people who are ignorant about how good their circumstances are relative to most of the world's people.

But how does being judgemental towards the ignorant help the unfortunate?

Re: Mint founder on Silicon Valley

#46

Post by TriinT »

axod wrote: post #37
TriinT wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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, Fac…

I think the parent, and OP were talking about "real problems" within the realms of software. Which is what most of us do. Online communication is an invaluable net win for everyone. Social media is just one type of communication but a valuable force for good. Well done for saying we should cure cancer though.

"Well done for saying we should cure cancer though."

That was cliché, I admit. In any case, cancer is only one problem. Cancer is a very difficult problem that kills many people. There are diseases that kill as many or more people than cancer, and that are easier to fight than cancer, but that no one pays attention to...

Why is that? Because cancer kills rich people too, while some diseases only kill poor people. Poor people cannot pay for vaccines, or top-notch healthcare, or even basic healthcare actually... so there's no market there. Bill Gates wrote all about it, so I am not claiming to have found anything new. Thanfully, Gates has the money to do something about it, while I barely have the money to pay my rent (I live in California, after all).

Re: Mint founder on Silicon Valley

#47

Post by zaidf »

zaidf wrote: post #36
TriinT wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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, Fac…

You are completely distorting my point. It's like if I said I love chocolate, you'll say "OMG the things you should really love is your family blabla." Indeed. You can love chocolate and your family. Just like you can view facebook, mint AND curing cancer as "real problems".

An outsider who accidentally finds HN will probably think this is a community of slightly emotional retarded, detached, autistic nerds living in a complete fantasy world where the problems are server outages

I'd hope so. This is not a save-the-world forum. It's Hacker News. We do think more about server problems than cancer when we are on here. It does not mean we consider server problems to be a bigger problem than cancer.

My original post was about relative use of Mint vs. Facebook. You're making it facebook vs. cancer. A more appropriate argument would be facebook/mint vs. cancer which is a completely valid debate(except I'll probably end up agreeing with you wholeheartedly)--just not for this thread.

Re: Mint founder on Silicon Valley

#49

Post by axod »

krschultz wrote: post #40
modoc wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 di…

Exactly. Vimeo & Hulu replace all the value of YouTube. It is commodity free video hosting, there is no community at YouTube. Facebook is useful for me, but I wouldn't pay for it if I had to. I'd gladly pay for Mint. Mint has nothing to do with taxes like axod says. It is about budgeting and tracking expenditures. I used to get a statement in the mail each month from 4 different institutions related to bank accounts,…

>> "Mint has nothing to do with taxes like axod says."

>> "If you are not one of those people who has money to keep track of or you don't balance your checkbook, then sure the value is hard to see."

I was really trying to work out why Mint seems to be valued highly in the US. I can see some of the differences now.

The idea of having a 'checkbook' is incredibly quaint to most people in the UK. No one uses checks anymore here, not for 10-20 years, we're used to free banking, online account management, direct debits/transfers, etc. The majority of people have direct debits (Automated bill payments) setup for all their bills. They have their pay paid automatically into their bank by transfer (All free of course).

Banks provide all the tools we need to manage our money for free generally. Some online banking tools even allow you to access other banks that you may have accounts with (With your approval), so you can see all your accounts from one interface, and get a better picture.

I still think the added burden of having to file your own taxes would make you more likely to need something like mint, but it's probably more the extreme differences in consumer banking that's the bigger reason.

If I had to pay my bills by check, I'd go insane.

Re: Mint founder on Silicon Valley

#50

Post by kareemm »

aditya wrote: post #15

Here’s to the Mint team, from New Zealand, from France, Tunisia, Armenia, Ukraine, Russia, Canada, Greece, and all over the U.S. Hm. So, they got their start in the valley and then hired people all over the world? It reads like an ode to the valley absolutely till the last paragraph...

i read it as ppl from those countries are on the Mint team and live in the valley.
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