RockYou? Really?
Exactly my thoughts.
BusinessWeek: Tech's Best Young Entrepreneurs
11–20 of 39 posts
Re: BusinessWeek: Tech's Best Young Entrepreneurs
#12RockYou? Really?
F Me. $15 mil for adding tinsel to your MySpace? And "RockYou is lining up a new round of funding to stay sharp." . Etsy: $31.6 mil for a swapmeet just for handmade crafts . When people take that much buck for so little bang it doesn't seem like they are interested in ROI or making it big so much as having a jobs program for them and their buddies. Auctomatic sold for what probably amounts to a few months' burn rate…
I won't argue against RockYou. That's just silly. But Handmade crafts are a huge segment of the market, especially with women as soon as they graduate college and start nesting. There's a much bigger upside to Etsy.
Re: BusinessWeek: Tech's Best Young Entrepreneurs
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Etsy: $31.6 mil for a swapmeet just for handmade crafts. I'm assuming that your italics were meant to indicate that you think this is a silly idea. But what you probably have to consider is the size of the handmade craft market in the US. Then consider the entire world-wide market. It's probably very large. And Breyer @ Accel is no fool.
You have to judge the idea, not appeal to authority. Investors make mistakes most of the time ! > But what you probably have to consider is the size of the handmade craft market in the US. Then consider the entire world-wide market. It's probably very large. That's every business plan ever. "Look how huge this market is! If we could just get one percent, why..." It's like Ali G's pitch. "Zen" (Venn) diagram of "Peopl…
Wait, what? Of course you look at the size of your market. How is that a bad thing?
I'm not sure why you are poo-pooing Etsy's business. It serves a need and the company makes money.
Re: BusinessWeek: Tech's Best Young Entrepreneurs
#14Apparently I am no longer a "young" entrepreneur. (sigh)
The hook seems to be tying "kids" to "millions"--must draw lots of eyeballs (like the last time around).
Maybe AARP has a business publication that would like to profile all these young 30- and 40-something upstart entrepreneurs.
Re: BusinessWeek: Tech's Best Young Entrepreneurs
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
You have to judge the idea, not appeal to authority. Investors make mistakes most of the time ! > But what you probably have to consider is the size of the handmade craft market in the US. Then consider the entire world-wide market. It's probably very large. That's every business plan ever. "Look how huge this market is! If we could just get one percent, why..." It's like Ali G's pitch. "Zen" (Venn) diagram of "Peopl…
Wait, what? Of course you look at the size of your market. How is that a bad thing? I'm not sure why you are poo-pooing Etsy's business. It serves a need and the company makes money.
> and the company makes money.
The company loses money. Read it again.
I'm not disparaging the business, I'm disparaging the business combined with the amount of funding. That's just ridiculous.
Re: BusinessWeek: Tech's Best Young Entrepreneurs
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
F Me. $15 mil for adding tinsel to your MySpace? And "RockYou is lining up a new round of funding to stay sharp." . Etsy: $31.6 mil for a swapmeet just for handmade crafts . When people take that much buck for so little bang it doesn't seem like they are interested in ROI or making it big so much as having a jobs program for them and their buddies. Auctomatic sold for what probably amounts to a few months' burn rate…
I won't argue against RockYou. That's just silly. But Handmade crafts are a huge segment of the market, especially with women as soon as they graduate college and start nesting. There's a much bigger upside to Etsy.
> especially with women as soon as they graduate college and start nesting
Nesting? What are they, ducks? As a feminist I'd like to say that's some pretty idiotic stereotyping. Female college graduates overwhelmingly enter the workforce, not nests.
Re: BusinessWeek: Tech's Best Young Entrepreneurs
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
I won't argue against RockYou. That's just silly. But Handmade crafts are a huge segment of the market, especially with women as soon as they graduate college and start nesting. There's a much bigger upside to Etsy.
> especially with women as soon as they graduate college and start nesting Nesting? What are they, ducks? As a feminist I'd like to say that's some pretty idiotic stereotyping. Female college graduates overwhelmingly enter the workforce, not nests.
'Nesting' is a common term for the set of behaviors that makes a home more compatible with a family than a single person. Are you unfamiliar with it?
Is it really idiotic to suggest that women are more likely to do handmade crafts than men? I know many women who knit as adults, or make small crafts as kids.
However, there's an easy way to settle this. If etsy is going to underserve the vast market for men who knit adorable mittens and hats for their kids, you can certainly be successful with a startup that targets that market. Or we could just bet that the online craft market with a higher fraction of male sellers will be more successful than the one dominated by women.
Or we could concede that -- whether due to biology or the patriarchy -- gender correlates with some behaviors. That shouldn't be hard to admit.
Re: BusinessWeek: Tech's Best Young Entrepreneurs
#18Congratulations Drew!
Congrats to dhouston! http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/04/0418_youngtech_entp/... (One of the founders of SFP07 company Dropbox, for those not in the know). The article failed to mention his rock band skills.
Does anyone know if Drew is related to Chris Houston of Amp'd Mobile fame? Just curious... I used to work w/ Chris...
Re: BusinessWeek: Tech's Best Young Entrepreneurs
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
> especially with women as soon as they graduate college and start nesting Nesting? What are they, ducks? As a feminist I'd like to say that's some pretty idiotic stereotyping. Female college graduates overwhelmingly enter the workforce, not nests.
'Nesting' is a common term for the set of behaviors that makes a home more compatible with a family than a single person. Are you unfamiliar with it? Is it really idiotic to suggest that women are more likely to do handmade crafts than men? I know many women who knit as adults, or make small crafts as kids. However, there's an easy way to settle this. If etsy is going to underserve the vast market for men who knit ad…
> Are you unfamiliar with it?
Yeah, I totally thought you were talking about ducks!
> Is it really idiotic to suggest that women are more likely to do handmade crafts than men?
Now you're trying to change the subject.
Your actual idiotic suggestion which I refuted quite specifically is that as soon as women graduate college they start "nesting". In fact women college graduates are pushing back starting families by record amounts.
I know a lot of female professionals and I can't think of any without kids that spend any appreciable amount of time on handmade crafts.
Re: BusinessWeek: Tech's Best Young Entrepreneurs
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wait, what? Of course you look at the size of your market. How is that a bad thing? I'm not sure why you are poo-pooing Etsy's business. It serves a need and the company makes money.
> and the company makes money. The company loses money. Read it again. I'm not disparaging the business, I'm disparaging the business combined with the amount of funding. That's just ridiculous.
If you read the TC article on the investment you'll see where they plan to spend it: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/30/etsy-raises-27-million-...
—Buy $5 million worth of hardware and hosting over the next two years.
—Support more currencies and languages other than the U.S. Dollar and English.
—Fix the checkout system (there is none now, every buyer has to pay every seller on an individual basis. There is no Etsy payment system that works across all sellers).
—Fix search.
—Provide a cushion in case of a recession.
—Offer customer service
—Provide competitive wages and take care of his employees.
Quite a lot of big ticket items in that list. Add to that any significant amount of consumer marketing and the number doesn't seem that bad.