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Launch YC S21: Meet the Batch, Thread #4

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Re: Launch YC S21: Meet the Batch, Thread #4

#111

Post by texasbigdata »

martinlykkesuhr wrote: post #56
xmaayy wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know there are a lot of disparate services like SkinBaron[0] for individual games. Is your value-add that you're regulated / you can act as a middle-man for any steam items? [0] https://skinbaron.de/en

Our main value adds is that we can allow minors to trade safely. You have to be 18 at Skinbaron. Another is that Skinbaron charges over 20 percent total.

Race to the bottom, ignoring the winner-take-all scenario where you do everything for everyone, when the next group comes in at 2% + copy pastes your entire website copy and you’ve already inoculated to the end market that this solution works, which they piggy back on to get traction....can you survive more than a few qualified competitors and actually make it to cash flow break even? And why won’t this be a “many make no profit” type of market that settles with many undifferentiated sellers with close to substinance level terminal margins?

Obviously marketplaces are great, your product market fit seems strong, and you have both demographics and GMV trends behind you; but you’re in a space with passionate people who might do things for free (like people host or participate in gaming forums or discords).

Even at a few engineers you’re burning cash for quite a while, but you’re touching minors (sorry, no pun) in highly regulated markets like Europe, so you probably need a few compliance dedicated FTEs. How do you resolve disputes where it’s not QUITE the $50k skin and they sue? Or do you require arbitration at signup?

How does this work in the first 3 years until you hopefully win? VC funded burn?

Re: Launch YC S21: Meet the Batch, Thread #4

#112

Post by etxm »

akajla wrote: post #48
ezekg wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I think this is a cool idea, the thought of hitting the network via an API call at minimum once per request sounds ... less than ideal. That's a lot of latency add just to check authorization. And you go to all this effort to configure authorization in Warrant per-user and per-resource, why not just put it into your own tables? Edit: and I just saw the pricing... 1k API calls a month? I'd quite literally hit th…

Thanks for the feedback! Latency/perf is definitely top of mind. We're looking at different ways to improve it (caching, sidecar integrations, private cloud deployments), especially for large volume users. But we still believe that a service-driven approach is the way to go. In terms of initial setup and configuration, I agree there's room to improve and remove friction. We're building tools and integrations that sho…

Depending on how much memory the rules take up you could use SSE in the server SDK. I believe that’s how LaunchDarkly works.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Server-sent...

Re: Launch YC S21: Meet the Batch, Thread #4

#113

Post by texasbigdata »

ezekg wrote: post #98
samjs wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a founder of a startup building an authorization product, I can definitely say it's super appealing to build this as a service! It makes for a an easier story around monetising it. When we were building Oso [1], we were optimising for the best thing for developers, and reached the same conclusion as you... (a) It doesn't make sense to rearchitect your app to move all the data to a separate service, and (b) it's wa…

Seriously -- this looks *awesome.* Oso's policies look almost exactly like the Pundit policies in my business's Rails app, which is awesome to see. How do you plan on monetizing, if you haven't already?

Come on, isn’t it just a bit not ideal to go point by point in someone’s yComb announcement thread (which is sort of a happy event because historically a lot did cool things and grew really hot) re: someone else’s biz? Maybe you do a showHN the other company if it’s so differentiated to let these guys just starting out try to put their message out to the world.

Sorry didn’t mean to word that negatively btw. On mobile not at home.

Re: Launch YC S21: Meet the Batch, Thread #4

#114

Post by kkajla »

etxm wrote: post #112
akajla wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the feedback! Latency/perf is definitely top of mind. We're looking at different ways to improve it (caching, sidecar integrations, private cloud deployments), especially for large volume users. But we still believe that a service-driven approach is the way to go. In terms of initial setup and configuration, I agree there's room to improve and remove friction. We're building tools and integrations that sho…

Depending on how much memory the rules take up you could use SSE in the server SDK. I believe that’s how LaunchDarkly works. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Server-sent...

Very cool! I wasn't aware of SSE. This could be very useful for our React SDK as well. Thank you for sharing :)

Re: Launch YC S21: Meet the Batch, Thread #4

#115

Post by EMM_386 »

xmaayy wrote: post #22
martinlykkesuhr wrote: post #5

GamerPay ( https://gamerpay.gg/ ) is a scam-free marketplace for gaming skins and assets. 46% of gamers trading skins have been scammed more than once for either their money or their skins (survey of 5,000 gamers). 50% of gamers are under 18 and this their first online trading/cash experience. We solve this problem by integrating with Steam and making use of escrow, validating all trades. We are regulated by European…

I know there are a lot of disparate services like SkinBaron[0] for individual games. Is your value-add that you're regulated / you can act as a middle-man for any steam items? [0] https://skinbaron.de/en

Am I seeing this correctly?

Digital reskins of knives in CSGO sell for $200+ Euros?

Re: Launch YC S21: Meet the Batch, Thread #4

#116

Post by atmosfir »

ongtektjan wrote: post #2

We are building Titipku ( https://titipku.com/ ) which is "Instacart" for local markets in Indonesia, where we help households to buy daily groceries from nearby local markets in their residence areas. The Covid 19 has made people unable to buy their daily needs from local markets, meanwhile merchants in local markets are also suffering and need help to sell their goods. We solved this by helping to on board all merc…

Good to see more Indonesian startups. I wish you the best of luck. I'm interested on how titipku would fare against behemoths such as goshop, sayurbox etc.

Re: Launch YC S21: Meet the Batch, Thread #4

#117

Post by sushid »

EMM_386 wrote: post #115
xmaayy wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know there are a lot of disparate services like SkinBaron[0] for individual games. Is your value-add that you're regulated / you can act as a middle-man for any steam items? [0] https://skinbaron.de/en

Am I seeing this correctly? Digital reskins of knives in CSGO sell for $200+ Euros?

Yes they're ultra rare and the lootboxes always cost money to open in CSGO.

Re: Launch YC S21: Meet the Batch, Thread #4

#118

Post by sushid »

texasbigdata wrote: post #111
martinlykkesuhr wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our main value adds is that we can allow minors to trade safely. You have to be 18 at Skinbaron. Another is that Skinbaron charges over 20 percent total.

Race to the bottom, ignoring the winner-take-all scenario where you do everything for everyone, when the next group comes in at 2% + copy pastes your entire website copy and you’ve already inoculated to the end market that this solution works, which they piggy back on to get traction....can you survive more than a few qualified competitors and actually make it to cash flow break even? And why won’t this be a “many ma…

It's an escrow + marketplace service. Your argument can be used against anything like eBay, Etsy, Poshmark, etc. You're assuming that the OP stagnates while copycats emerge around them, which is also a horrible assumption.

Also, "free" cannot host websites, hire workers, add features (as quickly). It's funny you mention that their service will require multiple compliance officers while you simultaneously think there's also someone who can do it for free because they're passionate.

Lastly, a skin is a skin. There's no "not quite like it" because it's a digital good, not a sandwich. I'm sure they'll use their retained lawyer when someone sues for 50k.

Overall, it sounds like you're not even against their specific product, but the idea of being a venture funded startup.

Re: Launch YC S21: Meet the Batch, Thread #4

#119

Post by ezekg »

texasbigdata wrote: post #113
ezekg wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously -- this looks *awesome.* Oso's policies look almost exactly like the Pundit policies in my business's Rails app, which is awesome to see. How do you plan on monetizing, if you haven't already?

Come on, isn’t it just a bit not ideal to go point by point in someone’s yComb announcement thread (which is sort of a happy event because historically a lot did cool things and grew really hot) re: someone else’s biz? Maybe you do a showHN the other company if it’s so differentiated to let these guys just starting out try to put their message out to the world. Sorry didn’t mean to word that negatively btw. On mobile…

I think it’s pretty normal for this to happen on launch and show HN posts (just like it’s normal for a fellow HN user to tell you that your startup can be cloned in a day.) We’re an odd bunch. :)

Re: Launch YC S21: Meet the Batch, Thread #4

#120

Post by dang »

ezekg wrote: post #119
texasbigdata wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Come on, isn’t it just a bit not ideal to go point by point in someone’s yComb announcement thread (which is sort of a happy event because historically a lot did cool things and grew really hot) re: someone else’s biz? Maybe you do a showHN the other company if it’s so differentiated to let these guys just starting out try to put their message out to the world. Sorry didn’t mean to word that negatively btw. On mobile…

I think it’s pretty normal for this to happen on launch and show HN posts (just like it’s normal for a fellow HN user to tell you that your startup can be cloned in a day.) We’re an odd bunch. :)

We don't usually let people change the subject to their own thing in someone else's launch thread. It's boorish.

We're a little less active about it in YC launch threads, though, because of the first principle of HN moderation: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu.... That's why I haven't said anything in the places this has happened in today's thread.

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