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Secret Shuts Down

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Re: Secret Shuts Down

#151

Post by harryh »

ryandrake wrote: post #119
harryh wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm certain that if you can build a product that generates a huge buzz and gets millions of people to sign up that you will have absolutely no trouble raising that kind of money. So go for it!

Ahh, but we're not talking about building the whole product and generating buzz, etc. We're talking about the stated purpose for raising $25M: "The funding will be used to implement two new features, a Facebook login and the ability to follow posts on a certain topic". $25M. For TWO features. Hell, ignore my previous offer. I'd have given them a 92% discount and done that for a cool $2MM.

That's not the actual purpose for the money.

The purpose of the money was to grow the company. For a business < 1 year old it's impossible to predict what they'll need, so they just fill in the blank with some random sentence that no one cares about.

Re: Secret Shuts Down

#152

Post by eruditely »

maxerickson wrote: post #73
nostrademons wrote: post #72

This shutdown - and some of the comments here that indicate how nasty Secret had become before it died - is quite interesting in light of the conversation surrounding Google's Real Names Only policy. Secret cofounders David Byttow and Chris Bader-Wechseler were both veterans of Google+. Byttow, in particular, I recall being quite well-respected as someone who got shit done, quietly and efficiently, by the rest of the…

4chan isn't a cesspool though, that's just an image they project to push away people who would respond to such pushing (approximately, the olds). (There are certainly parts of it that are risky clicks though)

It actually is. It depends on that community you are talking about, but after several years of on and off I completely disagree.

Re: Secret Shuts Down

#153

Post by derefr »

maxerickson wrote: post #73
nostrademons wrote: post #72

This shutdown - and some of the comments here that indicate how nasty Secret had become before it died - is quite interesting in light of the conversation surrounding Google's Real Names Only policy. Secret cofounders David Byttow and Chris Bader-Wechseler were both veterans of Google+. Byttow, in particular, I recall being quite well-respected as someone who got shit done, quietly and efficiently, by the rest of the…

4chan isn't a cesspool though, that's just an image they project to push away people who would respond to such pushing (approximately, the olds). (There are certainly parts of it that are risky clicks though)

I would phrase it as, "the default/most-well-known subforums of any forum will be garbage once the site reaches critical mass, being diluted by new members too quickly to keep their character. A proliferation of smaller subforums with their own effective communities will displace the sense that the site has any worthwhile/coherent community taken as a whole." Applies equally to 4chan and Reddit.

Re: Secret Shuts Down

#154

Post by adamzerner »

Can someone explain to me why people return money to investors?

Legal reasons? Altruistic reasons? Selfish reasons (maybe that keeping it would hurt their reputation and make them feel guilty)?

Re: Secret Shuts Down

#155

Post by quizotic »

adamzerner wrote: post #154

Can someone explain to me why people return money to investors? Legal reasons? Altruistic reasons? Selfish reasons (maybe that keeping it would hurt their reputation and make them feel guilty)?

One reason is when the investors own > 50%, control the board, and decide to recoup 10 cents on their dollar.

But I've known entrepreneurs who made the decision independently, feeling it was the right thing to do.

And it is the right thing to do if the company has no other prospects or the team is falling apart.

But even so, returning the balance just keeps some salt from the wound. It doesn't make anybody happy.

Re: Secret Shuts Down

#156

Post by ameister14 »

Giorgi wrote: post #121
nostrademons wrote: post #72

This shutdown - and some of the comments here that indicate how nasty Secret had become before it died - is quite interesting in light of the conversation surrounding Google's Real Names Only policy. Secret cofounders David Byttow and Chris Bader-Wechseler were both veterans of Google+. Byttow, in particular, I recall being quite well-respected as someone who got shit done, quietly and efficiently, by the rest of the…

Yeah, except 4chan is not what it used to be, main user base abandoned the ship long ago.

well, I don't think you can say that's because of the caustic nature of the site or because of how it's now moderated more strictly

Re: Secret Shuts Down

#157

Post by pbreit »

nlh wrote: post #55

This has been a fascinating story to watch unfold (and experience as a user.) When Secret came out, the addiction bug bit me hard too -- it was _extremely_ compelling. I posted. My friends posted. Everyone was checking Secret obsessively. People were "communicating" with their exes (or so they thought), people were guessing who was posting what. It was fun. It was interesting. It pulled some emotional heartstrings (I…

Seems like they should have spent a lot of energy on making sure feeds were as compelling as possible for each user.

I think there's definitely room for this type of service and the original Secret was fairly well-executed.

Re: Secret Shuts Down

#158

Post by nostrademons »

timr wrote: post #97
jusben1369 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me that VC's take heat for investing too early, too late, too much and too little. Being too conservative or too risky. They're an easy punching bag.

I don't ordinarily care what VC's do with their money (i.e. mostly lose it), but it's disingenuous to suggest that there aren't clear trends: it's very difficult to raise a series A, but if you're the hype-driven flavor-of-the-moment, you can close a round with little to no diligence, few metrics and none of the proof traditionally required of a series A investment. We're still seeing money get shoved at companies wh…

Because the best validation is people using your product. Or technically, the best validation is people paying for your product, but if they're doing that in amounts great enough for a VC to notice then you don't need to raise VC.

The herd behavior comes from everyone having more-or-less the same metrics for what constitutes success: people using your product. If that metric isn't evident, you fall back on the fundraising strategy for people who don't have traction: try lots of VCs and hope that one buys into your vision enough to invest. If the next better metric - lots of revenue - is evident, then it's too late and chances are that someone else has already invested, or they don't need investment.

Re: Secret Shuts Down

#159

Post by oldmanjay »

sergiotapia wrote: post #118
nostrademons wrote: post #72

This shutdown - and some of the comments here that indicate how nasty Secret had become before it died - is quite interesting in light of the conversation surrounding Google's Real Names Only policy. Secret cofounders David Byttow and Chris Bader-Wechseler were both veterans of Google+. Byttow, in particular, I recall being quite well-respected as someone who got shit done, quietly and efficiently, by the rest of the…

4Chan is not going strong, in fact a large majority of their core users have migrated to 8Chan because of Moot's brainwashing by SJW.

I hate that I have this reaction; when I read things like this, I can't help but feel that you're a 14 year old who accidentally found your way into the adult Internet. Welcome! Please try to not be a jerk here. We aren't 4chan.
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