Evernote has 1 million users paying for the service http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/19/evernote-by-the-numbers-34m...
The start-up bubble
21–25 of 25 posts
Re: The start-up bubble
#22It's what it is. Yet, I often feel that criticisms of the startup wave are often a few years out of phase. At least once a week on HN we get a rehash of the meme that "startups" are too focused on advertising and social media. But if you look at the companies YCombinator has been funding lately, you'll see the dominant theme is people building subscription services that cost $X a month. I have to admit that I already…
Curious: is there anything fundamentally wrong with subscription services that cost $X a month? It seems that it is a more sustainable business model (rather than relying on advertising and social media) because they're providing a service or product that has actual value to users, enough to have them open their wallets to the companies. Unless there's something I am missing here?
It's not a bad idea, it's just there are an awful lot of them and the average one is just average.
Re: The start-up bubble
#23I completely understand that it is fashionable to predict startup bubbles (people have been doing it every year in this current cycle since 2008), but the arguments in this post are flimsy and essentially boil down to "it's a bubble cuz it feels like one to me." There will always be crappy companies being built and 3rd tier investors throwing money at them, but I've yet to hear a solid data-driven case for why this i…
I've yet to hear a solid data-driven case for why this is a bubble
-- Is it even possible. What would this look like?
Re: The start-up bubble
#24I haven't personally been in the Valley recently , but... "Startup" in the old Silicon Valley used to mean companies with serious technology like Amiga or Apple or Illustra. The staff used to be PhDs and sometimes professors from Stanford & Berkeley EECS. "Startup" did not used to mean "3 marketing dweebs and a website". Valley interviews used to be "Super Saturday" 6-hour exams with theory questions for junior posit…
I think real Silicon Valley start-ups are generally serious organizations with very rigorous hiring requirements. There have been more and more second-tier city "Silicon Valley" startups, but many are not really comparable to typical Silicon Valley startups.
I think there is probably more a bubble in New York and London than Palo Alto. Inexperienced investors can give anyone some money, but that doesn't mean they will succeed.
Re: The start-up bubble
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, but you're too young to understand the first one. I only caught whiffs of the tail end of it. Read some of the stories, some of the stuff they were trying to do was nuts. The massive difference in this one is there really is a load of money to be made. Everyone is now online all the time. Back in 1999 there were bugger all people online and you wouldn't put your credit card details in for love nor money. Busine…
I don't think that we disagree. I'm not talking about the valuation of the well established companies like spotify, netflix, match.com or even instagram and evernote which I use as examples in the post. These are not the problem, like Amazon was not in the dot-com bubble. I'm talking about the numerous "1 website - 1 app" paradigms that seem to proliferate based on VC backing with ridiculous amounts of money. And fro…
I would suggest you read ben horowitz's thoughts on the subject. He was in a startup during Bubble I (Loudcloud) and is now a VC during the current market: http://bhorowitz.com/2011/03/24/bubble-trouble-i-don%E2%80%9...
That being said...I think there is a proliferation of crap ideas and crap "companies"; however, I think there are some other really interesting startups attacking some big and interesting problems.