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Play by Your Own Rules

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Re: Play by Your Own Rules

#21

Post by [deleted] »

throw_away_acc wrote: post #19
cpocpo wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, anyone who has a job shouldn't be on HN? Dude, I think think the vast majority of the HN community is employed by someone else. You can be into hacking and technology without being an entrepreneur.

> I think think the vast majority of the HN community is employed by someone else. I don't think so. HN is YC is full of real entrepreneurs and risk takers. Most on HN are tech founders or at least employed but with having side projects and ambitions to get real founders. The OP is working at Facebook, proud of being an employee and having no side projects (otherwise he wouldn't blog about Gowalla years later).

[deleted]

Re: Play by Your Own Rules

#22

Post by zallarak »

Well, both "lost". Foursquare doesn't really turn a profit, or if it does, I think it's insignificant? Now that I think of it, the relevant lesson from this is that investors are fallible.

Re: Play by Your Own Rules

#23

Post by NamTaf »

throw_away_acc wrote: post #19
cpocpo wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, anyone who has a job shouldn't be on HN? Dude, I think think the vast majority of the HN community is employed by someone else. You can be into hacking and technology without being an entrepreneur.

> I think think the vast majority of the HN community is employed by someone else. I don't think so. HN is YC is full of real entrepreneurs and risk takers. Most on HN are tech founders or at least employed but with having side projects and ambitions to get real founders. The OP is working at Facebook, proud of being an employee and having no side projects (otherwise he wouldn't blog about Gowalla years later).

I'm not. I'm here because I find the scene fascinating and thoroughly enjoy the breadth of intelligent discussion on topics ranging from design to programming to personal productivity to social effects on tech to etc.

I think it's incredibly unwise to play the elitism card and try to drive people like myself away from HN. You risk suffocating the community and producing an echo chamber of certain discussion points, eventually reducing to stale repetition. It runs absolutely counter to the mandate of 'anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiousity'.

I've seen experts in niche topics wade in and provide fantastic insight and wisdom on information I'd never have thought to find here as it has nothing to do with startups and hacking. I've tried to contribute myself (e.g.: there was a discussion on spider's silk stopping a train and someone asked about the structure of the train, the designing of which is my day job) and hope that through doing so I can encourage others to return the favour.

The OP has experiences and insights directly related to the central pillar of HN. His sharing them through blog posts or HN comments can be to the benefit of the community. Rejecting them to fulfill some stupid sense of elitism for the 'true entrepreneurs' is daft.

Re: Play by Your Own Rules

#24

Post by tyang »

Seldom do we get to hear from folks who almost made it big in such an instructive and open manner. Thank you.

Besides being a way to "see the world through the eyes of your friends", Instagram is a one-stop shop for taking pictures, photoshopping, and sharing to Facebook all in the same app.

I think the "genius", if you will, of Instagram is that it simplied things for users by combining two apps in one, without unnecessary features.

Re: Play by Your Own Rules

#25

Post by pshin45 »

I'm not saying Gowalla originally copied Foursquare, but this blog post got me wondering -

What are some notable examples of a "copycat" startup actually overtaking the original "innovator" startup? Because I'm having trouble thinking of any off the top of my head. (And I'm not talking about cases like Facebook overtaking MySpace or Google overtaking Yahoo where a fundamentally different company overtook a long-dominant incumbent)

Foursquare beat out Gowalla, Google+ never had a chance against Facebook, Groupon beat out Living Social, Pinterest beat out all its copycats, Square has managed to stay ahead of the competition, same with Dropbox, Evernote, Y Combinator, Airbnb, LinkedIn, etc. I could go on but you get my point.

There seems to be a lesson in here somewhere...

Re: Play by Your Own Rules

#26

Post by vellum »

pshin45 wrote: post #25

I'm not saying Gowalla originally copied Foursquare, but this blog post got me wondering - What are some notable examples of a "copycat" startup actually overtaking the original "innovator" startup? Because I'm having trouble thinking of any off the top of my head. (And I'm not talking about cases like Facebook overtaking MySpace or Google overtaking Yahoo where a fundamentally different company overtook a long-domin…

Friendster and Myspace. Friendster had the lead, but wasn't that long-dominant.

Edit: Also, just found this: http://www.quora.com/What-are-examples-of-markets-where-the-...

Re: Play by Your Own Rules

#27

Post by ed209 »

pshin45 wrote: post #25

I'm not saying Gowalla originally copied Foursquare, but this blog post got me wondering - What are some notable examples of a "copycat" startup actually overtaking the original "innovator" startup? Because I'm having trouble thinking of any off the top of my head. (And I'm not talking about cases like Facebook overtaking MySpace or Google overtaking Yahoo where a fundamentally different company overtook a long-domin…

If you look from an international perspective, there are companies started in Europe that did much better in the european markets than the "original" product. The end result is pretty much that the "original" had to buy out the clone.

For example Groupon buying MyCityDeal

The Samwer brothers are experts at this http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2012/04/features/ins...

Re: Play by Your Own Rules

#28

Post by pshin45 »

vellum wrote: post #26
pshin45 wrote: post #25

I'm not saying Gowalla originally copied Foursquare, but this blog post got me wondering - What are some notable examples of a "copycat" startup actually overtaking the original "innovator" startup? Because I'm having trouble thinking of any off the top of my head. (And I'm not talking about cases like Facebook overtaking MySpace or Google overtaking Yahoo where a fundamentally different company overtook a long-domin…

Friendster and Myspace. Friendster had the lead, but wasn't that long-dominant. Edit: Also, just found this: http://www.quora.com/What-are-examples-of-markets-where-the-...

Great find. Silly me, should've checked Quora first.

Indeed, the first examples that came to mind were the iPod, as well as Android which has arguably "overtaken" iOS at this point.

To be fair though, for my original question I wanted to try limiting the scope to only startups, and more specifically startups that have almost the same product.

Perhaps that's nitpicking too much?

Re: Play by Your Own Rules

#29

Post by dagw »

pshin45 wrote: post #25

I'm not saying Gowalla originally copied Foursquare, but this blog post got me wondering - What are some notable examples of a "copycat" startup actually overtaking the original "innovator" startup? Because I'm having trouble thinking of any off the top of my head. (And I'm not talking about cases like Facebook overtaking MySpace or Google overtaking Yahoo where a fundamentally different company overtook a long-domin…

Square has managed to stay ahead of the competition In the US.

Lots of copycat companies are competing to do what Square does outside the US. It will be interesting to see if Square manages to compete in those markets if and when they feel ready, or if they'll be forced to chose between buying out the local incumbent or leaving the market.

Re: Play by Your Own Rules

#30

Post by amirmc »

pshin45 wrote: post #25

I'm not saying Gowalla originally copied Foursquare, but this blog post got me wondering - What are some notable examples of a "copycat" startup actually overtaking the original "innovator" startup? Because I'm having trouble thinking of any off the top of my head. (And I'm not talking about cases like Facebook overtaking MySpace or Google overtaking Yahoo where a fundamentally different company overtook a long-domin…

The ones that died early while being overtaken probably didn't leave much in the way of remains.

I doubt that Gowalla and Foursquare were the only 'check-in' apps at the time but we don't hear about the ones they surpassed. In other words, I'm suggesting that what you're describing happens all the time.

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