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Truecar.com is going public

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Re: Truecar.com is going public

#21

Post by pearjuice »

dang wrote: post #18
highace wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought it was funny.

It may have been, and I like to laugh too. As with any optimization problem, there are tradeoffs. It's not that you're against the things that get traded away; you're for them. But you're for something else more, if you can't have both. In HN's case, we're optimizing for signal/noise ratio. The trouble with humor on HN is not that it's bad, but that—if you have a lot of it—you also get a lot of noise. There actually…

If you didn't jump on my back to force some community guidelines down our throats, I would have been at the top of this thread with high XX-range karma. :-(

But it's okay, I understand the concern.

Re: Truecar.com is going public

#22

Post by johnward »

aclements18 wrote: post #5

This is a solid venture backed company that has been generating quite a bit of revenue for some time now. This exit will provide its investors with a solid return. Odd how little attention a company like this gets from the tech community. Bernie Brenner, the guy who heads up their business development, wrote The Sumo Advantage which one of the best books I've read on BD. He very clearly identifies the role of BD and…

The startup community cares more about potential imaginary metrics than actual metrics that show a business is profitable now.

Re: Truecar.com is going public

#23

Post by taude »

hmm, I used it, and didn't have the problem. I was only contacted by the dealers I requested, and one I told them I was interested in a different car, they left me alone.

also, when selecting your dealers it was pretty obvious that they were going to be contacting you, no?

Re: Truecar.com is going public

#24

Post by simonebrunozzi »

Truecar.com used to charge dealers between 400$ and 500$ for every deal that would close (sale). Since then, I believe that they changed it into a monthly subscription, or a combination of the two. The problem is that Truecar is yet another middleman, and yes, it's much better to sign up with a new email address because you will get all the spam in the world.

It is much better to get "certificates" on Truecar with a fake name/email, then go to the dealer and say: give me this car for 500$ less, or I'll walk away.

I didn't buy a car yet, but I got two real offers from dealers just like that.

Truecar is a middleman... Middlemen tend to go away. I am not optimistic about their future.

Re: Truecar.com is going public

#25

Post by Phlarp »

patrickxb wrote: post #16

TrueCar sounds like a great idea (the dealership system is horrible). But we just used TrueCar when shopping for a new car and instantly got spammy, sleazy emails and phone calls from dealers before even completing the process (which we never did). It wasn't fun. I really wish we didn't give them any information. So I don't have high hopes for this business succeeding. What really needs to happen is that people need…

>when shopping for a new car and instantly got spammy, sleazy emails and phone calls from dealers

As a dev who works for company in the same vertical, this is the modus operandi of every dealership in the country. Their online strategy is "Get email addresses from boomers, then spam their inboxes into submission!" As if boilerplate ridden automated emails and $5 off your next dealership tune-up could influence buyers on a once-in-a-decade purchase.

[1]http://www.arcleu.com/how_not_to_advertise_your_websites_liv...

Re: Truecar.com is going public

#27

Post by dang »

pearjuice wrote: post #21
dang wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may have been, and I like to laugh too. As with any optimization problem, there are tradeoffs. It's not that you're against the things that get traded away; you're for them. But you're for something else more, if you can't have both. In HN's case, we're optimizing for signal/noise ratio. The trouble with humor on HN is not that it's bad, but that—if you have a lot of it—you also get a lot of noise. There actually…

If you didn't jump on my back to force some community guidelines down our throats, I would have been at the top of this thread with high XX-range karma. :-( But it's okay, I understand the concern.

But it's okay, I understand the concern.

Thank you for saying so.

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