Snapchat Pitch Competition • Hacker News Board

Re: Snapchat Pitch Competition

#41

Post by rmason » Thu, May 12, 2016, 6:22 AM UTC

educar wrote: post #27

This is silly. Sad to see that startups are being thought as some sort of game/entertainment. Nobody who is serious about building a company needs to actually go through all this. I cannot imagine YC's own employees will go through this process should they start a company of their own. I thought the previous experiment was borderline amusement but this has totally crossed the line. Has YC somehow convinced itself tha…

I just urged a local startup here to apply. Told her that I'd bet the prevailing attitude on HN would be that it was a joke. Fewer applicants gives her a much better chance to be noticed.

I'm way older than Snapchat's target demographic but I love it. Few people from the startup world on there but the quality of the advice is high.

Re: Snapchat Pitch Competition

#42

Post by doctorcroc » Thu, May 12, 2016, 6:42 AM UTC

justin wrote: post #35

Responded to these comments on my Snap Story! :) @justinkan

The dog filter was a nice touch

P.S. followed you on snapchat because of this thread. Your stories are endearing, and agree with you getting the message out through whatever medium. HN and snapchat may be orthogonal though

Re: Snapchat Pitch Competition

#43

Post by kough » Thu, May 12, 2016, 8:53 AM UTC

JohnLamb wrote: post #40

To those calling this "JUVENILE": Is it widely considered mature to leave a fortune 500 to start up a company with some friends??? Perhaps some of you have forgotten what this field is all about. Off the beaten path. I hate that the start up community is now being diluted by these gold rush khaki wearing know it alls that I knew back in the acct department... Lastly, and this goes for anyone or anything you're being…

> Lastly, and this goes for anyone or anything you're being critical of. Please state your accomplishments/accolades prior to your negative spiels so as to save us time.

You think it's better to judge ideas by the mouths from which they come than their actual content? This seems like the wrong attitude.

Re: Snapchat Pitch Competition

#44

Post by taytus » Thu, May 12, 2016, 12:34 PM UTC

dang wrote: post #33

taytus wrote: post #23

You are a much nicer person than me. Under my eyes, this is just plain stupid.

This comment adds no information, and breaks the HN guidelines by calling names. Please post civilly and substantively, or not at all. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html We detached it from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11678617 and marked it off-topic.

I wasn't calling him names, I was calling the Snapchat Pitch Competition stupid. He called the same thing Juvenile, how is that adding information. Again, read my comment.

Re: Snapchat Pitch Competition

#45

Post by [deleted] » Thu, May 12, 2016, 12:49 PM UTC

JohnLamb wrote: post #40

To those calling this "JUVENILE": Is it widely considered mature to leave a fortune 500 to start up a company with some friends??? Perhaps some of you have forgotten what this field is all about. Off the beaten path. I hate that the start up community is now being diluted by these gold rush khaki wearing know it alls that I knew back in the acct department... Lastly, and this goes for anyone or anything you're being…

[deleted]

Re: Snapchat Pitch Competition

#46

Post by 6stringmerc » Thu, May 12, 2016, 4:14 PM UTC

JohnLamb wrote: post #40

To those calling this "JUVENILE": Is it widely considered mature to leave a fortune 500 to start up a company with some friends??? Perhaps some of you have forgotten what this field is all about. Off the beaten path. I hate that the start up community is now being diluted by these gold rush khaki wearing know it alls that I knew back in the acct department... Lastly, and this goes for anyone or anything you're being…

Okay, sure, I'll bite because I genuinely think it's juvenile. First, I actually read through the posting and it was essentially "Hey I've been playing with this new toy and through it I think we can give away money" and...that's kind of it. For me, it doesn't resonate like a thought-out, well considered pathway or process.

And, because you apparently think it matters, I'll go ahead and state my accomplishments and accolades just to show that I'm not some homeless posting from the library charity case.

Gainfully employed for 15+ years

Several Academic Scholarships

Two University Degrees

2 Full Music Albums

10+ EPs

Certified in a foreign language

Published author

Freelancer in several fields

Accomplished B2B Project Manager in Mid to Fortune 500 companies

Accomplished in Finance, Healthcare, and Risk Management fields

...and I know that it's poor form to end a sentence in a preposition, so if I'm going to be critical of something, then I'm going to think it through, be reasonable, and use appropriate language to convey it. So, when I think the Snapchat idea is juvenile, I mean it. Your criticism is pretty much founded in trying to keep things juvenile, so, like I said earlier, have fun with that.

Re: Snapchat Pitch Competition

#47

Post by educar » Thu, May 12, 2016, 4:16 PM UTC

sheehantoufiq wrote: post #38

educar wrote: post #27

This is silly. Sad to see that startups are being thought as some sort of game/entertainment. Nobody who is serious about building a company needs to actually go through all this. I cannot imagine YC's own employees will go through this process should they start a company of their own. I thought the previous experiment was borderline amusement but this has totally crossed the line. Has YC somehow convinced itself tha…

Snapchat got social vlogging right. The amount of friction a user goes through to start documenting their life is extremely low, and since the stories get deleted there's no real commitment to be an active vlogger. It's easy to see why Justin is so active on it. It's a powerful platform that an entire generation uses, and it seems like the applicants will still go through formal interviews. So it's simply a way to br…

First you use a powerful phrase like 'documenting their life' and then you say 'stories get deleted'.

Snapcat is about entertainment and connection and not about documenting your life. Let's call it as what it is.

Re: Snapchat Pitch Competition

#48

Post by bennesvig » Thu, May 12, 2016, 5:11 PM UTC

educar wrote: post #47

sheehantoufiq wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Snapchat got social vlogging right. The amount of friction a user goes through to start documenting their life is extremely low, and since the stories get deleted there's no real commitment to be an active vlogger. It's easy to see why Justin is so active on it. It's a powerful platform that an entire generation uses, and it seems like the applicants will still go through formal interviews. So it's simply a way to br…

First you use a powerful phrase like 'documenting their life' and then you say 'stories get deleted'. Snapcat is about entertainment and connection and not about documenting your life. Let's call it as what it is.

It's about capturing/documenting the moment.

Re: Snapchat Pitch Competition

#49

Post by kkhire » Fri, May 13, 2016, 1:19 AM UTC

it's hilarious to me how many people are upset with YC experimenting with snapchat. what are pitches about? explaining your startup/idea in a easy to understand manner.

What do snaps do? force content to be valuable in a constrained amount of time, making it a great way to practice your elevator pitch. if it's not interesting, next snap.

Will justin and co solely base their decision on the snap story? of course not. it's just a fun way to try something new.

Re: Snapchat Pitch Competition

#50

Post by [deleted] » Fri, May 13, 2016, 9:50 AM UTC

kough wrote: post #43

JohnLamb wrote: post #40

To those calling this "JUVENILE": Is it widely considered mature to leave a fortune 500 to start up a company with some friends??? Perhaps some of you have forgotten what this field is all about. Off the beaten path. I hate that the start up community is now being diluted by these gold rush khaki wearing know it alls that I knew back in the acct department... Lastly, and this goes for anyone or anything you're being…

> Lastly, and this goes for anyone or anything you're being critical of. Please state your accomplishments/accolades prior to your negative spiels so as to save us time. You think it's better to judge ideas by the mouths from which they come than their actual content? This seems like the wrong attitude.

[deleted]