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American tech giants are making life tough for startups

economist.com

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Re: American tech giants are making life tough for startups

#51

Post by bobthepanda »

spyspy wrote: post #23
megy wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure you can use one example of a hardware company failing as proof of anything. Just as you couldn't use the success of a software or hardware company proving the opposite, that there isn't a problem.

There are enough articles out there from hardware kickstarters that failed post-funding for me to believe that manufacturing new products on-price and on-time is insanely difficult. I'm sure Apple can design and manufacture 50+ iPhone prototypes for any yearly launch. But startups really only get one chance to get it right before their funding runs dry.

You don't even have to look at startups. Look at all the teething issues that Tesla has had ramping up production, versus an established car company. Look at production issues for things from established companies like the Nintendo Switch. Even the iPhone X had its production issues.

Re: American tech giants are making life tough for startups

#52

Post by dba7dba »

craftyguy wrote: post #44
reificator wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we're so righteous we won't take Pentagon contacts. I think you mean "won't renew". They already took them.

Yea, joke is on us, because they'll still develop the thing they told the pentagon they would develop, all while appearing to be 'good guys' to people (which is apparently quite a few people) who don't understand how contracts work.

Whether google does it or not, China will.

Re: American tech giants are making life tough for startups

#53

Post by pm90 »

robertAngst wrote: post #24
pm90 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Engineers in sf make a lot more than 150k in their late 20s/early 30s even outside big 5

That is after you include stock. Not a bad deal today, but I'm still questioning if 1 trillion dollar companies exist or are overvalued.

That is a fair point. Liquid salary doesn't usually go much beyond 200k; all of the additional comp is in RSU's. If there is a huge downturn, a lot of engineers will lose a great chunk of their assets.

Re: American tech giants are making life tough for startups

#54

Post by scarface74 »

SirensOfTitan wrote: post #3

Another reminder, alongside the apparent Microsoft GitHub acquision, that regulators need to step up and prevent large tech firms from acting anti competitively. From another Economist article ("How to Tame the Tech Titans", https://www.economist.com/leaders/2018/01/18/how-to-tame-the... ): > Two broad changes of thinking would go a long way towards sensibly taming the titans. The first is to make better use of exist…

Seeing that Github is reportedly unprofitable, if they aren't acquired by a profitable company, what's the alternative?

What do you think Microsoft would do to harm Github? I doubt it would be as bad as what became of SourceForge.

Re: American tech giants are making life tough for startups

#56

Post by RandomBK »

craftyguy wrote: post #44
reificator wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we're so righteous we won't take Pentagon contacts. I think you mean "won't renew". They already took them.

Yea, joke is on us, because they'll still develop the thing they told the pentagon they would develop, all while appearing to be 'good guys' to people (which is apparently quite a few people) who don't understand how contracts work.

Those existing contracts are about see quite a few "scope changes"

Re: American tech giants are making life tough for startups

#57

Post by tomcam »

SirensOfTitan wrote: post #3

Another reminder, alongside the apparent Microsoft GitHub acquision, that regulators need to step up and prevent large tech firms from acting anti competitively. From another Economist article ("How to Tame the Tech Titans", https://www.economist.com/leaders/2018/01/18/how-to-tame-the... ): > Two broad changes of thinking would go a long way towards sensibly taming the titans. The first is to make better use of exist…

How is it anticompetitive if Microsoft buys GitHub?

Re: American tech giants are making life tough for startups

#59

Post by brian-armstrong »

craftyguy wrote: post #44
reificator wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we're so righteous we won't take Pentagon contacts. I think you mean "won't renew". They already took them.

Yea, joke is on us, because they'll still develop the thing they told the pentagon they would develop, all while appearing to be 'good guys' to people (which is apparently quite a few people) who don't understand how contracts work.

New ReCAPTCHA: select the correct person for a drone strike to proceed.

Re: American tech giants are making life tough for startups

#60

Post by extralego »

replicatorblog wrote: post #35
BurningFrog wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Such scrutiny might have prevented Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram and Google’s of Waze, Then again one of the main reasons people start companies like Instagram and Waze is so they can be bought by these giants.

I think people forget how inconsequential Instagram seemed at the time Facebook bought it. It was popular and growing fast, but the notion that this 12-person startup was worth a billion dollars was laughable. Read contemporaneous accounts and many reporters were incredulous. It was prima facie evidence of a bubble. I don't know if a regulator would have had the foresight to see Instagram, which was still as much kno…

At the time it was bought, Instagram was a major thing for myself and my friend circles. It had been for a little while.
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