How I burned 10M dollars

#1

Post by c-slice » Fri, Dec 02, 2016, 2:47 PM UTC

Re: How I burned 10M dollars

#2

Post by rpazyaquian » Fri, Dec 02, 2016, 5:19 PM UTC

This is a pattern I've seen, recently. Going nutso on the sales and marketing without building up a product and a strategy to back it up first. They went far too quickly for something that hadn't proven its worth and demand yet.

Re: How I burned 10M dollars

#3

Post by dvdhnt » Fri, Dec 02, 2016, 5:34 PM UTC

rpazyaquian wrote: post #2

This is a pattern I've seen, recently. Going nutso on the sales and marketing without building up a product and a strategy to back it up first. They went far too quickly for something that hadn't proven its worth and demand yet.

> They went far too quickly for something that hadn't proven its worth and demand yet.

Which is why there's at least a bit of irony in going all-in on self-service after only 4 weeks of data; quite similar to the beginning of the story.

Re: How I burned 10M dollars

#4

Post by rpazyaquian » Fri, Dec 02, 2016, 5:49 PM UTC

dvdhnt wrote: post #3

rpazyaquian wrote: post #2

This is a pattern I've seen, recently. Going nutso on the sales and marketing without building up a product and a strategy to back it up first. They went far too quickly for something that hadn't proven its worth and demand yet.

> They went far too quickly for something that hadn't proven its worth and demand yet. Which is why there's at least a bit of irony in going all-in on self-service after only 4 weeks of data; quite similar to the beginning of the story.

I agree, it felt like repeating the same mistake. However, there was a slightly different context in that they were comparing data between two different, parallel-running approaches. That may have helped avoid it happening a second time, maybe?

Re: How I burned 10M dollars

#5

Post by zeveb » Fri, Dec 02, 2016, 5:58 PM UTC

Interesting article, but my comment is re. Medium's UI: they break space/page-down/page-up, due to the bar at the bottom of the page: one loses a line of text when spacing down, and then when going up a line with a cursor key, a box drops down and hides several lines. Horrible, horrible UX.

Re: How I burned 10M dollars

#6

Post by dvdhnt » Sat, Dec 03, 2016, 4:17 AM UTC

rpazyaquian wrote: post #4

dvdhnt wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They went far too quickly for something that hadn't proven its worth and demand yet. Which is why there's at least a bit of irony in going all-in on self-service after only 4 weeks of data; quite similar to the beginning of the story.

I agree, it felt like repeating the same mistake. However, there was a slightly different context in that they were comparing data between two different, parallel-running approaches. That may have helped avoid it happening a second time, maybe?

I see what you're suggesting, and honestly, hope that better characterizes this particular portion of the story; not that I have a horse in the race, but I'd rather here that this turns out well rather than burst into flames.