Hacker News Reader

Anyone knows how they make (or plan to make) money? They don't put ads, and I don't see premium services offered at sign up?

This is their only attempt at making money that I know of: http://www.tumblr.com/themes/premium

You can also buy paid placement in their Directory tool (which is like a really nicely curated "suggested user to follow" dynamic).

Interesting. Although, it doesn't strike me as a scalable business. At least not to the point of justifying such big investment.