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Comment by vaksel | Hacker News Reader

so I'm supposed to pay money to promote some random startup?

in order to get a shirt, that they give away for free at their booths all over the place?

+ $20/mo to get a shirt is way overpriced...at that price, I might as well get a shirt from threadless that I like instead of "randomstartup.com!" one.

The business model should be flipped. Startups should pay you...to distribute shirts for free. And allow them to make it local....i.e. 300 shirts to people in los angeles.

Cost wise just charge them the same $20 per shirt. $10K for a one time marketing cost is nothing really. And getting 500 people to wear shirts would be worth it.

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Well we are getting interesting startups and designing custom gear each month (so you wouldnt actually be able to get this from other sources). Its also not just a t-shirt, but stickers and other added things (discounts/free credit for services/etc).

That said you definitely have an interesting concept there, that we may be able to push as we continue to increase our numbers

I've paid $35 for a shirt at a concert. I'd pay $25 for this. At $15 + shipping that's the cost of an American Apparel tshirt with nothing on it. It's pretty reasonable imho.

Making it locally targeted is a brilliant idea.

In regards to cost, I told Frank I'd be willing to pay up to $30/mo for a shirt. Personally, I'd rock a Twilio shirt over anything I see on threadless.com.

You'd change your mind after wearing a Twilio shirt. They're paper thin and the giant circle logo that wraps around the side of your abdomen is stiff and scratchy. I have a lot of startup shirts from the old Startup Schwag, Twilio's is the only one I can't wear.

That's the super old design. Email me your size and address and I'll send you the new nice one with the tasteful design. You'll love it, I promise. jsheehan@twilio.com

Much cheaper ways to market yourself unless you're hoping to target entrepreneurs/startups.

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