Fetchnotes raises money to run its servers for 4 months by singing karaoke | Hacker News Reader

Fetchnotes raises money to run its servers for 4 months by singing karaoke

thenextweb.com

32 pointsjeffepp7 comments

Fetchnotes is great, if you don't already use it then I'd highly recommend it. It's essentially a note taking app designed for really short notes, like writing down what food items you liked at a restaurant. And it does this in a way that supports hash tags, searching, and replication across all your devices.

Thanks for your support Alex!

No problem. Have you guys considered adding a search by date added feature? I'm not sure how often I'd use it, but it just feels like something is missing without it, kind of like if Google didn't have the I'm Feeling Lucky button. (Though I definitely would use it at least once in a while, because sometimes it's nice just to go through the archives of your lifestream to be reminded of stuff that you've completely forgotten about otherwise.)

Hm, interesting thought. One thing we have thought a lot about is a reminder function based off of tags — i.e., you set anything tagged #todo to be sent to you every day, but anything tagged as #ideas sent every month. What do you think?

Interesting idea, I could see it being useful but it doesn't really solve the same problem. Occasionally I just like reading through all my old note in the order they were created. For reference, the way I use short notes is almost like a second diary or whatever, where I have my journal of long ideas and my journal of one-liner thoughts and notes. And the reason I keep both is so that ultimately I have some sort of record of what I'm thinking and doing. So while being able to search by tags is definitely the killer feature, being able to go through it chronologically is also important.

Also, there needs to be some sort of export functionality, that should be the first feature you add!

Agreed on export, vote for it here if you'd like! http://fetchnotes.uservoice.com/forums/136052-general/sugges...

In terms of chronological order, the notes are displayed in chronological order already. On everything but iPhone and desktop (coming soon) there are timestamps within the note.

There's a lot to be said about companies with great visions, good execution, and practical business models, but still have trouble getting funding. While it's true that customers are the best way to fund a company, and why look to external capital if you can get that, it's also true that funding helps you make investments in talent, resources, and reach that could help you reach goals faster or "bigger".

Companies like these have a heck of a time raising capital from the "traditional" funding available for startups - angels and VCs. I can speak to that first hand. It's so infuriating to see companies that haven't yet proven themselves to be businesses raising hordes of capital and getting loads of attention while the more "boring" ones have to bootstrap and scrape their way. Much of this is because the boring types are not in markets where there is significant froth. Perhaps this makes traditional VCs uninterested because of the low multiples. Or perhaps it's because the perception is that if you have a rational business model, then you should just execute on it - why need capital at all?

While I can see plenty of practical reasons why VC and angel investors are reluctant to invest in boring businesses that can bootstrap, sometimes it takes a long time for companies to bootstrap to a point where the founders can pay themselves, let alone scale. Many times external investment is used not just to add new people and resources, but also pay the founders. While being hungry is good from an entrepreneurial perspective, starving for too long can make people desperate and chase cash at the expense of the company vision.

I say all this because it's troublesome that companies have to resort to karaoke as a way to fund basic operational expenses. That is, unless the startup founders truly like it and it's a corporate culture sort of thing, in which case, more power to you! But often times it's not out of pleasure, but rather, necessity. I keep thinking about the AirBnB fellow who had to sell cereal to keep the company afloat. And only once he "de-risked" his company substantially, he was able to seek funding, now at a healthy valuation.

What are the funding options for those of us with boring businesses that nonetheless want to scale to significant size? Is it all bootstrap, karaoke, and cereal (and maybe Kickstarter, altho it seems they reject these sorts of businesses as well), or is there another good option?

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