YC + facebook apps?

1 point·rwebb··5 comments

Anyone applying to YC with Facebook app ideas? Has this been discussed already and I missed it?

I would be really surprised if YC funded dedicated Facebook apps, though a Facebook app is a good example of "something you built."

There's nothing wrong, technically, with Facebook apps. They're as hard to make as any other web application. The issue, ultimately, is building something heavily dependent on some other company's platform. I guess you could argue YC wouldn't want to gamble by trusting not one company, but two. Then again, Xobni's sitting on top of Outlook, and we know how much PG dislikes Microsoft. And Loopt is tailgating, at least for right now, on Boost's platform.

Ultimately, I think YC will fund any enterprise that looks like it can make some money.

OK, I recognize that there is potential for important/big/profitable Facebook Apps. So far, there hasn't been one, just developers making revenue by driving traffic to other Facebook Apps. My message to the original poster is that it will take a company making a really unique Facebook app to get YC funding.

If someone had an idea for a Facebook app that had the equivalent market potential of Xobni, things would be different, but I don't think anyone has had an idea like that. Except maybe Parakey, but that wasn't originally intended as a Facebook app.

For now, if you're making a Facebook app, it seems like a good idea to use it to get some initial users via Facebook's friendly viralness and then launch a spin-off site on the open web, like Lending Tree did.

Loopt is a service available to Boost as well as Sprint subscribers. What is Boost's platform -- a cellular network?

I wish Loopt was available to Sprint subscribers... I just checked again and it shows up in search but then gives me "Error. We're sorry, this item is unavailable"

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