Sharurl: Lessons Learned Developing a New Startup

bradt.ca

It feels like a lot of these "lessons learned" posts are just beards for a startup launch announcement. In this case, it's not clear at all how the author could have any lessons to share, since the site has _just_ launched and he has no basis on which to evaluate his past decisions. Parts of the article are simply incoherent. For example, a talk by the Rails guy convinced him that free services were a mistake... but his site right now does not even offer a paid option. It would save time and noise to have a special section of the site for this kind of thing; I'm sure a lot of us are willing to poke at one another's projects, honestly presented.

I didn't say free services are a mistake. I said that the “free model” in the particular case of a service where you’re giving away bandwidth and storage space is a bad plan. “Free model” referring to a 100% free service that gains value by accumulating data rather than a revenue stream.

As for the lack of paid options, they are on the way. I made the decision to launch with this option and many others in the spirit of what I say in “Don’t be afraid to launch.”

I've posted your comment and this follow up in the article comments: http://bradt.ca/archives/developing-sharurl-lessons-learned-...

I clicked the large green button, selected 3 files, and got a message about logging in or registering. If I'm not authenticated, help me log in before I go trough the process of selecting files.

You can sign up here: http://sharurl.com/invite/p9q1h

Reply on news.ycombinator.com