Transactor Launches Beta | Hacker News Reader

Transactor Launches Beta

transactor.com

6 pointsscottdw226 comments

HN policy, as stated by PG on several occasions, is that companies should not identify themselves as "YC rejects". There are several good reasons for this -- search the archives if you want to know more.

There are several good reasons for this ...

One of which being evidenced by the comments thus far; eight out of nine comments (including my own) at the time of this posting are navel-gazing about the headline rather than commenting on the merits of the company. :)

Not trying to be snarky, but your comment made me curious. I must have missed these discussions.

Googling around, I couldn't find anything as official as "HN policy" Got a link?

I would imagine companies could identify themselves as any dang thing they wanted to, right? I mean, I agree with the ideas expressed at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=550351, but the idea of making some kind of policy seems a bit much -- at least to me.

The first discussion I find via searchyc is http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47078; but I recall there being several threads at around the same time.

It's also in the guidelines:

In titles, please don't describe things by their relation to YC unless they're actually associated with YC.

I didn't know this (about the rules). I'll see if I can change the title.

It looks some one beat me to the punch.

Sorry.

Ok, great. Does this run on my OS of choice? Will you send me spam if I put my address in that box? I'm assuming the answer to both questions is no, but you should have that information on your website.

Does it support github? Does it support osx? If not then it's probably irrelevant to half the people on here. I might be able to figure this out for myself, but I won't enter my email address on a site with no privacy policy in order to download a beta that may/may not work.

It doesn't support OS X. Our privacy policy is simple:

We won't send you spam, and we sell your email address.

We only want your email so that we can yell you when the release version is ready. I will add that to the site tonight. It should be up tonmorow.

Thanks for the feedback.

...and we sell your email address.

Is that what you meant to write?

No.

We will NOT sell your email address.

You know...just because you were rejected once doesn't mean you're permanently rejected from YC. You can apply multiple times.

IMHO you would have been much better off launching with a title describing what you do. If you prove to be a success within the HN community (and beyond), your chances of getting in to YC the next time are much higher.

Besides, by actually launching you're showing (not telling) perseverance, execution and a willingness to listen to feedback. Don't ruin it.

How is this different from having version control away from my work computer ?

I never have more then a day or twos work on my computer, so the most i can loose is a days work -- hardly seems worth having extra backup software for that case.

I don’t think it was smart for you to identify your startup as "yc reject" here, you will be eaten alive : (

What, exactly, does this have over any modern VCS? The website probably needs to be super-clear about this.

Could you put the minimum requirements (especially OS) on the download page?

Download is a Windows .exe so I can't tell what it does. What I can tell is that it doesn't "Works with any IDE or code editor".

What I'm hearing from these comments is that there is not enough product information for a technical audience. It's possible that you are marketing to a group that does not want the same product information as us, but it's not clear. Are you marketing version control to non-savvy users?

No. I'm marketing to programmers. I'll add more info to the site.

Instead of identifying yourself as a "YC Reject" why not state what your startup does?

It got my attention, but now I want to know more... like blazamos says, what does your startup do. Also, why were you rejected by YC?

See above for a discription of the product.

And I'm not sure why they rejected me, but I can think of a few reasons:

1. My company is just one person.

They usually don't fund companies that have one founder.

2. My software doesn't run on the web.

This is mainly because IDEs do not run on the web and my software needs to live on your machine in order to pick up your changes while you work. Most of the companies they fund write web software.

3. My software only runs on windows.

This is all just speculation because I really don't know why.

I thought "YC reject" would grab attention.

Transactor (my company) makes a backup tool for programmers, called Code Agent.

It provides backup and version history in between checkins.

It helps with the "svn revert... Oh shit" and "it worked before lunch" problems.

I just don't get it. How is this different and/or better than standard svn/git types systems?

It's not better than.

It's an add on. It helps you in between checkins.

Typically you checkin a "batch" of work when it's done, like at the end of the day. This protects you automatically, even if you forget to checkin.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com