Ask YC: What did YC see in Disqus? why are they special?

Here's what's special about Disqus's business model/idea:

1. They have a grand long term plan (provide blog readers a centralized place to manage discussions on the web). They're sort of a social network in that way and their value will increase exponentially as their user base does.

2. They have an easy route to gaining the critical mass, by providing bloggers a simple plug-in that gives threaded, voteable comments, as well as some extra kick ass functionality. So they have a ton of initial value even with no user base.

3. They have a path to revenue. Large blogs would gladly pay for the service. And they could form their own ad network, as they know who reads what blogs (interests). There's also a lot of moving going on in the web publishing space.

I feel like some of the competitors you've mentioned have parts of the puzzle but Disqus has the whole thing. Given all that, it's pretty easy to see why Y C would fund these guys.

This was surely a factor: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4783

I wonder why people do that sort of thing except as an exercise:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=+this+works+perfect...

Well, not necessarily disagreeing with you, but as it happens, I used BigHeadLab's search to find the thread that I linked. I searched

"http://nycs.bigheadlabs.com/"

(no quotes) on the site http://nycs.bigheadlabs.com/ and the first result was the one I wanted (although the link format that YC uses has since changed, so I had to hack the URL).

I tried this Google search, and the result did not appear:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22http%3A%2F%2Fnyc...

Maybe you'll be funded now.

The initiative impressed me.

Because the founders are really smart, capable, and driven. Same reason YC picks almost every company. The actual business idea is less important than the founders, as pg has said frequently.

Jason & Daniel make a great team?

The big problem with this product for bloggers is that bloggers won't get any search traffic from their comments.

Search engines either don't look inside of iframes, or point to the iframe's URL if they do.

While there may be some indexing issues, it is due to another matter altogether. The comments are not in iframes.

I'm not sure if search engine indexing for comments is too big of a deal anyway. I still can't think of any way for them to generate the comments in a search engine friendly way though. Search engine bots don't render Javascript right?

They're special cuz they're Aggies! Go Davis!!!

Excellent question. Maybe they have future features planned that will distinguish them?

even if this is true, this will only answer question 1, but what about question two? why are they getting so much attention from everyone?

Maybe because they're good? Even the Uncov guy likes it! :)

what do you mean by they? the team or the product? ... if the product, then how did YC knew it was going to be good... and it takes more than being good to convince people to take a look at your product .... I think they are good but I don't see how they are so different from other ones... specially since they are so late in the game ... when you are late and you have a product that has social aspects to it, you need to do a lot more than being good in order to compete ... you have a major disadvantage and thats network effects (maybe not as crucial here since no one has really gained it yet, but once someone does its very hard to compete) ... also its not that easy to convince a blogger to switch from their current commenting system to a new one, specially that they have created an archive for themselves, and many of the current systems do not let you move your content around (i.e. at the end of the day you don't really own your comments)

Being different in the manner you describe is overrated.

They have a Hypnotoad.

because they get shit done

I meant between all those that get shit done what happened here ... I thought that was clear???

Jason and Daniel.

the domain name

'why are they getting so much attention from everyone?'

Its called a PR firm, and they take care of bombing every worthy media outlet with a tailored-made hyper-inflated story on how they will change the world (a.k.a 'Press release').

They are generally expensive, but are often worth every penny since they have contacts in all the major media departments, which in turn create this type buzz. Wait till their PR budget runs out, then we will see if the software stands on its own.

sure PR firms can help ... but there is not way you can get Fred Wilson to use the product before its launched, or get Dave Winer to try it out... or its not even that easy to get TechCrunch, and many other A List bloggers to write about your product... some of these blogs are big because no PR firm can get them to just publish the stuff, they are very picky... And of course if an average person wants TechCrunch to write about their product they will have very little chance to get any attention, but if I can get PG to ask TechCrunch, then its a different story, which is fair since they know who PG is and they know their time is not being wasted, whereas its hard to know what other people thinking...

They have surely had great PR and they have probably got advice on what they should do, but what they are getting back is not simply because they are willing to spend dollars on a PR firm ... and if it is, and there are such influential PR firms please introduce them to me

PG doesn't ask TC to write stories for his companies. TC asks PG. YC is a quality filter - it works for follow-on investors, acquirers, and press alike.

edited: I didn't intend for this comment to be insulting. "TC asks PG" was hyperbole. What I meant to get across is that TC is interested in writing about YC companies because YC acts as a good filter for all the stuff that comes across Arrington's inbox.

you are laughing as if you are very confident about your answer ... well I am not as sure as you are what exactly PG does ... but I doubt TC calls up PG or anyone else for that matter on daily basis to find out whats new... and maybe PG doesn't do it but a lot of other VC's do (check this interview video with Michael Arrington about how to get on TC http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/11/how_to_get_in_t.html ) ... if I am going to work with YC I would expect them to help me with these kind of stuff ... I mean that is the whole point of YC (don't start with saying they are not a PR team and they are not there to create news for you, I know that) .. but the way YC is structured (which I think is great) is to mostly give you advice and support ... And this kind of support could mean more than anything else to help you launch your business, create traction and gain users, specially with Disqus that is late in the game, and needs the support of bloggers, and has many competition, and there is only a need of one of these services on each blog, and it has been proven that its not so easy to get dominance in this field

"you are laughing as if you are very confident about your answer"

FWIW, brezina is a cofounder of YC-funded Xobni, so he has the inside scoop.

oh thats interesting ... so maybe he should be kind enough to answer the questions and give us his insight!!! I would find that more useful and interesting :)

and congrats to him as well for xobni they have done a great job

I see your point now and we are in agreement ... I kind of mentioned that myself in the last sentences too

I wish we had money for a PR firm. I couldn't write a press release to save my life (and thus haven't). :P

Its called a PR firm

Neither Disqus nor YC has a PR firm.

I think the main reason Disqus gets attention from bloggers is that it's designed for bloggers. They know better than anyone what a pain it is to manage comment threads.

could you give some points about Q1 and Q3 as well?

Q1: They were energetic and smart.

Q3: We liked the idea because it was clearly something the world needed. Comments are badly broken on most blogs, including even big ones like Techcrunch. I have no idea how big the market is in dollars. It's not worth thinking too much about anyway. Startups evolve. It's enough to start with something you know people need.

thanks for the response, and I am happy to see these as your answers to my questions

they also picked out the key influencers (a-list bloggers) in that community and either met them face to face (e.g. fred wilson @ demo day) and/or sent them personalized, polite emails asking them to try disqus. then it trickles down from there ("if it's good enough for fred wilson's blog, it's good enough for mine."). "the tipping point" by gladwell has other examples of this.

their product is inherently viral, too ("what are those cool threaded comments on your blog? powered by disqus?")