Probably relocating from Israel to a new office in San Franscisco, in addition to hiring new staff, and marketing to keep the buzz going (they even turned the funding itself into a PR campaign, which is very well done).
> I'd imagine the developers threw a massive party with kegs and thousands of pizzas...
I'd imagine this shows either some disconnect or envy, or a little bit of both.
> Apps like this shouldn't take funding, they're short-lived hype apps, they're not the next Twitter or Facebook.
Why not? So they can slave for months on some feature set that needlessly bloats their simple product? Buzz around the funding grew them from 50k users to an estimated 250k users in a span of less than a week. Why sit still and not ride the wave to full-on virality or an early exit? If they manage to eat just 1% of WhatsApp's lunch, the investors would have made a fine investment.
> Yo is an MVP product that is not refined nor innovative and could be built by a 14 year old with a Udemy course on Objective-C
The first version of Facebook was not refined or innovative. There are a lot of talented coders on HackerNews who could built any app currently on the market in a weekend. They either do not bother (because they don't think it is innovative enough) or they do bother, but fail to connect with the market. Yes, this product is a victory of smart marketing and user virality, not a victory of using the technology.
If you can build an MVP application that attracts funding, 250k users and a lot of media attention, then I suggest you go start that Udemy course and do so. I won't complain when you get funding to realize the full potential.
> Save the VC funding for startup ideas that actually deserve it.
No. Save the VC funding for those startups that show promising growth and realistic strategies. Save the VC funding for startups that will bring return on your investment. Save the VC funding for the pet rock startups that managed to sell 15 million $ in profit in their first 6 months.