Comment by nickb | Hacker News Reader

Comment by nickb | Hacker News Reader

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YES! Absolutely! Personally, I've changed the focus of our startup to do some good in the world by first releasing a free product for the non-profit cause. I've been a huge fan of OLPC and we're developing a product for that market first. I don't think these two - making money and doing good - are mutually exclusive at all. Changing the world (for the better hopefully!) goes hand in hand with wealth and doing good can be highly lucrative. It's all about finding balance and being a good global citizen. Many companies have positioned themselves to be global leaders and also to have impeccable ethics and do good.

If you can afford to delay monetization to do some good in this messed up World, definitely do it! You will be rewarded for it.

It's great to hear that!

Sometimes, it seems like the products that succeed in a free market are not necessarily the products that will make consumers happiest in the long run.

For instance: Facebook has a ludicrously high valuation, but is it actually creating that much value? I don't think so -- the monetary valuation of Facebook is mostly due to the fact that it is addictive and contagious, rather than due to any substantial consumer betterment created by the service.

(That general critique is also applicable to most of the facebook apps out there so far, I think)

I think it creates value in the ability to keep track of your personal social network. Its not entirely difficult to manage contacts on your own, but I think its nice that at the very least I can send a Facebook message to someone (if not gather their contact information via their profile if they choose to include it) if I'd like to ask them a question or catch up with them. In the past, you might have to ask a mutual friend or spend some energy figuring out how to reconnect with them.

But I agree that their revenue is generated mostly because most of their users have trouble limiting their time on the site, which can be considered a negative impact.

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