Ask HN: Review my startup, 50emptypages.com
https://50emptypages.com
https://50emptypages.com
So to make money you are going to auction your very inexpensive "pages" for more than they are worth; playing on competitive human nature. However, no one is feeling competitive, and therefore bidding, because people know "pages" are cheap and this is a gimmick. So you up the ante a bit by making it an "exclusive" buyers club. Only "members" can bid on your fabulously exclusive "pages". And there are a limited number of "pages" to bid on. Supply and demand are now in check!
But, wait a minute, that's not really enough of an incentive. Now I am paying money for the opportunity to bid to pay more money for a product with very little value. So, you decide to split the proceeds on the memberships with the people who win the bid! There you go. The "page" still has no value but the pot that you split 50 ways does have value. And of course the number of executive members matters now because, if I win the bid, I want to get as much as I can from this pot, that has value. On top of that, when the bidding on the worthless "page" happens I want to bid up so that I don't lose my $9.99 investment to become an exclusive member! Brilliant.
You have created an interesting combination of gambling and a pyramid scheme. However, this sort of scheme is by no means innovative, it's been done many times before. If this were my business I would make sure that the business always programmatically won the bidding on every page. Why split the money with the schmucks who want to buy a useless "page" when you could keep it all for yourself AND keep all of your 50 pages too? Oh right, because you can make the most money on people trying to win a bid on a useless "page". That's going to be a trick. You'll need to programmatically decide whether it is better that the company keep the pot or the company take the bid on the "page".
I would get into the legal ramifications and tax ramifications of all of this for both your business AND all of your customers. But that is a total waste of time. I hope everyone who comes to your "business" sees this for the scam that it is.
Earn money!
Earn MONEY
Earn M.O.N.E.Y!!!
I felt really icky watching your video. The music didn't make it any better. Nor the typos in the video. The video was too long and went too slow. I would have prefered someone telling me the concept, not letting it read myself. Someone talking to me feels more interactive I figure. After watching the video I still don't know how it works.
I wonder .. how much of the current 'piggy bank' is real, and how much is faked?
I commend you for dreaming this up but I don't think this one is the home run your looking for. Keep up the good work!
The difference is I didn't feel like million dollar home page was trying to swindle me