cmcewen

I think Exec and TaskRabbit share(d) a similar problem in that they are so broad that consumers aren't sure what to use the platform for. Renewed focus on a single service makes sense, but they face competition from Handybook and Homejoy. It's probably also difficult to differentiate in this market since the maids are all likely independent contractors.

I think the author hasn't researched the topic very well - there are a ton of startups who have tried this "stuff-sharing/selling model" and it hasn't really worked out.

I wrote a blog post about why a drill is a bad example for the sharing economy: https://www.credport.org/blog/12-Why-a-Drill-is-a-Bad-Exampl...

If you think of it in terms of the 1 or 2 pawn shops you might have access to, eBay's initial audience of 100 or 1000 as well as the usenet groups Omidyar would post to provides significant "single user" utility that most marketplaces can't provide at that same audience size. So while you're correct that it's not truly "single" user, eBay did provide significant value to the very very early sellers.

Shameless plug - trying to help marketplaces with that problem with Credport (https://www.credport.org/).

Airbnb is pretty much the standard: https://www.airbnb.com/safety#features

Trust is a big problem for any peer to peer situation. eBay, Airbnb, and Paypal all had to figure out ways to jumpstart trust in their communities - if Bitcoin can do the same, then the potential is huge.

Sorry - I meant to clarify stickiness when asked to pay. Freemium conversion is like 1-5%, so I'd imagine somewhere closer to 1% with you guys.

With 30ish people, let's say you burn $2 million a year. You'd need to get 30,000 people to each pay ~$70 a year for your app. My numbers might be wrong, but I'm just curious how you'd get people to spend that when it's so easy to switch to another task app.

Do you expect those users to be sticky? The barrier to entry for making a to-do list is negligible, and having a long history of completed tasks is of very little value.

There's also plenty of college left to work on after ideas.

Maybe taking a break is a better term, but I don't understand why "dropping out" means you will never get a degree.

To me, this just demonstrates the problems that arise when you say you're trying to tackle this huge gigantic problem. There's a ton of building hype, and then people are disappointed/scornful when you can't deliver. It reminds me a bit of the Thiel Fellowship.

Maybe this YC class is just a result of many lessons learned. It does seem the problems they tackle are, for lack of a better word, lame, but that doesn't mean they can't grow into something really big.

I guess time will tell, but best of luck to Makr.io. My only wish is that they share everything they must have learned through the process of Diaspora.

It's awesome that App.net is trying to build something new, but I think the Hacker News market is somewhat saturated considering how many articles have been on the front page lately. If people haven't donated by now, I don't think a few screenshots will sway their opinion that much. I'd guess that turning your effort towards other avenues would be a better use of time.

This criticism does seem to be more harsh than is necessary, but I don't see what the problem is in seeking the advice from those with more experience teaching. Khan has created something amazing, but that doesn't mean he is infallible nor that his videos should stay as they are today.

If you read the second to last paragraph, they don't suggest that Khan Academy shuts down, or that he stops teaching. They literally just say, "Hey, it'd be nice if he asked some really great teachers to look over his examples before he uses them to make sure he doesn't confuse people." I'm not an expert, but sounds like it couldn't hurt.

I can't speak from experience about getting acquired, but I definitely see how it could be an attention drain. I was more speaking to the stickiness of the product. Socialcam grew really quickly, but shrunk just as fast because people didn't stay around. That to me seems very hard to monetize.

Most people seem confused by Autodesk part of this headline. Am I the only one confused by the $60M?

Look at the traffic decline: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/socialcam.com

My understanding is that a bunch of people clicked on Socialcam when it showed up in their news feed and didn't know they were signing up - now it seems the numbers are starting to reflect that not many people actually use it.

Maybe I'm just crazy.

I honestly think people focus too much on pain relief/solving problems vs. making people happy. Most ideas can be described in either paradigm, and there's really no reason to argue about it - just make something people want. Maybe they want it because it makes them happy, or maybe it makes them way less sad.

Take bookmarking. Del.icio.us made people really happy because they could keep track of all the sites they liked. It also made people way less sad because they didn't lose track of sites they liked. Either way, people used it.

Sorry, should have been a bit more clear. Some of the spaghetti being thrown against the wall (companies taking crowdsourced money) will stick (be successful), but the people who threw it (people putting in crowdsourced money) won't necessarily benefit the most, and there could also be damage from the spaghetti on the floor (failed companies). I'll work on my analogies.

If you throw enough spaghetti against the wall, some of it will stick. That doesn't mean you get to eat the spaghetti, nor does it mean the spaghetti on the floor has no cost.

I don't see a sticker telling me what kind of processor is in inside, nor do I see a sticker telling me which version of Windows this is. I'm a bit confused.

Might as well have VCs looking at 5th graders instead of NBA scouts. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-03-30/sports/ct-spt-...

This can also be done by using LEDs and smartphone cameras, which actually gives a higher resolution. http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/39685/

"Europe's policymakers have blundered in the control of a delicate machine, the workings of which they do not understand. They're not evil. But they're almost certainly wrong."

How does this columnist then believe that he understands the economy if policymakers are so clueless? If Spain's economic problems were so easy to fix that everybody could just read this article and solve them, they probably wouldn't exist in the first place.

Claiming that Klout is "meaningless" is a misleading way to convey his point. The author really means to say that measuring influence in more than one area would be better in some situations than a single score. However, given that a large number of people use Klout, and some people get free stuff just for using Klout, it certainly has meaning.

While knowing the horsepower, dimensions, top speed, and durability of a car would certainly be better for some people than a simple "car score", that "car score" might in fact be useful to a large number of people.

I'm not sure if this would work the same way, but I know that some high voltage LEDs are actually just strings of multiple LEDs in series [1]. Though it clearly wouldn't reach the inflated efficiency in this article, this could lead to a chip with a large number of very very small LEDs reaching a higher efficiency than a standard LED. It obviously depends on the manufacturing process though.

[1] http://www.cree.com/products/pdf/led%20arrays.pdf

So you're saying it's taskrabbit, but for college students? I'm curious as to why you picked this demographic to target. From my own personal experience, college students seem to have less money but more time than your average person. They could be a good fit for this ecosystem as those who complete tasks, but it seems like it would be much more difficult to get them to post.

It seems like most people agree that "something should be done", but the question remains what can be done? Should there be a day where everyone calls and complains to Congress about copyright issues? Start an Internet Industry Association of America?

I think calling Congress could be effective, but it'd be hard to get the volume required to make a difference, and there is no bill to explicitly support. Likewise, an IIAA might work, but it seems like Google, Facebook, and Twitter would have to be deeply involved to make a difference.

My only remaining thought is to use the tactics of the MPAA and RIAA: hire a lobbyist. The only thing I could think of would be a sort of Kickstarter project. Everyone pledges money, and once a target is reached, a lobbyist is hired to draft a bill on Issue X, and lobby Congress for its passage. There'd have to be a sympathetic member of Congress in order to introduce the bill, and I'm sure a serious amount of money would have to be raised, but this is the only way I can think of that the average joe on the Internet could do anything besides complain on HN. Thoughts?

The jury is screened to make sure those 5% don't serve. All potential jurors are tested to see if they believe something like "it should not be illegal to kill an abortion doctor," or anything else that would cause an unfair trial before they are chosen. The college kids in Boston who get jury duty joke they'll claim to be racist so they can go home.

In addition, lawyers for both sides are allowed to pick a certain number of people to strike from the jury for any reason they choose. Assuming both sides have somewhat competent lawyers (although that's not always true), the chance of having an outlier on your jury is greatly diminished.

The default search engine on the Kindle Fire is Google. More people using the Kindle Fire to search means more advertising revenue for Google.

In addition, the real threat to Google in the tablet/smartphone space is Apple. More people using Android, even a derivative, results in fewer people locked in to iOS.

This article has usage statistics which explain exactly why: http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2011/12/16/zyn...

"Empires & Allies, which was launched in June 2011, peaked soon after its launch at about 48 million monthly active users and has seen a big decline since. Currently, it has around 18 million monthly active users."

As andrewfelix said, none of the games Zynga makes has the same lasting potential as World of Warcraft or Call of Duty. When each new COD title is released, a large mass of gamers shift from one title to the next. There isn't the same transition for Zynga, so none of the same virality.

Dear Congress,

It's no longer okay (and never has been) to listen to people who are paid to convince you to pass a law that benefits only them. Instead, you should listen to the people who know what they are talking about and aren't being paid.

To sum it up:

http://youarenotsosmart.com/2011/08/21/the-illusion-of-asymm...