217 karma · joined February 7, 2012
A calculator like Shipwire uses to help people calculate the cost of their fulfillment services: http://www.shipwire.com/pricing would be ideal, but you'll run into very old browsers in those internet cafes. So even a more demonstrative infographic would help borrowers see just what's being offered.
I really hope you guys succeed, I've just worked with people who could use what you're offering and have seen them disappointed too many times by offers that were either misleading or that they just didn't understand.
They're following the status quo, are probably not intending to be evil, and are surely feeling the pressure to be 10x better.
But I worked in the Philippines in college, and you want to know what would really blow their minds? Not screwing them over. Everybody else does that. 10x better is being honest. Given their alternatives, 25% isn't that bad. Initial adoption might be slow - they're so used to corruption and being bullshitted that they'll think it must be 25% plus something - but once word spreads that Zidisha is really just 25% and offers the most valuable commodity in places like this - honesty and transparency - it will blow up. And then you'll get more fraud, but that's challenge 2.0.
This is really important. When I first started a business, criticism stung. Now I love it. It means someone knows you exist, and it's worth their time to tell you what you're doing wrong.
And wasn't Yahoo's category system like a file organizer for the web? Google is more like sifting through co-workers papers to see what sources they use most on a given topic.
It sounds like this person is used to working alone. If the parts you're working on are completely separate, that might be okay. If you're both technical and both working on the same parts, it seems like the repeated breaking of the code would make your argument for you.
strongly discouraging me from redesigning and refactoring bloated multi-purpose objects
Are you launched? Unless this is the critical bottle neck that's preventing further development, there are a lot of people who would agree with him.
What do you do in the face of implacable intransigence?
It sounds like the bigger problem you're facing is being able to successfully argue with each other. That's what you have to figure out.
PG recommends having different cofounders be masters of different domains. Where they come together, you need certain core values you agree upon and to be able to explicitly argue why or why not a particular position supports those values. It also helps to give some level of deference to the person who's actually going to be doing the work.
I'm limping along and am inclined to fork the project
Always an option, and a decision better made earlier rather than later. Someone who was worth trying as a cofounder is worth going through some pain to learn how to constructively argue with. But nothing else will make up for not learning how to do it.
Even if they're in different markets, Blue Cross is well-known enough that they may also have a colorable "dilution" claim.
Bottom line, if you're a startup and you get sued, you've already lost. Good on them for not wasting time fighting this too hard and getting on with their work.
And to your question, I guess not. :P
Given how many reapplications YC gets, it seems that it should only invest in companies it thinks would do so well in the next 6 months that they won't apply in the next round.
If YC is getting fewer misses on companies that are rejected but go on to do well, how much of that do you ascribe to the selection process and how much do you ascribe to YC's increasing ability to get multiple passes at startups?
Amazon makes 20%+ margin, "pretty healthy", on "a lot of what it sells" (almost all retail items that are marked down 30% or less from their MSRP) and .5% isn't a lot of that. It is less than Amazon loses on popular books, and less than they lose on prime shipping.
Of all the things Amazon loses money on to incentivize customers, it's a small one.
Gross operating margin is only tangentially related and can be increased by them at any time by spending less money on other investments.
It's just really smart. Surely less than the difference between Prime shipping costs and the annual subscription fee, and with the same purpose: chipping away at the reasons people would buy anything anywhere else ever.
We agree that a fix to this pain point would be valuable. Create it and maybe we'll come work for you.
It's appealing to customers and established merchants with slow, predictable growth and short lead times, but not for pre-orders. And I don't see them changing this - it's in their DNA.
Kickstarter with Amazon Payments, in contrast and for better or worse, is the most pre-order friendly system imaginable. Tens of thousands to millions of dollars transferred in days with virtually no questions asked. The 14-day holding period they mention is only for first time projects.
"A legally binding agreement involving two or more people or businesses (called parties) that sets forth what the parties will or will not do. Most contracts that can be carried out within one year can be either oral or written. Major exceptions include contracts involving the ownership of real estate and commercial contracts for goods worth $500 or more, which must be in writing to be enforceable. (See: statute of frauds) A contract is formed when competent parties -- usually adults of sound mind or business entities -- mutually agree to provide each other some benefit (called consideration), such as a promise to pay money in exchange for a promise to deliver specified goods or services or the actual delivery of those goods and services. A contract normally requires one party to make a reasonably detailed offer to do something -- including, typically, the price, time for performance, and other essential terms and conditions -- and the other to accept without significant change. For example, if I offer to sell you ten roses for $10 to be delivered next Thursday and you say "It's a deal," we've made a valid contract. On the other hand, if one party fails to offer something of benefit to the other, there is no contract. For example, if Maria promises to fix Josh's car, there is no contract unless Josh promises something in return for Maria's services."