ideas101

the download of the safari is 3 times more but that doesn't mean the usage is 3 times more as well ... there are many dumb users who dont even know that safari exist on their machine ... market share is not correctly defined in the article ... if the person is not using the safari then you cant count him to calc market share. Having an option and using that option is 2 different thing.

Creating something from scratch is very exciting, also working in a small but well focused group gives you satisfaction of achieving something meaningful on daily basis and this could be a big plus. Apart from that if you are passionate about the idea/product then nothing else would bother you anymore.

may be u r right - mobile internet, mobile e-commerce and mobile advertising is the future and a powerful mobile OS and apps will help to lead the market and thats what google is trying to do.

for doing a great favor to the world, you may take a billion $$ extra as a bonus for using your brains :)

whoever takes over the market share in mobile/cell phone advertising will be the winner eventually - this is very new in north-america but in asia it has become a huge market concentration and the key local players are already trying to tap the market. MS should buy one of those companies who are good with that platform/technology.

MS requires a young visionary who is creative enough to take risk and understands the dynamics of the new web arena.

YC competitors will fail if they don't have honest soul to help others to grow. Also YC model looks easy from outside but if you try to know the nity-gritty of their business model then you will realize that its a hard work and the passion behind it has to be genuine otherwise there would have been hundreds of clones all over world. I see YC as a social entrepreneurship than just a money making machine and hence if Pg can share something that can help other entrepreneurs and countries then it would be like an adding jewel to his legacy crown.

read http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/03/nine_questions_.html

you haven't mentioned what salary ($) they have offered you or whether is it only stock options ... if salary is fair and good then dont bother about stock options - if salary is below par then RUN !!

thanks - i think it would be helpful if someone can create a table with the status beside each company ... this can also help people who are interested in doing some kind of analysis of these startups ... 80 is pretty good number to do some valuable study.

1000000000000% true !

I'm in touch with them and have requested to add FAQ section on their website to make us understand how the whole thing works and how much equity they expect in return to develop, maintain, support and upgrade an application.

also visit http://www.startupnorth.ca/

Canada is a great place for a startup except VCs - if u r planning to get VC involved then u might have a tough time ... u may certainly get the meeting appointment but not the funds. Also angel funding is minimum. I don't know what kind of corporation u need to form (compared to Delaware C/S corp) but it may not be as advantageous as Delaware corp. Legal and tax laws are very straight forward. Proximity to USA will certainly help but dont know whether VCs from US would be interested in canadian firm ... if u r planning to hire hackers then u can find best brains here.

you should also try to contact m&a consultant - they may help u find the buyer .... one of them is http://www.burleyonline.com/index.htm

you must continue doing what you are doing ... try growing your business even if its 0.01% a month - blog about your product as much as possible - avail all the avenues of free advertising and marketing - more the people know about your product the more you will be publicity and eventually someone will notice you and may be offer you to buyout.

nice article though there is a very thin line between revealing the demand and creating demand ... just like inventing a PC (as author said) - before PC was invented the work was still going on w/o any problem, it was just taking little bit longer to finish .... so anything that saves time or money or energy (or all) will create demand automatically. Most of the time it is said that create/produce/develop something that people want it but sometime people dont even know that they need something (say computer). So when you create something that even people don't know that they need it then you're surely hitting a jackpot or you will fail terribly.

But sometime there are companies which just creates demand even though there is no need - for example soft drinks, alcohol, cigarette, most of the cosmetic products etc. There are solid arguments available that human being doesn't require these things but still multinational companies has created it to fill their pockets... but it doesn't do any good to human civilization. then is it even worth to create that kind of demands ??????

i'm extremely delighted to know this ... BRAVO !

Now i'm waiting for waiting for a clone in Canada ...

the cultural clash, the technology clash, the reputation clash will cost ms dearly ... also employees who dont leave will stay there with the lowest moral which is even more dangerous than an employee leaving the company ... this will also create internal politics about who's right regarding selecting a technology and/or new apps and business.

Anyway this would be fun to watch as 2 different giant animals (dinosaur and elephant) coming together to rule the jungle - while all the other animals like lions, tigers, leopards will try to create an even game to ouster these giants.

yes, u r absoulutely right, one of the proposition of ms buying yahoo is to get on open source bandwagon because most of the startups are open source and it would be easier for all future buys for ms to integrate with yahoo apps/platform.

But this discussion is about taking care of employees's and customer's wish and aspiration - again what if key employees and customers of flickr, delicious etc.switch their loyalty just because they were not respected and considered during m&a....

sorry, but i haven't read any survey regarding whether or not yahoo's (and its subsidiary's) employees and customers are for or against the merger.

sorry, i didn't mentioned who are the shareholders? when m&a takes place its all about biggest shareholders who are mostly private equity or big venture funds and not the retail shareholders like you and me ... while customer and employees are located world over - for example a yahoo email user in a small village of china should also be considered as a value stakeholder because those type of users are in millions and in the same way an employee in the yahoo's r&d dept. in india is also as important as any other stakeholder.... so what would happen to ms if these 2 stakeholders switch their loyalty to the competitor (say google) after merger ???????

i think u r right in the sense that i would rather acquire 10 different futuristic companies than just one jumbo that can fail terribly ... it would have been better if ms bought something like social networking, voip, cloud apps, virtual s/w for desktop etc. companies than just one single content provider.

its a nice beginning - you may want to add some color to it - at least for news headlines ...

i used yahoo once - it was a deal to register domain for $1 ... can't go cheaper and better than yahoo.

there could be multiple solution - one can start the yc shop in Canada and/or BRIC - the talent market in these countries is huge - the other option for pg is to see whether they can start franchising - the most important thing in this model is connections with VCs - if someone can bring VCs on board then even few investors, entrepreneurs and hackers can come together and start a clone.

for the benefit of YC community, can u pls provide the names of these lawyers or website to sign-up for such workshops ... thanks

i don't want to discourage you because any technical learning will help you in the future - but just in case if you find this things very technical or boring or not interested then don't get disappointed (and dont give-up either) because u can still become a webpreneur - a startup is about many things and not only hacking, its about building a business from scratch it requires skills, knowledge, experience of sales, marketing, finance, HR, market research, project management etc.

Also if you have terrific idea then u dont have to wait to learn those technical skills rather you start looking for hacker co-founder or hire a hacker or outsource it to a freelancer - this is because there might be someone who has the same idea and is planning a startup, so u better keep balance between speed, gaining knowledge and time spent on learning hacking ONLY.

congratulations and good luck - keep us all in loop - by the way what r u working on ...?

i won't say the startup are less ambitious because i think almost all of them wants to reach the level of success of google/facebook , but then it is all about your idea/product, team, execution, timing, funding, luck, mentoring, etc.

Also YCombinator is a king-maker but not every king can have huge empire and not everyone can become Alexander, though everyone would like to become one, but then they all have some kind of limitations which is sometimes is out of your control.

thanks - what's IRC?