331 karma · joined December 27, 2009
YC S10 entrepreneur, consumer advocate & fish eater. YC Badge: 0xba15da20ab292391b75490b77cc61fa960bf552c
I also loved shopping there... the items seemed to be obscure, growing up I always wondered who actually shopped there for these items to justify an entire store... but the demand was there, they just didn't figure out how to take advantage of the early-mover advantage
As a datapoint, since the public launch a few days ago we are already helping people track over $35M in credit card debts. We believe trust is earned not paid for.
Simply put, way more than 100MM people have credit cards, only ~100MM or 1/3rd carry balances from month to month.
Planning tools are definitely in the works. We do help you understand the 'true cost' of items purchased on your credit cards; the interest and fees can be sneaky.
The debt counseling industry and, in some cases debt settlement, benefit creditors by providing an alternative way to recover funds as compared with bankruptcy or collections. In fact, under what is called "fair share" creditors give these companies direct kickbacks. The % has been reduced significantly because companies were making too much.
If you dig deeper, you will find many creditor and bureau executives working at these non-profit counseling organizations. The business model is a critical aspect in understanding how this industry works.
With all that said, we do not plan to do any debt settlement.
For additional details on the history, take a look at the Uniform Debt-Management Services Act paper (http://blog.readyforzero.com/industry-research/).
Thanks for the comment.
For what its worth, I also started 2 internet companies while in high school and have been a passionate entrepreneur since. After much deliberation and discouraging (not a typo) advice from those around me, I went back to college after 1.5 years in industry to get my degree, knew what I wanted to study, finished quickly and paid for a majority of it on my own. In a few cases, I even finished just as my friends who had gone straight through after HS. I had some real-world experience and knew what I wanted to study. I did serious research on degree programs and studied exactly what I wanted.
If you are up for it, college is a different kind of challenge that is hard to recreate. It requires a lot of "work" but its satisfying to move toward a long-term goal and finish; very similar to the satisfaction of building/launching an app from nothing. It requires discipline no matter who you are (entrepreneur or not) to get through college or school.
Quite simply: I wouldn't go if you expect to get professional experience or learn more about CS, I would go to learn and have fun but know that it will get harder for a lot of reasons to go back later (mostly because you won't have as much fun). ;)
Just like you I thought going away for a few years would make or break me professionally. I guarantee not much will change and you won't miss out on ("waste") as much as you think you will.
All the best.
But there are lots of common patterns (i.e. email to discuss details with colleagues after a new updated document is published). Supporting each individually would never work but observing and supporting the most common workflows within a group or diverse groups is a great way to create a compelling product imho.
Get something up and running fast... a modified blog as simonk suggested might be a good way to get it up quickly. Craigslist started as a mailing list of sorts among friends.