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kurtvarneron Mobile app startups are failing like it’s 1999

What about the Android fragmentation problem? In the words of MG Siegler today:

"The problem is that all of these different devices require testing for each and every app. They all create a different Android experiences — some in subtle ways, some in big ways. Some run certain Android apps, others don’t. Some apps work fine on one device then are buggy as hell on another one. Sometimes this gets fixed, sometimes it doesn’t. It depends on the popularity of that device and the resources the development team has."

[source] http://parislemon.com/post/29497373610/im-not-sure-fred-wils...

kurtvarneron Mobile app startups are failing like it’s 1999

The media and company never spin it as a failure, but what do you think all these small acqui-hires are?

kurtvarneron ViaCycle (YC S12) Is A Zipcar For Bikes, Coming To San Francisco Soon

Their pricing structure seems super confusing. There's two full paragraphs talking about it.

kurtvarneron Andreessen-backed virtual workforce MobileWorks (YCS11) does 1M tasks in year 1

Where do they hire their workforce from? Are they overseas or American workers?

[edit] The main reason I was asking this, was I find it really surprising that you're able to hire skilled/educated workers at an outsourcing rate. It's even more surprising that you're finding them organically through press. I'd imagine most TechCrunch readers are over qualified for that kind of work. Kudos to you for making it happen though.

kurtvarneron War? YouTube app disappears from iOS 6 beta 4 as Apple breaks Google ties

Here's an even better explanation http://thenextweb.com/apple/2012/08/06/why-is-apple-ditching...

kurtvarneron PayDragon (YC S11) raises $1.35M so hungry people can skip lines

>The round included Rustic Canyon Ventures, Ron Conway’s SV Angel, Yuri Milner, Mark Schwartz, and a follow-on investment by Y Combinator.

A follow-on investment from YC? I wasn't aware that they do follow-ons.

kurtvarneron Dalton Caldwell, you should move to New York and re-rethink app.net

[...] though I'm not asserting where one might find higher quality between SF and NYC.

Thank you for including this.

kurtvarneron The Leanest Startup in Silicon Valley

I wrote about the logistics of everything here (although a few things have changed since this post) http://kurtvarner.com/post/19347794553/man-car-startup

kurtvarneron The Leanest Startup in Silicon Valley

Direct link to DailyToaster - http://dailytoaster.com

More info on my blog - http://kurtvarner.com

kurtvarneron Startups that TechCrunch missed out on

No wonder TechCrunch didn't cover these. Most of them only have a landing page up.

kurtvarneron SwipeGood (YC W11) Is Now Elastic, A Sales-As-A-Service Platform For Startups

>The headcount growth has been purely from Elastic’s own reinvested revenues.

>Elastic has started to field interest from venture capital firms looking to provide funding, Efti says, but for now the company is focusing on the business.

Good for them. It's refreshing to see a company grow organically with their own reinvestment.

kurtvarneron WakeMate Update

He got a hold of their Twitter account too. Check the stream, as the interactions are hilarious. https://twitter.com/#!/wakemate (but hurry because I'm sure the tweets will be gone soon).

kurtvarneron Foursquare Gets A New Look: Redesign Makes Checking In Stickier And More Social

Direct links

App Store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id306934924?mt=8&src=af&#...

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joelapenna...

kurtvarneron Show HN: Person-to-person ridesharing, safe and reliable

Umm... http://ridejoy.com/ (YC S11)

[edit] I didn't intend on being a smart ass. I just don't see how they differentiate.

kurtvarneron Show HN: movies.io — torrent search like it should be

I've always wondered why all torrent sites look like ass. Nice job with this.

kurtvarneron The Art Of The iOS Icon

1) Put £500-800 of your budget aside

I think this is a gross underestimation of how much these designs would cost. Does anyone have any real data on the cost of iOS icon design?

kurtvarneron Are You in a Bubble?

On the other hand, the Facebook bubble could pop any day. Most of the world would barely notice, and LinkedIn would still get business from other growing industries. Disclosure: I own LNKD shares.

Of course he's a believer in LinkedIn and owns shares. His company was acquired by them. I'd like to know if he actually purchased more shares than what he was given with the acquisition.

kurtvarneron Introducing Facebook Camera

Bad news for Batch from Dailybooth (YC S09). They focus on uploading photos in batches.

http://batch.com/

kurtvarneron Y Combinator here I come – update

I also just moved to the Valley and would love to meet up. Here's my story: http://kurtvarner.com/post/19347794553/man-car-startup

kurtvarneron I have no idea what I'm doing

This is the same thought I had after reading Justin Kan's post (http://justinkan.com/what-good-is-experience). I was surprised by how much emphasis Justin placed on the importance of experience. I feel one of the best traits of an entrepreneur is the ability to learn quickly and figure things out on the fly.

kurtvarneron Stop Looking For A Technical Co-founder

>Be conservative with your equity. One of the easiest ways to scare off a technical co-founder is to offer 50% of your company in an initial email or meeting. Freelancers in particular take this as a sign of your trying to get free labor. 50% of nothing is still nothing.

I completely disagree with this. You want to find a co-founder, not an employee. In the early stage your technical co-founder will be doing 90% of the actually work. To offer them a small equity stake because it's your idea is an absolute joke.

kurtvarneron Reclaiming your commute

Glad it works for you. However, I would never be able to blog this way. When I blog, it's a continuous iteration of what I have written. I write something, it doesn't make sense, then I go back and make it better. Personally, I would find it impossible to create quality content by just starting to speak out loud.

kurtvarneron Don’t work. Be hated. Love someone. (2008)

I love how he made an insightful comment, and everyone goes off on a tangent about how much money comedians make.

kurtvarneron There Are Now 200,000 People In Everyme (YC S11) Circles

Every number in this article is a pure vanity metric. 200,000 "total audience" doesn't mean anything. Someone call Eric Ries.

kurtvarneron Introducing 1% of Nothing

The point is that the 1% can potentially turn into a huge amount of money. Let's take the most extreme example: Facebook. If they gave 1% of their equity to a cause in the early stages, it doesn't seem like much. But with their IPO, it's now worth $1 billion. Facebook would never give a $1B donation to charity now, but they are held accountable to what they originally gave in equity.

kurtvarneron EveryMe (YC S11) hits the App Store

Dave Morin is an investor, so Path probably doesn't see Everyme as direct competition.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/18/andreessen-horowitz-crunchf...

kurtvarneron Meetings.io - Simple, online meetings

These details are not super important for the version one launch. Very few "normal" people will notice.

kurtvarneron An Airbnb for Dogs Gets $3.4 Million in Funding

Spotwag is in the same space. They're differentiated by leveraging your Facebook friends and friends of friends in order to find care takers. Pets are like children. Do you really want to trust them with anyone?

http://spotwag.com/

kurtvarneron Ask HN: Is my account flagged? I don't earn upvotes

Thanks PG. Admittedly, I've previously asked a few friends to upvote a couple of my blog posts. My mistake.

It's great that you have a system in place to keep everything on an even playing field.

kurtvarneron Why I Chose New York

I'm the guy living from his car. I never implied that Silicon Valley will make me a success (or be my savior). I simply said that there are a lot of advantages to being there. I don't think one can argue against that.