Yep, makes sense. Which is why it's the first option in the list (coffee, beer, ...)
377 karma · joined July 28, 2010
@laurentk on twitter
Doesn't make sense?
This is my 1s rails project, and I was looking for best learning practices. So I asked around (twitter, facebook) and got 2 types of responses: friends who also wanted to learn, and friends who could help out.
So this is actually what I built: an app to tell your friends what you need. Your friends can "+1" (they have the same need) or help out (commenting, offering their help).
I would love your feedback as much on the concept than on the execution. I built this in about 2 weeks, and will iterate based on your comments!
Thank again!
In France, you cannot protect a business concept / process / idea. You can patent code, protect IP, logos, ... but not a concept. I'm no lawyer, of course, and any lawyer would find counter arguments. But all in all, you cannot.
For instance, this [http://mashable.com/2010/06/17/amazon-patents-social-network...] or maybe that [http://www.zdnet.com/news/facebook-wins-patent-for-location-...] would not be accepted. You would have to IP the code itself, the methods, the technology. And if someone did the same thing differently, you would not be able to attack or C&D them.
3 days after launch, we received a cease and desist letter from SecretementVotre (secretly yours, in french) asking us to basically close the service : http://www.businessinsider.com/secretpoke-secretementvotre-2...
We had more fun than fear, and actually blogged about it. Even playing off with the title: SecretementVotre wants to screw up SecretPoke.
Ideas are a dime a dozen, execution is everything. At any given time, 10+ people around the globe are thinking about the same revolutionizing ideas... The only difference between France and the US is that you cannot "protect" an idea in France... so nothing happened.
"when something happens (this) then do something else (that)."
Example triggers: "if I'm tagged in a photo on Facebook" or "if I tweet on twitter."
Example actions: "then send me a text message" or "then create a status message on Facebook."
Example channels: Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, Email, Phone Call, Weather, ...
By the way, love the URL of the about page : http://ifttt.com/wtf :))
If you were to open a farm in the midwest, would you really hire an IBM sales rep to sell your farm products who never milked a cow before?
For the non-tech guys, in an early stage startup, i would definitely look at :
- product skills => can the guy understand what customers/users need ? and if he doesn't, will he ask them?
- tech skills => you guys need to speak the same language. even if he's a beginner, has he tried coding in RoR, php, python, ...? will you speak the same language?
- network => does he know investors and bloggers? or at least know people who know them?
- traction and community => can the guy move heaven and earth to get people on board?
- recklessness => is he okay with the risk, the absence of salary, the non-benefits, ...?
Ninjas, gurus, rockstars, ... isn't that just 2006 buzz words for biz pple recruiting tech pple ?
Is it a fact that the product execution by YC teams will be flawless, so we can just minimize it?
Launching one week before, and hanging at the right time in the right place, congrats guys. Well thought.
Maybe you could differentiate by only asking (or allowing to answer) my direct social graph. Way less interesting for you in terms of growth, maybe way more interesting for the users as the answer will be by someone they know (close or extended network).
One thing is sure : if you built this in one week end, wow, congrats !
That's for me the critical feature #1 in a service : your users use your product for one very clear reason. They come to your app to do specifically this. There might be other features on your app, but there's a main one, clearly defined.
And by using this feature, they get value. It is simple, it is straightforward. Value can be content (Quora answers). Value can be an action or reaction (check-in, "count me in" on a plancast). Value can mean earning or saving dollars.
Love the subject, blogged about it here: http://laurentk.posterous.com/in-search-of-the-perfect-viral...
We had a similar experience when we launched secretpoke : http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2179649
We have been on the home page for about 24 hours, and on the top position for ~3 hours. In those 3 hours only, we saw about 5K uniques on the homepage of the app. But the most valuable thing was the 100+ comments that we got, and helped us improve.
Here was our take on the subject : http://secretpoke.posterous.com/how-we-used-hns-feedback-to-...
Try it, hit the "install on my home screen" button, and it simply removes the address bar and the bottom safari actions (back, bookmark, # of tabs, ...).
You owe me 1 cent :)
It's really pretty amazing. But the very sad thing is that the kidney printing (http://www.shockmd.com/2011/03/10/printing-a-human-kidney/) would get less funding than a mainstream application of what you've done.