phil_KartMe

Thanks. Has this been true every year?

Do you agree that, in consumer web, "It’s not about good ideas or bad ideas: it’s about ideas that make people talk."?

If anyone has stats on angel funds and fundings, please let me know. I'd love to firm up the assumptions in the main equation. I'm looking for:

1) Number of "seed" funds & average size of fund

2) % ownership a seed investor likes to have at exit & time to exit

Thanks!

I didn't mean to imply this article was about how FarmVille started or grew.

This history of FarmVille implies it was better game mechanics than Farm Town, and Zynga's installed base, that lead to FarmVille's success: http://www.allfacebook.com/2010/01/farmville-history/.

I'd also hypothesize that Zynga grew because they:

* Had a working revenue model, so they could pay for advertising without burning cash. And being able to advertise in the place where someone plays is helpful for conversions.

* Built on a growing platform (i.e., Facebook)

If HackerNew wanted to become more like FarmVille (not that it should), the system could:

* give you karma just for stopping by each day

* give you karma for upvoting other's posts

* give you profiles you could customize by trading in karma

* show you what your friends were upvoting and their Karma

* show you how close you were to attaining moderator status

* allow you to give one virtual gift per day to your favorite contributors

* have your karma decline if you don't stop by in a week

one smart aspect of FarmVille is that you can gain points without other people giving you Karma. In fact, you get points for helping others.

Thanks!

I've been collecting some links to presentations and posts on designing for engagement. See the list here: http://www.kartme.com/phil/web-design

If anyone has other thoughts on lessons to learn from FarmVille, let me know!

fair. and we don't know terms (e.g., liquidation preferences).

overvaluation - too high a value or price assigned to something

overvalued - Describing a security trading at a higher price than it logically should.

http://www.google.com/search?q=define%3A+overvalued&ie=u...

Exactly. How can Groupon be worth >$1B if the value proposition for businesses (that is, their growth in repeat customers over time) hasn't been proven?

I agree a successful business need not be unique. For example, many blogging platforms are and will be successful (e.g., tumblr, posterours, blogger, wordpress, etc).

However, if the consumer value proposition is built on providing exclusive deals, than to preserve your audience's trust, your deals need to be exclusive.

Please note, the article was also about how Groupon: -has no top not repeat local customers -has inside investors selling -benefits from a temporary trends towards coupon redemption

let me know if you have any questions about the funding. happy to lend advice to this community if i can.

Feel free to let me know if I'm missing any funds here.

The criteria was: -must actively invest $250,000 to $500,000 in startups -must have dedicated resources in NYC to review details -must have dedicated capital

I updated the article to include 2 more angels in NYC. And here is a link to 10 seed funds in NYC. http://www.kartme.com/phil/seed-funds-nyc

Ugh. Yes, 10-20-30 is what most VCs ask for. However, it's not what works in a first meeting. You can't demo a product and sell a dream with 10/20/30.

http://platformsandnetworks.blogspot.com/2009/12/pitching.ht...

http://www.kartme.com/blog/pitching-without-powerpoint-8-tip...

i whole heartedly agree with your statement that "metrics against a bright and shiny object, even the wrong object, are perceived as more valuable than metrics that bring you closer to building the right object".

That was my experience with showing people "designs" that were moving us in the right direction. I got 0 credit for that. I had to show the designs live (i.e., shiny) and with user traffic data (i.e., metrics) as proof.

Good to we you agree with the points about how angel investors are busy and like to ride on momentum.

I also agree with you that a bright, shiny object is very important. For web products, it's a requirement to get past the first meeting. See my earlier post: Pitching without PowerPoint: 8 Tips for a First Meeting at http://www.kartme.com/node/31475

I'll qualify my statement on metrics by saying that, if your target angel investors aren't in your target customer segment, then you'll need metrics around usage to convince them of (a) the value of your bright shiny object to your target customers and (b) your ability to make it shine brighter. And I agree it's not about goals and plans. It's metrics about your past achievements and lessons learned.

Thanks for the mention and compliments. I can only say test, test, test.

Another hack to is to do testing in student centers (as opposed to bars) so you can get people on their own computers.

Good point! I should usability test the blog with non members (members don't receive the prompt to sign up for KartMe).

Great idea for follow up post. Thanks!

Follow KartMe at http://twitter.com/kartme and you'll definitely hear about it!

Just a quick note to thank the members of HackerNews who suggested many of the design changes, particularly http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=cedsav.

not sure why my post got downvoted. the opening is for real. founders of Rent the Runway are good friends.

apologies if this isn't the place for job postings.

I've heard the Rent the Runway team is looking for a full time drupal developer in NYC. contact me if interested - phil at kartme.com

Yeah, that's what i was going for :)

yes, i agree that meta description is very important. on pages we have of people's items, we're putting user comments in them. any other suggestions?

also, what lists domain name do you own? some people don't love the name KartMe...

Thanks. Saw that autogeneration issue in our error logs, but didn't see the the message we sent too small and/or in the wrong place! will make feedback messages stand out more. thanks!

thanks for explaining why starting the title with "all" is awkward!

True. Uniques to that page were a little under 100 visits a week. In addition to adsense, we tried some Facebook ads, blog posts, commenting on other blogs, and emails to get traffic.

interesting. i'll test phrases like "organize city guides, recipe boxes or gift lists" and "share links, pictures, maps and products". thanks!