I guess the moral of the story, whether PayPal is justified or not, is to have another payment solution in the wings ready to go at any time.
770 karma · joined October 3, 2009
Founder and CEO at https://www.statuspage.io, YC S13
$800/year represents a known quantity that they know won't change in price, and thus it's a lot easier to get approval to get it in the budget.
5m to 500m is actually so inconsequential that they willingly turned down a lucrative acquisition in order to go it alone and make their impact as they see fit.
if you're running it privately theres no need in most cases.
you call it work, many others call it their hobby. they just happen to do it full time and get paid for it.
he said it briefly toward the beginning - "sure, there is some of that" (referring to luck playing at least somewhat of a role in most success). most people seem to be in this camp.
you're not entitled to anything being an iphone developer, and specifically ripping on cross-compilers because they found a more efficient way to do it means you aren't willing to adapt. your loss
Performance is obviously the tricky part, along with seeing real hardware in action (GPS, 3G connection speed) and software features (Push Notifications, iTunes integration).
also note that you don't need to buy the developer program to develop and run programs the simulator. the developer program only is needed when you want things to go onto a device
what's going to positively affect change is android eating apple's lunch. charging 30% for in-app purchases and restricting content is going to seem completely out of line when a better majority of people have phones that are wide open and are doing some super cool stuff because google just doesn't care.
time will tell, but only when the public realizes what they're missing out on and starts to yell about it will things swing back in the developers' favor
I would venture to say that people have a disproportionate amount of ideas as compared to time to act upon them. People taking your ideas/advice and making money off of them does NOT translate into money out of your bank account. This is the same logic the RIAA is using to prosecute illegal music downloads.
Be a popcorn machine, but don't let them get ahold of your power plug. There is much that we all can give to help each other that will in no way harm our own income or current bank account. Be smart in what you divulge.
I probably won't be paying for Mixergy on a monthly basis, but if he were to get a couple companies to sponsor the show for a couple hundred dollars an episode i would gladly sit through the intermittent plugs he would give throughout the broadcast.
we're currently having trouble with our entrepreneurial senior design because a) they don't understand a software startup and b) they are first and foremost concerned with the pedagogical value of being an entrepreneurship advisor/instructor.
examples: we're forced to have 8 underling employees in our already 5 person group (13 person startup) and forced to do a startup pitch to Plexus engineers (they give the program money) as the final task of the year.
our fault not reading between the lines, make sure the mystique of the program doesn't shadow the fact that you have misaligned interests
i would be willing to bet that the majority of people here that consider themselves "entrepreneurs" or are working in startups would identify with almost every single one of those points.
are we all hacks? or is there one point on there that makes you a NON-entrepreneur compared to everyone else who thinks they are?
I think we can learn a lot from beginner understanding, especially as it pertains to ourselves delving into new subjects and getting our baby legs with new technologies and approaches to technology.
I like that the author pointed out that no home-run companies have won business plan competitions, but it's not to say it won't happen. My observation is that it's going to need to be in a sexy category. The three winners from our competition last year were tuberculosis testing, biodiesel from trap grease, and college admissions...surprise surprise. The teams were good, I have to admit, but I would bet that an equally good team with a sub-trillion-dollar market wouldn't have had a chance. Akamai could have had an awesome business plan with great market research, it probably just didn't excite the judges.
it's a very quick read (sorry for the Mac bias) and allowed me to get through it in about a day before moving on to the iPhone app book from the same series
with the major networks and hulu available through boxee, seems more and more like the apple tv will be a great solution when im living on my own and only watch a few shows.