Hacker News Reader

sparknlaunch12on Facebook buys Karma

Unsure of the terms of the deal, but maybe this was simply a talent acquisition plus strategic purchase? Maybe the cost wasn't that high. I am sure an offer to work at Facebook and integrate your product into the FB platform has some intangible appeal.

sparknlaunch12on Is Now the Time to Hire MBAs?

MBA holders really get a hard time. There are so many different types of MBAs. Hard to pigeon hole all of them.

Sure you cannot teach someone to be an entrepreneur, however there are many important disciplines you can gain from studying a business degree. Most executives hold an MBA - although this may be simply to speak-the-speak with others at that level.

Sheryl K. Sandberg (COO of Facebook) holds a MBA. Zuckerberg went to a world renown business school (albeit he dropped out).

Maybe you only need an MBA hire when you have gone public/IPO?

sparknlaunch12on Facebook buys Karma

Pretty interesting app and can see how Facebook could utilize the product. I wonder if we will see more of this consolidation in the market place as the big players buy up smaller ones.

sparknlaunch12on Startups will crash out before cashing out

All good points. The article was probably written as a warning to those pursuing a business for the money rather than the 'spirit'.

"So if you are doing the startup game for money, and lots of it, you are in for a plate full of frustration."

sparknlaunch12on Ask HN: What are your top three pain points?

What is the pain point this would solve?

Mobile App Developers looking for honest reviews of their apps?

sparknlaunch12on Ask HN: What are your top three pain points?

> Use these guys at our office, check them out: http://www.betterworks.com/ .

Interesting concept however it takes a while to work out what they actually do.

Their landing page doesn't exactly demonstrate the USP: "Local perks and rewards for employees: Use BetterWorks for an engaged and more productive workforce."

It is attractive as an enterprise solution. One way to incentivize your workforce in this current climate.

sparknlaunch12on Ask HN: What are your top three pain points?

> This type of question comes up a lot. I can appreciate you are using the highly regarded problem / solution, vitamin not a painkiller approach to finding an idea, but STOP!

Appreciated this is a bit of a niche user base however was just testing the HN waters. Wanted to see if any common themes came up.

sparknlaunch12on How to be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, and Personal Summary

Unsure of the charset standards history, but article is from 2003 and hosted on an edu domain. So possibility since then site has been moved around?

sparknlaunch12on Help Google just nerfed us out of the blue

Number two in the UK - Number one is a film called 'Safe' showing tonight at a cinema in 'Sheperds Bush, London'.

Number one in AU, BR, JP,...

sparknlaunch12on Ask HN: Building a startup as a part time non technical person?

I am planning to spend the next month or so getting up to speed on the following:

JavaScript + NodeJS (Given how widely supported and used it is)

Twitter Bootstrap (Really easy to build front end)

I have considered Ruby/Python however think that the learning curve is too great at the moment. I just want to know enough to build a good looking site that has basic functionality.

HTML5 is attractive but will have to wait for now.

sparknlaunch12on Candy Japan April Income Report

> Yup, www.graze.com for healthy snacks in the UK

Yeh, there are many others offering fresh/organic/luxury/quality items delivered to your door. Wine has also made a comeback (forgot the name of the recent big US startup).

Graze have a great website. Will offer some inspiration to others looking at getting into similar businesses.

sparknlaunch12on Candy Japan April Income Report

Interesting. Packaging and shopping seems to be your biggest pain point and cost. Reduce these and you have an easier business to manage and can focus on getting more customers.

Good luck. I imagine there are other goodies from Japan you can offer.

No robots, but rather outsourcing.

Edit: just read your recent post on face book adverts. Really clever. Would you share more details on conversion numbers.

sparknlaunch12on Candy Japan April Income Report

Absolutely awesome blog. Pretty sweet ( excuse the pun) execution of an idea into a profitable business.

Do you think you automate the packing and shipping?

sparknlaunch12on Candy Japan April Income Report

$2k per month profit (before tax) is not bad. There are some costs that cannot be avoided per order but imagine as volume grows, so will efficiencies. This model looks like the mens shaver business. Can see this working for any niche - shavers, stationary, fruit, nuts...

How can we see earlier blog posts?.

sparknlaunch12on The 10k Bootstrap Challenge

What tools do you recommend to start?

sparknlaunch12on Pinterest Raises $100 MM at $1.5Bn Valuation

So essentially, if you can create a community with enough followers, referrals and photos you can make a billion dollar company.

They suggest Pinterest will use the money to expand internationally. What does this mean? Buy infrastructure internationally or just pursue overseas advertisers?

If anyone is interested in building Hacker News with photos get in contact.

sparknlaunch12on The 10k Bootstrap Challenge

Cool. Really like how the form filling flows.

Will wait to see how you monetise this. I suspect there are some serious writers/bloggers out there looking for inspiration and willing to pay?

sparknlaunch12on The 10k Bootstrap Challenge

Thanks for sharing. Awesome. Any advice for us dreamers? Can it be repeated?

sparknlaunch12on The 10k Bootstrap Challenge

Congrats on living the dream!

Slightly off the main topic but how much marketing and development is required to achieve the type of figures you are talking about? Typically there seems to be a massive amount of money spent on promoting an app into the top 100 list.

If you knew nothing about mobile apps today - where would you start? (Or would you start at all?)

sparknlaunch12on The 10k Bootstrap Challenge

Good concept.

What is the writers site built with andhow will it generate revenue?

Are you adopting a lean startup approach?

Good luck.

sparknlaunch12on The 10k Bootstrap Challenge

Reminds me of Joe Stump's entrepreneur goal- to figure out how to make $30 a month from 1000 people.

The key is having focus and a goal in mind. If one can stick to the plan then they are already ahead of the game.

sparknlaunch12on Europe's Square

Really like efforts to make payments and secure transactions easier however not sure how this will compete with the big boys (banks etc).

For example Visa offer contact less payments for merchants via pay wave.

Barclays have payments from your smart phone via ping it.

Then there is nfc technology.

Just trying to test the longevity of this product. Does it alleviate the pain of using a card and remembering a pin.

Edit: also worth mentioning Paypal, Barclays Paytag.

sparknlaunch12on GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account

> It has no search engine (which is how it could monetise its user information)

There were rumours Facebook were sitting on very powerful search capabilities they were looking to release post IPO.

Given the personal data held and time users spend on their platform, the potential is quite high.

They may not have much control on mobile but their apps hold your contacts and messaging functionality.

sparknlaunch12on Facebook’s business model

You just have to think that with all that personal information and large active audience spending a lot of time on Facebook that someone can print money.

Surely they can create purchasing intent simply by working out what users want to buy next based on yet profiles. What about growing existing elements like events (meetup.com) and chat (Skype, hangouts).

Feels by economies of size and scale Facebook has to create value.

sparknlaunch12on Why I Desperately Needed to Learn to Code

This is probably the best of the recent 'don't/do code' blog posts. You don't need to be a guru but over time you can learn enough to get by and understand code.

If you are building a serious business, eventually you will need to hand over the real development work, to real developers. This allows you time to do what you're good at.

sparknlaunch12on How To Find Startup Ideas

Great article. There are various views on the best method of finding that startup idea.

The trap is getting caught up with the solution (the what) too soon. The process should really start with the problem and who you believe it impacts.

Next you get out the building (as described by Steve Blank) and speak to potential customers. This way you quickly evaluate your early idea and determine if anyone will use it and importantly buy it.

Usually a strong sign of a winner is when customers are willing to buy the product before it is even built - sell first, build second. 1

For more inspiration, read up on customer development and Steve Blank.

[1] http://sparknlaunch.wordpress.com/2012/05/13/a-smart-bear-ja...

sparknlaunch12on Plagiarism, the plot thickens

"First off, Joshua Gross was interviewed by The Next Web for an article by the same author, and more suprising, they actually worked at the same company in the past!"

Busted! Who would of thought Hacker News would have been the leading source of investigative journalism.

I cannot verify that they worked at the same company from LinkedIn though?

However interview can be found here (as per submitted blog post): http://thenextweb.com/apps/2012/01/17/stop-cluttering-your-i...

sparknlaunch12on Why we moved from NodeJS to Ruby on Rails

Is this article from 5 years still relevant?

I know you said 'back then' but curious to know whether one should stick with php.

sparknlaunch12on Why we moved from NodeJS to Ruby on Rails

Ok. So for a beginner coder looking to build web sites and mobile apps on weekends. They are not looking for a career or job coding. What language?

Assume they know html, CSS, Javascript, SQL. Where do they go and spend their next 12 months?

When do the differences matter?

sparknlaunch12on Dell Apologizes for Hiring 'Shut Up Bitch' Moderator

Of course Dell apologises but people really need to get a grip. A comedian makes jokes, often adult jokes. If you want kids jokes hire a clown.

Everyone is well aware of the technology stereotypes. If he called all the men <insert stereotype> would Dell have to apologize?