twidlit

Does anybody else get ASP errors when trying to apply?

IMHO it will be related in a way that it will still be around replicating social interactions offline online.

The way i predict success in online businesses is how well they can replicate real-world actions and dynamic. The bigger and better the set of real human actions a startup can build a online counterpart for, the stronger it becomes.

Facebook is building online equivalent of verbs or actions you can do with people. so the more verbs it can do the more unstoppable it becomes.

What if someone can build the Facebook+ phone? i would also bet on that.

But Facebook has proven to be very vigilant on potential competitors and has been effective in snuffing it out by not just cloning them but improving the (feature based) startup's concept. Or they acquire them or its next smaller competitor startup.

My money is either in 1 of the 3 giants (GOOG, APP, MS) finally getting the social web right or Twitter.

But the problem with Twitter is it has fumbled countless times already and is only growing due to the strength and type of its community. So i have no confidence they can catch up to Facebook.

So Im guessing if its not the 3 giants, it will be an inter-operable social layer and a thousand private social networks.

To expand on #1.

MS has Xbox, Xbox Live, Windows but weak mobile + web products.

Apple has itunes, ios, macosx but negligible web prowess and zero social web domain expertise.

Google has strong web engineering output and Android, nothing else come to mind.

If you can apply a social web layer to their products which would come out stronger?

The answer to that might be the Facebook killer I think.

Here are a few of my solid guesses.

1. A destination site that is closely tied to a mobile hardware device. (Apple, Google and MS have the closest chance with this). +1 if company has TV expansion to get the rest of the population.

2. Implosion. Internal conflict most probably from investors/shareholders vs. leaders.

3. Site-wide security breach that affected more than 30% of users and had serious and press-juicy consequences. The issue should persist for more than a week.

4. Zuckerberg's death or serious illness. (non-issue if a strong leader emerges)

5. Talent migration. This is inevitable as there will be fewer and fewer challenges left to excite sharp minds (3-5 years)

solid citizens i guess or well-rounded people. I wonder what was lost in the guild / mentorship / apprenticeship system of old where it produced people like Da Vinci and michelangelo.

Looking forward to trying it. in one of our upcoming release at CG then. :)

How sure are you that itll make money? I mean what are you basing that on?

We changed course 3 months into the startup, and decided to line up our ducks in a row for 5 months (inc. user experience, tech, user flows, design, etc). we had a lot of mishaps along the way but i think we are on good grounds with our Sept milestones. We both actually have the same timetable. Nice advice. plan and execute. got it. :)

"the lead developer lost his mind" im more interested in that story :)

its just 7 months into building this stuff and its all our first time so i think its par for the course. Certainly excited to launch soon.

Inspired by Esther Dyson, who said to an interviewer "its the people, stupid." (forgot the question and the link) but i think it mustve been how Russia can replicate Silicon Valley.

Anyway, i think im unto something here but feel free to demolish, debate or improve upon it.

There is something mysterious about why Google, Microsoft, Sony or even Nokia doesn't create something similar to ipod touch. Its a big seller and platform expansion device. Its perfect for me who prefers sturdier phone and it makes me open to buying the next iphone as long as i have an ipod touch. Is it the cost/margin of making one? lack of distribution channel?

Yes it does give us strength to know that others are powering thru the same situation as us. Stay strong as I am staying strong but the keyword i think is balance, I am not quite at the point of sweating about $2 but i feel your pain. find a contract job or do something on the side, retreat on the quest to fight another day.

Dude, drop the puppy. :)

Yes, we are transitioning to that just to extend the runway. Our 1st step to building that safety net is spiffing up the company website and taking in Facebook and Twitter application contract work + white labeling the product we are building.

Quitting is not an option and even ridiculous to me. I dunno if its the founder optimism at work but I am sure this is gonna play out great after launch. We are just 6 months into the startup and have yet to release our v1.0 with the iphone / android app. (ETA 2 months). Its tough but not impossible.

haha, yeah well lesson learned. :)

Sorry, edited my poor subtext. :) thanks for answering.

Very inspiring. coincidentally we are building something that lets anyone create, store and share your life in pictures and features to keep you motivated. its at piclyf.com and gonna launch this month.

VC guy: What problem are you trying to solve? Do you have traction? Whats your business model? Do you have patents?

Let me play devil's advocate.

The purpose is for them not to meddle (eek!) but to be more informed, (give better suggestions, know how close you are to a milestone, have less meeting)

For the team, itll be a good motivational tool and reinforcement mechanism.

ITs a bad idea if you have a bad investor, good idea if you have a good investor.

---end of devil advocation (?)

"...God Creating Adam in the central panel on the ceiling was a perfect anatomical illustration of the human brain in cross section..."

+ "..construction the voice box of God out of the brain stem of man.." = The human mind created God.

How about if it a consumer web app like say Flickr or Picnik or Dropbox?

One benefit of microtransaction payment providers is that they have a multitude of payment method including load cards, pay thru sms, etc.

I would think that consumer web app would have better revenue if it was ARPU instead of 2-5% conversion rates. Does this make sense to anyone else?

I LOLd for a good 2 minutes for that. nice catch.

This has been copied to death which could be good for normal folks. I do know that regular internet users like familiarity in the sites they visit unlike us geeks.

Wish more blogs do this.

Space faring civilization should be Stage 3 civilizations which has mastered the tech of harnessing stars for energy (dyson spheres) hence there is a good chance that they will be intelligent enough to know there are more cons to pros in eradicating us. I would think they will observe, study and do the best course of action. At best, they will act diplomaticly, at worst we will be enslaved.

in the same way that directories already solved the search engine problem? :)

have anyone used highcharts? how does it compare?

He failed but he didn't fail fast. :) but the important thing is he learned a lesson and wrote about it.