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Comment by zackattack | Hacker News Reader

I always thought notifo was a terrible idea. It doesn't really add any value. Change your idea please. I mean look at your services page. The number one thing is "google voice alerts" so you can save money by not getting texts. Let's say you save someone $1. There's no way they're gonna pay you $1 for that. Then you also list Skribit on that page, a dead service.

I would take the mobile notification technology and pivot to notifying about something people care about, like people in the vicinity with similar interests.

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There are a lot of non-public facing services using Notifo for internal communication/alerts. We do have an app in the pipeline that is an offshoot of Notifo's tech, though... coming soon.

I'm sorry you thought it was such a terrible idea. It's hard to hear that coming from someone I have respected for a while and followed along with your successes with AR and CP.

The good news is that I care enough to say what I really think despite the definite collateral damage to my reputation by saying something negative and going against the grain of what everyone here is saying?

The social consequences to my statement make me think of pandas and lobsters - http://ifindkarma.posterous.com/pandas-and-lobsters-why-goog...

and I was eager to hear responses to my comment - perhaps related:

http://cognitivesocialweb.com/home/2010/12/19/on-facebook-an...

btw I've been rejected by YCombinator multiple times

I certainly do not begrudge you your opinion. I completely respect it. Thank you for being honest and not worried about what other people might think.

I was eager to hear responses to my comment

I thought it was overly harsh and missed the entire point of the post. The article was titled "Startups are Hard" not "Ask HN: Please review my app" I greatly appreciated the honest reflection on how hard it is to start something. It mirrored many of my own experiences and provided a valuable counter example to the standard "Oooh, I fell out of bed into a pile of money" startup story that's usually tossed around.

Regardless of the value of Notifo or any particular case, startups (hell, all businesses) are hard and having people tell you your idea sucks doesn't really help all that much. Sucky ideas sometimes do extremely well (ie. Facebook, Twitter, and many more), and great ideas sometimes do terribly (ie. tons of shit we've never heard of because they're all dead).

You're right.

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