coglethorpe

>What are the key features for an site that would allow you to come in an build website for your niche (donut shops, tow trucks, dentists)?

As a previous submission (from Steve Blank's blog) said, you need to "get out of the building" and find out what donut shop owners, tow truck operators and dentists want.

One site that allows makers of hand-crafted goods to set up "shop" is Etsy (http://www.etsy.com). One thing they have are the tools for crafters to communicate with each other and teach each other how to build a shop. Note that in this case, sellers have something more like an eBay store than their own site. Maybe that's all some niches need.

Dentists wouldn't want that. At all. Real estate agents have their own needs. You will have to do the classic build and iterate to find what they want. Do you have experience in a niche that can help you get started?

Maybe something that can use GPS in your car combined with traffic data to let the folks at home know when you are expected to arrive.

Seems to be linkjacked from http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2009/09/02/Ravelry

Well, there goes my startup idea for converting a steering wheel to a 6 button keypad. Seriously, it was hard enough to "steer" without even looking at the smartphone they had.

Yes, where is the line? Is TechCrunch a "news organization?" It's got a staff and lots of traffic, but isn't it just a really successful blog? Is Joel on Software or 37 Signals a blog or a very elaborate ad? How about Seth Godin or Guy Kawasaki's which are really just ads for their own stuff. They get their own stuff for free. Do they have to disclose that?

He did make it look easy. It's like he said "Well, you just ask for 100k, get it, build some stuff, get more money and then..."

I think one thing that got him inside was the execution. Mint is just cool to use. If I was an investor, I'd try the site and just say "Hey, this is really cool to use. And useful. And in a lucrative niche." Then I'd write a check.

> Part of the problem is that the search page is dynamically generated; neighborhood-specific landing pages would help capture those more targeted queries.

Yes, yes and yes. SEO matters for almost every site, but it is a really big deal for this kind of site. I tweaked the internal SEO of my site to highlight and description (One Bedroom Apartment in Newark, New Jersey) of the listing and it paid off for those "long tail" searches.

First of all, yes, it's another link bait headline.

Initially, those are the competitors for sure. But They are already on the first page for the query you listed, so they've go that going for them.

Heh, I knew my site was on the map when spammers found it. :-)

I learned about scams that hit renters and landlords, but thankfully I got rid of them fast.

Also, people posting would either not capitalize anything or leave the CAPS LOCK key on. Spell checking their own ads was just too much to ask. That struck me as very odd, because I thought they would try their best to make it right to get a unit rented. I just let them post what they wanted as long as it seemed like a legit listing.

You make a good point there. I've had my problems with selling items on CL. The thing is, it's got so much traffic, that it is hard to get even a sliver of it to go my way. CL also may be ugly in one sense, but I get the impression that they really do listen to their users.

Then there's the whole second tier of rental sites, such as eBay's rent.com, apartments.com, rentals.com and more. They are usually pretty to look at, but I found all their UIs to be difficult to use. That's where I took a simpler approach to search that I thought users would like better. Still, they get hits and engage in fierce search engine battles.

I still think there has to be a way to connect renters with rentals that's easier than what's out there. I do like rentHop's design at first glance as well. I do wish the rentHop team success. Anything that makes life easier is great.

My first (only) startup was a rental site. RentHop already has more traction than I ever did. At the time I knew little about funding or how startups worked. Heck, I didn't really even know much PHP or CSS, but got a site up and running. With little to no funding, I decided to close up shop, which was sad, because we did have real listings coming in, just not enough revenue to cover costs.

I will say that I learned a LOT about coding, which has helped me on my day job and a lot about startups which will help me enormously, should I do it again.

What would I do differently?

- Try to get more seed money. I was working with about a $100 total. I would go with one like Shotput Ventures in my current Atlanta home, or YC if I could swing living in SV for three months. I could use the funds for stuff like the PR that got them this article. I'd get advice and connections to hopefully get that next round of funding, if I need it.

- Take a city-based approach. I tried to to the whole USA at once. It's a lot of territory to cover.

- Get a technical co-founder. I partnered with someone who had a little real-estate experience, but couldn't help out on the tech side. I personally need someone who could really handle the UI design and make something that looks pretty and is dead-simple to use.

- Pick a better name. Seriously. I'm not even going to tell you the name we picked because it was unmemorable, unpronounceable, difficult to spell, and lacked even a hint of SEO-keyword-mojo.

All those lessons, and the tech skills I picked up will help me greatly If I try this again. You know I wouldn't be here if I wasn't thinking about it. ;-)

If PG is reading, what made you/YC decide to fund yet another rental listing site? I'm kind of surprised to be honest. It's been done and has the biggest competitor out there.

> Aaron is an insider. He belongs to the club.

How is he an insider? Because he went to Princeton? Is he related somehow to Larry, Serge, Bill, or one of the Steves?

All friends listed were hypothetical. I might be able to get 10k from my closest friends and family. :-)

If I get 10k from one friend who has a million, 50k from another who has 5 million and maybe several 1k investments from others, it would be less painful if things fell through. One would have to be rather up-front about the incredible risk involved and have a huge amount of trust with many parties beforehand.

He went to Princeton, so I'm thinking he had some cash among his friends and family.

Their memories might be just fine, but over time they might have realized the glory came from living through danger and not from shooting someone.

With the right binoculars, you can see Steve Jobs standing way up there on top. I do get what you mean about that, but it seems smaller pyramids can be built next to the big ones, even if they do pay taxes (so to speak) to the bigger ones. Maybe the iPhone isn't the best environment for that? Or maybe the real money is in building apps for other companies who need their services extended to a new platform.

I don't have statistics to back me up, but I'm fairly certain the odds of survival are considerably higher for iPhone developers.

It seems the same as with any "hit" driven environment. Getting a top-40 song, a top blog, the next NYT bestseller, or top iPhone app takes a lot of work and a little luck. There are those who are suited to it, persevere and get that big break. Then there are a few who just don't get lucky and thousands of wannabes who fail to execute, be it on minor flaws or epic levels.

I think the best description of the process comes from an editor explaining why so many manuscripts fail: http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/004641.html#00...

It's harsh, but has given me insight into how the startup world, including iPhone app startups, works.

Wasn't Craig's "list" originally emailed?

You know what Super Achievers don't do? Blog about the secrets of Super Achievers.

I assume the "Watson" is Tom Watson and is one of a handful of golfers who deserves mention alongside Woods. He darn near won the British open at age 59 and, while not a billionaire, has made some crazy money getting the ball in the hole in fewer strokes than the other guys.

Not sure if I am an "expert" on this, but Reddit came out after Digg and sold. MySpace and Facebook came out after Friendster: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MySpace#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook#History

There are plenty of players out there who come out after others do. I have a friend who runs a successful rebate shopping side that launched well after others did.

They all seemed to have some kind of advantage or find some kind of niche when others were doing well. Location may be your advantage, or ease of use, etc. Good luck!

Is that revenue per user, or overall? My barely-maintained blog makes more than $5 a month in revenue. Maybe some are having a low or no ad site to start out?

Big companies have fraud, just look at Enron. The sexism isn't overt for legal reasons, but that doesn't change the end results. One very big, very old company I worked had a manager who loved hiring attractive female interns and another who almost exclusively hired people from his home country and all but openly admired to preferential hiring based on nationality.

When someone at a big company is conveniently let go before their green card is approved or that big bonus is paid out, it isn't a "firing," but a "layoff" as the company "right-sizes." Bad bosses abuse underlings when they think the job market lets them get away with it and will not hesitate to punish those who step out of line.

Come to think of it, I've seen everything you describe at some of the many Fortune 500 companies I've consulted at. Sadly, human nature defies corporate size, and bad behavior can even creep into very big companies.

Newscientist (HN) http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=855216

I have had employers in the finance sector pull my credit report to check me out. I'm pretty sure they use one of the big 3 US credit agencies. You might be best off to check with one of them to see how you can do this legally. If they don't do it directly, they can probably show you a third party that would.

Maybe he just needs to visit the Oracle Cloud Computing Center:

http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/cloud/index.html

"Being a dick is a clever strategy if you want attention."

Imma let you finish, but BEYONCE HAD THE BEST VIDEO OF ALL TIME.

I like the clean design. I also like the concept. I had done something similar with pen and paper during my searches, but it never quite kept me up with who I had talked to and when.

Is there a feature to remind the job seeker of upcoming interviews?

I'm not sure about the "selling" of the site right off the bat. This is a good niche to be in for revenue. Possibly you can match seekers with jobs proactively, let contextually relevant ads and targeted banners serve up high-paying clicks and impressions. Then find a way to charge for "premium" services.

What language/framework did you use to create the site?