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damonpace

263 karma · joined October 26, 2009

Internet Adventurer.
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damonpace··on Show HN: Video Messaging and Screen Recording widget on your website
Wouldn't it be awesome if your website visitors could record their screen and send you a video message instantly? Showing you exactly what they're seeing for support or just sending you some love.

Well I've been working on a new video messaging product and have just launched the website widget so your visitors can record their screen & send a video message to you directly on your site. This can be used for product feedback, customer support, authentic video reviews & more.

All you need is one line of code and to register your domain name & email so we know who & where to send your messages.

You can try it here: https://zessage.com/widget - Click the "Try it Now!" button to see it in action.

Instructions: Step 1: Go to the link to copy & paste the js code above the closing </body> tag. Step 2: Login to Zessage and add your domain & email address to ensure you receive your messages. Step 3: Design your own trigger button and set the ID to 'zessage'. This will overwrite our default button.

Technical: The code for the widget is very lightweight and simply listens for a click of the record button. Once clicked, the rest of the code is added and allows your visitors to record the screen with their own video & audio. There is no user tracking or over bloated non-sense to slow your site down.

I've also just posted it to Product Hunt: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/zessage-website-video-mess...

I'd love your votes, feedback and thoughts.

damonpace··on Text as an Interface
I built something like this that was $mcdonalds and worked as a variable that would remember your instructions for your McDonalds order. You could schedule them on repeat or text your order anytime. A simple text based CLI for ordering. Interesting idea, but probably not as consumer friendly as just a button.
damonpace··on Show HN: Video Slide Deck Pitch
Sending a link to a slide deck or PDF doesn't allow you to communicate your message very well. So, I recently added the ability to embed a Google Slide Show into a video message in order to record a presentation and communicate what you're building.

All it takes is to copy & paste your published Google slide link into the video creator and you'll be ready to start your recording.

You can save it to send later or create a more personalized recording and send it as a message as well.

I'd love everyone's feedback and thoughts. Hopefully, this will help you communicate your mission & raise money for your startup.

damonpace··on The Tech Bubble Didn’t Burst This Year
Great company & example...however not SV & founded July 2011.
damonpace··on The Tech Bubble Didn’t Burst This Year
Word of Caution: The Dot-Com & Real Estate bubbles happened slowly and then all at once. When a bubble slows down, everyone says we're just going through a correction. The possibility of a complete crash is still there in the next year or so. Especially, since a mega-hit ($10b+ val) hasn't been created in SV in over 5 years. Investors need these mega-hits in order to justify the risks they take and there hasn't been a break-out started since 2010.
damonpace··on Alphabet is still figuring out how to be a conglomerate
That's exactly where I stopped reading.
damonpace··on Cruise
Every lawyer in Silicon Valley knows the biggest threat to your startup is your co-founder. Not VC's. Not competitors. Not Copy Cats. Not Google or FB. It's your co-founder! If you don't want to believe that, read the countless stories and lawsuits in SV about co-founder disputes.

Stories like this should give you the confidence you need to be a solo founder. Start solo & hire your co-founders after you get your paperwork done. It's not about equity or greed. It's about starting smart & protecting your investment.

damonpace··on Longtime VC Michael Goguen hit with explosive lawsuit
The person verified with me via their facebook account.
damonpace··on Longtime VC Michael Goguen hit with explosive lawsuit
I have confirmed this is NOT his account.
damonpace··on Startups and The Big Lie
When I moved to Palo Alto in 2011, I had this weird sense that their was a hidden secret behind every term used. I've learned since that it's just a BS game built by lawyers & VC's in the name of "protecting the company & investment". In reality, it's a power game won somewhere in the knowledge gap. The more you know and understand the less likely you are to lose the game.
damonpace··on Airbnb, My $1B Lesson
If I remember correctly, Airbnb struggled to raise after YC as well. Sequoia came in and gave them $600k quietly after Greg McAdoo synthesized and reframed the Airbnb vision (See Nathan's Startup school speech from 2013). Why didn't Paige participate in funding after demo day?
damonpace··on Buttercoin is shutting down
This is actually a great assessment of many industries. I watched this exact thing happen in the lead generation business from 2000 and continue to today. It's grown impossible to be honest, as no one trusts you anyways and it becomes difficult to compete on price. Even when you give them everything they ask for, they still don't buy because they have learned not to trust lead generators, Bitcoin marketplaces, etc.
damonpace··on Stripe Connect v2
Lots of great changes that make a world of difference for marketplace builders. From someone who used to use Authorize.net and spent a lot of money building tools around it... I love Stripe. So simple, so smart. Best YC company yet.
damonpace··on Google Makani – Wind Energy Kites
I would imagine if they were timed properly and coordinated using software they could be extremely dense.
damonpace··on Gigaom Closes Down
You can build a lean website on CPC advertising...but it's hard to build a real business based on that. Advertising should be viewed as supplemental revenue, rather than the main business model. I assume that's why GigaOm began to shift over to the subscription model.

It could also be one of the reasons Google just came out with the "Contributors" beta last week. They may have realized the CPC ad model does not pay enough and content creators need better business models to make it worth their time.

damonpace··on Ask HN: A potential investor in my startup asked me to sign an NDA. Should I?
I'd walk away in any scenario. It smells of a trap or a bad investor.
damonpace··on How startup Fab died
It seems they poured the gas on before the engine was actually running.
damonpace··on Ex'Tax – The big idea
It's more likely that this will end up being a new tax on resources, instead of ending labor taxes. The true purpose of the tax is to create a new tax on resources. Ending labor taxes just seems to be a sales pitch to get support. From a cynics point of view, it's just a new way to sell a carbon/environmental tax. More taxes!=More Rainbows.
damonpace··on Ask HN: Gaming with one arm
I commend you for helping your friend. When I was a child, my fathers friend lost his left arm and all but two fingers on his right hand in a train accident. My dad hired him to work around our yard and help out. He eventually taught the guy how to tie his shoes with only two fingers. I'm still impressed by my fathers patience and inventiveness in helping his friend get back on his feet. I'm sure you'll find a way to make it happen for your friend as well.

My initial thought is there has got to be some kind of foot pedals for the left handed controls. If you can't find one, take an old keyboard and eliminate all the keys except the ones needed for gaming. Then attach foot pads to the gaming keys he needs. It will probably take some time, but he'll eventually get used to it.

damonpace··on Universal SSL
Congrats to CF on this. The day has come where all domains & subdomains should automatically be SSL encrypted for free. CF is building the Internet as it should have been built in the first place. I love that they are doing this.
damonpace··on I took a risk leaving school and now I need help
I grew up in Navajo County(Holbrook & Snowflake) and now live in Downtown Palo Alto. I understand the drastic change you've experienced more than anyone on HN. These Ivy league pricks have no idea. No matter what you do...don't give up. Learn as much as you can and keep growing. I went to ASU and when I was your age I went through a similar experience. All you can do is keep innovating, keep learning and find a support structure. AZ is not known for that...not even in Phoenix. Get out of Tuba City or wherever you are. The rez is not for driven people. I have some Navajo friends in SV if you need help. Reach out...there are always options.
damonpace··on Carlypso (YC S14) could change everything about how we buy and sell used cars
Instamotor's CEO bought a car using Carlypso and decided to copy the model. That's the Instamotor story.
damonpace··on Founders and mental health
"many startup founders had some deep personal trauma in their early lives." --- Can you elaborate on this quote? What makes you say this?
damonpace··on Ask HN: Idea Sunday
I built something like this about 4 years ago called BigStartups.com. It was built to help network the startup community and was moderately successful. Unfortunately, there were co-founder issues and we shut it down. I often think about what it could be in todays world if we kept working on it. Oh well...
damonpace··on Stripe: Marketplaces
Thank you! That is what I needed to hear. The 7 day transfer delay needed to go bye bye. Do we have an eta on that? Also want to say I would love to pre-pay into the balance to avoid overages as well.
damonpace··on It Is Time For Basic Income
This basic premise(MVP) exists on American Indian reservations, quasi-sovereign states. The BIA and the Tribe distributes an equal share of funds from either the government or gaming to each tribal member. As long as you can prove you are a tribe member, you get the funds.

Feel free to visit any of these reservations and see the kind of lives they live. I grew up surrounded by them in Arizona and went to school with many Native Americans in both primary & high school. It's not a great way to live and the reason so many are leaving the reservations.

damonpace··on San Francisco Real Estate Exuberance
In my 20's I built a thriving web business in Phoenix on my own. There was no support, no venture capital, no community, etc. Nothing to help me build my business. I eventually moved to SF...and brought talent with me.

Arizona doesn't get it. If you aren't building, selling or financing homes...they can't help you.

damonpace··on Show HN: 3 Day Coder - For Bootstrappers
I'm leaving that up to the coder and you to decide how to handle long term work/maintenance. Ideally, there will be other coders who can pick up where the other left off. That's why we are having people add skills.
damonpace··on Show HN: 3 Day Coder - For Bootstrappers
Thanks, I just launched it officially yesterday.
damonpace··on Show HN: 3 Day Coder - For Bootstrappers
I built this to bridge the gap between full time development and getting your startup funded or ramen profitable. If you are a developer starting your own project, please sign up and create your profile. There are a lot of companies who would love to hire you part time for their projects.
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