300 karma · joined March 18, 2014
Their support was great but when it doesn't perform the basic function of syncing with my phone or desktop app, what good is it? I had software and hardware problems (band breaks easily) on all of them.
https://www.drivecarve.com/search?startDate=2019-11-8_3-00pm...
^^ I know it's 2019 and this is expected but I really appreciate this URL structure for search results. I have spent a lot of time working on booking sites and it used to frustrate me to no end that some projects used a very un-friendly URL structure. This will help your marketing team so, so much over time.
I'll offer some critique of the booking process that you probably already know of: travel is highly dependent on trust signals and push mechanisms like Best Purchase Guarantees, People Looking at This Hotel, countdowns, etc. Some I find gross while others necessary. I think you could look at the booking experience and find plenty of room to grow there. Right now, the car experience feels barren and fake to me. I bet there are some things you will find very helpful, like MPG, etc. so it's just about testing those assumptions.
Best of luck!
We hold cigarette companies responsible for letting us know their products may cause harm. We hold food and beverage companies responsible for what they put on their labels. We label coffee cups with a "Hot!" warning.
I hear you on personal responsibility, however, I think that comes from a place where you have or had time and space to educate yourself on this (apologies: using "you" very generally here and don't mean to imply you specifically). Most readers here have deep experience with YouTube and the consumer web--I've been on the web since Compuserve in the mid 90s and a hundred people who read this thread can one-up me. Think about how many people are coming onto the web for the first time. YouTube is a source of truth to them. They're told that Facebook has a "News" feed--and that's what they think is in their feed: literal and true news.
I'm trying to consider it from that perspective. My first reaction is to say: if you don't like it, just ignore it. If you don't want to get addicted to something, don't try it. It's up to you, as an individual, to own your life. I still feel that to be true, however...
I'm still considering how I feel but I think it's more complex than that my gut reaction indicates. We're not making decisions just for the informed 10% and I do think there is ground to be given up by the platforms.
No doubt that car manufacturers will partner with a non-Uber software company. And Uber will partner with someone for hardware. I feel like we could look at how industries consolidate and have an educated guess about how it will play out: some car manufacturers combine to gain more leverage, some create their own proprietary software, some try opening up their cars to multiple software options, one manufacturer exclusively partners with Uber, etc. Phones and computers come to mind as probably sharing _some_ parallels.
So I think the question in our simple discussion is whether the value of the brand and internal knowledge of the software side (data, et al) outweighs the value of having the hardware figured out. And maybe given that this is complicated, it's less about who is in a stronger position and more about who executes better while pursuing that strategy.
Contrast that with a high margin business like consulting services or a proprietary technology/product and there's a huge difference in net profit between the two at $10m annual revenue.
I don't know if that was your point specifically but there are undertones whenever library funding gets brought up. It's also comparable to welfare fraud. There are people who campaign against welfare because of abusers but the amount the fraud amounts to is relatively low.[1]
I'm not learned enough to tell you what percentage of fraud is acceptable but I worry about us treating this the same way. I understand the campaign about how your taxes are spent but I also think we agree that this is a valuable community service, especially for people who do not have access to tools and networks like I do.
A very fair point though fouric!
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_fraud#United_States
I think the problem is that they present the results on good faith that "these results are the best match for you based on your search", not the most profitable for them.
I just ran a search and the default search filter was "Featured", which is so ambiguous it could mean anything, so it seems like a classic bait and switch that played out over the course of a decade of consumers getting the best search results based on reviews and sales.
Essentially, it's become really easy to get leads for cheap and incredibly expensive to get them to convert. The question becomes, which master do you serve?
I think marketing leaders need to delicately balance the KPIs with the vision of the company or product. In High Output Management, Andy Grove talked about negative indicators for KPIs as well (forgive me, don't have book within reach). I don't think any time gets spent on that in my network. Granted, it is hard to do with small teams and you might say it's the wrong thing to focus on for small teams. Eventually, you reach the point where the numbers look too good to be true and they usually are--meaning you won't convert these people because they're not ready to buy what you're selling. They're just ready to get the free info you're offering them in two clicks of their time.
I appreciate the candidness about failure even if it wasn't detailed. Can't wait for more similar stories.
In reality, you nailed my experience with dating apps (self + friends on them). Every single person I know uses multiple since the source of a date does not matter to them. They just want what they're looking for. The cost to use an app is so low and context switching is easy enough. And everyone hates on some or all of them...and continues to use all of them.
Many of the non-tech people I meet in real life don't even know the difference between an app and the mobile web. They know interfaces well enough to get the things they need done, done.
FB already has the social layer and lots of other data, so I don't foresee this as a terrible idea. Seems more like a small bet.
"...a UBI of just $1,000 per month would cost around $4 trillion per year, which is close to the entire federal budget in 2018. Without major cost savings, US federal tax revenue would have to be doubled, which would impose massive distortionary costs on the economy..."
So we need major cost savings or taxes to go up.
"Sacrificing all other social programs for the sake of a UBI is a terrible idea. Such programs exist to address specific problems, such as the vulnerability of the elderly, children, and disabled people. Imagine living in a society where children still go hungry, and where those with severe health conditions are deprived of adequate care, because all the tax revenue has gone to sending monthly checks to every citizen, millionaires and billionaires included."
This came our of nowhere as social programs were not mentioned before this line. It's basically fearmongering at this point.
Maybe someone can help me understand what the argument here is. Perhaps I'm being harsh on the author but I just don't see how you can make this argument with genuine intentions.
I'm interested in food insecurity and related things, which is why I ask.
When you say that it's for small businesses and it's really efficient and light, I think people will identify with that. As long as features keep getting added to platforms, we will always need a super lightweight version. Again, I hope you get some paying users right away!
I think I'm just missing something and I see these as clashing messages that don't get fully explained: this platform will make you smile and you'll have fun using it, this platform is faster than other platforms, and it's built for small businesses. I'd ask you "How?" for all three of those.
Just some thoughts from a marketer who thinks about positioning and looks at lots of landing pages. I hope you ignore all advice, trust your gut, and have tons of success :)
Credit Card and loan rates are two examples where some people would be so desperate that they would sign _anything_ to get an advance of cash or credit. But we have protection for them and rates cannot exceed a certain amount, depending on the type of loan.
It's kind of a bummer that you have to plan so far ahead for some things. Grand Canyon permits are done during a 1-week opening 5 months before the calendar month you hike in, for example. It's challenging to organize a group when you have kids, jobs, etc. that could change in that time.
In addition, time is always an issue and is the ultimate variable. What worked two months ago didn't work last month, what do you do? Every company runs into this and there are factors that make it crazy complicated: payback period, LTV, AOV, Days to Close.
Ad platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Ads talk more about "reaching your target customer" with fluffy metrics since that's what they can easily measure and, IMO, it obscures the real end-to-end results you mention. When success is obscured, it allows them to absolve themselves of educating their customers.
The ad platforms build case studies of success and then simplify it down to impressions and reach so that companies feel like they have to do it. It's a profit machine.
Parent you're replying to is lumping those further up the comment chain with the people described in the article. She says they often talk about how to get their wives to watch more science fiction movies.
I felt it landed perfectly given the context of the article, YMMV.
My question would be, and I hope to be able to dig in later, is the international ad platform rolled out completely? Ad products tend to roll out continuously and I would want to know if the problem is adoption of the platform from advertisers or a low-usage issue.
Advertisers will always find out where customers are so I would assume that it's either the platform isn't getting adopted or the actual tool of delivery is lagging behind, maybe until adoption increases.
Reading what was said, I imagine rolling out new markets, testing new customer acquisition methods, and hiring to focus on new features would all fit in this label as growth.
Things like R&D might not. If Uber has been investing in self-driving vehicles, it may not pay off in the short-term, and therefore wouldn't fit in this set as it's quite speculative. Technical debt might fit here too. Or marketing debt: perhaps they want to establish brand guidelines and everything that comes with it. Great investment but not what directly helps you grow. A more direct "financial dial" might be restructuring your company from a legal perspective and forming new entities.
Just sharing how I read "black-and-white consideration". Maybe the parent can clear up what they meant.
Edit: I don't think I addressed your question, sorry!I agree that a simple tool could be a great help if it doesn't already exist!
I immediately think of clothes detergent, toilet paper, shampoo, cleaning supplies with dash buttons--although I move frequently so I did not buy for these instances and I wonder if many people say they would buy them for those and then do not.
But to me, they fit the perfect use case: static location inside a cupboard, there is a fixed amount sent, the demand is inelastic and not seasonal, and the product itself doesn't change much (I don't need to compare when I buy, ever). That sounds perfect to me! I don't want to waste time and energy shopping for these 8 things.
I really wonder why this is the case and I'd love to understand why it couldn't work. Perhaps it was marketed to a more innovative audience and not to the people who do laundry, wash their dishes, etc? I hope I'm not generalizing.
Not arguing, just offering a counterpoint.
I remember Seth Godin saying once that every business book can be summarized in just a few pages but the book itself is a story. I think it goes beyond just that idea and is The Exercise in reinforcing ideas. Yes, you don't need to spend 10 hours to memorize an idea: _move fast and break things._ Yea, I get it.
But what does that actually mean? How do you actually implement that philosophy? How do you internalize it? How do you navigate situations where you will revert back to your old habit or philosophy? I think you have to spend 10 hours thinking about it and then taking actionable steps to implement it in order to make it useful. Teaching and writing are similar exercises that I have found helpful as a learning tool.
I only just stumbled upon why I like to read. It is likely very personal. But I have found that removing the distractions and habit of "horizontal reading" makes me happier. I'm looking forward to reading the referenced book by Birkerts.
(Aside: At times, I have found reading to be an excuse for not getting things done on my projects. _I just need to know more about x, y, and z before I start_. Ironically, the quest for knowledge can be distracting itself.)