useflyer

All of it true. The good, the bad, the ugly of learning how to build a company, take risk, and make things happen.

I would raise a small round of VC, hire a salesperson, a customer service rep, another couple devs to keep the build going, and go all-in. Definetly all-in.

Life is short, don't look back at this later as your biggest missed opportunity.

another data broker to add to the list on safeShepherd.com

As a once upon a time finance guy who made the transition to web designer / founder, I have the following observation:

Wall street was the hot go-to destination, and it was as 'bro' as it got. The never-ending conversation was "can women fit in on Wall street?"

Now SV is the hot go-to destination, and its getting 'bro'. The new conversation is "can women fit on in SV?"

That's actually a GENIUS suggestion. Too bad Congress is in the RIAA's pocket, not the public's.

Ok, this is why this app is winning: http://tinyreviewapp.com/sx/post/48579/

Catalog Choice is a nonprofit which has been around for years and has over a million members. 'Inspiration' clearly flows the other direction.

Clearly inspired by MelonCard.com

psuedo-account numbers do not inspire confidence that my money is safe. please put a HOW IT WORKS section on your website and go into details, because this just seems insecure and shady

This technology was demo'ed by SpotCapitan.com on HN a few months ago. So is Google ripping off cutting-edge front-end engingeering from startups now?

I don't mean to come off as insulting, but the problem clearly seems to be Aaron, and not California. He is overly combative, unwilling to accept olive branches (and exemptions! resolving the issue!), and stubborn. Find the path of least resistance, don't keep slamming into the same brick wall.

An entrepreneur should know how to problem-solve. MAKE IT WORK.

the same way porn websites limit who has access

Ironically, I'm conviced that DomainPolish has not used their own service

Worry about the money second. As the technical co-founder you'll be contributing half of your time to the venture.

Ideas are worth absolutely nothing, try selling one. Don't worry that it's his idea, the idea SHOULD and WILL evolve as you develop it, and the idea will then be both of yours.

Money obviously has value, but at this stage of the venture, it's too early to size it. He should loan the money to the company in the form of a convertible note (giving him a nice return on his money) and valuation will come down the road when there's more transparency. You should each split 50/50 the equity, with him holding the debt. Anything less would be unfair to YOU.

Let the equity vest based on hours worked; that way, if one of you goes from 20 to 60 hours, it's much easier to figure out how that works ahead of time.

Have you noticed that yesterday every comment was concise, and now that applications are open, every comment is elaborate, long-winded, and footnoted?

hilarious sea turning motion -- what web technologies did you use?

right now its free and on a donation system; currently competitors offer services which do less, aren't transparent, and are mostly faux benefit for hundreds of dollars, so we know there's value.

we can easily expand this to other services such as opting out of credit offers, etc, and begin charging a one-time fee down the road

Thanks for the great feedback; we've fixed the styling on the privacy policy and TOS to make it much more legible. We're a little nervous about pre-populating information from Facebook as we want to err on the side of caution regarding personal info but will seriously consider this. We're adding new services by the day so check back soon and we'll have more to opt-out from!

Founder of http://meloncard.com here (robert@meloncard.com), would love your feedback

Coby, Excellent synopsis of your experience starting Devotee, and congratulations on moving forward. Why was development held hostage by revenue, though? These are not mutually dependent.

If as you say, a free version doesn't have a competitive advantage or differentiator over mp3 blogs, why is the service better if you charge for it?

Can you line up interesting partners, make it a community somehow, crowdsource reviews from the newsletter, etc? What is the #1 reason to subscribe to your service?

I envision this could work as a newsletter in a similar mold to thesixtyone.com; indie artists (and eventually labels as you say) would want to give out their music for free, in hopes of converting into paid downloads.

If this were free you could gain wider user adoption, and thus, supply of music.

Let me ask; who do you want your customer to be? Listeners or artists?

this is completely amazing and a great proof of concept -- there is so much that could be built on top of this

we're privacy advocates working on a free, automated, transparent solution to opt you out of all major personal information search services...coming very very soon

super helpful founder answered my questions, seems like an interesting service

We are changing structure as well; if you independently look at A/B while also testing X/Y (of a different test), the results can be statistically misleading...in these cases we look at AX v. AY v. BX v. BY

if you have any questions, ideas, or feedback on our gem, I'd love to discuss!

Amazon is cheap and easy. If you're using their platform this is an obvious choice. If you're hosting elsewhere and don't have integration synergies, I couldn't say

I've had some difficulty with HTML5 audio and can't wait to see Pandora's implementation!

not to go all CFA-ninja on the article, but the valuation paid for a minority stake is less than that for a controlling stake...this is most often demonstrated with acquisitions (you can buy a few shares at mkt, or the whole thing for far higher), PE, and premiums between voting and non-voting shares

I love 37s, but this is pure hyperbole and totally backwards