That sounds like a much more promising business than "a site where users submit news and sites, vote them up and write comments about them". I don't mean this is in a snarky way, I'm a reddit user too. Am I missing something?
It was a good idea, just ahead of its time.
While an app would have been nice, I guess that you could do something like this with just SMS.
J2ME apps involved no carrier participation (though often you had to target all of the profiles), and most devices, including standard Nokia feature phones, could run it. Windows Mobile apps...well that was always completely open and with little carrier control.
And of course...WAP. Largely forgotten now, but the Gopher-like WAP was usable on pretty much every feature phone, optimized for limited displays and input technologies. It was a giant dud for a variety of reasons, but it was always an option back to the turn of the century. And you didn't need a data plan, which remains the #1 impediment to the mobile revolution, though you did get charged usurious rates for the packets you did use.
It might stand a chance of being a more profitable business than Reddit, but it's a tough and expensive route to market without experience or a large chain desperate to try the system. Probably pg had good reason to be more risk-averse about the types of business he invested in back in 2005.
Something that actual businesses can use to sell things to people? Sure, there are risks, but at least it can make money.
alexis ohanian said... I believe the biggest thing was the dangers of dealing with both cellphone carriers (this is pre "AppStore," remember) who are notoriously closed and slow-moving as well as restaurants, which aren't typically very tech-curious (all the ones I spoke with were taking online orders via fax).
Reddit was a fantastic idea to getting acquired.
So pg missed the boat on this one. Fortunately I haven't seen this anywhere in the us and it will take some times before these guys will branch out of the country, if at all.
The problem for restaurants is pretty interesting, and reminds me of the disintermediation RoundTable is doing in the US.
top of the article ;)
ie. is this really a sample of a "winning" YC application?
That is one of my favourite youtubes. Big kudos! I couldn't stop laughing the first time I watched it. It's amazing how most of it still applies after ~5 years
The application content seems remarkably normal. Even the Restaurant idea. Nothing stands out other than the 'Animal' question. Like, within the realm of most of us at HN (even if the quantity of YC applications has raised the bar since Summer 2005). Thanks for posting this.
I'm not sure what to do, at this point. We still think this would be a success but, good god.
Edit: In the opinion of anyone reading this; do you think it's a better idea to put our application in as planned (using this exact idea...), or to try to differentiate ourselves somehow?
Could do native iOS/droid apps or even SMS ordering with twilio
