There seems to be some confusion among the HN user about the actual starup definition. Many people call a startup even outside projects and websites made for fun.
PG says "The essential task in a startup is to create wealth", that pretty well rules tarsnap out as a startup, I guess.
Nothing matters less to me than mee-too-ness about startup programs. I'm desperate for 100 absolutely same programs to be available to me in absolutely same time in absolutely same places.
Be serious man, copying a application form cann't be seen as a brutal act of uncreative vandalism.
What I like about techstars - they don't pretend to be unique. Instead of going to some bizzare place like NY or whatever (they seem don't like SF) just to generate buzz they go to Boston, the most logical place for them to go to to attract more healthy attention. But people still generate buzz :)
Great work, but ... looks like an example of completely missing the basics of the customer needs. Do we really need good design to start taking shots? Think about us already missing a year of pictures. Sorry for making it sound sharp.
Keep in mind that you don't have that much time. More than one RoR bastard will know about your website soon and frankly it takes only couple of weeks of fulltime developement to produce a service like yours.
Well, you won't talk to hundreds of applicants after the initial text-only review. And to talk to rest - in my opinion - could be much more valuable in the sense of not putting people into uncomfortable position, if only its not the exact goal of that approach.
Now these rejected will start asking themselves how bad they had been presenting.
I've had experience of beign rejected by both, and have got better feelings with TechStar :) Well, the ideas were different too, so it triggered different reactions.
But overall, techstars do good job offering more opportunities for the startups.
Note: This fee schedule is for payments by US customers only. You can allow non-US customers to pay using credit cards (not Amazon Payments balance transfers or bank account at this time) for an additional charge of 1% of the transaction amount. All transactions are in US dollars.
I wouldn't call 'Free trial' the 'original freemium model' Surely, its the original 'try-before-you-buy' model.
So we're left with only two options:
1) Active free users - adding value by doing something, like creating content
2) Passive free users - adding value by just using the service, like attracting others on a dating site
Users that neither do something useful nor attracting others should be forced out (?) or forced into the paying group (maybe by offering a fix length period).
This will be another way to look at 'try-before-you-forced-out' model, where one can prove her usefulness to the service
and also:
"Various forms of "empirical egoism" can be consistent with egotism, as long as the value of one's own self-benefit is entirely individual."
It just comes out in the difficult situations like doing a startup (in a war, etc).
That particular thread shows how people fight to remain egotists. Seems like me alone do not care about favorable view of myself (think karma)