My elevation dock is finally shipping. I'll have it just in time to use it for a day, maybe, before I get my iPhone 5 on Friday. I had to send a nastygram email just to elicit a response from them about why my order was taking so long. All-in-all I'm pretty upset about it.
I love the Kickstarter model. I think it's an awesome way for the average Joe to fulfill his dreams of bringing something to the market. I don't think too many people are expecting to become millionaires on there. They just want to see their dream come true and the product they designed on screen sit on people's desks. That's what I love about it.
I have heard two arguments that I think need squashed quickly.
The first is the "You're not a customer... you're a backer" argument. It suggests that because I've contributed money to a project that I'm not due anything. I'm not due a response from the Project Starter, I'm not due sufficient updates on progress or delays and most of all I'm not allowed to complain about the project.
My Elevation Dock is 5 months delayed. I'm pissed about that. I understand that stuff happens. But when you release something that was supposed to be enjoyed for months before a new product comes out (iPhone 5) and makes it obsolete, you deserve to give everyone an apology. Or at the very least, a heavily discounted or free adapter. Something.
I understand that scaling isn't easy and that leads me into my second argument. The whole, "Scaling from 75,000 to 1,000,000 isn't easy." No kidding. Nor is going from running 1 mile a day to 26.2. BUT he could have seen these issues on the horizon. He could have capped his project to a reasonable amount. He didn't. The Pebble guys did. They realized they were hitting the threshold of not being able to make everyone happy in the timeframe they said they could. So they capped their project and sold out. Elevation Lab should have done the same. And BTW, the developer watches are already shipping to those backers for Pebble.
Perhaps I'm jaded by the Elevation experience. But I've backed other campaigns that have been very honest and open about their progress.
What HN and the "startup scene" has taught me for the most part is only that there are a huge number of pretentious CEOs / VCs / Lead Devs who all think they have some unique insiders only membership to startup businesses. A business is a business is a business. It doesn't matter if it's a website, a mobile app or a brick and mortar store. If you are a business that is just starting out... you are a startup.
Thank you for putting better words around what I've had on my mind for a long time.
That should horrify FB. That means there will always be a direct correlation between Zynga's stock and FB's stock on a daily basis. I would not want one (3rd-party) company accounting for 15% of my revenue.
A lot of these companies would do a lot better if they charged for their apps. It's ridiculous to give something away for free and hope that you can find profit in it later. That usually just means that you go the route of selling your user's info and hoping for the best.
I don't think that anyone doesn't want it to succeed. There are a lot of valid reasons as to why this can easily fail. No one is saying, "You know what, screw that Ouya company." They are merely saying, "You know what, Ouya looks pretty cool, but how are they actually going to solve problem Foo and Bar?"
Unfortunately it wouldn't be an easy task to even come close to disrupting EA. Especially in the sports genre. They own way too many exclusive contracts with leagues. And there are really no indie developers that can afford to pay rights to any sports leagues for team / player names.
I'm sure that I'm going to get down voted to oblivion, but every time I read headlines like this, I like to assume that Bill is a person. It makes the headline way more fun.
A) These are all software companies. The hardware that they would ever make is few and far between.
B) There is no saying that they DON'T already have an investment in this company. Obviously this kid has enough capital to demo at E3, have office space and prototypes already made. At the very least, these companies may have deals made where they won't have to pay exorbitant licensing fees to put their games on this platform.
C) Perhaps this is the ultimate give back to the community from these companies. They all create tools now to extend their games to the next level. Perhaps they want to see how people will use their tools at a hardware level.
D) I feel like a $300 investment here will go a lot longer than OUYA. There is a prototype already built. They aren't trying to sell a end-user, consumer-level product. At the end of the day, you're getting a likely shitty looking developer kit. For $300, they are probably taking a significant loss just on the technology going into the kit.
This is quite possibly one of the most exciting projects I've seen on Kickstarter. Despite my absolute desire to click that Back This Project button, I'm gonna hold off. I've never really been into game development (love playing games) so I'm gonna save the money and wait. I will be putting up my first $1 back though just to watch the show! Can't wait for this.
Perhaps I'm overreacting here, but I think I would receive a lot of joy over the SEC investigating this and Marc Pincus landing his ass in jail. I don't blame everyone that works there for the evil that I consider Zynga, but damn, that dude is just pure slime. He even admits as much.
Karma is a bitch. He deserves anything that comes his way at this point.
While it looks like a slightly promising competitor to iOS and Android, if they don't lock down good pricing, it will fail. $1000 is just not a good price point when it comes to a tablet. I understand that this thing will support a full Windows environment, but honestly, I use my tablets to surf and play. If I want to run Photoshop or an IDE, it's going to be on my workhorse laptop.
Absolutely amazing how many of those reflect the design used in later models of the iPhone. Before the first was even made they had the 3G/3GS prototype, some that closely resemble the iPhone 4/4S and even the iPad. Absolutely awesome!
No one here to blame other than political agenda. I fully feel we could have been in preparation for a humanized mission to Mars at this point. However, we've wasted too much time funding war and whether or not abortion and gay marriage should be legal instead. It's actually quite sad.
No one here to blame other than political agenda. I fully feel we could have been in preparation for a humanized mission to Mars at this point. However, we've wasted too much time funding war and whether or not abortion and gay marriage should be legal instead. It's actually quite sad.
This method has worked for me 3 times now. I turned down one of the opportunities. Not necessarily the best sample size, but the method shows very clearly that you intend to work for that company or at least that you are extremely interested in going the extra mile.
From personal experience, don't apply to any positions that don't reveal the company name in the post. You'll rarely get anywhere, and when you do it will likely not even pan out to being who you want to work for or the job that was described.
What I normally do is this:
Find a job that you find unique or intriguing. If it has a company name attached I immediately jump to LinkedIn to find who I may be working for and if it's the small company, I just look up the CEO.
At this point, I start following the CEO on Twitter (if they have one) and I find out what they are interested in and post about. I will now usually start engaging that person every now and then to make them put a name to a face. This also allows you to get an idea of the personality of the person you may be working for.
After a while, I'll put the question out there, "Hey I saw that you posted Foo job at your company. Has this position been filled? I'm extremely interested."
If they don't have Twitter, I'll engage them straight through LinkedIn. At this point I'll be straight upfront and honest. Just tell them that you are interested in finding out more information about the company before you formally apply for the job. When the time comes, try and get your resume straight to their personal email via this conversation.
Open up a line of dialog with someone who is posted the job. If it's an HR department, it may be tough, but not impossible. It's worth it in the long run to build up connections (even if their virtual) with people. Blindly applying to positions is just going to leave you in the dark.
In Orlando I'm paying $240 a month to get 40Mbps down / 5 up with a full channel lineup, plus Showtime and NHL Center Ice. So THIS would be a huge deal to people in my area where only one cable option exists in a lot of Central Florida.
I love the Kickstarter model. I think it's an awesome way for the average Joe to fulfill his dreams of bringing something to the market. I don't think too many people are expecting to become millionaires on there. They just want to see their dream come true and the product they designed on screen sit on people's desks. That's what I love about it.
I have heard two arguments that I think need squashed quickly.
The first is the "You're not a customer... you're a backer" argument. It suggests that because I've contributed money to a project that I'm not due anything. I'm not due a response from the Project Starter, I'm not due sufficient updates on progress or delays and most of all I'm not allowed to complain about the project.
My Elevation Dock is 5 months delayed. I'm pissed about that. I understand that stuff happens. But when you release something that was supposed to be enjoyed for months before a new product comes out (iPhone 5) and makes it obsolete, you deserve to give everyone an apology. Or at the very least, a heavily discounted or free adapter. Something.
I understand that scaling isn't easy and that leads me into my second argument. The whole, "Scaling from 75,000 to 1,000,000 isn't easy." No kidding. Nor is going from running 1 mile a day to 26.2. BUT he could have seen these issues on the horizon. He could have capped his project to a reasonable amount. He didn't. The Pebble guys did. They realized they were hitting the threshold of not being able to make everyone happy in the timeframe they said they could. So they capped their project and sold out. Elevation Lab should have done the same. And BTW, the developer watches are already shipping to those backers for Pebble.
Perhaps I'm jaded by the Elevation experience. But I've backed other campaigns that have been very honest and open about their progress.