Cool idea. I think this could be really helpful in getting more butts in seats for restaurants on slower days. Maybe you can offer a discount along with the free ride?
"At the time, we were actually racing another company in our Y Combinator batch. It was called Simply Insured. Originally it was fairly different from us, but about halfway through YC the founders decided that they wanted to do what we were doing, and the company pivoted into our market."
One of the more interesting parts of the article. Not sure how you prevent or discourage that.
VCs typically don't want to have two companies in the same space in their portfolio due to conflict of interest. I wonder if YC has an analogous desire.
Happy to chat about how we made this and what our stack is. We were able to get this out just in time for the holidays. A great way to capture the holidays collaboratively with your family
This early with only you doing everything, you need to pick is your product for consumers or is your product selling to gyms. It seems you've had some success selling to gyms, so would think your traction is showing you may want to continue down that path. Not sure if you have shipped a physical product yet, but it's hard enough getting one version right, let alone two.
If you go consumer, crowdfunding for the consumer side is the way to go. I would think if you had a successful crowdfunding campaign, you would be able to convince a good technical guy to join you (as clearly you've done a ton of hustle on your own).
From the fundraising perspective, at the this early of a stage investors mostly are investing in the team (which right now is only you), unless your product/traction is through the roof. At the early stage is also when you get most heavily diluted, so want to think about how much you are giving up vs. how much do you really need the cash? Again, it sounds like you have traction, so may want to figure out how to keep bootstrapping this vs. taking a big hit equity wise.
feel free to hit me up (email in profile) - I love the space you are going after.
This looks great. Would love to see a version that has a camera on the front of lockitron so I can see who is at my front door. It sounds incredibly lazy, but being able to open the app and see who is at my front door would prove useful.
Makes more sense for Google to buy them. They could do two things with them:
1: build the technology into their Google Glasses so peoples names pop up as they come into view
2: redirect face.com to Google.com.
That second option would be well worth the 100 million too. Consider this: after you visited face.com once every next time you want to go to facebook.com and type in 'face' your browser will auto-complete to face.com
Doesn't Face.com have an API? I think the active users of that would be upset if all the documentation/etc. for it just disappeared and started redirecting to Google.
More to the point, a free API. I can't see Facebook or Google keeping the API around if they acquired Face.com, which would be very sad. Of course, it would be a technology rather than a user acquisition, so I don't suppose whoever was buying would care that much.
the idea is older than him, but piet hein put it into verse very nicely:
A PSYCHOLOGICAL TIP
Whenever you're called on to make up your mind,
and you're hampered by not having any,
the best way to solve the dilemma, you'll find,
is simply by spinning a penny.
No -- not so that chance shall decide the affair
while you're passively standing there moping;
but the moment the penny is up in the air,
you suddenly know what you're hoping.
A mentor once advised me when I was in the manager roll of deciding to lay off or not lay off someone, to write on the board two columns, "pros" and "cons". Then write the first one that came to mind (either pro or con) and that was the decision. If the first thing you thought of was what was a real benefit then keep them, if the first thing you thought of was a consequence, then lay them off. The theory is that you have already ordered and prioritized the pros and cons for this if you've been thinking about it, and you naturally order them in your thinking in magnitude. So doing the physical action pulls that ordering out of your brain and into the open.
I just flip the coin and then do the opposite of whatever it says because, in my mind, it is just a stupid coin and will naturally make the worst decision. So far so good... one day I may meet a smart coin and regret this method though.
"Because when that coin is in the air, you suddenly know what you're hoping for."
Sounds waay too easy. The one you are hoping for depends not on what is the best decision but rather in you.
And for many I'd imagine that the one they are hoping for happen to be the decision that has the best short-term benefits.
Most hard decisions are hard because of uncertainties and those don't become clear because of a coin flip. And even if you find yourself hoping for something doesn't mean that that is the right thing to do but just as much as what else you want to escape.
Making the right decision is often hard, hoping isn't.
Another good mental technique is to think about the work week or period ahead of you after doing something you enjoy. If you find that the thought of it makes you irritated or unhappy, you need to immediately stop and figure out why. Is it the project you are working on? Is it your manager? Is it your team? Is it the company?
Whatever it is, it always warrants a serious conversation with your manager. Ideally, it is something within your or your manager's control.
I've heard it as, if it comes out the way you want, you'll have no problems with that. OTOH, if you catch yourself thinking "best two out of three", then you know what you want.
