

COLOURlovers (YC W10) Wants To Unleash Your Creative Streak With An iPhone App - aepstein
http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/07/chromaom-wants-to-unleash-your-creative-streak-with-an-iphone-app/

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tobtoh
If it's one thing that constantly surprises me with technology startups, it's
how 'niche' targeted startups can be and still be profitable. I would never
have thought that 'pick five colours' was a model that would be
sustainable/profitable enough to warrant starting a business around.

I suspect the Net played a bit part in enabling this to happen and the
continued rise of smartphones and apps is furthering this capability.

~~~
dariusmonsef
Had you asked me 6 years ago I wouldn't have thought there was a business in
palettes either. But I built COLOURlovers to solve simple problems for
creative folks? What color should I use for this? Does this color look good
with that one? ...It was just a small idea for some creative folks I knew to
play with... and it organically grew into the site it is today.

Had we raised money out of the gate on the premise that there was a business
in palettes... we probably would have executed differently and killed what we
were growing.

Instead it grew naturally and we took guidance from our users, creating new
products and services for them. We're profitable because we're lean and don't
need a lot of the large expenses some other founders have to deal with. This
has been our greatest asset as we built COLOURlovers.

Now, we have a thriving community of people, a solid amount of traffic and a
business model that doesn't take anything away from the experience our users
love and use.

And another point about niche... when the whole world is your audience, even
the most obscure interests can find a sizable market.

~~~
loganfrederick
"Had we raised money out of the gate on the premise that there was a business
in palettes... we probably would have executed differently and killed what we
were growing."

What was your reasoning for joining YC after you already had momentum?

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aepstein
Darius actually wrote a blog post about our reasoning:
[http://whoabubs.com/should-we-do-ycombinator-were-further-
al...](http://whoabubs.com/should-we-do-ycombinator-were-further-along-t)

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ianbishop
I think COLOURlovers is the only YC company that I can say I had heard of /
often visited before they were part of YC.

Are there any other companies that were reasonably successful before starting
in YC?

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jacobbijani
Why did any of them take YC money? Seems silly.

~~~
dariusmonsef
This is why: [http://whoabubs.com/should-we-do-ycombinator-were-further-
al...](http://whoabubs.com/should-we-do-ycombinator-were-further-along-t)

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danielha
I didn't know ColorSchemer was their product. I love that app.

Great job, fellas.

~~~
aepstein
Thanks Daniel, much appreciated.

We (COLOURlovers & ColorSchemer) actually merged up in summer '09 before doing
YC last winter.

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sid0
How do you reconcile the different spellings? :)

~~~
aepstein
It's a battle every day :)

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fookyong
I had no idea colourlovers is a YC startup.

I love the site and show it to designer friends all the time for colour
inspiration.

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okeumeni
Wow great job Guys, in business since 2004 wow that is quite some time. Let me
guess without the YC seal there would have been a NO from Techcrunch, good
move Colourlovers!

~~~
dariusmonsef
We've been covered on TC before we did YC... but what is one of the most
valuable things about the YC experience is the connections you make and the
network you leave with. We actually met Jason at StartupSchool this year and
told him about what we were working on... It was that meeting and that set
this article up.

YC is just an experience, it's up to the founders to make it a great one.

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ses
I recently released a similar Android app called Color Scheme Magic. Its
mainly a suggestion tool for colour schemes and there's no social element.
Admittedly its features are somewhat lacking in comparison, but then there are
few, if any, Android alternatives (and mobile apps are more of a hobby for me
than a revenue stream).

Its interesting to know that with more resources at hand, a simple idea like
this can scale well.

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swombat
While I understand that ChromaOm can be profitable and even make its founders
a tidy sum, I wonder why YC invested. In what way does this company have the
potential to become huge? Colour schemes are always going to be a very narrow
niche, and I can't quite see how this would turn into even a $10m company, let
alone a $100m one...

Then again if YC invested, pg and the rest of the panel must see something I'm
not seeing...

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jackolas
Hah I just used this for colors on a graph. Excellent little app.

