

Bump (YC S09) Raises $16 Million Round Led By Andreessen Horowitz - atularora
http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/10/bump-raises-16-million-round-led-by-andreessen-horowitz/

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magicseth
In my opinion, as a Bump developer, a lot of the negative comments reflect our
biggest problem: branding. In many people's minds, Bump is a nothing but a
contact-sharing app. Long ago contacts were eclipsed by the many other types
of things that Bump lets you share. The people who are downloading the app are
using it in ways that we couldn't imagine when building initial version. The
app's "gimmick" of bumping is still an incredibly useful, and admittedly fun,
way of establishing a connection between two strangers, or even two of your
own devices.

Obviously, my views are biased, but it is quite clear to me (and our users)
that Bump is more than just a contact-sharing app.

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nopassrecover
I'd love to "bump" cash registers for my receipts (straight to an accounting
app).

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thinkcomp
We're working on this with FaceCash.

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comatose_kid
We are hiring.

I've worked at Bump for about a year and a half - the classic 'work from the
founder's kitchen' story...

I really enjoy coming to work here. Why?

Because the work is engrossing - there are more interesting things to work on
here than I have time for.

Because our team works well together - it is a low-ego environment, and we are
all focused on building cool stuff.

Because our hardware procurement process consists of mentioning what we need
to Andy (our procurement officer/CTO) and shiny things magically appear on our
desk within days.

Because our offices are custom-made: <http://imgur.com/qZAc6> (ha!)

Please check out our jobs page: <http://bu.mp/jobs>

Or email me; see my profile.

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zaidf
I am visiting India surrounded by over a dozen cousins in 5-15 age range. All
but a few are hooked to Bump independently(not through me). One evening the
kids literally went door to door in our large extended family searching for
iPhones to put the app on.

Seeing such crazy adoption, I wanted to see what they really dig about it. So
I tried to played a sucker and kept asking them "Bump sucks, why would you
even use it?". Their response: "picture sharing is sooo fast; its quicker than
even sms; its just awesome" followed by "want me to put it on your iphone?" :)

Pretty cool!

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jgilliam
The article says they are going to put physical stations in venues that people
can "bump." I love that idea. Making it a physical act that other people can
see is really smart. The activity isn't just happening on the phone, it's
happening in the real world, people are literally bumping into things.

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magicseth
Bump is YC09, for those who don't know.

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ajslater
They license their technology to PayPal, and perhaps others. What the rev deal
is, I have no idea.

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ThomPete
Linkedin should buy Bumb

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veb
$16 million? I'd be happy with a $50k investment...

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jzting
congrats, guys!

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chailatte
What do they need that much money for? It's a simple contact sharing app. And
how will they make money?

Foodspotting also got 3M today, for a simple photo sharing app that has no
revenue model.

This bubble is very close to bursting. Too bad for those pension funds and
university endowments.

~~~
TomOfTTB
" _This bubble is very close to bursting. Too bad for those pension funds and
university endowments._ "

Not even close.

As someone who lived through the very end (and hence the worst of it) I think
this does mark the return of the bubble. Bump is a nice idea but they've now
raised $3 per active user and still have no real path to revenue. That's
bubble mentality.

BUT at least Bump is a good idea. Good ideas that VCs over estimate is the
beginning of a bubble not the end of it. Its when ideas like ecommerce stores
that just sell pet food or devices that allow web sites to smell start popping
up. That's when its about to burst

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chailatte
Yes, during normal times. However, we're in a global economic recession, where
most countries are bankrupt and overnight any country/US state can default on
their debt, causing massive failures in many markets. Any other bubble
bursting (education, real estate, stock market, government debt) can cause the
other bubbles to burst right away.

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enjo
Most countries are very far from being bankrupt. We haven't been in a
recession in a quite some time (more than a year ago). While there are
lingering concerns over a couple of specific countries, economic news has been
mostly pretty bright for quite some time.

Jobs, particularly labor jobs, continue to be a really big issue. Lets not be
hyperbolic, however.

Also, lets keep this in perspective. The amount of money totally invested in
startups is (in the scheme of things) pretty small. So yes those endowments
and pension funds stand to lose, but not a lot (they tend to be well
diversified).

Not all bubbles are the catastrophic crash of the housing market or the
general tech bubble that began last decade. Those both saw huge amounts of
money invested by millions of individuals dry up overnight. This is very
different.

