

Small startup hits Google paydirt  - miraj
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/your-business/exit/selling-your-business/small-startup-hits-google-paydirt/article1812156/

======
luckystrike

      Today, a couple of application developers can turn around a decent piece 
      of software for a BlackBerry or an iPhone in a weekend. 
    

<rant>

Yeah, right. I think blanket statements like these are part of the reason many
non-technical people think programming is an easy (& cheap) job, and their
eyes spread wide when we tell them what it would take to implement their
"awesome" idea.

"Oh, I thought we could do this in a week .."

</rant>

Related - [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/209170/how-much-does-
it-c...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/209170/how-much-does-it-cost-to-
develop-an-iphone-application/3926493#3926493)

~~~
gaustin
Regarding the stackoverflow link: I think it's telling that the accepted
answer is the one the poster wanted to hear (i.e., a very optimistic
estimate). I wonder how often such things happen on Q/A sites, and how often
it ends up misguiding someone.

~~~
d0mine
But to be fair: the votes on the accepted answer are _minus_ 21 and the votes
on the linked answer are _plus_ 648\. Democracy works in this case.

------
pg
Though the title of this post originally claimed this startup was rejected by
YC, I can find no evidence that they ever applied. Two years ago there was an
application from another startup with a similar name. Perhaps that's the
source of the misunderstanding.

Edit: Oops, yes, they did apply; sorry about that. Well, congratulations to
them!

~~~
shafqat
Its not just the title. There is a story about them going to meet you guys for
the interview and then getting rejected.

------
willheim
Here's what stands out for me and they are lessons repeated time and again:

\- The founders had experience and backgrounds. \- The founders were a team.
There were two of them. \- The founders worked on several projects that
failed. The YC application was for something before they were successful when
they were young in the game and basically inexperienced. \- The founders both
quit their jobs to get serious on their start-up. \- They were committed to
starting something. \- Canada is very difficult to do anything in from a
scene/support POV. \- SF is great for a scene/support POV. \- SF didn't work
out for them financially but they learned a lot and a return to Canada rescued
them through RIM betting heavily on the team (which had seasoned and matured
by then). \- They smartly exited to better positions taking the bird in hand
(Google).

This tale is a walking, talking start-up lessons learned. Be smart, know when
to pivot, be committed, learn from mistakes, and never stop banging on doors
because if you do all that someone will eventually let you in.

~~~
sudonim
The one-hit wonders are few and far between. Most startup success stories have
a long history of effort an experience that ends in a successful exit.

------
colinprince
Single page:

[http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/your-
busin...](http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/your-
business/exit/selling-your-business/small-startup-hits-google-
paydirt/article1812156/singlepage)

------
cperciva
To quote an oft-repeated request from PG: Don't put 'YC reject' in your
submission titles. You might have been _not accepted_ , but that's quite
different from being _rejected_ \-- it's a non-judgement rather than a
judgement -- and it adds unnecessary noise.

~~~
ig1
That's just arguing about semantics. It's like the age old "it's not you, it's
me" break-up line. Non-Acceptance is Rejection and everyone knows it.

While in general I'd agree that it doesn't add value to add "YC Reject" to the
title, in this case the article talks about their YC rejection (sorry "non-
acceptance") so including it makes sense.

~~~
DeusExMachina
I disagree. I think that the difference between not accepted and rejected is
more about available slots.

Not accepted: "We would like to fund your startup, but we have x slots
available and we already chose x startups that look more promising."

Rejected: "We are not going to fund this startup, no matter what".

The effect is the same, you do not get into Y Combinator. But in case of non
acceptance this does not mean that they think your idea is not worth anything.

~~~
ig1
By that argument almost no-one's ever rejected for anything.

If a girl turns you down for a date, it doesn't matter if it's because she
doesn't like you or because she just met someone she likes better than you,
it's still a rejection.

Sure you have different levels of rejection, but they're all rejections
nevertheless.

~~~
dschobel
Precisely. Whether you're getting shot down in dating or "not being accepted"
for the <x> slots for YC, at the end of the day it is the same thing-- you /
your pitch are coming up short in their opportunity cost calculation.

Frankly, who gives a damn whether they like your idea if they're not willing
to invest?

Kind words and happy thoughts are cheap.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
>Frankly, who gives a damn whether they like your idea if they're not willing
to invest?

I'd have thought knowing that they believe you have a good idea, just not
quite good enough would be encouraging. Whilst knowing that even if there were
space you wouldn't get accepted should probably be a big indicator that you
should take a step back and see if you're riding a horse or a donkey.

Similarly in dating - being rejected for someone _you_ consider a better catch
is not a great problem; being rejected in favour of not having a date is far
worse.

>Kind words and happy thoughts are cheap

Yes, it relies on an honest decliner.

------
imack
"It is worth pointing out that the Globe and Mail is WAY off on the
acquisition price of socialdeck, sources put it at $2.5m, not $10-20m"
-@startupnorth

Not sure if this is any more true, but it may not have been as impressive.

~~~
ig1
Given they'd taken $500k in investment from RIM, a $2.5 million exit would
seem low. I can't imagine their board would have approved of such a low offer
especially with multiple parties interested in acquiring them.

------
Tichy
Could somebody summarize what their special sauce is/was? Were they simply
good game developers, or do their games do something special?

------
SimplePast
It cost Google between $10-million and $25-million to buy SocialDeck a small
Canadian game-apps maker. How much it costed for Zenimax to aquire the
legendary Id software ?

~~~
teamonkey
At least $105 million, because that's what they had to borrow.

[http://venturebeat.com/2009/07/07/zenimax-
borrowed-105-milli...](http://venturebeat.com/2009/07/07/zenimax-
borrowed-105-million-to-buy-doom-maker/)

I'd expect it to be a lot more than that. $25 million is a typical budget for
a single AAA console title these days. Not only did Zenimax buy id's game
development experience they also bought their tech, which is probably worth
that on its own. Mind you, id were badly in need of a publisher at the time.

------
pclark
I really hope you haven't been carrying the YC rejection around with you for
all this time (or maybe its a good thing as it makes you want to prove them
wrong)

------
arasakik
Congratulations Anish and Jeson! These guys are amazing entrepreneurs who
executed like crazy over the past few years.

------
vaksel
no real point in calling it a YC reject, since they were rejected for a
completely different idea

~~~
exit
we hear pretty consistently though that yc invests in people, no their ideas.

~~~
pclark
I bet the most common rejection for sensible (eg: co-founders, technical, have
prototype) startup applicants to YC is "you are too determined on a terrible
idea"

~~~
ig1
They accepted AirBnB thinking it was a terrible idea, and the founders would
find something better.

~~~
ludicast
AirBnB also were friends with the Justin.tv guys so they were already "in the
mafia" a bit :). Though if they sucked I'm sure PG would have said for them to
fuck off.

That said, AirBnB had a large enough vision that even if there was a 95%
chance of them bombing, the 5% chance of them rocking it was too big to pass
up.

~~~
ig1
Given how tight the global startup community is, I imagine a lot of YC
applicants are friends with YC founders.

