
Powerset: Advanced Modelling Spreadsheets to answer "What would happen if we actually launched?" - staunch
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/06/14/powerset-releases-growth-spreadsheet-models/
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staunch
It looks like they're so ready to be the next Google they're just going to
skip right past hard work and reality. Why have actual growth charts that
might be depressing, when you can just make up your own and be happy?

They've put more effort into their modeling tool than some startups put into
their successful products. If they were an agile little startup it might be
really smart to turn the company into a Growth Forecasting service.

~~~
omouse
I think they've read Cryptonomicon one too many times.

<http://ask.metafilter.com/47531/What-would-be-a-good-way-to-calculate-
fuckyou-money>

 _This is an allusion to a Randy/Avi conversation of two years ago wherein Avi
actually calculated a specific numerical value for "fuck-you money." It was
not a fixed constant, however, but rather a cell in a spreadsheet linked to
any number of continually fluctuating economic indicators. Sometimes when Avi
is working at his computer he will leave the spreadsheet running in a tiny
window in the corner so that he can see the current value of "fuck-you money"
at a glance._

I would say it's only depressing if you don't plan on working hard.

------
plusbryan
Recipe for selling your company to google:

1) Hire a bunch of very smart people. Now go let them play ping pong and
stuff.

2) Pay a graphic designer to make screenshots of a prototype that solves a
particularly difficult problem (i.e. Natural language search perhaps?)

3) Egg Google on with a spreadsheet predicting how much market you will take
from them

4) Wait for the phone call

Seriously, Google has to be weighing the odds right now - would it be better
to buy the tech before it launches, wait and be perceived as the evil villain
who swoops in and buys a superior technology?

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npk
Funny,

I've been thinking about a startup that would hold several gigs of data per
user (the first set of data would live on S3.)

First thing I did was write a simple monte-carlo code to determine the average
and +- 1\sigma cost per user. Proud of myself, I showed my analysis to some
business types who told me I was wasting my time when I should be building a
product instead :)

Nevertheless, I believe the exercise was useful. I now have a fairly clear
picture of how much it directly costs to serve a user.

------
joshwa
I sorta care about the spreadsheet modeling, but I'm really interested in the
Flash frontend to the spreadsheet, which would really come in handy at my day
job...

