
Curebit (YC W11) Raises $1.2 Million For Online Referral System - allangrant
http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/27/yc-alum-curebit-raises-1-2-million-for-online-referral-system
======
wlll
Your new designer will be able to have a crack at an original homepage ;)

<http://i.imgur.com/fRI8Q.jpg>

<http://i.imgur.com/KbQo0.jpg>

~~~
allangrant
Hey - I'm one of the founders of Curebit, and yes - it was a boneheaded move..

We had a different homepage, were a/b testing different pages, came across the
37signals post and were like 'wow we should see how that converts!' We are big
fans of rails and what 37signals is doing and did not really think through the
implications of what we were doing. We just kind of thought about it as a fun
test to run.

Clearly it was stupid. It was not meant to offend anyone and we are adding
credit where due. (We'll take it down if DHH insists!)

Our new designer will take a crack at more than our homepage... we need all
our UI "designed".. not redesigned, but designed - because we're primarily
backend guys. Yes, this landing page variation was heavily inspired (read:
blatantly ripped off) from Highrise -- because these are the peeps we aspire
to, and they've done a lot of testing to figure out what works:
[http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2991-behind-the-scenes-ab-
tes...](http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2991-behind-the-scenes-ab-testing-
part-3-final)

We're running a "ghetto test" - this homepage variant does not even share a
common CSS file with the rest of the code base. It's been live less than a
week.

The idea was to just see how the conversion characteristics were before
investing a lot of time into making a "real design" out of the lessons
(prominent testimonial, light copy focused on value props). Hence the hot
linking, inline styles, etc. It is personally my fault for not including a
credit to Highrise for the design.. that credit is well deserved and will be
added shortly - a big oversight on my part.. we launch some stuff fast (other
things deliberately), and this was one of those fast things.

Lesson to us: add credits, and be more explicit what we're testing... ask
permission instead of asking for forgiveness. In the meantime, please forgive
us? :)

~~~
dmerfield
Close, but no cigar: <http://mee.la/28983>

~~~
sachingulaya
Wow, they copied both of their designs. Ouch.

------
freejack
I was super excited to see the data presented and understand its implications
for my business and then when I read the comments on YC and TC, all that
washed away as I realized that the credibility of the data was probably about
as good as the credibility of the designers...

Initially, I was excited to check them out because their referral rates look a
lot better than mine. Then as I paused to consider what was really going on,
brought on by the design controversy, I realize that there was a strong
likelihood that these rates couldn't be all that solid because as an MVP,
their sample size is probably immaterially small.

I wouldn't say that I'm writing Curebit off, but it will be a while before I'm
excited about them again...

------
earbitscom
Serving the assets was a big mistake, but isn't this the same forum that
overwhelmingly says copying isn't stealing and that no harm is done to the
original creator when you duplicate their work? Now, suddenly everyone's a
hard ass about IP? In this case more than all the others argued here, if you
exclude the assets problem, there was zero detriment caused by using this
design. It's not a competing product, and it did nothing to the value of the
original work. If you can write off the assets issue as a bad mistake, and it
was, I just don't see how 99% of the HN crowd can suddenly take the high road
on appropriation of creative work. Have some consistency.

~~~
potater
Sure, people argue on the semantics of IP infringement and while many feel
that intellectual property laws are woefully one sided, most of what I've seen
suggests that at least a fair number of people feel that copying material in
contrary to the creator's wishes is wrong. Do some folks do it anyway? No
doubt. Regardless, I think much of the hard assedness has been in response to
the media companies and lawmaker's approaches in addressing the issue--- poor
legislation that overreaches, failure to address the actual issues that leads
to piracy, copyright length extension, circumvention provisions & fair use
implications, etc. In the end, I can be against efforts like SOPA while also
being against ip infringement. Similarly, I would assert that it is not
inconsistent to feel that curebit's approach to publicly using another other
company's design w/o permission directly in their commercial product is
unfortunate while also feeling like IP in the US needs to be retooled.

Ultimately though, this forum compromises many viewpoints. While there will be
trends, consistency when dealing with large numbers of folks seems unrealistic
(but again, I don't think having issues with contemporary IP law and being
against using another site's design in a commercial product demonstrates a
consistency issue. It's more of a "dude, not cool" thing to me.).

In regard to the lack of detriment, certainly at least one representative of
37Signals is unhappy with it. If it were my design, I'd prefer that my efforts
remain tied solely to my products given the time and money spent on them since
I think there is marketing and branding value in developing a reasonably
unique look and feel even if the products themselves are not direct
competitors. Do I recognize that designs will inspire other designs?
Certainly. The line between a copied design and inspired one is blurry. Would
I personally give more leeway to someone who was just experimenting for a non-
commercial, personal project? Probably. This, however, was a commercial entity
that just received a big check for their (and 37signals') efforts. That said,
if I were an employee of curebit, I'd probably have felt uncomfortable with
the approach they took regardless of any legal implications that may exist. It
would just kinda feel wrong, ya know?

Anyway, my initial reaction was along the lines of "well, that was stupid of
them" and progressed to "WTF is wrong with this guy?" due to Allan's tweets in
response to dhh. Some of his tweets have almost felt like he was trolling for
controversy/publicity. Regardless, I really think he should simply stop
tweeting at this point and let further public responses come from someone
better equipped to NOT dig themselves deeper.

~~~
jsavimbi
> It's more of a "dude, not cool" thing to me.

I think it's more of an issue that calls into serious question their
integrity, motivations and skills. It's pretty hard to start a company out of
an incubator with community support when you'e signaled that you've no ethical
regard for the very community that supports you.

~~~
potater
I can see how the 'dude, not cool' comment likely made it seem like I found it
less reprehensible than I really did. For what it's worth, I agree with your
comment.

------
alexwolfe
This is really upsetting for so many reasons. The intent to use these site
designs took time and effort to implement. There had to be hours of time that
they knew without a doubt they were stealing work they did not produce. To
feign ignorance in this case in unacceptable.

Furthermore these guys have raised 1.2 million dollars. To think that someone
in this position would raise that amount in capital and pull this kind of
bullshit is offensive. This is a black eye for the valley.

------
sachingulaya
It's pretty amazing that you guys would do something so stupid and post it
here to HN.

------
startupfounder
"And it was the same way with design. I was totally psyched to copy a Müller-
Brockmann poster, a Designgraphik composition, or an Apple UI. Merely
executing the copy was a thrill. But now every design is supposed to be the
next great thing. And as days and weeks and months go by, the design level
stays the same while the aspiration goes higher and higher.

So maybe it’s time to take one of these Fridays off and just copy something."

([http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2412-how-do-you-turn-
inspirat...](http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2412-how-do-you-turn-inspiration-
into-skill))

------
AznHisoka
Just visited CureBit.. Hmm I think your landing page needs some work. The
typography looks a little amateurish (get your customers to refer your
friends). The product looks intriguing though. Just fix your landing page
because it probably will turn off a lot of customers.

------
csallen
Congrats guys!

------
d8niel
Great job guys!

------
channelmeter
Awesome job to Allan and team. Can't wait to try it for our own software.

------
logicman
Very immature!

------
karljacob
go curebit! Nice work

------
pmin
Congrats!!!

------
ngsayjoe
Just subscribed to Curebit $50 / Month plan ... it seems like the product i've
been waiting for all ...

~~~
ngsayjoe
Hey, guys i really like your product ... but i think you could spend your
newly found venture fund to invest on a good designer.

(PS: Even your email template is exact ripoff from Groupon ... i think you
guys can do better than this.)

(Suggestion: Could you please add "Contacts" connector on top of your email
widget ... now i have to type in emails one by one for inviting friends)

------
buddhamagnet
How lame is that. Jesus it's not hard to come up with your own design.
Crackers.

