
A billion dollar software tech company is founded every three months in the U.S. - lominming
http://blog.minming.net/post/35553963889/a-billion-dollar-software-tech-company-is-founded-every
======
jklio
Are you serious about Quora? I'm going to go with no.[1] With the text
blurring and desperate requests for Facebook signin details Quora is basically
expertsexchange for SV insiders now.

Given the text blurring is a form of cloaking (showing one thing to the search
engine, nothing to people who come in from a search) I think search engines
should viciously rank them down too. And I don't care if there is some "easy"
way to get around the blur (like the "scroll down" for expertsexchange or
whatever it was), it's not obvious and it just pollutes the search results.
Get rid of it. That said, as was mentioned elsewhere on HN recently,
Stackoverflow needs a place for more meta questions to be moved rather than
deleted as you can occasionally get a useful one that isn't just rehashing
things we've seen 1000 times.

[1][http://www.quora.com/Programming-Languages/In-laymans-
terms-...](http://www.quora.com/Programming-Languages/In-laymans-terms-what-
are-the-major-programming-languages-and-what-are-they-used-for#)

~~~
jwegan
In Quora's case the text blurring applies both to search engines and users.
I've visited the site as the googlebot user agent and it is exactly the same
as what non-logged in users see. They also aren't doing any tricks to hide the
full response in the HTML.

Also FYI, most major search engines have "secret" IPs from which they crawl
websites using normal user agents (ex: Chrome, Firefox, etc). They then
compare the results to the results from their main crawlers to detect the type
of cloaking you referred to.

~~~
venus
> I've visited the site as the googlebot user agent and it is exactly the same
> as what non-logged in users see

.. except, of course, that the googlebot just reads the HTML. The CSS3 blur
only causes problems when you try to read the site visually, via a browser.

> They also aren't doing any tricks to hide the full response in the HTML.

Yes, that's why the googlebot can read it.

I don't know why you're bothering to argue that this isn't cloaking. It most
assuredly is.

    
    
      cloak
      verb
      conceal, hide, cover, veil, shroud, mask, obscure, cloud

~~~
jklio
Seems they use pngs now but were blurring in the past
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4333151>

------
ig1
It's missing so many companies it's hard to know where to begin. The list
probably represents only a fraction of billion dollar software companies
founded over the last decade. It's heavily skewed towards both American and
b2c companies.

Missing ones include: Vancl, Youku, Renren, Wonga, Bazaarvoice, Conduit,
Klarna, nicira, Homeaway, Workday, Changyou, ServiceNow, Splunk, Ocado, Giant,
Guidewire, DealerTrack, SuccessFactors, SourceFire, ArcSight, Popcap, Yandex,
Betfair, ZipCar, Baidu, ExactTarget, etc.

~~~
lominming
Great list. I added a bunch of them. I should clarify that in the context of
the quote, he was mostly talking about mostly software tech companies founded
(or for the most part operated) in US. Hence, I did not include the China and
Russia companies. I also classify ZipCar as not really a software tech
company.

~~~
yannski
Well, then why do you count Vente Privée or Rovio ? ;-)

~~~
yannski
Spotify is not american as well

------
confluence
People underestimate Quora. They underestimate both Quora and Google+ like
they did with Twitter, Facebook, Blogger and YouTube before them.

What people don't seem to get about both Quora and Google+ is that they are
networks not based around the people you just randomly happen to know - but
instead around the people and things that you are actually interested in.
There's a huge difference between the two.

They are interest-based social networks and are essentially pulling niche,
technical, specific forums, specific blogs, and just general chatter into one
mainstream and real time feed - away from the pseudonym driven, trolling,
harsh, fractured, and separate niche areas that we currently have in many
areas (Yes I know both Twitter/YouTube began like this - but they have slowly
become things you put on your business card/real business use and are based
upon).

Quora should not be underestimated as a SV centric bubbletastic startup -
although it often appears that way. But then again, so did Facebook, Twitter,
Blogger, and even YouTube.

Quora is where you go to hang out with people who actually share your
interests (and not just a zip code), talk about the things that you really
care about (not about who was the most drunk on the weekend) and just
generally talk shop about the world, with the added benefit of a centralized
repository where content bubbles up everyday (kind of like YouTube's
subscriptions feature). No more refreshing pages :D.

Quora is like the Hacker News for everything else that doesn't already have
its own Hacker News with really, really, freaking good UI, addictive game
mechanics and really good content filtering.

Quora should not be underestimated. And neither should Google+.

~~~
citricsquid
> Quora should not be underestimated

I don't have much of an opinion on Quora and want it to succeed, but your
claims seem rather... grandiose. From what I've seen Quora fairs well in very
specific situations (where it has a large userbase of people knowledgeable in
that specific niche) and then it's mediocre everywhere else. I've never
thought "this is the future" while using Quora.

Do you have any examples of Quora that show the potential you talk about? I
guess it can be argued "If Quora has a large userbase that are knowledgable in
every niche then it will take over the world!" but that sort of argument can
extend to almost any service. I see Stackexchange as the biggest competitor to
Quora and in my experience Stackexchange is fairing much better (both in users
and interfaces, I'd much rather ask a question on a SE site vs. Quora, for
example).

~~~
confluence
StackExchange still has the pseudonym problem. It is also about 10x as harsh
and severely limits itself, by well, limiting the actions of their
participating clientele. Stack Exchange has relegated itself with it's strict
standards to little more than a technical help resource - for the vast
majority of use cases.

You don't go to StackExchange to hang out - you go there to ask answer/ask
questions. It's like Wikipedia.

On extrapolations:

All large future extrapolations appear, by definition, to be grandiose. If
they weren't - well then it would be bloody well bleeding obvious what was
about to happen then wouldn't it :D - and it would go without me having to say
so.

> _Quora fairs well in very specific situations (where it has a large userbase
> of people knowledgeable in that specific niche) and then it's mediocre
> everywhere else._

Same with anything else. This is a truism.

The only thing I can say to people is this:

Whenever people tell you to look into something that appears curious - try it
for 2 weeks and make your own judgement.

~~~
citricsquid

        You don't go to StackExchange to hang out - you go there 
        to ask answer/ask questions. It's like Wikipedia.
    

Maybe I'm missing some portion of Quora then, but that's exactly how I use
Quora. I've never found any indication on Quora that I can do anything other
than ask and answer questions.

    
    
        Whenever people tell you to look into something that 
        appears curious - try it for 2 weeks and make your own 
        judgement.
    

That's what I've been trying to do, I've even gone out of my way to ask
questions on Quora just so I can understand the experience, my problem seems
to be that how you're describing it (as some form of community?) does not
match how I've experienced it.

Perhaps there is a feature or section of the site I'm not aware of? As I
mentioned, some sort of example on Quora or Quora being this fascinating and
valuable community experience would be great, because I just can't find it.

~~~
michaelbuckbee
My experience with Quora mirrors your own. However a friend of mine was
absolutely nuts about it, he chalked it up to having found a group of people
to follow who were asking and answering interesting questions.

This difference made Quora less of a Q+A site and more of an interesting news,
facts and opinions site to him.

------
rbn
Tumblr was valued at $800Million last year.

[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020483130457659...](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204831304576594524134179668.html)

------
pranavk
I personally feel its easy for a startup to start in West rather than starting
in East. There are some problems in Eastern countries like India, China due to
which not many of the startups are able to get converted into a really big
one. They are still like slaves. While the quantity of startups getting
successful is really high in western countries.

Don't argue that its because of intelligence, perhaps I think they are even
better in this.

Yes perhaps its leadership.

~~~
panacea
Ability to market in the the most affluent markets, more likely.

When I say 'market' I mean top down know-your-customers and investors and
partners intimately. Leverage the local connections etc.

Yes perhaps its local.

------
netvarun
A couple more to add: Splunk (Founded 2004), Workday (Founded Mar 2005)

~~~
lominming
Added!

------
netcan
Really awesome post. Thanks for compiling this.

You need to keep the date in mind when reading this though. More recent years
will over-represent fast growers, underrepresent slow growers and include more
speculative valuations (ie some companies will eventually exist the list).

Give 2010 another few years and it could be a completely different list. The
1998 list OTOH will probably stay pretty much the same.

------
yurylifshits
Is there any evidence that Skillshare (on the list) is close to 1B valuation?
Really surprised for that one.

~~~
lominming
It was just my personal attempt to highlight potential companies that may grow
to a billion down the road. I maybe totally wrong.

------
fedxc
So the key to success is to launch your company exactly 3 month after a
successful one! :)

~~~
pranavk
ha ha ha !!!

------
recursive
I've never been to quora before today. I've always understood it to be a
general purpose Q&A site. Given all the chatter in this thread about it, I
decided to go there to see what it's about.

I found this page for navigating the subject material:
<https://www.quora.com/directory/>

Is it just me, or is this a rather opaque view of the content? For example,
the "B" section for topics doesn't have "bicycles", but it does have "Bizplay
- Black Magic Design". I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

------
macspoofing
I don't know about some of those "billion dollar" valuations. But point taken,
US is able to churn out very successful tech companies. We're doing something
right.

------
gtr32x
Since you started in 1998, you should add in VMware as well.

------
andycroll
Github?

~~~
lominming
Can't believe I missed that. Added!

------
supersaiyan
Relative to how many funded?

~~~
Matt_Mickiewicz
3673 companies in the US raised VC money in 2011:

[http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/19/vc-investing-
soars-22-perce...](http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/19/vc-investing-
soars-22-percent-to-28-4b-in-2011-internet-sector-reaches-highest-levels-in-a-
decade/)

997 of these where Internet companies.

------
mochizuki
Looking at this and thinking about how many companies created each year that
are worth even a million dollars that aren't close to being on this, that must
be an optimistic number.

With a more intricate list this could provide some neat data. Most successful
time of year to start your company, synchronous business tactics used by those
companies, I'm sure there's more.

------
MojoJolo
Wow. Every 3 months! I was thinking what 2011 and 2012 companies might be
included in that list in the future?

Also, I noticed that most if not all of these companies are Silicon Valley
startups. Maybe the frequency of billion dollar companies will increase if the
list includes companies world wide.

~~~
lominming
That's the point of the list! It is really hard to predict now. We will know
who will make it to the list in a couple of years.

~~~
MojoJolo
I'm excited to know those companies. I hope you update those list in the
future!

------
curiousdannii
Would love to see this paired with a similar list showing operating profit.

Or to put it another way, how many billion dollar software companies are there
whose value hasn't been created substantially by the markets alone?

~~~
netcan
Think of this as a list of companies that investors or acquirers are/were
willing to pay $1b+ for.

If you want companies that have justified their valuation based on past
profits, you will need to go to older dates.

eg 1998: OpenTable, Google, Rackspace, PayPal.

------
rshlo
Great and inspiring list. But I think there should be a difference between
companies that crossed the $1B worth in the open stock market, and companies
that got this value by external purchase.

------
itry
Does the same number of billion dollar companies die every 3 months?

------
panacea
I just checked. I've been given cookies by most of those companies.

------
maxplanck
It feels like this list is somewhat invalid, given the fact the all companies
values are being measured at different points during their lives.

------
wikwocket
This certainly interesting, but also interesting would be a dash of
perspective: How many companies (in total) are founded every 3 months?

~~~
erichocean
600,000 companies are founded each month in the US.

------
josefresco
Would love to see the median value of said companies now. 2002 might have been
the only sane year.

------
jobigoud
Hmm, where are the porn companies ?

~~~
olalonde
There is no porn company worth more than a billion dollars.

~~~
jQueryIsAwesome
And yet they are a safer bet compared to your usual Startup. The demand will
exist forever and the revenue model is pretty obvious (adult ads/products).

------
kirillzubovsky
So glad to see Scoutie.com made it on the list :) Thanks for putting it
together. Encouraging!

------
wolfparade
homeaway is a publicly traded company. no need for an asterix. ticker: AWAY

------
tcgv
It would be nice to know how much those companies are worth today.

------
adjohn
nicira?

~~~
ronyeh
Yup, $1.26B. Founded in 2007.

Seems like the author missed a couple... so maybe Ron Conway was right after
all. :-)

~~~
lominming
Added!

------
jQueryIsAwesome
Funny to think that based on those numbers Google could buy them all and still
keep around 54 B.

~~~
btilly
And yet, if Google did so it would destroy the value that they have, and would
lose loads of money on the transaction.

------
yakshay
Or a company is estimated at a billion every 3 months. How many billion dollar
software companies does we really have?

