

The 2005 email that spawned Picnik, Google's latest buy - cwan
http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2010/03/looking_back_the_email_that_spawned_picnik_googles_latest_buy.html

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dougmccune
My favorite quote, given the recent debates over Flash vs Canvas:

 _We’re at the intersection of demand (mass use of online photos) and
capability (Flash 8 supports the first level of functionality we need). Flash
8.5/9 will take us to the next level. If Canvas becomes widespread and is
hardware accelerated we can move to that. If WPF becomes widespread we can
move to that and boost our functionality/performance even further._

That was 5 years ago. Not trying to start a flamewar, but I just want to point
out the enabling capability that Flash brought (and still provides 5 years
later).

~~~
illumin8
It's important to note that the product was not important. It could have been
Flash or HTML5 or Fooware. What the founders saw was an intersection between
demand and capability, and built a business to exploit that availability gap.

~~~
dougmccune
I'd argue with this assertion. I think what you meant to say was that the
_technology_ choice wasn't important. The product was obviously important,
since without the product there is no company, nothing for anyone to acquire
etc.

But I agree in an extremely hypothetical way that the technology choice is
unimportant, assuming you can make the same competitive product with a number
of technologies. In this case though, especially back in 2005, you simply
can't argue that they could have made that product with anything else (apart
from desktop software, which is a totally different product space). They were
clearly aware of their technology choices, were keeping tracking of the latest
and greatest, and chose the only one that was technically feasible for the
product they wanted to create.

~~~
somebear
I don't think illumin8 is trying to argue that it could have been done with
anything else at that exact point in time, just that they identified an
opportunity and the technology that could make that happen. That the
technology was flash, is in this instance mere coincidence.

That said, I agree that flash has been an enabler for many advances on the
web. Unfortunately, the flash plugins just seem to be bogged down more and
more, and don't seem to evolve very effectively.

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MicahWedemeyer
_6\. add features and customers forever and rake in the dough_

Even though they eventually sold to Google, the initial plan including _raking
in the dough_. I think that's an excellent lesson here: Hope for a massive
buyout, but plan to make money.

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raghus
Would love to hear pg's thoughts on how well the contents of this email would
do as a YC application

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ambition
I would love to see posts like this from other companies, since I'm very
interested in how people decide on what to build for their startups.

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benologist
Do a "Ask HN: Where did your startup come from". I bet there'd be some cool
answers.

~~~
ambition
It is here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1164338>

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chintan
Future Founder # 1: Yo dude, I've this totally cool idea.

Future Founder # 2: How about we name it CutePuppy.

Future Founder # 1: Check if CutePuppy.com is available

I can bet this conversation theme has started 80% of new web-two-point-oh
startups.

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kschua
Thanks for the really great link! Loved the way the gave the clear and concise
approach beginning with "The Market"

Most important part that is often glossed over by entrepreneurs is "GETTING
THERE"

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hockeybias
Thank you!

