
Introducing Fowndr: A private network for startup founders (invites) - stulogy
http://stugreen.com/blog/2011/03/introducing-fowndr
======
cletus
I hope, for your sakes, this isn't your business but just a side project.
There are several reasons why I say this:

1\. The name "fowndr" makes you look cheap. Why? Because the domain name was
no doubt unregistered. Basically it looks like you went looking for a domain
name that you could get for $10 for a year;

2\. What defines a founder? As HN bears witness, anyone with a weekend to
spare on a pet project can (and do) declare themselves a founder, some
rightly, many not. But with the barrier to entry for starting an Internet
business being practically zero, "founder" doesn't really mean all that much.

3\. What value proposition are you providing founders? YC provides benefit by
the connections, the social proofing and mentoring of PG & co and the brand,
which has come to mean quite a lot. Quora seems to be the place to go for the
Valley insiders to talk to each other.

The motivation behind invite-only seems to be to create this air of
exclusivity, like a private club. Creating that pedigree such that people will
want to be a part of your exclusive club and derive some benefit from it is
incredibly difficult.

At this point I think it would take some serious names on it or behind it or
some other similar form of momentum, which I just don't see.

~~~
raganwald
_The name "fowndr" makes you look cheap. Why? Because the domain name was no
doubt unregistered. Basically it looks like you went looking for a domain name
that you could get for $10 for a year;_

This reminds me of the old argument that you need to wear a suit when demo-ing
your app. If you show up in khakis and a polo shirt, people might think you're
too cheap to buy a suit. Sure, we know that the suit has nothing to do with
your app or your business, but still we care about it. It's a little like
being a peacock. No, these feathers don't help me catch more food, but
carrying them around must prove that I'm the Alpha cock.

Interesting in a way: It's easier and cheaper than ever to launch new
businesses, so now that simply getting the code running no longer costs
$1,000,000, we ask founders to spend their money on something else just to
prove that they're spending money!

~~~
ScottWhigham
"This reminds me of the old argument that you need to wear a suit when demo-
ing your app. If you show up in khakis and a polo shirt, people might think
you're too cheap to buy a suit."

Weird analogy - I don't see it. I don't know anyone who would think that way
in 2011, particularly if we're talking about founders, and double-particularly
if we're talking about founders making a pitch.

I agree that "fowndr" is goofy but, to me, it's goofy in a way that might
appeal to 15 and 16yos. Not my thing but I don't think it's meant to be so no
problem.

~~~
raganwald
I'm not saying you should pitch in a suit today, but I am saying that picking
a domain name on the basis of projecting that you spent money on it _today_ is
like wearing a suit _used to be_. That's why I called it an old argument. I'm
also not saying that this would be a bad choice. There has been much talk of
someone spending $350,000 on a domain name, and one of the interesting
arguments in favour was that the domain could easily be resold if necessary.
You can't do that with a suit.

------
TamDenholm
Got to say, i'm aware of Stu and followed one of his earlier startups,
projectbubble, he did really well with it and developed it by listening to the
users. I expect Fowndr to be successful as well.

------
bmcmanus
Honest question -- what's the real utility of a founder network like this
above, say, actively participating on HN regularly?

Forrst is so useful because it's specialized. I don't see that (yet) here.

~~~
raganwald
HN is growing, and with growth comes a dilution of focus. Inevitably there
will be subsets of the community who feel their needs aren't being met on HN.

For example, if HN has 99 employees for every one founder, what do you think
will happen if you try to discuss how to set up options and vesting such that
in a liquidity event, the employees are still bound to the company and won't
quit when they discover they have new bosses?

You aren't going to get the same conversation as if you just discuss the
question with other founders. I'm not saying the HN discussion will be less
valuable, but can we agree that some conversations will be different?

~~~
bmcmanus
"some conversations will be different?"

...and that's worth building an entirely new product and trying to move select
people from HN to it?

~~~
raganwald
I have no idea if it's "worth it." What you see is the sweat of Stu's brow,
not mine. All I can say is this: If you celebrate the idea of founding things,
then you celebrate the idea of building entirely new things and finding out if
it's worth it, and dealing with people who complain that the old thing is good
enough.

Also, I could be wrong about this, but I don't see people moving to it any
more than people moved from HN to Facebook or vice versa. Different
communities for different purposes.

------
mpclark
Fowndr: Putting the 'own' into 'founder'? ;)

Good luck, anyway.

------
asanwal
The challenge with a group for startup founders is that it's a very
heterogeneous group, and there is little to "qualify" members (I don't think
invites will cut it)

On the other hand, something like Forrst for developers and designers is for a
group that is more likely to have some more commonality which is useful in
creating a community.

One thought is to do this vertically. So for me as an example, I'd love to
connect with founders of B2B information services. Yes, that maybe too niche,
but I have a lot more in common with those founders than a mobile gaming
company founder.

Look forward to seeing how this evolves. Good luck.

------
natch
Building a tool that just enables further development of cliques seems not so
great. Of course it's great for you, since you get to be in on all the
cliques, one way or another, if not by membership, by having a birds-eye view
of all the data. Personally cliques rub me the wrong way, not just because of
jealousy, but also because open exchange with others outside your comfort zone
leads to more opportunities.

~~~
petercooper
It's only a problem when people confine themselves to their cliques. I'm in a
few invite-only communities online but I don't define myself by my membership
and I take part in so many _other_ communities that I get the bigger picture
and the "open exchange" you mention too. You really can have the best of both
worlds.

Some things benefit from being slightly locked down. For example, I'm a member
of a paid marketing and SEO forum where people share ideas, tips, and
observations that often takes months to hit the blogs (or never at all). While
anyone can join, merely having that "curtain" encourages people to say and
share things that they don't want coming up in Google.

------
weego
It's all well and good having people invite people they know, but isn't the
hardest part of starting out the problem of not knowing people? Are people
starting out not your target group? If so, will active founders who are
running their business really share that much interesting chatter rather than
just links a la HN?

Also if like-minded people invite like-minded people isn't there a massive
groupthink effect?

~~~
stulogy
I would imagine that founders already in the network would want to encourage
young, new and ambitious founders by inviting them in to the network. There
they would be able to share their startup with the community and learn a lot
in the process.

~~~
natch
We already have HN for that, though it's less exclusive and cliquey, and, dare
I say it, less ageist than what you are suggesting.

------
Dramatize
Could be interesting. Looking forward to seeing it when it's live.

------
bvi
Great job on the design (based on the screenshot). It looks very elegant.

How are you going to differentiate between a "startup" and a "weekend
project"?

~~~
stulogy
Thanks. Well, I guess that will be up to the people handing out invites - it
will be up to the community to decide 'who gets in', but the fundamental
requirements would be that they are founders or co-founders of a Startup that
is less than 3 years old and is actively committed to building a business.
Thoughts welcome.

~~~
malandrew
I would err on the side of vigilance first like Forrst did.

It's easier to let it be more open then to try to close it up.

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aysar
I think it has potential, though not surprisingly quite a few sites have
recently launched with similar objectives.

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baberuth
8:04am EST:

Slight problem...

Something is wrong with the database, please bear with us.

Unable to connect to your database server using the provided settings.

~~~
stulogy
Where are you getting this message? I'm not seeing it.

~~~
baberuth
stu, i got it when trying to click through the HN link.

8:07am: tried it again because i saw your response and it worked. the upside:
nice tight 3 min window to check your apache logs?

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jsavimbi
I think I saw this on Quora the other day.

