
The Little Secret of Web Startups - vaksel
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/30/the-little-secret-of-web-startups/
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apsurd
This post offers some informative insights. I am reminded to at least consider
proactively filtering content, etc.

I thank the author for his contributions toward helping other startups.

With that said, this tastes a little sour to me. He is saying "other
businesses should be doing what we did". With all do respect, what you did got
you to where you are. He is saying his business was honest by not skewing user
numbers and engagement. Which is also implying that if they did, they might
have secured more investment, or raised their ad rates.

The problem with Sampa is that their target market has fundamentally low
market value. Share family photos online?

Aren't there about 44340902342034 services offering something of the sort?

Lastly, I'm surprised to read that Sampa had an advertising based model. I
guess that shines some light on why they chose the market that they did. I
mistakenly assumed any website creation system would be SAAS. Perhaps if Sampa
would have stuck with saas, they would have switched to a new, more lucrative
target market.

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redorb
If I was a investor in this startup (1.31mm raised so far)I would be pissed
that my failed investments's founder is airing out laundry for money..

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pedalpete
The start-up is shutting down, so it isn't 1.31 million so far, it's 1.31
million. And it isn't as if he is saying anything about the investors, or any
secret information being released. He's trying to explain why the start-up
failed in order to help others.

At the same time, the title 'the little secret' seems very misleading, unless
I'm missing something.

Is there one statement in particular that struck you as offensive or 'dirty
laundry'ish?

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kristianp
According to <http://www.statbrain.com/www.sampa.com/> they get 10,203 visits
per day. This is an estimate, but it doesn't sound like a dead website to me.

~~~
treo
The estimate isn't very good, my old site that gets about 300 visits a week is
estimated to have about 3800 visits per day. Another one that gets about 100k
visits daily is estimated to have about 50k visits. So I wouldn't trust their
estimates that much.

