
Samuel Colt's “YC app” for the Summer 1851 batch - blueintegral
http://www.hscott.net/ycapp.html?
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Devthrowaway80
I don't see this being a viable product.

1) For a machine shop owner, you can already build such a "multi-shot gun"
yourself quite trivially. I have a setup in my barn where I can spot-weld
seven rifles together along the length of the barrel. I then use a bunch of
loops of baling wire that run from the triggers to the end of the stock so
that I can fire the correct rifle without any awkwardness.

I haven't tried this with pistols but the general approach should be the same.

2) My system also has the benefit of me not being tied to one company's
proprietary standard of "interchangeable" parts. If you buy a Colt, you're
stuck buying Colt parts forever. With my system, I can weld together any guns
I want.

3) It does not seem very "viral".

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hedgew
Sounds neat, but..

\- How are you going to scale production to meet demands? Does not look like
you could reach the kind of growth YC wants. \- Who is this guy and why should
I trust his guns? How do I tell how many bullets I have left? \- Seems like
rearming would be a pain! Reloading just one chamber is already difficult.

~~~
w1ntermute
"I worry, I worry."

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tlb
That's a well-written app. It clearly explains what they're doing, why it's
important, and why they're the right team to execute on it.

~~~
PhantomGremlin
So is it the first "killer app"?

I've previously heard something like:

    
    
       God made men
       Sam Colt made them equal
    

But Colt itself says[1]:

    
    
       Abe Lincoln may have freed all men,
       but Sam Colt made them equal
    

[1]
[http://www.colt.com/Company/History.aspx](http://www.colt.com/Company/History.aspx)

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johngalt
Seems like the barrel is a single point of failure. How is this better than
simply carrying more than one pistol? Allowing complete fail-over in case of a
malfunction.

Pretty design, but the proprietary projectiles breaks compatibility with
existing arms.

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mcguire
How do these guys think they're going to avoid gang-firing the whole cylinder
and blowing up the pistol?

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chug2k
Pretty funny, but I've been working on this post about the same thing for the
Wright Brothers:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9291316](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9291316).
Great minds think alike. Maybe if we could put some guns on a plane...

~~~
sparkzilla
Good read. BTW, the HN link says 1802 instead of 1902.

~~~
chug2k
Argh. I wish I could fix it. Thanks for the heads up, though.

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sophacles
Rejected, doesn't know the market:

    
    
        It's much safer and more reliable than flintlock, which is what people are using now.
    

In the enterprise of war, we use percussion caps these days.

~~~
philwelch
Percussion caps were only invented in the early 1800s and weren't widespread
until the 1830's, so this is not as wrong as it sounds. Flintlocks were still
widespread when the Colt revolver was invented.

~~~
sophacles
Fair enough, but the military (an similar orgs, e.g. texas rangers) were using
percussion mostly by then right? The big customers they list are the military.

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mirimir
Percussion cap revolvers are very prone to dangerous cross firing in the
cylinder. Mr. Colt should have emphasized that.

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prjw
Funny idea. Are there more examples of fictional YC applications of historical
or modern companies?

~~~
steakejjs
I think it would be hilarious to see fictional "failed" historic YC apps,
especially those that made it big in their time.

~~~
tlrobinson
Or even better, real applications from ultimately successful companies that
failed to get into YC.

~~~
jmckib
Buffer's app is one example, but I'd like to see others.
[https://open.bufferapp.com/buffers-y-combinator-
application/](https://open.bufferapp.com/buffers-y-combinator-application/)

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sparkzilla
Someone just showed us an idea like this right before you guys. We don't like
it. What else do you have?

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lucozade
Rejected. Won't move to SV. Takes to long.

Now if someone would only hack the isthmus of Panama...Hmmm

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tdaltonc
I can't believe they didn't mention their big US navy contract! Cartridged
rounds are a big plus at sea!

~~~
mcguire
Colt (and Remington, and other early revolvers) had a muzzle-loaded, cap-lock
design for guns up until after the US Civil War, IIRC. (Also, IIRC, I don't
think paper cartridges were ever a big thing for revolvers. Colt's early guns
removed the cylinder to reload, which meant you could theoretically carry
spare loaded cylinders; Remington guns had a built-in loading lever.) In fact,

" _In 1852 an employee of Colt 's, Rollin White, came up with the idea of
having the revolver cylinder bored through to accept metallic cartridges. He
took this idea to Colt who flatly rejected it and ended up firing White within
a few years.[18] Colt historian RL Wilson has described this as the major
blunder of Sam Colt's professional life.[19] Rollin White left Colt's in
December 1854 and registered a patent on April 3, 1855 in Hartford,
Connecticut, as patent number 12,648: Improvement in Repeating Fire-arms.[20]
On November 17, 1856 White signed an agreement with Smith & Wesson for the
exclusive use of his patent. The contract stipulated that White would be paid
25 cents for every revolver, but that it was up to him to defend his patent
against infringement as opposed to Smith & Wesson.[21]_"

...(from Wikipedia) with the result that patent licensing meant that Colt
couldn't make or convert metallic cartridge guns until well after the Civil
War (IIRC).

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bluerail
Wow, really neat and well executed.

I was thinking of doing an similar product but couldn't get time for it.. All
the best for you guys.

BTW, Are you planning for global reach or targeting only local?

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hrayr
I opened the video link in the background while I read the application. For
the first two minutes I thought the drive in my macbook pro was going bad.

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EGreg
I think they have done a great job doing things that don'f scale. Also they
have a lot of paying customers and traction.

But I am worried that this might be a solo founder type team. We invest in
teams, not just products. You'd be surprised how many times an idea changes
midway through the project, and you will need each other to keep going.

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tdaltonc
Compared this to apps friends have shown me, this is really concise.

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wehadfun
So would they get in?

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Houshalter
Would YC fund weapons?

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angersock
Only if the company is really killing it.

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tehchromic
tough competition this batch

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madaxe_again
Ah, they have revenue and users!? This sounds like a feasible business model.
Rejected.

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tiffanyricks
Hilarious!!! I did not like the application. I am glad it was a joke.

