
Ask PG: Is RFS3 "Things built on Twitter" still sensible to prioritise? - sjtgraham
Given Twitter's capricious enforcement of its API Rules of the Road, their willingness to allegedly crib features from apps in their ecosystem, and increasingly misaligned incentives vis-a-vis 3rd party developers and users, how long is it before this RFS becomes inordinately risky for YC to specifically solicit?
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pg
It certainly doesn't seem as promising a territory as it used to. Not so much
because it's more dangerous as because Twitter hasn't turned out to be a
"platform" in the same sense as say iOS has.

~~~
donall
Does the same apply to Facebook? And if not, is it likely to within the next
12 months?

It seems like a lot of developers/startups put their eggs in the FB basket. I
wonder if, from a funding perspective, that behaviour would set off alarm
bells today?

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pg
Facebook seems somewhere between Twitter and iOS.

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dave1619
Would you consider iOS and Android similar in terms of risk and developer
potential?

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pg
To most startups we fund, iOS is way more important. Nearly all build for iOS
first and then maybe one day port to Android. There are a few exceptions like
Kyte (<http://kytephone.com>) who use Android to do things you can't do on
iOS. And of course Apportable (<http://apportable.com>) has been very
successful auto-porting iOS apps to Android.

~~~
w1ntermute
> Nearly all build for iOS first and then maybe one day port to Android.

It's unfortunate that this persists even though Android now has twice the
smartphone marketshare iOS has. It doesn't seem like things will be changing
any time soon either.

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wheels
And China has more than twice as many internet users as the United States.
However, I'm pretty sure the American users spend more money per capita and
that it's not an accident that most YC startups target them first.

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jarek
I'd argue the fact YC is an American incubator also has a lot to do with who
YC companies target. A lot of internet VC-backed startups don't particularly
depend on their users spending money.

~~~
wheels
My point was (fairly obviously) an analogy. However, almost all startups have
one of two business models: either they sell things to their customers, or
they sell advertising space to people who want to sell things to their
customers. Both require customers who spend money.

~~~
graue
Remember, if you're selling ad space, the advertiser is the customer. The user
is the product. Nitpicky, but important. Your explanation works if you replace
"customers" with "users".

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jazzychad
My how things have changed so quickly. I applied to YC for W10 with RFS3, got
in, quickly abandoned the idea since the market didn't seem big enough, did
something else (Notifo) on mobile platforms which seemed more promising,
watched Twitter quickly destroy it's 3rd party ecosystem, decided never to
build on top of Twitter again. All within about 18 months.

~~~
daemon13
Is open sourcing Notifo still in your plans?

I recall that you mentioned that quite some time ago.

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gduplessy
See @pg's answer here <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2341567>

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jroes
There's actually a generally interesting question here:

When is an RFS considered "closed?"

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arihant
If one cannot answer this question themselves, it's most certainly closed for
them.

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robinwarren
I think there is still a lot of potential in twitter as a platform,
specifically for the data they hold. There is a lot of information shared on
twitter which previously didn't exist on the internet. It would be shared by
people chatting to each other, maybe msning colleagues or emailing links to
friends etc. That information suddenly being available is what I think is
interesting, and still worthwhile building on.

Back in the day, building a twitter client may have seemed reasonable but
ultimately turned out to to be 'snatching coins from in front of a
steamroller'. I think if you're building something which is a replacement or
improvement on the twitter browser UI you're clearly taking a risk. I don't
know that other uses of the data they hold are such a risk. Obviously I could
be wrong but for me it's at least on the opposite end of the risk spectrum
from twitter clients.

[disclosure, my current side project uses twitter data. It's in my profile if
you want a look]

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seancallahan
Twitter is more a part of a distribution strategy than a platform to build an
entire business off of <http://t.co/r6wdLpMc> $ZNGA $FB

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dustyreagan
Pardon my ignorance, but what is RFS short for?

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narsil
Request for Startups. See <http://ycombinator.com/rfs.html>

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riffic
What are your thoughts as to OStatus?

