

Rejection email from Y Combinator - iamjoday

Hi Friends,<p>I&#x27;ve just received rejection email from Ycombinator... :( Though I realize, how competitive it gets to get in, its not the start one expect for their product or idea...<p>I would appreciate if fellow community members can help point out ares of improvement in my product or idea,<p>http:&#x2F;&#x2F;joday.com<p>Thanks for your time! I really appreciate it!<p>Nish
Founder, Joday.com
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alexobenauer
Honest feedback: I don't see what problem this is solving; I don't see a real
problem that I can identify with, or at least not one worth solving. That
said, I'm one person, and I may be in the minority for not having a problem
this solves.

When embarking on a new product idea, I pitch the problem to all kinds of
different people first, before I even pitch my proposed solution. This allows
me to see if the problem I think exists resonates with others, how people
think about the problem, and whether or not it's something they actually care
about. This sets the best foundation for proposing a solution and how to go
about pitching or selling it to people.

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iamjoday
Thanks @alexobenauer I appreciate.

Your point about user sessions is absolutely right and I completely agree with
you. Solution should be made for a problem and one should not expect solution
to fit into a problem somehow.

My challenge is solving a problem for future presents a paradox, future is
unknown with nothing to compare to... it becomes even more challenging when
present is working just fine....

here is what I wanted to solve...

Entertainment industry is going thru a tectonic shift. For the first time in
history, creating(smart phones), hosting(Youtube, Dailymotion) and
distributing(Social media, Youtube) content is never so easy, cheap or
accessible to everyone.

We are going thru a Content Democratization (Content Spring). New content is
created every second, new stars are born everyday. According to Youtube, 100
hours of videos are uploaded to YouTube every minute.

But, just as any democracy, Content Democratization is bringing chaos to video
watching experience. How would you find entertainment you really want to
watch? How would you personalized your video watching experience?

That's where Joday comes in. Joday cancels all the noise and delivers high
quality entertainment relevant to YOU (by curating, organizing for easy access
by channels etc and by personalizing to recommend new content based on your
taste)

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trcollinson
I second most of the comments here so far. It seems you have a solution in
search of a problem. I spend a lot of my time working for or starting
companies that deal with media aggregation and I don't understand what you are
solving. But I am willing to give you a few thoughts from a business and
investment perspective as well.

First off, you are a single founder. This isn't always a problem. Though,
historically, it is for YCombinator. Founding a company, particularly one
which wants to get into a very saturated media aggregation market is not easy.
It requires a lot of understanding; business, finance, legal, marketing,
sales, and technical. Even if you could bring all of those things to the
table, it is unlikely you can juggle that many balls by yourself.

Next, I don't see a clear path to monetization. The answer might of course be
"We will gain a large user base and then we will sell to a large media company
who wants those users". Which large media company would that be? YouTube,
Vimeo, Netflix, Hulu, Facebook, or one of the other giants of the social media
industry that can afford to buy a company? They aren't going to be interested
because honestly, you'll be selling them back their own users base.

Another option for monetization might be "We are going to build up this
brilliant machine learning algorithm, prove out the concept, and sell that to
a large media company." Not a bad plan, but remember these companies have the
means and reputation to hire small armies of algorithm writers. Are you
differentiated enough to get in and show you can beat those small armies?

I'll mention one more way you might be thinking of monetizing. "We'll sell
advertising space!" My favorite of all. If you have a user base large enough
this can do very well. However, remember, you are showing media that is hosted
by other companies who make their money by advertising around other peoples
uploaded media. Those companies are not going to be keen to allow you to steal
away their advertising dollars.

I could talk about your site design and the professionalism in your
presentation, which is lacking. However, I am not trying to discourage you. If
you are interested in machine learning (which is what comes out from your
entire site), you should continue in that market. There is a TON of space
there for people to do very well. I suggest you not get stuck on your first
idea. Pivot. Find some good friends who are also interested in using machine
learning to solve a problem with skills that complement yours, and work
together. Then find a problem that has some clear path to monetization and in
which you are passionate and go for it. You have the ambition and you will be
successful. Don't give up!

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iamnish
HN thinks I am bot so replying as different user... :(

~~~
iamnish
Thanks trcollinson, for your detail reply. Very few good wishers like you
spends time to explain or suggest on someone Else's mistake. I really
appreciate your time.

Now, 1\. Single Founder: I guess, I have to work on it. The idea and prototype
was build as a side project thus no other heads... nevertheless, its one of my
top priority to get it going....

2\. How to Monetize: Ads is easiest but as you said its challenging. Also, as
I have mention earlier I am here to complement not compete with big guys.
having said that, this is my thinking....

Though like any consumer web company, I would need a large use base (~1M) but
here are my thought for it,

\- Subscription to watch premium content. \- Feature or Promotional or Ad.
Videos \- Targeted Video Distribution (revenue share) Similar to youtube ads
but for videos, we have rich data about user likeness thus can facilitate
target video distribution. Content creator can distribute paid content to
their target audience based on our data. I called it, CPV : Cost per 1k Video
Views.

3\. Machine Learning and getting like minded people together... I'm on it.
would love to get more inputs from you... i'm at, nish at joday

Thanks again! really appreciate your comments!

\--Nish

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ishener
I'm just not going to sign up and watch videos from your site. It's just not
going to happen. Sorry...

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iamjoday
I understand. Is it because its so bad? or its not useful?

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sid05
Commenter might be implying he doesn't want to sign up to just try it...

The copy on your page implies you need to signup, even though you have a login
as "guest" feature.

Maybe change the copy to something to just, "Check It Out Now"

~~~
iamjoday
worth trying.. will try out! thanks!

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iamnish
I would like to thanks all the HN members, taking time to comment on this
thread.... you guys are awesome!

I can only improve my product with your suggestions....

please keep it coming.... feel free to directly reach me at, nish at joday

Nish.

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andrewchambers
I think youtube itself is trying to do this. I don't think you can compete
with that. Even if you gained traction, wouldn't they just block your ip
addresses and prevent you from embedding video?

~~~
iamjoday
I have always thought of complementing Youtube rather than competing with
them.

Youtube is platform and a really good one... allowing the rise of new age
content... brining content democratization/revolution...

whereas Joday has curated content from Youtube(for now) and other sources...
organized for easy access by channels etc. and further more personalize it
according to user taste...

It would be really sad if youtube decides to blocks video embedding as
majority of youtube videos are watched by embedding.

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gholevas
just pointing out that you should check your spelling for the word "relevant"
on your site

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catmanjan
Isn't this just YouTube without hosting? Why would I use this?

~~~
iamjoday
Well according to recent statistics, "100 hours of videos are uploaded to
youtube every minute."

my goal is to make it easy for you to discover videos from youtube and other
sources on internet...

consider it, "Netflix for Youtube Videos"

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Jeremy1026
Anytime someone describes something as "X of/for Y", I go check out Y. I'd
work on your pitch.

~~~
iamjoday
Sure. But as a product or idea, do you see a need for it.

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Jeremy1026
Not really. I subscribe to multiple channels on YouTube, which has provided
plenty of extra subscriptions based on the home page "What to watch" and the
sidebar related videos.

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nyddle
Aren't youtube suggestions good enough?

