Partners at VC funds are employed (funded) by limited partners (LPs). LPs are typically institutional cash and tend to be conservative. A26Z's LPs and potential LPs would not be pleased if they saw a video of Ben giving a talk wearing his "No Bitch Ass Ness" t-shirt.
Not so much. Have you read many of Ben's Blog articles or spent much time with Ben in person? If you had, a "No Bitch Ass Ness" t-shirt would be considered entirely appropriate dress for Ben. My guess is that he just instinctively is conservative about cameras, and being recorded. Probably the result of all the discovery he's gone through over the years as an executive and CEO at various companies.
Oh god damn it. CouchSurfing.org is absolutely going to be ruined by taking VC money.
It existed for years as a totally free volunteer based non-profit. The site was kinda crappy and was sometimes slow, but it just worked. The important things were the community and its network effects.
Now these VCs will be looking for their huge exit and they'll eventually start fucking with the site (see: Quora). What a shame.
I agree. I was heavily involved in couchsurfing a few years back (sadly circumstances haven't let me do more than meet up occasionally now) and anything that was ever organised was done by volunteers and the site was run through donations. It was 100% about the community and about the cultural exchange and it was fantastic in every way - some of my best experiences and I made a few really good friends through it too (hell, just last week, a uni friend of mine got married to a girl he met through couchsurfing).
While having VC's run it into the ground won't destroy the community that's already built around couchsurfing (who don't completely rely on the site but on their own personal network), it will certainly make it dificult for new people to join in and take part and that would be a terrible shame. I hope that the VC's stay on the side line and don't meddle with it too much...
I'm heartbroken by this news. It's only a matter of time before what was a beautiful and whimsical community becomes like every other VC-backed money-grubbing site.
have made at least $200,000 each year for the last two years (or $300,000 together with his or her spouse if married) and have the expectation to make the same amount this year."[1] This rule came into effect in 1933 by way of the Securities Act of 1933.[citation needed]
It's different if you're actively involved in the business, vs. soliciting people for investment. It's fine for someone who makes $25k/yr as your security guard, who inherits $50k and doesn't know what to do with it, to buy an extra $5k of equity if he wants. (this is not legal advice, I am not a lawyer)
It's different if you're actively involved in the business, vs. soliciting people for investment. It's fine for someone who makes $25k/yr as your security guard, who inherits $50k and doesn't know what to do with it, to buy an extra $5k of equity if he wants.
Just doesn't seem right. When did I authorize that? If I'm only receiving UPS packages (where the sender has already paid UPS) why does my own creditworthiness matter?
I don't think it's credit worthiness as much as just verifying your identity by asking deeply personal questions about stuff they wouldn't otherwise know. How would UPS really know if the address you provided is right? They're leaning on credit companies who make a business on keeping super accurate records of our personal lives.
Wow. I don't like this comment at all. I have been following Patrick's online participation when there was no Hacker News and all geeks (including Patrick) used to hang out at Business of Software forum (at JOS). I can definitely say that he genuinely likes to share his knowledge and help others out. I really don't think he is getting any BCC or AR customers through his participation in these forums.
I have a question. Why is the title of your http://patrickambron.brandyourself.com/ brandyourself page "Patrick Ambron, Internet"? Specifically, why ", Internet"?
When we first created the profiles, we wanted to optimize for your industry as well. We didn't want people putting in anything so at first we just used the industries used by the US Labor Dept (LinkedIn does the same). Now we allow you to manually add your profession too, but I just kept mine as "Internet" because it seemed the closest.
>The signups from foreign publications were pretty bad. They signed up for free at high rates, but they just don't pay (.5%). Not entirely sure why, but until we figure it out, we put people from those places on a wait list
Do you have international friendly payment methods? Regionally tiered pricing? And what do you mean by, "we put people from those places on a wait list"?
Right now we use braintree to process payments. They accept all major credit cards, in all countries. It keeps it simple on our end, but if someone in, say Brazil, doesn't use a major credit card, then we can't accept their payment.
It's quite possible that in many countries, it's a small percentage of people who use cc. Anybody know any specific info or data on this?
What do you mean by regionally tiered pricing? Right now all pricing is in USD which could be another reason for the drop off. Does anybody have experience with this type of thing?
PS-certain countries are put on an invite list so they can't sign up right now. It tells them to sign up to get on the waiting list
Partners at VC funds are employed (funded) by limited partners (LPs). LPs are typically institutional cash and tend to be conservative. A26Z's LPs and potential LPs would not be pleased if they saw a video of Ben giving a talk wearing his "No Bitch Ass Ness" t-shirt.