The 2005 email that spawned Picnik, Google's latest buy

http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2010/03/looking_back_the_email_that_spawned_picnik_googles_latest_buy.html

by cwan • 16 years ago

105 13 16 years ago

ambition2• 16 years ago

I would love to see posts like this from other companies, since I'm very interested in how people decide on what to build for their startups.

benologist• 16 years ago

Do a "Ask HN: Where did your startup come from". I bet there'd be some cool answers.

ambition2• 16 years ago

It is here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1164338

dougmccune2• 16 years ago

My favorite quote, given the recent debates over Flash vs Canvas:

We’re at the intersection of demand (mass use of online photos) and capability (Flash 8 supports the first level of functionality we need). Flash 8.5/9 will take us to the next level. If Canvas becomes widespread and is hardware accelerated we can move to that. If WPF becomes widespread we can move to that and boost our functionality/performance even further.

That was 5 years ago. Not trying to start a flamewar, but I just want to point out the enabling capability that Flash brought (and still provides 5 years later).

illumin82• 16 years ago

It's important to note that the product was not important. It could have been Flash or HTML5 or Fooware. What the founders saw was an intersection between demand and capability, and built a business to exploit that availability gap.

dougmccune2• 16 years ago

I'd argue with this assertion. I think what you meant to say was that the technology choice wasn't important. The product was obviously important, since without the product there is no company, nothing for anyone to acquire etc.

But I agree in an extremely hypothetical way that the technology choice is unimportant, assuming you can make the same competitive product with a number of technologies. In this case though, especially back in 2005, you simply can't argue that they could have made that product with anything else (apart from desktop software, which is a totally different product space). They were clearly aware of their technology choices, were keeping tracking of the latest and greatest, and chose the only one that was technically feasible for the product they wanted to create.

hockeybias• 16 years ago

Thank you!

MicahWedemeyer• 16 years ago

6. add features and customers forever and rake in the dough

Even though they eventually sold to Google, the initial plan including raking in the dough. I think that's an excellent lesson here: Hope for a massive buyout, but plan to make money.

raghus• 16 years ago

Would love to hear pg's thoughts on how well the contents of this email would do as a YC application

chintan• 16 years ago

Future Founder # 1: Yo dude, I've this totally cool idea.

Future Founder # 2: How about we name it CutePuppy.

Future Founder # 1: Check if CutePuppy.com is available

I can bet this conversation theme has started 80% of new web-two-point-oh startups.

kschua• 16 years ago

Thanks for the really great link! Loved the way the gave the clear and concise approach beginning with "The Market"

Most important part that is often glossed over by entrepreneurs is "GETTING THERE"

The 2005 email that spawned Picnik, Google's latest buy

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