Z Kombinator

by hassy • 14 years ago

43 22 14 years ago

swapsmagic• 14 years ago

what the ....

Obviously a parody, but it underscores a historical trend of overseas investors pouring money into clones of US companies without any substantial innovation or changes.

One question I'm struggling with... Is a clone a legitimate (abstract) business if the differentiator between clone and U.S. original is the experience working with European / Asian customers and catering to their needs specifically?

alexpenny• 14 years ago

He's making fun of the Samwer brothers, which would mean he probably doesn't think clones are legitimate business.

Aaronontheweb2• 14 years ago

That much is obvious. Not asking him. Asking the HN crowd.

railsjedi2• 14 years ago

Haha, great little parody.

Timing of it may have something to do with our little stunt yesterday: http://ncombinator.com

zinssmeister• 14 years ago

do you regret calling it NCombinator? Seeing as you could have avoided slipping into this clone mindset or does it not really matter to you guys?

railsjedi2• 14 years ago

Doesn't really matter. Our goal was to get some early attention. Once we build the community up we can change the name and turn it into something real.

Right now it's just an idea and the only platform we had to generate the sufficient early interest was a ridiculous name and launch.

Mz2• 14 years ago

With a German American background, I hear that like someone with a strong accent mispronouncing the word "the" as "zee". It adds another dimension of humor for me.

heretohelp• 14 years ago

As a German-American: you mean like "sie"?

Mz2• 14 years ago

Um, not really what I was thinking. To me that sounds less harsh/strong than what I had in mind.

I guess it depends. I am imagining a very harsh accent. Some folks in my family pronounce ich like "ish", others closer to "ick" and then some do a more gutteral sound like you find in loch (a la loch ness monster). So, uh, maybe.

TazeTSchnitzel3• 14 years ago

The sad thing is that the Samwer brothers are real people who actually do this, and they're quite successful at it too: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-02-29/the-germany-...

czzarr2• 14 years ago

why is that sad? Silicon VAlley claims ideas are worthless and execution is everything, until someone actually copies their idea.

TazeTSchnitzel3• 14 years ago

Well, I'm not Silicon Valley. I just don't like the concept of simply copying someone else's idea as a business model, because you're piggybacking on someone else's idea, and it's uncreative.

pan69• 14 years ago

I think there is a difference between copying an idea and improving on an idea.

A good example of this would Google who made a better search engine even though the idea of a search engine wasn't an original idea in it self, they just made a better one. Hence; execution.

jeffool• 14 years ago

I'm surprised they're not revered, given the popularity of the claim that ideas aren't worth anything, and that it's about execution.

gerrit• 14 years ago

I guess the problem for a lot of people is, sometimes the samwers clone the execution too. In some cases even down to typos in the HTML source

jarek• 14 years ago

I don't see it as sad at all. Limiting the target audience is a perfectly legitimate way of starting an MVP business. When they copy the idea, they apply huge amounts of process and local business knowledge (local laws, relationships, etc), which they then sell for profit. Everybody wins.

danvoell• 14 years ago

Where is Z Hacker News?

Eduard• 14 years ago

If YCombinator thought globally, Z Kombinator wouldn't have a chance in the first place ;-)

Z Kombinator

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