This For That

http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2014/01/this-for-that.html

by btrautsc • 12 years ago

14 6 12 years ago

pg• 12 years ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6866938

_xhok2• 12 years ago

He's talking about startups that try to be x for y for no reason besides that x and y are in fashion. His two counterexamples support your point.

tptacek• 12 years ago

No he's not. He doesn't talk about that subset of the "this for thats" until the last graf of the article. The balance of the article is spent explaining the concept of "this for that", suggesting that "this for thats" have a harder time getting funded, and acknowledging that several USV investments can easily be described as "this for thats".

I found the article hard to follow, not least because it's hard to find a startup that can't be described as "this for that". Every startup is "for" something. And very few startups are sui generis.

m52go• 12 years ago

The something of somewhere is the nothing of nowhere - Peter Thiel

bryanlarsen• 12 years ago

If "this for that" is the raison d'etre of the startup, that's a red flag.

Most of the time it's just the best way of describing a startup in 3 words or so. Our startup, http://clara.io/, is "google docs for 3D animation". It's not a great explanation of what we do or why, but it's about as good as you can get in a very short sentence.

This For That

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