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smartwater

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I wouldn't assume that an expert in their field, someone with the expertise to potentially achieve global recognition, would care about a half-assed company not handling their security properly. More responsibility? They probably want less. They don't need or want anymore power than they already achieved with their own mind. That's how introverts roll.

Sweden is good for copyright, but they could extradite you to the US for just about anything else, especially any form of financial crime. And if you're a US citizen, the TLD of your domain name doesn't matter at all. You would have to leave the country and give up your citizenship for it to matter.

My sugguestion is to not end up in prison like the founder of ThePirateBay.

Ideas are a dime a dozen. It's the execution that matters. Show investors traction, growth, or profit — if you can't reach any of those milestones, rinse and repeat until you do — now you're ready to talk to investors, but wait, now you've reached a point where you don't need investors anymore.

I actively avoid entrepreneurs that are looking for an investment as a form of business validation. An entrepreneurs job is to validate ideas, to find something that sticks.

Think about what kind of business would benefit the most from your skillset and experience. Contact them and explain how you could improve one of their projects, services, or products. If you can write well and you know truly know your stuff, people will notice, but you have to put yourself out there and make it as easy as possible for them to say yes. It's a difficult technique to master, but once you do, the world is your oyster.

But I assume that if that is important to someone, I don't see a reason for that person not to be candid about it.

Being candid about something usually isn't the best way to accomplish your goal. If your goal is to make a sale, and you communicate with them in a way that is too different than what they're used to, you simply won't hear back. Forget ever getting a sale if they won't even talk to you. Understanding how people perceive your communications, and using that to your advantage is an important life skill.

It's like meeting someone at the bar. A lot of people wouldn't ask them back to their place right away. But that doesn't necessarily mean being upfront and to the point wouldn't work, it certainly does, all the time. Someone like yourself considers it a positive trait, as do I.

It all comes down to chemistry and expectations. Engineering types generally appreciate candor, a somewhat unique trait, but it's definitely gaining some traction with other groups. I don't think many investors appreciate it, but that doesn't mean a cold email won't work -- but it better be extraordinary.

You threw away a memory foam mattress because of that? Did you consider using sheets or a mattress protector? Did you know that sweat and oils from your skin will do that on any mattress, regardless of the foam or lack of? Do you normally make extreme decisions like this when it comes to your health?

I thought I understood consumers, but now you have me doubting myself. Human behavior is fascinating.

Learning to present your opinion properly is an important skill. It's tough to know what will work or not, even for the most experienced people in Silicon Valley. One time, I thought an idea was garbage and the market oversaturated, their initial launch ended up receiving a ton of press and traction.

Practice with CodeIgniter or Laravel. It won't take long to learn. Once you learn MVC, it's all you will ever use. It helps keep things organized, portable, and efficient.

Don't describe it as if everyone should already know what you're talking about. You're not going to sell anything to anyone that way. And you definitely won't sell a service based on "known templates" and doing what everyone else is doing.

I know exactly what they offer, but you are the one selling right now. You can't just say, "I'm selling what everyone else is selling, wanna give me $30/month?"

What makes you different? Why are you better? What are the benefits? What value does it provide and to who?

In B2B, you could charge $200 a month and it wouldn't make a difference -- it's not their money that they are spending. A lot of little things, such as export to PDF, are much more important. Know your customer and know your product.

Generic value propositions don't give the buyer confidence, it doesn't jump start their imagination, it doesn't do anything for you or them.

You're not being specific enough to even peak my interest. Depending on who you're selling to, the metrics you provide need to make sense to them. An internet marketer might want to know exactly what you're monitoring (Google News, Facebook, Backlinks, Newly Created Pages) but the CEO would need it presented in a different way, in order to provide him with the value you're promising. That way you don't have the marketer trying to interpret data that he himself might not fully understand.

The demons are in the details.

You have to ask the right questions to get the right answers. You shouldn't be asking us, "Would you pay for this?", you should be asking yourself, "Can I convince people to buy this?"

Whether you make any sales is completely up to you and your ability to sell. Businesses buy competitive analysis all the time. Typically after a well articulated value proposition. All the details you left out in this post, the specifics of the service you're providing, is what makes or breaks a deal.

An IP address is light-years from a real-life identity. Without a warrant, there's not a chance of figuring out even the account holders name-- which could be different from the person who actually performed the transaction. It could be a neighbor, a friend, a roommate, anyone else who ever had the wifi password, the possibilities are endless.

Never say never.

Build it and they will come worked for me, although only once out of about 20 attempts. It happened to be exactly what a lot of people needed and every day it grew faster than I could keep up with it. The average user would refer 10 or more friends and most users came back daily. It didn't matter how shitty my website was, they always came back, the value I was providing was that good.

The screenshot on your homepage is blank. It should be filled in to allow users to imagine their own resume in its place. Showing users the placement of unknown elements certainly won't get them to sign up. You show it off under templates, but most won't get that far.

Spend the next year iterating the product into something with a clear value proposition, and you might have a business. Everything you do from this point on will be of your own doing. Bringing on other people, trying to build partnerships, etc. with a product that isn't completely fleshed out is a waste of time. It's just a creative form of procrastination.

If it wasn't for the quality control, I wouldn't be here.

I wish HN would be more strict, it would drive the quality up even further. I want users to think long and hard about what they are writing and submitting.

HN is a right, not a privilege.

The internet is littered with poorly maintained communities, but HN isn't one of them, by design. If you don't get why these rules exist and you can't understand their purpose, you shouldn't be here.

You don't have a sales or signup funnel of any kind. Don't just drop users into the heart of your app. What if they don't know what Sudoku is or how to play it? They will just leave.

When you signup for World of Warcraft or League of Legends, two of the most popular games in the world, do they just dump you into a game? Nope. They gradually help you engage with the game while simultaneously teaching you what you need to know along the way. By the time a user reaches the end of their funnel and gains a few levels or achievements, they are addicted and will come back on their own.

Getting a funnel right is extremely difficult, but worth the effort.

adults who are capable of examining situations on a case-by-case basis and applying an appropriate mix of discipline and direction.

Everything seems inexpensive or easy when you don't consider the details. Finding an adult with those qualities is uncommon, rare even. Besides, how would someone without those qualities hire someone with those qualities? Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. They would need to hire a consultant or professional arbitrator of some sort with those qualities to start the process.

I personally know someone who had a website seized by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for linking to copyright content. It all comes down to intent. When visiting a site like ThePirateBay or TorrentButler, it's clear that they are intentionally facilitating copyright infringement-- and that's what they will charge you with, amongst other things. It's hard to deny that fact when 99% of the content has a copyright, even if you hide behind the DMCA "user uploaded content" clause.

With that being said, they made 1M+ from it and didn't get caught. Your results may vary.