That's definitely a good point. I've played some awesome mobile games.
The only downside is that they are producing for a platform with such a horrendously inaccurate/crappy input system. I get enthusiastic about downloading a game on my n7 only to find that it's extremely frustrating to play, or that the game has been dumbed down in some way to compensate, massive sadface. This isn't true of all of them, especially games that are designed around the touch interface, but after a while I still get bothered by it.
I'm really liking the resurgence of indie PC games, though. In the past few years I've played games produced by < 3 independent people that easily rivaled the games people tout as the "best of all time." Specifically, I'm curious why these huge companies want to produce 1 game over X years for tens or hundreds of millions of dollars and still fail to be profitable when they sell millions of copies.
What are some awesome mobile games? The vast majority of the ones I've played have felt extremely shallow, and couldn't hold my attention for very long at all, so I'd love to find a few consistent go-to's for when I'm on a train and don't feel like playing a puzzle game.
Getting a potential customer to download an app is the single largest hurdle placed at the beginning of the monetization funnel. You could make the argument that since a lot of the incentivized apps are free, it isn't really a laundering operation. The incentivized app only starts bringing in revenue once it convinces a user to start making in-app purchases.
I do believe this reply has OP's best intentions in mind, but I find it to be a bit fatalistic. OP may very well have "the touch", it just may be that this particular venture wasn't the right opportunity for that to shine through. My point is, noone can tell you how far you will or will not go in life; a single failure is a data point, sure, but only one among many. If OP wants to go on continue being an entrepreneur, he should learn from his mistakes, dust himself off, and go at it again if he can find the opportunity.
Agreed... in essence this is why we're all here. As entrepreneurs we all educated risk takers, and we realize any venture is essentially gambling if there is no edge. At any time, there could be a new idea that pushes any one HFT algorithm (or mobile photo sharing app, or words with friends clone) past the established mindshare into blue ocean territory. When that time comes, do you want to be caught with your pants down, lumbering under the excuse that you thought the oceans were too red for you to bother?
As much as the idea of Ep. 7 pains me, I wouldn't mind seeing Brad Bird direct it. He took another classic franchise that I had grown to hate (Mission: Impossible), and made it fun again. He also has close ties to Disney/Pixar.
M:I Ghost Protocol was probably the most cartoonish thing that Brad Bird has done. I recently re-watched The Incredibles and... yeah, I can totally see him making a redemptive Episode VII.
This is the best answer I've seen on here so far as to why Quora isn't ready for prime time, and why sites like Reddit will end up delivering better content over time. Sure, all of the atrocities mentioned (downvoting into oblivion, banning, etc) happen on Reddit too. However, when it happens there, I'll remain butthurt only as long as it takes to switch to any of my other accounts. The concept of karma exists there only to validate one's reputation to self, and not to validate one's reputation to others. By creating a more ephemeral concept of identity, Reddit has solved the 'ego' problem.
In the future, I see social networking sites dividing into one of two camps : sites like facebook, which are about vanity, and sites like Reddit, which are about content. It would be best for future entrepreneus to decide up front which camp they're in, long before they face the pickle Quora is currently suffering from.
Ironic; one could just as very well claim that America's mainstream media is among the most hype-driven in the world. Conversely, one could also make the claim that an app line Drones+ aims to take the hype out of the equation, by offering no-nonsense factual data.
Non-YC founder here as well. Please don't read results like this and think there is no way you will have success as a founder if you do not get into an incubator by this age. Rather, what should be looked at is that YC looks for a very specific profile when grooming their prospective companies. They want young, vibrant, fearless candidates whose idealism allows for a significant chunk of ownership to be forked over in exchange for connections and press. As founders get older, we tend to learn there is more than one way to skin a cat. So you'll see us learning our own ways to network, or get press, or get traction.
Non-YC founder here as well. Please don't read results like this and think there is no way you will have success as a founder if you do not get into an incubator by this age.
Not sure if that was meant for me, or just for everyone else reading this thread, but I definitely don't think that way. When I say "it's now or never," I mean "it's now or never to launch this startup, and make it work by hook or by crook." YC isn't even on our radar now, for various reasons, but we're confident we'll succeed with or without any given incubator, or anybody else, aside from the only people who matter - customers.
Yes, it's not like YC is discriminating against older founders. It's more like older founders realizing it doesn't make sense for them since they've developed a network, savings, management experience, etc.
Many of the benefits of an incubator (or even of angel investing/VC/etc in general) are the benefits of experience. No need to spend time gaining something you've already got and certainly no need to give up equity for it.
