I definitely agree with your business model comment. A lot of work can go into a project hoping that it can be integrated as a feature into Google’s next initiative, but this is a highly risky business plan. You have to have the best feature, be in the right place at the right time, and if you get passed over, you’re stuck holding a bag of nothing. Basically, you are not in control of your own destiny if you don’t have a plan to monetize your service. We learned this lesson the hard way with Huckabuck.com.

Thanks for your comments Mark, I appreciate them and your readership.

Chris

We found it very hard to raise the capital required to build out our project in the beginning. Fortunately, another investor and I were able to dump in the funding to get rolling. Relatively speaking, it’s an expensive project but it’s also a defensible technology that can’t be duplicated in a month by two guys in a basement.

Which brings me to the next point. It seems that much of web 2 is simply feature sets for larger companies. If you happen to be Y-C that’s probably going to work out because 1 of 20 small investments will yield a huge return. Unfortunately, if you happen to be the remaining 19 developing the next best sticky notes & to do lists you’re going to be disappointed. Moreover, I don’t think anyone should start a business (different from a hobby to create a site) without having an idea of how to monetize it. Again, from an investor standpoint in this climate, this advice might fly but you better think about cash flow if you’re a business person.

Thanks for the kind words — we’re really thrilled that you like Thinkature. Please don’t hesitate to drop us a line if you’d like to chat.

Thanks!

-Jon