A poor economy doesn't help either. I think part of the fear is not being able to find other work to pay the bills so many of us settle for the current situation... or work on startups on the side!

Yeah- the threat is very real for people underwater on their mortages, with huge student loans, or about to put kids through college. It definitely is an awful position to be in, but a lot of people are forced to do this to make ends meet. It's not just psychological disorder.

It's also tough for people who are actually not in much debt, aren't underwater, aren't in financial stress. Because they can only make do with a few months unemployed. That's a small margin for failure/experimentation/following your "passion".

Whatever happened to the American Dream? These scenarios certainly don't sound like it. A lot of Americans (if not a majority) are in a similar situation.

"It's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe in it." -George Carlin

Get rich or die tryin'.

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/67046/robert-c-lieber...

Which is exactly why Groupon wisely backed away from a deal with Yahoo.

Considering they also rejected Google's offer, I'd say there was more to it than Yahoo's past failures.

You are right. However, I don't think Yahoo's track record in integrating acquired companies helped them at all. Google is perceived as an innovative company where Yahoo seems to follow the leader.

Yahoo cares about products that make revenue, which is why it is dropping things like delicious. I think Groupon would have had a different priority within the company.

Google's "opinion" for better or worse is fact. Let's hope they figured out a way to differentiate between genuine bad reviews and those with underlying motives.

Even more, once you move to anything slightly controversial, an opinion can be genuine, meaning sincere, but still not valid for the person searching ("they sold me the movie I asked for but it had too much violence!").

Yes, just as with voting on HN -- does that downvote mean it's an inane comment, or just that someone disagrees?

Here is what Alexis had to say answering this question in the comments section of his site:

alexis ohanian said... I believe the biggest thing was the dangers of dealing with both cellphone carriers (this is pre "AppStore," remember) who are notoriously closed and slow-moving as well as restaurants, which aren't typically very tech-curious (all the ones I spoke with were taking online orders via fax).

I would never purchase something like a TV or a laptop without thoroughly investigating it first. Could maybe be useful if you're looking to get a gift and are crunched for time. There should be a way to access the reviews though.

Precisely my thoughts. I want this service for stuff that doesn't matter that much to me but I can accidentally spend too much time researching (easy to do on the internet). Tell me what umbrella to buy, kitchen supplies, etc.

Of course the obvious counter argument is that what's not important to me is to someone else. So of course what this site really needs is just much more coverage.

I agree.. but I love the site.. I feel like it needs some social validation, though. Long term maybe the site will be well-curated enough to get a reputation that makes it unnecessary.. but right now, I feel like I need a peek at some evidence that these products are as awesome as suggested.

Brilliant execution. Just stellar.

Also, having bought my fair share of consumer electronics, I've found that the research and anticipation of buying a product is sometimes as much fun as the afterglow of owning it.

Hmm so according to Mr. Rabbani, Hacker News is a waste of time.

One can certainly use a lot of time reading Hacker News. Whether it is wasted or not depends on the reader I think.

I would say start with small producers and learn from your experience.It's always better to make mistakes with the small players before swimming with the big fish.

In terms of your homepage and conversion rate, you have five call to actions with two sign up for free buttons. I would consolidate these to the one or two most important ones to make them more effective.

Congrats and good luck!

I would also mention somewhere that this is a marketplace for photos. There is a heavy focus on selling photos but almost none on buying them until the third box at the bottom.

that's deliberate. At the moment, we don't have any users in either category - we have to get the photos in before we can start selling them, so that's my priority to start with.

Interesting concept. What's the business model here? Advertising? Maybe a premium service where you can choose which sites to review and be able to target certain reviewers for your own site.

This website is great. I was able to jump in and mess around with my website's home page within seconds after watching the video. I'm not a developer and being able to help out with A/B testing will be a huge help and one less thing our developers will have to deal with. Looking forward to using it!