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(gigaom.com)   Fark.com's Drew Curtis tells us why tech startups outside tech cities aren't totally farked   (gigaom.com) divider line 34
    More: Interesting, Drew Curtis, Lexington, Kentucky, home workers, tax incentives, angel investors, Sand Hill Road  
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2662 clicks; posted to Business » on 19 Sep 2010 at 7:31 AM   |  Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook   more»



34 Comments   (+0 »)
   

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2010-09-19 01:03:17 AM
For some really strange reason, I felt dirty for eating chicken from Popeye's while reading this article.
 
2010-09-19 03:54:40 AM
Good article, Drew. Touched on a lot of key points that will be ignored by people making state money available for start-ups. Hell, it's not even state money, it's just bonds sold and backed by the state. It still has to be paid back by the borrower.

Sure, some will fail and a great gnashing of teeth about wasted money will be heard. But, if anyone really supports creating jobs and generating revenue for cities and states, they should be twisting their local pol's arm to increase state-backed financing for start-ups and business expansion. If banks won't do it, we as citizens and states better goddamn do it.
 
2010-09-19 07:46:13 AM
I'm just not sure what they think Step 2 is.

iseewhatyoudidthere.gif

/Congrats & continued success, hillbilly
 
2010-09-19 07:48:21 AM
FTA (Comments):I just checked out Fark (never heard of it before now), and it's exactly the type of website id enjoy using, but (if im being completely honest), the user interface really puts me off.

Hahhahahahahahahahahahaha woooo hahahahahahahaha

/you'll get over it
 
2010-09-19 08:02:08 AM
I was kind of bemused by the exchange of the guy who hasn't heard of Fark before, and the others guy saying basically "Fark gets 4 times the traffic of this site, and somehow you know about this site, how can you not know about Fark".

While Fark is notable, (according to the graph given, million unique visitors a month, and that is probably low, I'd guess it is in the million(s)), overall, it might as well be the same number as gigaom.... plug in Facebook or Google or Yahoo or Ebay... those are "Household" names... at that level, Fark & gigaom look like the same line.

Fark is like a very popular program on USA network.... that means there are still plenty of people who have never heard of it.
 
2010-09-19 08:16:42 AM
opportunity

I love that word. Good work Drew.
 
2010-09-19 09:33:04 AM
FTFA: 'I'm just not sure what they think Step 2 is.'

Okay, I laughed at this.
 
2010-09-19 09:33:23 AM
dletter: I was kind of bemused by the exchange of the guy who hasn't heard of Fark before

I was amused. His line, "I don't want to be the critic to put a downer on your business" made me chuckle.
 
2010-09-19 09:59:02 AM
Outsource to KY instead of HK?
 
2010-09-19 10:05:34 AM
Sounds like it's time for a new book.

"How to Monetize Snark"
by Drew "I own FARK, I own FARK, Suck my Diiiick, I own FARK" Curtis

/BTW, cool story bro
 
2010-09-19 10:13:53 AM
Um, good article and not to be a Debbie Downer, but from the

FAQ's: Posting Rules-

Calling out of other Farkers (in headlines): As odd as this may sound, not everyone wants attention on Fark.


/reported
 
2010-09-19 10:17:26 AM
So when Drew mentions websites that get multiple owners, and start telling creators what to do, a good example would be Diggv4? Nice tech related website that started and now is a piece of shiat run by websites who have most fans. Basically a marketing website that has nothing to do with users sharing websites/articles they find interesting.

Also, it is not possible to find silent partners who only care about getting dividend or share of profits and have nothing to do with day to day operations? I guess that is what you refer to as Angel investors?

Maybe too many people got burning in .com bubble and don't want to invest in tech startup companies. "Oh great another website looking for investment capital". How do they tell whether a .com entity is another fad or complete bullshiat from the ones who make money? From what I've seen from websites is that the bigger they get the more they sell out. It becomes all about profit and not about customer satisfaction and keeping it simple. Although I guess that is partly the industries fault, get big real fast whatever the cost, and hope someone buys you out.

I did actually look for some investment money, but I couldn't find anyone to throw $50,000 into Fark to cover startup costs.
This was when you first started website? As the investors would ask on Canada's Dragons Den: "what are your current revenues/profits". If you had no revenues to show you could make money or manage a business (assuming fark website was not up and running at the time) then I could see why no one wanted to give another .com $50k.

Your copyright at bottom of fark page says 1999, I thought people were handing out millions back then before .com bust? Or was that only new IPO companies that were getting millions and showing no revenue stream?
 
2010-09-19 11:00:55 AM
andrewabc: From what I've seen from websites is that the bigger they get the more they sell out. It becomes all about profit and not about customer satisfaction and keeping it simple. Although I guess that is partly the industries fault, get big real fast whatever the cost, and hope someone buys you out.

I've never seen that on Fark. Yeah, they'll get over it.
 
2010-09-19 11:06:30 AM
Clearest example of unpaid product placement masquerading as an actual article I've ever seen.
 
2010-09-19 11:26:40 AM
Jesus Christ, Drew. Stop pretending your captain of the industry and realize your just a C class nerd whose personal website got lucky. Fark.com barely turns a profit. Which is fine if you just want to have fun and earn some extra beer money. But you are not a Businessman.
 
2010-09-19 11:26:54 AM
This story kinda doesn't fit with Drew's other interviews where he said Fark started out as a hobby running on the spare capacity of his server hosting business.

I'd actually like to hear what the the money was going to be for. Was bandwidth that expensive back in 1999? Fark's mainly just a user donated pile of links, I'm sure there's some overhead with the comments and all but still sounds high from a startup standpoint. Was there no system of ad's back then? Wow, hard to believe that the internet has changed so much that I can't even remember if ad services were common in 1999/2000 to generate early revenues.

I'm currently in an MBA program and we just went through a course on venture capital and startup funding options, I now wish we'd had Drew in there to give his insights.

As far as Kentucky's efforts to attract startups. I'd suggest keeping goverment small, keeping taxes low. Keep the Coal and power companies happy and rates real low. Then spend some time going to every technology company and advertise that we have lots of cheap land with a skilled workforce, cheap land, real cheap electricity (eat that California) and promise to keep the business environment comfy forever. Tell them that once they move in they'll never find a better deal and never have to move again.

The state could really push the eastern part of the state for tech too. Most of the people there have decent educations and are pretty smart, wouldn't be too huge of a challenge to train them up as tech's. A tech campus at the foothills would have easy access to plenty of land, lots of telecommunications, energy.
 
2010-09-19 12:05:29 PM
There are plenty of secondary markets for startups outside of NYC, LA, and San Francisco. Chicago is a major one. Minneapolis another. Denver/Boulder is another one. Plenty of startups and investors looking to invest in those markets.

/veteran of three startups in Minneapolis
 
2010-09-19 12:28:04 PM
I'm sure there are plenty of smart people in KY, but I wonder if the best of the best (both business and tech) are going to want to live there for very long. Not that it is a bad place to live, but it won't be as stimulating as a major city.
 
2010-09-19 12:35:02 PM
Isn't a 'tech startup' generally developing the launch of a new technology? By definition?

Unless Drew invented the forum or HTML or something, this ain't no tech startup, though a fine cottage website it may be.
 
2010-09-19 12:47:15 PM
So wait, what is this alt interface thing Drew mentioned in the comments? Is that news to anyone else but me?
 
2010-09-19 12:56:53 PM
StarlingFive: So wait, what is this alt interface thing Drew mentioned in the comments? Is that news to anyone else but me?

You'll get over it
 
2010-09-19 01:22:05 PM
Kareeshus: Isn't a 'tech startup' generally developing the launch of a new technology? By definition?

Unless Drew invented the forum or HTML or something, this ain't no tech startup, though a fine cottage website it may be.


I always thought it was short for "hi-tech startup", one that uses advanced technology instead of traditional production and delivery practices. For example an advanced manufacturing facility would qualify, the new cabinet maker down the street using 30-year old tools, not so much even though he markets online.

My latest company is called a "tech startup" by others since we are using the internet exclusively for distribution and doing it in such a way that we don't have to even worry about piracy, because our business plan won't rely on individual purchases of electronic goods, even though that is exactly what we are distributing. Absolutely no technology breakthroughs are involved, merely innovative application of what is already existing to both take advantage of online marketing and distribution while removing one of the biggest hurdles to publishing online.

Everything we are using is already out there and been used by others, just not in the combination and for the same purpose as what we are about to launch.

If you define "tech startup" as developing unique technologies, then you are using the word differently than the people around me seem to use it. Note that I didn't use it at first, the economic development person I talked with used that term when she called around looking for local office space suitable for our needs.
 
2010-09-19 01:25:40 PM
Ennuipoet: FTA (Comments):I just checked out Fark (never heard of it before now), and it's exactly the type of website id enjoy using, but (if im being completely honest), the user interface really puts me off.

Hahhahahahahahahahahahaha woooo hahahahahahahaha

/you'll get over it


Yea I came here to be the bastard that mentioned that one too...
 
2010-09-19 01:33:57 PM
ricbach229: As far as Kentucky's efforts to attract startups. I'd suggest keeping goverment small, keeping taxes low. Keep the Coal and power companies happy and rates real low.

This really shouldn't be a concern. Keeping the companies happy often has nothing to do with lower prices. Often times the things that make power companies happy are things like guaranteed returns on investment, yet these result in the over investment in infrastructure and higher overall prices.
 
2010-09-19 05:42:22 PM
ThematicDevice: ricbach229: As far as Kentucky's efforts to attract startups. I'd suggest keeping goverment small, keeping taxes low. Keep the Coal and power companies happy and rates real low.

This really shouldn't be a concern. Keeping the companies happy often has nothing to do with lower prices. Often times the things that make power companies happy are things like guaranteed returns on investment, yet these result in the over investment in infrastructure and higher overall prices.


Kentucky has a guranteed rate for residential that's pretty good but we've been on an odd environmental streak lately where we don't want to allow companies to build new plants for industrial and export production, which means they aren't building the turbines for domestic use either. Right now we have low rates but we're going to get higher costs down the road if we don't start building soon. The big papers in Kentucky have both been against new electric production on environmental grounds and want rates to rise to force conservation.

The guranteed rates of return are kinda dumb in my opinion. Leads to some perverse incentives to do things like buy the most expensive building possible for HQ so you can have a higher base to use for your 10% profits.

My ideal world, Kentucky would repeal the ban on nuclear and we'd lead the country in new next generation reactor design and roll out and sell our coal and power to other states.
 
2010-09-19 05:46:43 PM
We actually moved from California to Chicago in order to secure investment capital for our little tech startup.

We didn't need enough to make us attractive to any of the big players on the coast, but we needed significantly more than what friends and family could kick in.

Chicago is really trying to set itself up as a new tech nexus...especially with Groupon being here. (Andrew Mason is a really great guy btw)

We found an awesome set of Angel investors with enormous amounts of experience in taking a new company to the next level.

After two years of pitching, refining business plans and development we are just about set to go into beta and things are looking really, really good.

It would have been ten times as hard to do this back on the coast and our company would be significantly different both in form and function.
 
2010-09-19 06:42:27 PM
This is just really isn't related to the article much, but I would like to thank Drew for the sentence. "It's like that single friend we all have who wants to meet someone (anyone), but never talks to people and rarely leaves the house."

I went to a Renaissance Festival today and because of that sentence sucked it up, pushed past the shyness talked up a girl in the line for soup in a bread bowl, bought her a drink, hung out with her and her sister all day and got her email address.

Nothing to do with the article's theme but thanks anyway Drew.
 
2010-09-19 10:11:13 PM
Ennuipoet: FTA (Comments):I just checked out Fark (never heard of it before now), and it's exactly the type of website id enjoy using, but (if im being completely honest), the user interface really puts me off.

Hahhahahahahahahahahahaha woooo hahahahahahahaha

/you'll get over it


i was tempted to insert that into the comments of the article, but i'd rather not taunt the drew, maybe i should come up with patsy to blame

who'd be a good victim
 
2010-09-19 10:13:41 PM
bravian: There are plenty of secondary markets for startups outside of NYC, LA, and San Francisco. Chicago is a major one. Minneapolis another. Denver/Boulder is another one. Plenty of startups and investors looking to invest in those markets.

/veteran of three startups in Minneapolis


houston, austin, ft worth,
 
2010-09-19 11:55:36 PM
ricbach229: Kentucky has a guranteed rate for residential that's pretty good but we've been on an odd environmental streak lately where we don't want to allow companies to build new plants for industrial and export production, which means they aren't building the turbines for domestic use either. Right now we have low rates but we're going to get higher costs down the road if we don't start building soon. The big papers in Kentucky have both been against new electric production on environmental grounds and want rates to rise to force conservation.

Heh, actually the older plants are the cheapest sources of electricity, and the newer plants are the cleanest. Even coal has come quite a long way depending on the technology used. If you wanted to really cut down on pollution the oldest plants would be replaced by even something like IGCC Coal.
 
2010-09-20 12:44:20 AM
Something_Creative: StarlingFive: So wait, what is this alt interface thing Drew mentioned in the comments? Is that news to anyone else but me?

You'll get over it


Not this time. This time we'll get under it.
 
2010-09-20 01:40:30 AM
I read this as a "you can succeed from your mom's basement" type article.
 
2010-09-20 02:21:45 PM
Eh.

Read Sam Walton's biography sometime. It's called "Made in America: My Story". More than the normal ego stroking, he actually gives a bunch of reasons why Wal-Mart thrived and dominated every other retail business in America.

For example, control your costs. Drew talks about that in the article, and so did Walton: success in business isn't about making a profit, but reducing your costs more than your competitors. Even if it seems like you're losing money in the short-term, you'll win the long-term game when everyone else can't pay their bills. It's cheap to live and work in Kentucky and Arkansas, and that's why Drew/Walton locate headquarters in those places rather than New York.
 
2010-09-20 04:10:21 PM
You were looking for angel investors to post a picture of a squirrels nuts?

Also, wtf? I thought this was a rent to own deal?
 
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