agreeing with both comments here - using Sexting as the single use case is a bit over dramatic / sensational.

this looks awesome - going to give it a whirl.

disagree that is has nothing to do with the site and everything to do with visitors. these are closely correlated - the content and reputation of a site very much dictate the type of visitors it attracts.

exchanges are very useful for buying ads but the strategy is the same - finding good sites that cater to people that are likely to buy your product or service.

I think fred is right and barry (author) is also right. There is a general bias by VC's to ad supported startups, and they can be overly enthusiastic about the latest "business model" to emerge.

From the startup perspective - both ad based revenue and subscription or direct e-commerce models are hard, but the old adage applies: built something people want.

It's great to hear the company moves forward intact at google. That kind of google acquisition seems fairly unique. Well done BufferBox!!

it's amazing to me how much marketing and customer acquisition has entered into the "startup" convo over the past few years.

the amazing part is that for so long it was just about building some people want, fast, and making it better. that was the basic cycle.

now it's building something people want while simultaneously getting the attention of the people that might want what you're building.

duh - every character is white. fail. one of the women is slightly Indian looking but still.

It's not TV, it's Silicon Valley in truth.

Discrimination by start-ups is enshrined in law. If you are a racist, you don't like old people, or you don't like Jews - no problem until you have 15 employees.

Fire your pregnant employees at will, crack down on sodomy - the start-up world is your discriminatory oyster: http://www.eeoc.gov/employers/coverage_private.cfm

California does have a law that tightens things up a bit, called FEHA. You only need 5 employees in California before you need to start treating people as you should: http://mccabeconsultants.com/forms/ADA%20Chart.pdf

I kid a bit in this post, but the limits on these laws are a two-edged sword. I think small companies can be crippled by pregnancies, and having the threat of a lawsuit about age discrimination can mess with your mind on hiring the right people. You can also imagine that a Hacedic markets should be run by Hacedic Jews. But there is certainly some amount of bad consequences from the limits on these laws, and a few too many white people running start-ups.

It's 2012, not 1970. CS majors from Berkeley and Stanford don't have lily white friends or peer groups.

Although as far as I can tell, white guys in boatshoes only know other white guys in boatshoes.

What's a Haced?

He means Hasid and Hasidic Judaism. They're a more conservative branch, and are known for their traditional clothing.

Yes. THAT'S the fail.

They're also too thin, with a confusingly even gender ratio.

And all good looking. It's almost like it's a TV show.

I feel like everyone would be willing to tune in to watch neckbeards and turtlenecks shout at each other about whitespace conventions.

if you have skills and work hard - you should be in a really great spot to find a cool job, start or join a cool startup.

I think we can all agree that Zuckerburg is indeed a Hacker (in the HN context). He's been hacking since he was a kid, and he built facebook (duh). When he was at StartUp School a few years back - he was clearly in his element.

If we are bashing fb for using personal info to sell ads - the same principal basically applies to any major social site in the world.

Hate him or love him - fb has been a huge boon for the everyday people, tech startups, and hackers; and along the way has made Zuck and many others massively wealthy. Don't hate.

Maybe it's not "hate" of Zuckerberg. Maybe it's just looking at a person's actions and disapproving. "Hating the game." And every person with the skills has a choice whether they want to play it. Zuckerberg can do the right thing. He's just not doing it. And there's no reason we should expect everyone to celebrate this choice, no matter how much money is being poured in.

Are you attributing the "boon" to one web developer when it really is a result of the inevitable growth of the web, mobile computing, internet connectivity, dropping costs for hardware, etc.? Or maybe it's the amazing feat of acquiring a billion users? Maybe you think that was heretofor impossible?

If it wasn't the Facebook site, it would have been another site. Do you disagree? To think that Facebook made something possible that would not have been possible without one web developer seems irrational. It could have been anyone.

People can connect. Not because of one person and his website, but because of technology.

If a billion people choose to sign up and use your website as a hub for personal communication, I think that places some responsibility on you.

Whether you become a billionaire or not should not affect that responsibility.

yup a little sacrifice and scrappiness goes a long way vs. chaining yourself to a desk and coding 24/7. I did however like the underlying message of "quit effing around and get stuff done" - thats advice everyone can use.