Probably a bug, since I am still getting hit byt SQL slammer on our IDS.

*edit, maybe an April fools joke? Article is from april 1st.

After reading the article, I checked my own IDS logs and saw the same drop to zero after March 11.

Are you applying to YC again? (for the 2011 summer batch)?

Why would he apply? He has 1.2m revenue per year, his valuation must be much higher than that, the 30k YC will give him in return for 10%-30% (or whatever it is) is a pittance.

From: http://ycombinator.com/apply.html

"We usually invest $11,000 + $3000n, [...] in return for between 2% and 10% of the company. The average is 7%."

You're forgetting the likely Yuri Milner $150k convertible note, which changes the math somewhat. (If not, we have a "typical case" $14k investment --- n is the number of founders --- for at best 2% post, giving a post valuation of 50*$14k = $700k, which is a very raw deal under the circumstances.)

As to whether this is worth it --- depends on the expenses (which presumably include at least salaries, promotion, and rent). If they aren't spending as much money as they're taking in (no names, but I do know of iPhone devs in this position), it's hard to see the point of giving up equity to get more.

Then again, I think you could consider applying to YC. Even though your revenue > expenses. Don't think of YC as an incubator or a funding machine (or whatever you'd like to call it). They offer a lot more. I think it's more like a ticket to a community of entrepeneurs and investors, based in Silicon Valley.

And yes, the $150k is a nice addition, but would you pick this convertible debt over the weekly dinners, office hours, alumni help you might get and most of all connections with possible investors? I wouldn't :)

Now I think about it: the YC FAQ also mentions this money-related question.

For the experience and connections. There is more to YC than money.

True, but do you know of many (or any) companies that applied to YC while making a cool $100k/month?

I recall seeing some posts about YC startups trending more in the direction of established companies. But what is more important is whether or not going through YC will help them achieve their goal. If YC helps move from $100k/month to $1m/month it is very much worth it.

Why YC? YC is not the only avenue, I would suggest submitting to AngelList instead.

Not unexpected from Oracle... I wonder if their management == Yahoo's ?

How do you plan to make money? Annoying ads in the emails or some other idea?

In the short term, I don't :P. I have some long term ideas, ideally keeping it ad-free forever.

Possibly OT but I would gladly pay to use something like mailchimp or aweber lite if the deliverability/reputation was good. Lite in this case meaning 10 minute admin learning curve and a simplified feature set. I know that's vague. but in general I find the the current crop of email web apps to be bloated and hence too time consuming.

Also would be useful for business if I could "private label" the service to work on my own domain name (or sub domain) simply by adding a fiesta.cc mx record to my dns.

this is exactly one of the ideas that I want to pursue!

That's what I would call sharing. The problem with physical goods is that if you share it with someone, you don't have it anymore.

With digital goods, you can share and still own the product, so both are happy.

This works perfect for consumers, but not so good for the companies....

"This works perfect for consumers, but not so good for the companies...."

The movie industry is thriving and they've been hit pretty hard by sharing.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/02/piracy-once-...

And what an ugly web site that he has.

I remember reading somewhere that he can't type anymore (or barely write) because of some problems with his hand. That's why he charges for autographs too...

That might explain GNU Hurd's development pace

Do you have a source for that? If true, I am a lucky guy - having received his "Happy hacking" signature six years ago. It's still watching proudly from my blackboard.

Emacs will do that to you.

Raising money is not hard, what is hard is make money :/

Your comment is flawed

Never heard of Beluga before, but checking it out now and I sure hope they don't die after the acquisition is completed. Congrats.

Depending where you are at, it might be March already :)

That's what I thought. But I couldn't find a simple way to report... From the other comments I guess I will have to fax/mail a complain to them.