Yes, there are plenty of companies out there that very much depend on a network effect and aren't Y Combinator-funded: Digg, Facebook, Quora or Stack Overflow, to name a few.
Additionally, 3 of the 4 had major PR behind them. Kevin Rose was on ZDTV/TechTV where he publicly talked about (and where I first heard about) Digg; the Quora guys got famous as the "ex-FB executives" who left to form their company; and Stack Overflow was huge because Joel is one of the most famous programmer-bloggers in the world.
The first, prototypical YC TechCrunch launch article doesn't always tell the whole story behind a company's history and founding (in our case there wouldn't be room ;).
Probably not. I'm currently bootstrapping a search sharing network at Seekier.com and it's extremely tough to gain any sort of traction without any previous exposure or network, which unfortunately results in me making replies such as this. The only alternative is to implement Facebook, Twitter, and/or Google Connect integration to help spread the word organically through those networks.
I think you are absolutely right...it will be extremely tough to gain instant traction without a previous network. However, as fast as the tech world moves, I think taking a bit of an old world approach can really pay off. Take a step back and think about forging real friendships and loyalties, and letting it happen slowly. You can build a lot of social capital by just doing favors for other people...but obviously try not to be Don Vito Corleone "Some day, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to do a service for me, and you won't refuse"
So, I want to encourage you to start building that network now that will become your 'previous exposure or network' by fostering genuine relationships with people you want to meet and even your current competition.
Swiping is not obsolete. I don't know why you're trying to compare a virtual retailer like Amazon to shops that have an actual physical presence. The way they process payments is entirely different.
Not everyone has a smartphone. Why would Starbucks want to deal with accepting payments via mobile-geolocation and plastic for everyone else? It would just confuse the cashier. Swiping is uniform and only takes a few seconds.
Square fills the mobile payments processing niche where you need to be able to accept plastic when you're not in front of a register. Plumbers, repairmen of all sorts, traveling salesmen, people selling items at fairs/festivals, etc. These people aren't currently able to accept credit cards with real-time processing. That's the problem Square solves.
Is it not obvious? Why don't retail stores type in your credit card information instead of swiping it?
Chip and PIN doesn't seem to exist in the US so I'd imagine they're not targeting it immediately. I don't see why they couldn't expand the hardware to support it though.
"This means that adding support for EMV to existing payment applications can be a daunting task!
Furthermore, the demands of providing an EMV solution do not even stop once all the necessary processing has been implemented, thanks to the extensive type approval process enforced by the governing body, EMVCo. Before any EMV-capable solution can be deployed, there are thousands of tests that need to be passed to validate that the implementation conforms to the EMV industry standard, and as the EMV specifications are regularly updated this becomes a major task in itself! This is why many businesses requiring an EMV "Chip & PIN" solution choose to license a purpose-built EMV software kernel rather than developing their own."
I've had phone interviews where I've been asked to solve a logic puzzle with pen/paper while explaining my approach. Solving a problem you've never thought about while being put on the spot turns out to be incredibly difficult. These sorts of problems require deep concentration and quiet yet it tends to be awkward to have silence between strangers. The situation really inhibits serious problem solving.
