[codegeek]

Your comment reminds me of the infamous dropbox comment "I can just build an FTP server in a weekend" (paraphrasing).

Hint: Software is just one piece of a business even a SAAS business. A billion dollar business requires many other things to work.

[BoorishBears]

This has got to be one of the misused parable in HN's history.

The Dropbox comment was missing the utility of a turnkey solution. It was like "No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.": techies missing the value of complicating things in order to produce a product that Just Works.

This comment isn't doing that, it's questioning the resources that it took places like Calendly as it exists. Calendly has a moat in the fact that it has a massive network effect... but it's natural to question what exactly about that moat qualifies a billion dollar valuation, and the answer is extremely little.

If Dropbox had been something you could build as it existed in a weekend it'd be one thing, but you couldn't. You could build something that had the same technical function, but none of the user experience. Calendly isn't that.

[codegeek]

"but it's natural to question what exactly about that moat qualifies a billion dollar valuation, and the answer is extremely little."

I am no shill for Calendly but a happy user and as far as I know, they are doing 100M in ARR. It is a lot more than "I can code this app in a weekend". Whether this justifies a billion dollar valuation is a separate discussion but for sure it is not that easy to do what Calendly is doing.

Easy is not same as simple btw.

[BoorishBears]

I don't know if you're just being intentionally reductionist by doubling down on this "I can code this app in a weekend" angle when I just spent something like a hundred words explaining how that's not the point or what... but people are talking about the business here.

And it's the whole business: Not just 100M in ARR, but 100M in ARR with what burn rate and what exit that won't just be dumping a steaming pile on the public market as has flown in years past.

Maybe you're just missing the forest for the trees when these questions come up now too: We're not in 2019 anymore. It used to be that every startup with a faint pulse could justify any valuation by throwing up revenue numbers and see a successful exit at some point. Now money is tightening up and people are starting to question fundamentals again.

The comment you replied to is essentially saying: This is a sign of the times, 3B dollar valuation, ~100M ARR, likely an insane burn rate that that ARR doesn't even begin to touch

I don't know how that's even a controversial take unless your argument is "well we've seen even worse do fine" (because yeah, it did well fine in the past climate of free money)

[codegeek]

I don't necessarily disagree with the "Is Billion dollar valuation justified" thing but I originally replied to GP who said "90% of hacker news readers could build both these products in a weekend or 2".

[BoorishBears]

They started with the words "So calendly is worth billions?"...

[semerda]

Spot on. A Product (which most engineers can hack together) shouldn't be confused with a Business.

[rfolstad]

dropbox did something useful. It made it easy to share files across platforms and the web. This is a feature that should be part of your calendar software to allow people to create calendar entries in your calendar and see availability.

[klabb3]

Not really, depending on how you define sharing. Dropbox added sharing as a feature much later. Their initial product was automatic cloud based backup and sync, across desktop devices. You can still tell by the UX and pricing model - sharing is slightly awkward and I believe rate limited.