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by Grustaf
907 days ago
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They have raised $16m, and I am very aware of who they are. I have talked extensively with both Eric and Brad. They are nice guys, but Beeper is definitely based on a delusion, Beeper Mini even more so. Some people said it was 4D chess, a brilliant marketing ploy, but after 3-4 iterations I think we can all agree that was not the case. They genuinely believed that Beeper Mini would fly. There is nothing sinister about being deluded, as a startup founder you might say it's a prerequisite. But nonetheless, they are. |
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I agree that they believed in Beeper Mini being a reasonable strategy, I'm not contesting that. It definitely wasn't just marketing, they really wanted to bring iMessage to everyone.
But I don't see how Beeper (or the other parts of Beeper Mini) are a delusion. Having a close-enough interface to all of the relevant chat networks is great. It works well and is relatively sustainable, especially if you're targeting the least common denominator of features plus a couple additional things.
iMessage isn't the reason I use Beeper. It's a very cool feature, but I paid for Beeper before I figured out how to register my phone number with iMessage, and I'd still have done so even if I never used iMessage at all.