[echoangle]

At least point 1 and 3 were completely wrong (or technically not wrong but irrelevant to the point).

As you can see by the success of Dropbox, point 1 wasn’t a real issue. That’s also the funniest point, because „why would anyone pay for XYZ, as a software engineer I can just do A, B, C, and D myself“ is such a common counterpoint which completely neglects that most customers aren’t going to do ABCD themselves because they don’t want to deal with it and don’t have the know how.

And point 3 probably can also be classified as wrong, at least Dropbox seems to make some amount of money.

[tptacek]

No, couldn't possibly have been wrong, because YC agreed with them. Again: you're missing what Dan is saying. The thread isn't about Dropbox-the-product. It's about the YC application Drew Houston wrote to pitch Dropbox. I really don't think there's a way to rhetoric your way out of this one!

[echoangle]

But do you think the commenter meant „here are my issues with this YC application, you should make those points more clear: …“ or do you think he meant „here are my issues with this YC application, you should find something else to do!“?

Because to me it seems like he’s criticizing the product itself, not just the presentation.

[tptacek]

The former.