Rejection email from Y Combinator

[iamjoday]

Hi Friends,

I've just received rejection email from Ycombinator... :( Though I realize, how competitive it gets to get in, its not the start one expect for their product or idea...

I would appreciate if fellow community members can help point out ares of improvement in my product or idea,

http://joday.com

Thanks for your time! I really appreciate it!

Nish Founder, Joday.com

[alexobenauer]

Honest feedback: I don't see what problem this is solving; I don't see a real problem that I can identify with, or at least not one worth solving. That said, I'm one person, and I may be in the minority for not having a problem this solves.

When embarking on a new product idea, I pitch the problem to all kinds of different people first, before I even pitch my proposed solution. This allows me to see if the problem I think exists resonates with others, how people think about the problem, and whether or not it's something they actually care about. This sets the best foundation for proposing a solution and how to go about pitching or selling it to people.

[iamjoday]

Thanks @alexobenauer I appreciate.

Your point about user sessions is absolutely right and I completely agree with you. Solution should be made for a problem and one should not expect solution to fit into a problem somehow.

My challenge is solving a problem for future presents a paradox, future is unknown with nothing to compare to... it becomes even more challenging when present is working just fine....

here is what I wanted to solve...

Entertainment industry is going thru a tectonic shift. For the first time in history, creating(smart phones), hosting(Youtube, Dailymotion) and distributing(Social media, Youtube) content is never so easy, cheap or accessible to everyone.

We are going thru a Content Democratization (Content Spring). New content is created every second, new stars are born everyday. According to Youtube, 100 hours of videos are uploaded to YouTube every minute.

But, just as any democracy, Content Democratization is bringing chaos to video watching experience. How would you find entertainment you really want to watch? How would you personalized your video watching experience?

That's where Joday comes in. Joday cancels all the noise and delivers high quality entertainment relevant to YOU (by curating, organizing for easy access by channels etc and by personalizing to recommend new content based on your taste)

[trcollinson]

I second most of the comments here so far. It seems you have a solution in search of a problem. I spend a lot of my time working for or starting companies that deal with media aggregation and I don't understand what you are solving. But I am willing to give you a few thoughts from a business and investment perspective as well.

First off, you are a single founder. This isn't always a problem. Though, historically, it is for YCombinator. Founding a company, particularly one which wants to get into a very saturated media aggregation market is not easy. It requires a lot of understanding; business, finance, legal, marketing, sales, and technical. Even if you could bring all of those things to the table, it is unlikely you can juggle that many balls by yourself.

Next, I don't see a clear path to monetization. The answer might of course be "We will gain a large user base and then we will sell to a large media company who wants those users". Which large media company would that be? YouTube, Vimeo, Netflix, Hulu, Facebook, or one of the other giants of the social media industry that can afford to buy a company? They aren't going to be interested because honestly, you'll be selling them back their own users base.

Another option for monetization might be "We are going to build up this brilliant machine learning algorithm, prove out the concept, and sell that to a large media company." Not a bad plan, but remember these companies have the means and reputation to hire small armies of algorithm writers. Are you differentiated enough to get in and show you can beat those small armies?

I'll mention one more way you might be thinking of monetizing. "We'll sell advertising space!" My favorite of all. If you have a user base large enough this can do very well. However, remember, you are showing media that is hosted by other companies who make their money by advertising around other peoples uploaded media. Those companies are not going to be keen to allow you to steal away their advertising dollars.

I could talk about your site design and the professionalism in your presentation, which is lacking. However, I am not trying to discourage you. If you are interested in machine learning (which is what comes out from your entire site), you should continue in that market. There is a TON of space there for people to do very well. I suggest you not get stuck on your first idea. Pivot. Find some good friends who are also interested in using machine learning to solve a problem with skills that complement yours, and work together. Then find a problem that has some clear path to monetization and in which you are passionate and go for it. You have the ambition and you will be successful. Don't give up!

[iamnish]

HN thinks I am bot so replying as different user... :(

[iamnish]

Thanks trcollinson, for your detail reply. Very few good wishers like you spends time to explain or suggest on someone Else's mistake. I really appreciate your time.

Now, 1. Single Founder: I guess, I have to work on it. The idea and prototype was build as a side project thus no other heads... nevertheless, its one of my top priority to get it going....

2. How to Monetize: Ads is easiest but as you said its challenging. Also, as I have mention earlier I am here to complement not compete with big guys. having said that, this is my thinking....

Though like any consumer web company, I would need a large use base (~1M) but here are my thought for it,

- Subscription to watch premium content. - Feature or Promotional or Ad. Videos - Targeted Video Distribution (revenue share) Similar to youtube ads but for videos, we have rich data about user likeness thus can facilitate target video distribution. Content creator can distribute paid content to their target audience based on our data. I called it, CPV : Cost per 1k Video Views.

3. Machine Learning and getting like minded people together... I'm on it. would love to get more inputs from you... i'm at, nish at joday

Thanks again! really appreciate your comments!

--Nish

[ishener]

I'm just not going to sign up and watch videos from your site. It's just not going to happen. Sorry...

[iamjoday]

I understand. Is it because its so bad? or its not useful?

[sid05]

Commenter might be implying he doesn't want to sign up to just try it...

The copy on your page implies you need to signup, even though you have a login as "guest" feature.

Maybe change the copy to something to just, "Check It Out Now"

[iamjoday]

worth trying.. will try out! thanks!

[ishener]

i'm just not going to watch videos there. i have other places i'm watching videos.

[iamnish]

I would like to thanks all the HN members, taking time to comment on this thread.... you guys are awesome!

I can only improve my product with your suggestions....

please keep it coming.... feel free to directly reach me at, nish at joday

Nish.

[andrewchambers]

I think youtube itself is trying to do this. I don't think you can compete with that. Even if you gained traction, wouldn't they just block your ip addresses and prevent you from embedding video?

[iamjoday]

I have always thought of complementing Youtube rather than competing with them.

Youtube is platform and a really good one... allowing the rise of new age content... brining content democratization/revolution...

whereas Joday has curated content from Youtube(for now) and other sources... organized for easy access by channels etc. and further more personalize it according to user taste...

It would be really sad if youtube decides to blocks video embedding as majority of youtube videos are watched by embedding.

[gholevas]

just pointing out that you should check your spelling for the word "relevant" on your site

[catmanjan]

Isn't this just YouTube without hosting? Why would I use this?

[iamjoday]

Well according to recent statistics, "100 hours of videos are uploaded to youtube every minute."

my goal is to make it easy for you to discover videos from youtube and other sources on internet...

consider it, "Netflix for Youtube Videos"

[Jeremy1026]

Anytime someone describes something as "X of/for Y", I go check out Y. I'd work on your pitch.

[iamjoday]

Sure. But as a product or idea, do you see a need for it.

[Jeremy1026]

Not really. I subscribe to multiple channels on YouTube, which has provided plenty of extra subscriptions based on the home page "What to watch" and the sidebar related videos.

[catmanjan]

So why wouldn't I just use Netflix lol

[iamjoday]

because there is no Netflix for Youtube...

[nyddle]

Aren't youtube suggestions good enough?