lincoln84
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@entrepreneurSF Try Aereo. Broadcast TV for cheap streamed to all your devices over the net.
@Takeshi Young Certainly the people who make their own products - Everlane, Warby Parker, Frank and Oak will be able to complete.
More important, Amazon lacks discovery. Its great going to Amazon to buy headphones if I know what I want, but when I go to Best Buy, I can browse new DVDs and Xbox games that have recently been released. I can't do that with Amazon, at least not as easily. Discovery is incredibly important - millions of new products are launching everyday and I'm sure I want a ton of them. However, Amazon will never show me what I want which is where other ecommerce companies can jump in. Look at uncrate.com. They have a ton of amazing things I've never heard of, even though I go to Amazon twice a week. If they just started selling stuff, I'd go to Uncrate twice a day.
One of the greatest sources of friction to Web dating site as opposed to mobile dating sites is the amount of user information a member has to input before being able to search for a date. Sites like OkCupid, Match and eHarmony take an hour, if not more, of intense user focus before you can complete a profile. I think that is a major reason that new entrants in the space can't go Web first. If you do, only a small percentage of people interested in the site will actually engage with it. That is, only a small percentage of people interested in meeting someone will actually fill out a profile. Compound that with the fact that you only have few people on your site, and its simply not worth the time to create a profile on the new dating sites of the world.
Mobile first dating apps don't have nearly that much friction. They are much more based on physical appearance than actual compatibility (not a knock against either) since no mobile company would expect you to fill out a full profile using your iPhone. As a result, there is less friction and a greater incentive to create a profile. This can help new entrants quickly overcome the problem of their app being a ghost town.
In sum, new entrants should go mobile first so they have membership bases. Then, they can walk "backward" to web apps.
The real problem is that Groupon and LS have investors who need to see progress each quarter. Groupon, being a public company, has to publicize their income statements and balance sheets every quarter. They can't start curating deals to ensure that they only feature high-quality deals - that thinking is too long term. They could have started out that way and built their brand around that, but now they have quarterly numbers to meet/beat and there is no way they can start saying no to deals. In fact, that's why Groupon and LS went from featuring one deal each day to featuring 10+ each day - revenue. Curating deals would be a huge hit to the top line of each company, and it would last at least an entire year. In that amount of time, Groupon and LS's management would be removed.
In terms of trading advertising for products, that's basically what is happening right now. You give away product in exchange for some set of advertising, whether that be through Groupon or radio. Groupon may have a larger segment of their base that are "deal-seekers", but then the point should be advertise in methods that are worthwhile - where the LTV of a customer is greater than the cost of advertising.
Any article about SignEasy should mention SignNow, an iOS app that lets you sign documents for free. Whether they are emailed to you or you have them in DropBox, you can sign instantly and there is no costs as there is with SignEasy.
My favorite part was when you guys admitted that it was hard. Lacy mentioned that her least favorite question was "Is this fun?". "No, it's fucking hard."
It's fucking hard!