Our school once had this competition as well. Given the short time period of these competitions, you have to buy high beta stocks in order to do well, or very low beta if the market is falling overall.
In order to win this a friend and I decided to team up and split the winnings. Basically what we did was to get one of us to buy the riskiest investments that we could (penny stocks, other low cap stocks, risky derivatives etc.) and the other would short them. This way over the course of the few weeks one of us would be dead last, and the other far ahead.
One thing the author doesn't seem to mention is how that video could actually raise revenue. I, as well as many others, had no interest in Australian Tennis, but upon seeing this video have suddenly become both aware and at least a bit interested in it.
How many people would be more likely to watch if they expect something similarly funny to happen?
I can't think of a single reason why someone who had the intention of watching the match would no longer be interested in it because of a two minute clip (loosely related to the match and not containing any "spoilers"). On the other hand I can think of a reason why someone who didn't know about or was debating watching, will now watch.
The clip added value, not simply didn't reduce it.
I do have an idea I would like to work on. Something that fits very well with YC or possibly another incubator. The reason I would need an incubator is because it is a social networking type of app, (though I hate to draw the image of a Facebook or Twitter clone) and would be difficult to monetize without a gaining fair bit of traction first, not for the lack of a possible business model. I think the best way that I can describe it is that it is something that I myself wish had existed and would love to use.
I didn't specify a location because it isn't extremely important, but I would prefer to have a partner in the NY/NJ area where I live or the Boston area where I go to college. I prefer working with people face-to-face, but have no problems working remotely from time to time either. The main reason I want a US partner is because I would like to be able to go to an incubator together, or any other things we may feel are great opportunities.
The reason I want a partner is precisely for the reasons you mentioned. I want someone who will help me learn, motivate each other, and ultimately wants to try and accomplish something awesome!
Sounds great. You have passion about startups. But please think twice about your idea of social networking. After color.com failure VC don't accept startups about social networks so much. I recommend you to read this article. http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/160/bill-nguyen-startups
Very interesting read. I understand completely and that is why I was hesitant to call it a social networking app. I feel that is ultimately what it would be categorized as, but it would be much more than that. In addition to that I have a couple of thoughts on how to overcome the chicken-and-egg problem. Hopefully a working demo, and a large enough user base can offset the bias against social networking apps(I use that term loosely).
the best way to find a technical cofounder from HN is to browse people by localization and skills on this site: http://hackernewsers.com/users.html good luck! (I live in Germany, otherwise would like to help)
I would definitely be interested in an internship at a growing start-up. I would classify myself as a Non-Technical business person, though I do have a strong passion and general knowledge of technology. Feel free to send me an e-mail @ Lyandve_brya@bentley.edu
Just an observation I've made, but isn't this almost identical to what WolframAlpha's goals are? With the exception of handling your own personal data, they both seem to work in the same ways: Understanding natural language and interpreting massive amounts of data in different ways. I'd be interested to see how they are different underneath.
Actually this isn't very accurate. There are several posts higher than that, but they don't show up. Here are a few I remember being higher, I'm sure there are more. Granted one of them was about Steve Jobs too.
Felt in Northern NJ. I thought it was the construction crews currently working on the building. I'm just curious, but isn't this magnitude in this area exceedingly rare?
Personally I don't like it either. Much harder to open multiple articles for later and it loads ones that I don't want to read while i scroll towards ones I do.