Not really. This relates to commerce, not photo sharing, blogs/articles, videos, link sharing, etc. So if you want to think of it as a browser for businesses and sellers, that would be more accurate.
Has anyone worked on anything similar in the past, or have any insights on growing something like this? We realize its an uphill battle since there's the chicken and egg problem, and at the same time we'll need to convince businesses to use this platform over others who currently have all the users but little features (think FB's Messenger). There is also a variety of different industries that require different approaches (restaurants, food chains, home handywork, professional services, hair salons, etc).
I think this is a little too much conspiracy-mongering. Three federal judges have been killed in office, none of them seemingly assassinated by the US. government. Federal judges also have good job protection—"federal judges have perhaps the best job security available in the United States", and only 15 have ever been impeached in all history (it would take a session of Congress). Judges are also socially well-respected, so it'd be hard to find social attacks on a judge.
What exactly were you going for with your comment? What sort of illicit pressure were you suggesting?
I can't speak for the U.S., but I do know of (as it's someone I know - not because it's been in the press, apart from the character assassination bit) one case in the UK where, behind closed doors, a senior QC opposed the machinations of a secret court... And then totally unrelatedly the press and prime minister come forwards to slander him, and his wife is found at home brain dead, apparently having tried to commit suicide.
Those aren't even the most dangerous jobs in the US. Garbage collectors and construction workers face a higher chance of maiming or death every day than soldiers or police officers.
That's a good point. The reason for it is because this service came about from our previous Facebook pages we created for colleges that ppl could use to do essentially do the same thing. Every time someone makes a comment you can see who it is, allowing people to learn about each other and socialize in the comments, around the confession. The posts basically allow ppl to meet new ppl.
This is huge! Imagine if this existed during the time when Facebook was becoming a big deal and individuals could invest in it. Imagine, for example, if instead of that $2.5B pre IPO cashout going to one single investor it got distributed amongst 50,000 investors. That would $50K for each at a 1000 fold ROI. $50K is most people's yearly income =)
I guess, but that isn't how investing works. You would have to average that with all the failed and underperforming investments that you typically have.
If you are a passive investor what you would do is invest in all the crowdfunded investments available or a large number at least and then hope to beat the S&P 500. It might make sense to apply some basic fitness criteria for inclusion, but what those criteria should be is a good question.
Having more things to invest in is good, but I am going to hold off for five years or so until the mechanics for how to successfully participate have been figured out. Then I have to figure out how I am going to get access from retirement accounts. Hopefully this gets turned into an ETF or a mutual fund, but then the question would be how this differs from publicly traded securities.
Even then... how much of your investment money would you want to put into an asset class that doesn't have a decades of history. When things go south will you have the fortitude to stay the course or will you realize your losses and pull out because you don't know what to expect?
I'm imagining the hordes of frothing con artist sociopaths that are about to create flashy demo videos and cutout companies with lots of fakey "social proof" and cutout demos sold as real products.
Equity crowdfunding for the general public should be a good idea, but unfortunately I'm afraid it's not. The asshole to elbow ratio is just too low. I'm deeply concerned that the entire seed stage market is about to get shat upon rather copiously. The frauds will actually drown out the good deals, since they'll almost by definition be better at flash and promotion.
A lot of people are really naive about this stuff. Organized crime will likely get involved. It will not be pretty. But hey, those companies that make flashy startup intro videos are about to do a lot of business.
It'll be just like Kickstarter. Yes there is fraud and yes there are well meaning failures but you also get huge successes like Oculus (and many others).
Just as there are sure to be well publicized stories about people getting fleeced -- there will be stories about other people getting rich.
Why would pre-IPO Facebook take their money? Once they got going they never had any problem raising money from serious traditional institutional investors, so why bother dealing with 50,000 casual investors from the general public?
The main companies who stand to really benefit from this are those that cannot raise cash from tradition institutional investor. And companies that cannot raise money from tradition institutional investor don't have the best track record.
1. Control: Traditional investors want power. Board seats. Founders like Zuck who want to retain control would be able to do it if they funded via the crowd. Right now he has (rare) voting control but if he had funded via the crowd he could have had 100% control. Every single board seat.
2. Leverage: If they wanted VC money for their advice and connections etc -- but they didn't want to give up the aforementioned control, they could use crowdfunding (or the threat of crowdfunding) as leverage. This leverage could also be applied to deal terms like amount raised, valuation etc. Competition is great for negotiations.
As much as I find the idea of crowd funding an interesting, potentially innovative idea that should likely be allowed, I cannot see a situation where it doesn't end up creating literally the exact same scenario as unregulated penny-stocks.
A huge slough of shit companies who can't get funding from respectable investors and then proceed to aggressively pursue the average joe with 10k in the bank to invest a few grand "in the next big thing!"
* An app that allows people to search up the products of small local businesses near by, pay for them via mobile, and then have it delivered to them via a trusted Uber driver. Good for small businesses since they wouldn't be able to afford a fleet of cars. Uber delivery will increase business since they will no longer be limited by their location.
* Tinder integration would be perfect. Users can agree upon a location via a google map in the app, and then schedule Uber drivers to pick them both up (option to share ride too). No need for either person to reveal their address to the other. Will make participants feel more safe.
* Vacation package integration. Not sure if this is already being done, but vacation packages can now include a dedicated Uber driver, along with the standard hotel + plane package. Will make vacations even smoother.
* Office lunch app uber integration. An app that lets co-workers pool money together to order lunch from local restaurants, and then have it delivered via Uber. Business for restaurant is increased since they are no longer limited by seating capacity (esp during high volume times - business plaza at 12pm for example).
* This idea is a combination of some of the others. Pizza Hut, Domionos, Chinese restaurants all do delivery... why not all of the other restaurants? Imagine an app that aggregates a bunch of restaurants and allows users to place orders. As the food is being prepared the app calculates all the nearby Uber drivers, the delivery locations, etc. It then finds the most efficient 'load' for a single Uber driver to carry. For example, pickup food from restaurants A B R since the drop off locations are all near to each other. This allows an Uber driver to take food from more than 1 restaurant to more than 1 customer, maximizing the amount of $$ they can make and decreasing cost for the end customer.
