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Why The Founders of PayPal And HotorNot Helped This Dropout (mixergy.com)
39 points by blaisco on Oct 21, 2009 | hide | past | favorite | 14 comments



Really great interview- this is actually my favorite on Mixergy so far.

As an aside, I don't know why there's always a bunch of hate on Andrew and Mixergy when these threads come up. Personally, I appreciate it when his interviews are linked on HN, as this is how I hear when there's a particularly good one live.


Really isn't this the point of Hackernews? to promote and link other sites (even you own) and to enable intelligent discussion? If it wasn't added here I for one wouldn't have learned about it or wegame.com.

That being said, I liked the interview. Though, I don't agree that failing at a business makes an individual more qualified to create another startup. I've met a few entrepreneurs who probably should just pack it in...

Really I think the key is that this guy made good connections and left and impression. If he had made the same connections (somehow) without failing first in a business things might have played out similarly.

Though, the fact that he had the wherewithal to start/fail at 15...kudos to him.

On another note, one of his points is similar to another current topic "eating/buying you own dog food". I suppose it's easy when your a 15 year old male and your market is video games...


I think it's really the smug air that surrounds Mixergy and Andrew. (Disclaimer, haven't met the guy, but from his site, I'm afraid I don't really want to.)

You have an excellent point though that selective HN highlighting of half-decent content actually minimises exposure to the site.


Jennie, could you be more specific? I know I have a lot of room to improve. That's why I ask for feedback at the end of most of my videos.

I know you work. You have a good sense of style. I'll take all the advice you're willing to give. mail at awarner dot com is my personal email address.


I had a similar feeling until I read about your own personal experiences and saw what a hustler spirit you have.

Not smug though. But too polished.

This may help: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/03/its_how_you_...


Smug? Confident, perhaps, but I don't see smug. I see a guy who makes no coin from something he see as his gift to others just like him.


If you like this interview, could you vote for it on Hacker News? --Andrew

I really wish people wouldn't do crap like this.


Why? Because he wants to reach an audience? He didn't say "If you want 5 bucks, could you vote for it on Hacker News?". If don't like it, don't vote for it.


Well, I didn't, but I didn't think begging for votes was really accepted behavior either.

The goal around here, AFAIK, isn't to get the most votes but to have a quality discussion. This guy is just begging you to get links to his site voted up, probably so he can get more eyeballs/ad revenue.


...but to have a quality discussion

Some articles & videos speak for themselves. See http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html .

What to Submit

On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.


The thing is that if it is quality and you are a HN member and your first instinct is not to run to HN and find the article and vote on it if you like it, then this is an easy way to get you to the submission and see the relevant discussion and upvote it if you like it.


If you think this is awful, could you flag it on Hacker News?


That's no different than the digg/reddit vote buttons.


There's even a wordpress plugin that detects where you come from and tells/asks you to digg/upvote items if you come from an appropriate site. (Maybe Andrew's using it?). It makes my eyes bleed, but I bet it works...




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