8 ms·
"Make something people want" poster
- duiker101 13y agoI get all the revenue will be donated but isn't 40$ a bit too much for an unframed poster?
- cloudwalking 13y agoNot if the point is to donate the profit.
- jt2190 13y ago> Buy a poster *and* fund medical treatments through Watsi.
- rudyadler 13y agoYeah, we debated the price for a long time and consulted PG. Keep in mind that the poster was made using high production standards. They are screen-printed by hand and embossed on really beautiful French paper. We are also just trying to maximize the amount of money we can raise for Watsi since this is a limited-edition poster.
- bdcravens 13y agoThink of it like you would a charity auction; you're giving to a cause and getting a bonus item.
- imroot 13y agoI can't seem to get it to work -- after the "Secure Payment" steps, my screen refreshes with no confirmation or receipt.
- rudyadler 13y agoSorry about that. Let me look into it. In the meantime, can you try again on a different browser?
- signalsignal 13y agoI think the "Make something that works" poster isn't available.
- victorhn 13y ago"Make something people want (at a reasoneable price)"
- swah 13y agoMake something people want (and charge for it)
- bochoh 13y ago"There is a 3-poster limit. If you order more than 3, we will lovingly cancel your order. Please email us if you have a special request for a bulk order." I suggest only allowing people to order 3 in the quantity field instead of 9 if three is the max.
- wuster 13y agoThis smells like the new corporate motivational poster, except for cooler kids. IMO a little pretentious, just make something people want, without the wall ornaments.
- pg 13y agoWow, even posters get their middlebrow dismissal, with its characteristic signature of uncharitability pushed so far that it crosses over into mistakenness. Even the most formidable people often put "ornaments" in their sight to remind them of things they might otherwise forget. So it's mistaken to conclude that such things are as a class useless. And I know from experience that this particular sentence is useful, because the same sentence is printed on YC t-shirts, and surprisingly often I find myself in office hours answering founders' questions by pointing to their shirts and saying "make something people want."
- corin_ 13y agoDoesn't the fact that you need to point at them rather somewhat suggest that owning "ornaments" with the phrase isn't useful other than for the sake of art? Buyers of this poster likely won't have their own pg around to point at it and remind them to pay attention to the meaning :)
- pg 13y agoNo: (a) the t-shirts probably also work without me pointing to them, and (b) me noticing that the shirt has the answer is an instance of the phenomenon I describe.
- corin_ 13y agoa) Fair enough b) Do you really need that, or does it just feel nice to see it? If they weren't wearing the t-shirt would you really not think of it? If I put up a poster in my kitchen saying "Eat!" then I would often notice it when it's completely relevant, but that doesn't mean it's a useful poster.
- 13y ago
- DanielBMarkham 13y agoIf you're talking startups, you forgot "that scales" People want haircuts. Being a barber doesn't scale.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- mcintyre1994 13y agoThere's a difference between the business and the job. Being a Barber doesn't scale in the same way a search engine or car manufacturer with 1 employee doesn't scale. There's no reason a company based on haircuts can't scale though by hiring more employees, and without knowing where you live I'm sure some hairdressing chains exist. If you mean that scales exponentially, so the employee-value graph isn't linear, I guess that'd be different and you're probably right.
- ajaymehta 13y agoBeing a barber might not scale, but I would definitely call Supercuts [1] a startup when they were founded back in 1975. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercuts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercuts
- mseebach 13y agoStarting a hair salon franchise > being a barber
- acchow 13y agoThat's what he was saying. There was a post a few months ago about a guy who really liked hair styles. He was about to become a barber but had a conversation with a successful entrepreneur that made him realize that being a barber doesn't scale. He went on to build a hugely successful franchise.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- rudyadler 13y agoPoster are selling fast. Only ~200 left!
- wuster 13y agoAny thought on making a run of Zen of Python? I'd be interested in that more than this version. Would pay $40.
- nathanappere 13y agoQuick question, how much is given to Watsi (what is the profit exactly) ?
- rudyadler 13y agoGood question! We'll update the amounts when the dust settles. I'd expect our cost to be ~25% of the poster price. Everything else will go to Watsi (minus shipping and sales tax for CA residents) Final #s will be posted on Twitter @alvybrooks. We're really grateful to Stripe for lowering their transaction fee and Exec for helping with packing/shipping. Those donations will allow more money to go to Watsi.
- jreposa 13y agoHow about an option to frame it?
- INTPenis 13y agoHow about we make something people need?
- DustinCalim 13y agoThis.
- babuskov 13y agoUnless you make... posters :) Joke aside, I like "need" better. People don't know what they want, just give them what they need.
- emmett 13y agoPeople need very little. Food, water, shelter. Most of these things are already being made, and in quantity. If you restrict yourself to that which is truly necessary, you do very little indeed.
- INTPenis 13y agoWell the hidden meaning behind my comment was that instead of producing more things for us to consume in the 1st world, maybe we should focus our attention on helping the other worlds out there. I know, I know, I'm a dreamer.
- fotoblur 13y agoWhat do people want? "It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them." - Steve Jobs
- notatoad 13y agoOr the original from Henry Ford: "If i'd asked people what they'd wanted, they would have said faster horses"
- MartinCron 13y agoThere's nothing wrong with asking people what they want, the value that you're supposed to add is to realize that there's a better option than faster horses.
- bochoh 13y agoI would pay $40.00 if I could replace your embossed name with mine.
- pjeide 13y agoI just bought one. I likely wouldn't have done so without the association with Watsi. I launched v3 of our product yesterday to an internal audience of about 1000 employees who got to very much enjoy using some new killer features -- none of which the business was fit to imagine. I got to make something that people want, even though they didn't know they wanted it. Now I get to put a commemorative poster up. *edit: typo
- ruswick 13y agoI'm curious as to why the association with Watsi was the deciding factor for you. Certainly, there are causes that are equivalently significant as those being confronted by Watsi, and indeed, organizations that do similar work. The fact that you'd be willing to support a cause associated with Watsi but not with another organization is indicative that Watsi has done something correct in their branding strategy and PR efforts.
- cschmidt 13y agoI think he was trying to say he wouldn't have bought a $40 poster without some charitable tie in. I imagine it wasn't the only worthy cause that would have swayed him. That said, Watsi is popping up a lot with the "cool kids" lately. Chelsea Clinton tweeted about them yesterday. Getting PG on the board got lots of buzz. They're trendy, and that's fine as long as it gets more people the medical care they need.
- wuster 13y agoIMO his purchasing decision is legitimate. I think he liked the poster regardless of the charity element of it, that aspect just makes paying $40 palatable.
- bdunn 13y ago"Make something that solves a pain that people will pay to fix." There you go. The secret to success.
- krapp 13y agoOr alternately, manufacture the illness, then sell the cure. Although that would probably look a bit shifty hanging in the lobby.
- emmett 13y agoNot everything is about solving pain. Some things are about creating joy instead. You can describe Rovio as solving the "pain of not having a fun bird throwing game", but it's a lot more straightforward to say "they made a really fun game that a lot of people wanted".
- mechanical_fish 13y ago"Start a game company" is definitely not a "secret to success." It's not even a reliable path to joy, as plenty of deathmarch veterans can attest. It is true that there are ways to succeed other than easing pain. Helping people make more money is one. Creating joy is, indeed, another. But the beauty of targeting pain is that people who have it are not hard to find - they're the ones complaining really loudly - and the ones you find will often pay for relief. Whereas nobody was wandering around five years ago complaining about the lack of a bird-throwing game and offering money to whoever came up with one.
- bvrlt 13y agoGreat idea! It should be more expensive since they are selling quickly and the money is going to charity.
- wuster 13y agoWith such a small volume, what if the price increased by $.25 for every poster sold. Max price still wouldn't be that unreasonable if you're buying it with charity in mind.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- monsur 13y agoI prefer jwz's "How will this software get my users laid?" http://www.jwz.org/doc/groupware.html http://www.jwz.org/doc/groupware.html
- corin_ 13y agoCould you maybe say a little more about what future projects will be, and/or offer an email list? I'm... curious, at the very least, but I don't really want to follow on Twitter, I just want to see the next announcement, and then perhaps the one after that, and take it from there. And nice job on raising for Watsi - about $10k to them I think?
- vikram360 13y agoIs that helvetica?
- drivers99 13y agoNo. If it were Helvetica, the ends of the "e" and "s" would be horizontal. They are angled, so it's definitely not Helvetica.
- rudyadler 13y agoakzidenz grotesk
- lazyeye 13y agoThe font is a free download:- http://www.fontyukle.net/en/DownLoad-Berthold+Akzidenz+Grotesk+BE+Bold.ttf http://www.fontyukle.net/en/DownLoad-Berthold+Akzidenz+Grote...
- vikram360 13y agoJust curious, how can you tell exactly which font it is?
- vikram360 13y agoJust curious, how can you tell exactly which font it is?
- qeorge 13y ago"Make something people want" may seem obvious, but its still an avoidable and fatal mistake that otherwise smart people frequently make. Put another way: product/market fit is the high order bit. I like simple, profound slogans like "Make Something People Want" or "Just Do It". They're profound because of what's not written. By those being the only words on the poster the real point its made - "make something people want - nothing else matters". The prints look gorgeous. Can't wait to put mine on the wall!
- mayank 13y agoThese look a lot like the posters sprinkled around Facebook HQ: http://bluebones.net/2012/09/move-fast-and-break-things/ http://bluebones.net/2012/09/move-fast-and-break-things/
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- outside1234 13y agocan we get it without the y-hipsternator advertisement? If so, I'm in.
- jpwagner 13y agodidn't inspiration used to be more subtle?
- aarondf 13y agoThe poster may not appeal to a lot of people, but I certainly think it's pretty cool. Purchased! It will look good on the wall with my 2010 radial world cup bracket http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hyperakt/2010-world-cup-radial-bracket-poster http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hyperakt/2010-world-cup-...
- taytus 13y agoI love the poster and the initiative. Sadly I can't spend $40 in a poster, so I created mine https://www.dropbox.com/s/h8bpjdui1a4myhp/poster.JPG https://www.dropbox.com/s/h8bpjdui1a4myhp/poster.JPG
- martindale 13y agoHow ironic.
- frankdenbow 13y agoAwesome, purchasing mine now. I did a similar design (based on Alexis' marketing course) recently that failed (http://teespring.com/mspl http://teespring.com/mspl) but may try to bring it back. Props for hand screenprinting these, that takes some effort!
- rdl 13y agoI hope one of these ends up at the YC office. It looks great.