Top all-time · #3490
David Cancel
Personal blog · davidcancel.com · on HN as dcancelstartupsbusiness
David Cancel's personal blog at davidcancel.com covers startups and business. Since 2008, 22 different Hacker News readers have linked it 54 times, most often “Startup Lessons I Learned the Hard Way”. The last post was in 2024, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (7) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link David Cancel's blog for startup advice, mainly '3 Startup Lessons I Learned the Hard Way' on failure and the lack of repeatable success patterns. Other links cover S3 as a CDN and data-driven startups.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 7 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
David Cancel is a blog on the Pika blogging platform
Most-linked posts?
- Startup Lessons I Learned the Hard Way4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2010-10-25
- Startup Lessons from Constant Contact3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2010-06-29
- True Startup Competition3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2011-03-21
- Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2009-10-11
- How to Build a Data-Driven Startup2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2010-07-23
- Startups: What Really Matters Most2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-05-11
- Using Amazon S3 As a CDN?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2008-05-29
What Hacker News says?
Today was day 2 of being full-time for me and my cofounder. We make it easy to build automated emails and measure whether users do the thing you want them to. You can imagine my heart skipped a beat this morning when a prospective customer emailed saying Intercom rolled out (part of) what we do. I figured it was coming, but I didn't know when. Day 2 was sooner than I had expected. I don't know who else this has happ…
Comment linking /true-startup-competition/
on “Automated Emails & Respecting Your Customers”Submitted How to Build a Data-Driven Startup as a story · 129 points
HN discussionhttp://davidcancel.com/3-startup-lessons-i-learned-the-hard-...
Comment linking /3-startup-lessons-i-learned-the-hard-way/
on “Most Startups Die Before Launching, Some Die After”Submitted Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read as a story · 95 points
HN discussionthis is exactly what David Cancel said in his post Oct 2010 http://davidcancel.com/3-startup-lessons-i-learned-the-hard-... : Believe me failing sucks really bad but there are no repeatable patterns that lead to startup success. None. Stop looking for one and just f *ing do it (#JFDI).
Comment linking /3-startup-lessons-i-learned-the-hard-way/
on “What Makes an Entrepreneur? Four Letters: JFDI”Submitted Startup Lessons I Learned the Hard Way as a story · 69 points
HN discussionS3's performance is significantly worse than real CDNs: http://davidcancel.com/2008/05/29/using-amazon-s3-as-a-cdn/
Comment linking /2008/05/29/using-amazon-s3-as-a-cdn/
on “Is Amazon S3 a Good CDN of Choice?”Submitted Warning Signs That Your Product Sucks as a story · 52 points
HN discussionNo problem! I couldn't find it at the time, but I managed to dig up this link for you too: http://davidcancel.com/true-startup-competition/
Comment linking /true-startup-competition/
on “Ask HN: Is anyone using Gigwalk?”Submitted Keep Your Startup Virtual as a story · 41 points
HN discussionI enjoyed this article a lot, I wish someone would write a UIUX version of this. It reminds me of this article, which I have pinned up in my studio. http://davidcancel.com/3-startup-lessons-i-learned-the-hard-... There's nothing like a little perspective as inspiration for projects.
Comment linking /3-startup-lessons-i-learned-the-hard-way/
on “Simple tech skills that non-tech founders should learn”Submitted True Startup Competition as a story · 24 points
HN discussionThis was posted a couple of days ago. (I knew this looked familiar.) http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1542484 Here is the direct link to David Cancel's site with the article. http://davidcancel.com/data-driven-startups/
Comment linking /data-driven-startups/
on a deleted threadSubmitted Our Startup’s Secret Weapon as a story · 21 points
HN discussionSubmitted Startup Lessons from Constant Contact as a story · 18 points
HN discussionSubmitted Using Amazon S3 as CDN, Part 2 - Cacheability as a story · 16 points
HN discussionSubmitted Using Amazon S3 As a CDN? as a story · 16 points
HN discussionSubmitted The golden rule for positioning your Startup or Product as a story · 13 points
HN discussionSubmitted 10 Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read as a story · 13 points
HN discussionSubmitted Announcing ABTests.com as a story · 10 points
HN discussionSubmitted 8 Startup Lessons from Constant Contact as a story · 8 points
HN discussionSubmitted Tips for Startup CEOs as a story · 7 points
HN discussionSubmitted Customer (not Competitor) Focused as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSubmitted Startups: What Really Matters Most as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why I Hire People, Not Skills by dcancel as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSubmitted The biggest problem with A/B Testing as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSubmitted Ghostery gets Acquired as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted Announcing Ghostery 2.0 as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted “No Ands” when pitching as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Building the Salesforce.com of Marketing (Startup Pivot) as a story · 3 points
HN discussion
