Top all-time · #369
Linktree
Personal blog · calacanis.com · on HN as jasonmcalacanisstartupsbusinessculture
Linktree is a personal blog at calacanis.com about startups, business and culture. Since 2007, 145 different Hacker News readers have linked it 196 times, most often “You Don't Have What It Takes”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Rarely recommended · 5 of 37 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Calacanis's posts as sources for his views on startups, VC funding and Mahalo, and point to older posts on startup advice and business models.
- Recommended for · 5 comments
- Called 'said it best' on VCs and unicorns; a point 'stole my heart'; a hackathon post 'great for inspiration'.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 37 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
How do I contact angel investor Jason Calacanis?
Most-linked posts?
- You Don't Have What It Takes5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2015-09-20
- The Controlled Deflation of the Bubble Is Almost Complete3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2016-01-14
- How to save money running a startup3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2008-10-19
- Why Mahalo employed a felon hacker3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2009-03-05
- Why startups shouldn’t have to pay to pitch angel investors3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2009-10-09
- How to survive and thrive in a down market3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-07-26
- The Future of Startups 3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2008-11-08
- The Pegasus Startup: Flying over VCs on the Wings of Profits3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-09-09
- Incubator hopping: Should you go to more than one incubator?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2016-01-26
- On Bailouts and Sports Cars2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2008-12-01
What Hacker News says?
I am surprised that the comments haven't mentioned the role of SEO in Wikipedia's growth and defensibility. Wikipedia's habit of deep interlinking helped it rank back in the early aughts when the SEO rules were rather simple. Add to that the subdomain-driven localization strategy and many other moves that were considered SEO best practices back in those years when the on-page factors used to matter. But that was jus…
Comment linking /2006/10/28/wikipedia-leaves-100m-on-the-table-or-please-jimbo-reconsider/
on “Wikipedia is 20”Submitted How much should I raise in my angel round? How should I spend it? as a story · 181 points
HN discussionI actually believe it's fine for folks to incubator hop -- Sam does not. Sam's Post: http://blog.ycombinator.com/getting-into-y-combinator my post: http://calacanis.com/2016/01/26/incubator-hopping-should-you... 99% of the investors out there agree with my position -- the 1% that don't work at YCombinator. :-)
Comment linking /2016/01/26/incubator-hopping-should-you-go-to-more-than-one-incubator/
on “I Am Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator. AMA”Submitted The Big Game, Zuckerberg and Overplaying your Hand as a story · 159 points
HN discussionI think Calacanis said it best: https://calacanis.com/2019/02/11/what-is-a-startup-vs-a-life... VCs are optimizing for the unicorn, and there is nothing wrong going for the non unicorn either. It's just you shouldn't go for VC financing. If you make a business that hires 50 people and throws off $10 million a year to you, you'll probably make more than most founders ever will anyway after 3 years of that business.
Comment linking /2019/02/11/what-is-a-startup-vs-a-lifestyle-business-and-why-it-matters-for-vcs/
on “My Notes on How to Start a Startup by YC”Submitted Yahoo committed seppuku today as a story · 140 points
HN discussionI feel for the cut staff and Mahalo has plenty of dough in the bank but reminds me of Jason's article "What to do if your startup is about fail (or "Don't Stop Believing")" http://calacanis.com/2009/02/27/what-to-do-if-your-startup-i... Applicable lesson I learned the hard way - better to make cuts early in the face of a serious shift vs. burn cash, see morale dip, etc.
Comment linking /2009/02/27/what-to-do-if-your-startup-is-about-fail-or-dont-stop-believing/
on “A Week After Google Changes Algo, Mahalo Fires 10% of Staff”Submitted Why Mahalo employed a felon hacker as a story · 128 points
HN discussionI clicked one of the links http://calacanis.com/2015/07/04/the-most-important-piece-of-... The 6th piece of wisdom this particular thought leader has for us is "NEVER GET INVOLVED IN POLITICS & NEVER BE NEGATIVE." Which is followed immediately by this: "The people who are killed, the deer, tend to huddle around the kitchen or go on cigarette breaks and bitch and complain about everyone and everything at the company.…
Comment linking /2015/07/04/the-most-important-piece-of-advice-for-folks-starting-their-careers/
on “Career Advice for Engineers and Designers”Submitted The Case Against Apple as a story · 125 points
HN discussionYeah, too many developers don't seem to have a good understanding of the average user (and don't do any usability testing), and end up spending a lot of time on arcane features that most people don't use or don't want to use (but are forced to). Like so many keyboard shortcuts and hidden menu options. In general, if it is out of site (like in a menu), it is out of mind. Or software is designed for text input since i…
Comment linking /2007/02/20/technological-obscurification-three-ways-wikipedia-keeps-99-of/
on “90 Percent of People Don't Know How to Use CTRL+F (or CMD + F)”Submitted Let’s all laugh at my horrible 2006 post: “YouTube is not a real business” as a story · 121 points
HN discussionI've always considered "hacking" relating to making a system do something it wasn't intended to do. You have to know the system well enough and be creative enough to go beyond its perceived limitations. I get a kick out of being creative; others get a kick out of having power over something. In either case, the real thrill is feeling alive and not feeling like a mindless robot. It is funny we're having this conversa…
Comment linking /2009/03/05/why-i-employed-a-felon/
on “How to Be Jason Bourne: Multiple Passports, Swiss Banking, and Crossing Borders”Submitted Avoid the “Apply to Present” and “Angel Pitch Contest” Event Scams as a story · 108 points
HN discussionI wonder if he feels differently about point #16 in his famous "How to save money running a startup" ( http://calacanis.com/2008/03/07/how-to-save-money-running-a-... ) from last year: 16) Don’t waste money on recruiters. Get inside of linkedin and Facebook and start looking for people -- it works better anyway.
Comment linking /2008/03/07/how-to-save-money-running-a-startup-17-really-good-tips/
on “Why Mahalo employed a felon hacker”Submitted YouTube is not a real business (2006) as a story · 91 points
HN discussionCorrect. We will let folks buy trade show tables and exhibitor booths through the front door. I have no problem with a funded company that is selling to our audience to buy a table. I mean, if you're selling a SaaS product that has an average LTV of $5,000 it's probably good idea to spend 2-5x that on a sponsorship for our events (or someone else's) because, well, you'll make it back! The issue we are talking about…
Comment linking /2015/04/29/welcome-to-scale/
on “Avoid the “Apply to Present” and “Angel Pitch Contest” Event Scams”Submitted How to survive and thrive in a down market as a story · 88 points
HN discussionit seems natural and appropriate to let poorly run businesses fail. unfortunately, our central bank doesn't prioritize based on inflation rates: http://www.house.gov/jec/press/2005/10-18-05.pdf instead they do the following: instead of managing inflation, they generally do everything possible to prevent periods of deflation (which requires propping up the money supply) which is what happens when you let industry lea…
Comment linking /2008/11/06/the-future-of-startups/
on “Let G.M. go bankrupt”Submitted Jason Calacanis responds to Aaron from SEO Book as a story · 86 points
HN discussionOops - didn't think anyone would be too interested :) Back in 2006, I was attending a residential high school, so inbetween classes I went back to my dorm and went on Digg to submit and comment. There was still a user ranking system back and I managed to enter the top 5 based on post success (yeah, I spent quite a bit of time on it). Even Jason Calacanis was wondering why anyone would spend so much time on a social…
Comment linking /2006/07/18/everyones-gotta-eat-or-1-000-a-month-for-doing-what-youre/
on “Ask HN: How did you 'accidentally' make money?”Submitted Why startups shouldn’t have to pay to pitch angel investors as a story · 85 points
HN discussion.... and the Launch Conference (my new version of TechCrunch50!) will be Feb 23rd and 24th. website launching shortly at www.launch.is deadline will be January 10th, but i'm doing rolling interviews since many folks are apply for Open Angel Forum AND LAUNCH. http://calacanis.com/conferences/
Comment linking /conferences/
on “Rejected by YC? Get your product ready & apply to present at SuperConf”Submitted Is Facebook unethical, clueless or unlucky? as a story · 79 points
HN discussionAre throw away comments stated on keynote speeches multiple times? Are throw away comments used as the core marketing and public relations strategies for a new company? Just because you are hoping that people have short memories does not mean you can change reality. Lets see what Jason called Youtube http://calacanis.com/2006/05/11/how-youtube-won-great-seo-st... "How YouTube Won: Great SEO + Stolen Content (or the…
Comment linking /2006/05/11/how-youtube-won-great-seo-stolen-content-or-the-biggest-hit/
on “Mahalo Sells Corporate SEO Services? ”Submitted Founders: Do Not Waste Money on TechCrunch Disrupt’s Startup Alley as a story · 70 points
HN discussion> True early stage investors focus on technology, team, demos, prototypes, and so on. Probably team more than anything else. I don't think that's true anymore, if you want to get the best valuation/terms for your company you can't go into a meeting with a potential seed/early stage investor without showing some kind of traction. The bar has been set higher for startups, that is why there is this downward movement in…
Comment linking /2015/11/02/dont-bring-a-knife-to-a-gun-fight/
on “Micro VCs Are Coming”Submitted Why We Should Boycott ComScore as a story · 64 points
HN discussionIn the US ChromeOS seems to have about 4-6% market share [0] with about 60% share in K-12. As you say, those are US numbers and the K-12 figures are much lower (single digits) elsewhere. Of course, not sure what availability and promotion to school systems even looks like outside the US. [0] https://calacanis.com/2019/01/02/chrome-os-is-the-ultimate-p...
Comment linking /2019/01/02/chrome-os-is-the-ultimate-productivity-hack-will-exceed-mac-os-marketshare-but-can-it-challenge-windows/
on “An ARM-based MacBook SE could destroy Chromebooks and mid-priced Windows laptops”Submitted The Stunning and Expected End of Gawker as a story · 62 points
HN discussion
