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Starting up
Personal blog · chrisfrantz.comstartupsbusiness
Starting up is a personal blog at chrisfrantz.com about startups and business. Since 2021, 4 different Hacker News readers have linked it 10 times, most often “Checking in on Fast”. The last post was in 2022, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (2) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Chris Frantz's posts about Fast, the one-click checkout startup that collapsed. Commenters cite his 'checking in on Fast' post as evidence of the company's product and redesign problems.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 2 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Marketing ideas, startup opportunities and general musings on building businesses.
Most-linked posts?
- Checking in on Fast3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-06-24
What Hacker News says?
I don't know why on earth this is downvoted. You're 100% correct and I'm bewildered that this 'conservative' trope is prevailing in the thread. Both companies spent functionally the same amount of money, and both maximised different terms of the [customer count]*[customer revenue] equation. Fast made what was manifestly the wrong decision , both in hindsight and in foresight (I'm happy to post my WhatsApp screencaps…
Comment linking /checking-in-on-fast/
on “What software engineers can learn from the rapid collapse of Fast”Submitted How to Kill a Unicorn as a story · 272 points
HN discussionAs a counter, I think free plans are the way forward. ProfitWell, Canva, Mailchimp, etc are all leaders. Freemium is how you win. I broke down my thought process here: https://www.chrisfrantz.com/how-to-kill-a-unicorn/
Comment linking /how-to-kill-a-unicorn/
on “Don't Offer a Free Plan”Submitted Reflections on my time in Y Combinator as a story · 151 points
HN discussionCrazy that they were still redesigning their website considering that their entire core app barely even worked. https://chrisfrantz.com/checking-in-on-fast/ Like this is just so bizarre, they had seemingly top tier engineers (and a lot of them!) and they couldn't get a working check out experience? Can't wait for the post mortems
Comment linking /checking-in-on-fast/
on “One-click checkout startup Fast is laying off its staff”Submitted How to Sell a Startup as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Checking in on Fast as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Somebody Build This #1 – Shopify for the next generation of creators as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Checking in on Fast as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How to Kill a Unicorn as a story · 2 points
HN discussion