Comments on C for Coding: Stackoverflow: Joel and Jeff want VC Money? Say Wh...

Jeff Atwood is an icon among sys admins, he's the ...

2010-02-17T20:42:12.267+08:00

Jeff Atwood is an icon among sys admins, he's the king of backup :p

Some repeat themselves which is completely redunda...

2010-02-17T03:41:20.705+08:00

Some repeat themselves which is completely redundant.

"The reason stackoverflow.com has gotten so succes...

2010-02-17T03:32:26.592+08:00

"The reason stackoverflow.com has gotten so successful so fast is because Joel and Jeff are icons among programmers."

LOL! Jeff Atwood is an icon among programmers the same way Gilligan is an icon among sailors.

The VC funding may not be for the Triology/League ...

2010-02-17T01:29:50.426+08:00

The VC funding may not be for the Triology/League of Justice.

In response to a feature request I made on meta.stackexchange.com, David Fullerton of Fog Creek responded with "We'll pull it in when we do the merge with StackOverflow shortly after launch." Add that to this quote from Joel's blog post regarding VC funding for SO: "Now we’re biting off the bigger goal of changing the way everyone gets answers to their questions on the Internet, and that’s something we can’t do alone."

Taken together those quotes suggest that the StackExchange project will be merging back with StackOverflow (company and codebase) and then make a combined effort to build both the sell-able platform and trilogy sites with one set of resources. VC funding would be necessary for that since Jeff's company doesn't have the resources by itself and Fog Creek would be giving up control and unlikely to want to be exposed to losses.

> The business itself could benefit from the publi...

2010-02-16T22:56:55.964+08:00

> The business itself could benefit from the publicity of getting an investment from someone who is thought of as being a savvy investor.

This seems like a rather lame reason - how many users do they really expect to get from a post on Techcrunch?

> The investor will add substantial value to the business in advice, connections, and introductions.

Joel is an icon in the programming world and I'm sure he could get an introduction to almost anyone he wanted to. I just don't see what some guy with a MBA in finance is going to add to what they already have.

I just don't see what problem will be solved by them raising VC (speaking as someone that has founded several companies that have together raised about $15M).

Stackexchange is still unproven in other niches. T...

2010-02-16T19:59:15.447+08:00

Stackexchange is still unproven in other niches. The business model is potentially flawed as it's simply too expensive and complex to gain widespread use.

People want something that is easy to understand. It is a great tool for programmers, but difficult for anyone else (such as a mum or a pet owner) to get into.

There is now competition from easier to use, cheaper systems such as Qhub.com, making a similar idea easier to access for anyone. Formspring has shown the potential of social Q&A platforms but it still remains to be seen whether people would use Q&A as an alternative to blog or a forum.

Sorry but who are you to give biz advice so loudly...

2010-02-16T18:53:12.962+08:00

Sorry but who are you to give biz advice so loudly? Did you start and operate something nearly as successful as Joel's FogCreek or Stackoverflow?

@onionfutures: the problem is that it's backwards....

2010-02-16T17:52:42.223+08:00

@onionfutures: the problem is that it's backwards. You don't go to a bank and say "I'd like a loan of an unspecified amount for an unspecified purpose. Do you have any good ideas on how I might use it?"

You develop a business plan and then market it. It may change in that process as different people will have different ideas but if you don't drive the process, it will drive you.

It just seems like those guys are operating under a misconception (eg that there's a land-grab on Q&A sites going on or will happen) or are just looking for ideas on how to leverage this thing into something that makes money.

The latter is fine and I don't begrudge anyone their payday but asking VCs for ideas is a bit like asking Dracula what you should do with all your blood.

I think he's making the right move. Why not test t...

2010-02-16T17:42:28.529+08:00

I think he's making the right move. Why not test the waters, see what ideas come up, and see what an injection of money could do for the business?

You seem hard on these guys doing anything with a good chance of failure, but the model of most of the internet is trying risky things with the chance that one of them could pay off. Maybe he has some ideas hidden and needs money.

We'd be nuts to mess with the programmer-friendly ...

2010-02-16T14:00:40.723+08:00

We'd be nuts to mess with the programmer-friendly formula that made StackOverflow successful in the first place. Don't worry, it won't happen. We wouldn't do it, we wouldn't hire a CEO that would do it, and we wouldn't take money if we thought there was any chance of it happening. That is about as fundamental to our DNA as a company as anything can be.

That's one of the reasons we creative-commons'ed the communities contributions from the beginning and we provide frequent normalized dumps of the data: so that if we (or our successors) go bad for some reason, you can take the content and set up elsewhere.

chnicola: starting a site like stackoverflow has a...

2010-02-16T13:56:13.821+08:00

chnicola: starting a site like stackoverflow has a huge chicken and egg problem. Theres no point asking questions if theres no one to answer them. Theres no questions to answer if no one is asking them. You need to achieve critical mass of people asking and answering questions in a timely fashion before the thing becomes useful to anyone.

Jeff and Joel being who they are had that initial round of users available, ready to go. I wouldnt be at all surprised if there were other better Q&A sites that withered on the vine because they never got critical mass.

This isnt really about long term success. This is about launching into new niches. Doing that, getting the first round of question askers and answers, is vastly easier if you have an existing community leader who cant bring an audience.

Try this: "The reason facebook.com has gotten so s...

2010-02-16T13:26:19.485+08:00

Try this: "The reason facebook.com has gotten so successful so fast is because Mark, Eduardo, Dustin and Chris are icons among people who like posting photos of themselves online."

Seriously though, while websites may succeed and fail partially based on how well they are marketed, the founders being "rockstars" really has very little to do with long term success.

I am concerned as well and was planning to write a...

2010-02-16T12:58:51.707+08:00

I am concerned as well and was planning to write a post myself but you saved me the trouble :-) One of the concerns is the community around Stack Overflow. I think the community exists because of the lack of 'premier' paid features. If they go for such features under pressure to monetize, that community might well evaporate and that would be shame.

The reason stackoverflow.com has gotten so success...

2010-02-16T12:50:53.065+08:00

The reason stackoverflow.com has gotten so successful so fast is because Joel and Jeff and icons among programmers. If they want to make a major push into other niches they need to find similar icons to lead the charge. Connections + cash would help identify those people and get them onboard.

Plus, getting money in to pay for additional staff before the revenue is there would be wise if they really are in a land grab scenario.