Bankless is almost exclusively just about ads to pump their own bags with little objectivity, though I guess they occasionally will have more knowledgeable guests who themselves might provide useful information. Either way, last place to go if you want to avoid the hype.
For me, this was the best intro to BitCoin - http://gendal.wordpress.com/2014/03/27/how-i-explain-bitcoin...
It doesn't focus on tech - it explains why BitCoin as a platform is so important and what are the killer apps that can be build with that platform.
We've created Discourse ( https://www.discoursehq.com ) to let big corpo have a direct link with their customers so they don't have to call them - instead they just send a message and nature of our channel is that customer can engage in a conversation, get more details etc. Would you, dear HNers, use it? We will launch first big brand customer in December.
So they are much like a "virtual VC"? But you do understand that VCs have value because they bring "unfair advantage" or "connections" or "good advice & experience"?
FundersClub has to think of two sides of the problem - how to shield large number of inexperienced investors from the founders and how to provide network, unfair advantage and smart advice to the founders.
One of the biggest values of YC is the second part. Replicating this is going to be difficult.
You are right. But just answer honestly one question - is this data that sales people provide for their reports really 100% honest??
If you had CRM on top of the communication tool - or even better - CRM reports like pipeline would be in real-time generated based on real life customer interactions - that would be much more valuable right?
That is exactly what we do with Discourse ( https://discoursehq.com ) - there are couple of usecases where this makes a lot of sense:
- real-estate brokers can track pipeline based on real life customer interactions
- car sales
- financial services sales
- telco services sales
We have integrated Discourse with Facebook fan pages so leads generated on fan pages can be immediately converted into prospects - right there on the spot.
We have a growing number of customers and we are looking for more :)
We have built Discourse ( https://discoursehq.com ) with exactly that vision - that CRM is not a sales tool and good communication platform for sales teams, customers and partners will be much better.
Anyone interested to learn more can see also http://blog.smartupz.com
EDIT: this comment may sound like a plug but I'm really excited to see CRM discussion on HN and had to jump in :)
As a founder of a B2B startup I think that your article is great!
I think that this quote from Steve Jobs is a perfect fit here:
When you first start off trying to solve a problem, the first solutions you come up with are very complex, and most people stop there. But if you keep going, and live with the problem and peel more layers of the onion off, you can often times arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions.
I wish I UNDERSTOOD (very different then "I wish I knew") that 2 years ago when I was starting my company. Focusing on the problem, discussing it with the people that actually have that problem and not jumping immediately to solutions but "peel the onion" is something very very very hard to do.
Hope that next episodes of your article will provide more info about HOW to peel that onion :)
