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Right now, we don't make much revenue. Luckily, the investment money we just raised gives us a good amount of time to build our revenue-generating features. We're building features like custom domains and other "add-ons" that you can decide to activate for you store, if you want. Sites like Wordpress and Tumblr have done this kind of thing and been successful with it. But I'm determined to make sure the basic stores are always free.
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There a bunch of reasons to do YC. The experience was a big part of it. The ongoing network would have also been amazing. But it came down to valuation for us. We were Valley outsiders and really didn't have any advisors or mentors at the time. YC is very high profile and the companies that get funded out of YC often get very high valuations. We thought that being a part of it would give us the guidance and street cred that we needed to raise our financing round at a significantly higher valuation -- even considering the % that YC takes. Or at the very least, we thought we could get better investors by being a YC company.
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It was Janette's idea actually. I knew I wanted "Store" in the title because I wanted people to instantly have an idea what the website did. Here is an except from a blog post I wrote back in 2008 during our naming phase. At the time, Storenvy was aimed at a smaller niche. The names were all terrible.
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I''m trying to name a social online merch application geared toward bands and clothing companies. The project has been nameless for going on 3 months now. Here is a list of some reject names. They were rejected because either (a.) the urls are taken or (b.) the name is too dumb to ever speak aloud ever again. Enjoy.
iMerch
Merchasaurus
Merchasaurus Rex
Merch Robot
Shopasaurus
Shopasaurus Rex
Storganic
Storganism
Bandana
Magna Carta
Merchenary
Merchinary
Merch Monster
Storable
StoreBus (like "tour bus")
Store Engine
Storegasm (had to try)
Storrr (Like a pirate?)
SolidState
SolidStores -
At the top of their office building.
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I literally did this about 30 seconds ago, so yes.
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We're 100% bootstrapped thus far. But if you'd like invest, let me know. ;-)
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I've always disliked Flash for the sheer fact that It's data -- it's a movie. Flash doesn't do anything to forward the web in terms or standards or portability.
That said, the mobile platform is in even worse shape than the web. Each manufacturer with their own platform and dozens of authoring tools springing up to supposedly make publishing your killer app easier. This does not end well.
I think Apple is taking a stance here to propel the mobile platform forward and to hopefully fast-forward through the awkward teenage years of the iPhone's evolution.
Personally, I think they can do whatever they want. -
It you're asking, you haven't eaten at Torchy's Tacos, gotten your hair cut at Bird's Barbershop, seen a movie at the Alamo Drafthouse, or swam at Barton Springs.
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Doubt it given that we don't actually sell anything. But we've got some cool ideas for craft fairs and whatnot.
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Because Storeenvy looks like Store-Eenvy. But we have that domain, too. Just in case.
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The night we launched. Definitely. I couldn't go to sleep and it was my birthday the next day. I woke up in the middle of the night to check to see if anyone had signed up yet.
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The thing that paralyzes me with fear at night is the thought of my wife, my sister, or my mom dying. I don't think I could handle it.
Note: I have male family members, too, but they don't freak me out as bad. Maybe because I figure they can take it? -
We're moving to SF just for the summer (Jun - Aug). We'll be back to Austin in September. I love Austin too much to leave it for good.
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Yes, but I don't kiss on the first date.
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We had some early in-roads with bands and clothing companies. We wanted to make the stores free and saw that a lot of our merchants were printing t-shirts, so we created the best damn t-shirt printing service on earth.
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Well, we never really intended to print t-shirts. It was just a service we started to pay for the website. We wanted to make the online stores free for merchants, so we had to start coming up with other ways to make $$. The printing was the first idea we put into play and it paid off.
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Greatest bad movie ever. Watch it for free on Hulu at http://www.hulu.com/watch/31381/troll-2
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Jon Crawford’s Bio
Founder of Storenvy.com. Faster than a speeding mind bullet.
