In 2010 it was hard to get press coverage as a bootstrapped startup.
This lead me to create "https://t.co/jL3uUNmhzx" (the .com was taken)
Today, 10 years ago, I launched BetaList ЁЯдп
Since then we'veтАж
ЁЯЪА Featured 15,000+ startups
ЁЯТЦ Reviewed 70,000+ submissions
ЁЯШШ Welcomed 100,000+ registered users
ЁЯТ░ Generated almost $1M in revenue
тмЗя╕П THREAD
In 2010 it was hard to get press coverage as a bootstrapped startup.
This lead me to create "https://t.co/jL3uUNmhzx" (the .com was taken)
Back then, getting featured on TechCrunch was the equivalent of hitting #1 on Product Hunt.
https://t.co/2F2uJPvqSz
How I Tricked TechCrunch Into Writing About My Startup
Ironically it gained 60K views and drove even more visits than the TechCrunch article. Check it out for the full story.
https://t.co/BDtdFolTcc
But when established companies started asking how to get featured, I offered them paid advertising slots instead. Starting at $50/week and continuously doubling the price until they said no.
Today it's $1,500/week.
Over time more and more founders submitted their startup. So a backlog emerged and it could be days or sometimes weeks between submitting your startup and getting featured on the siteтАж
I initially did this for free as a favor. But then too many founders wanted to skip the waiting queueтАж
Until of course too many people were willing to pay $15. So just like with advertising I kept increasing the price. $199 today.
There have been redesigns and code rewrites, but fundamentally it's still the same concept today. Bringing early adopters and early-stage startups together.
This opened up time and energy for me to work on new ideas like https://t.co/9Gi1X9pqyB (community for makers) and https://t.co/fHfOVQmgBX (job board, a spin-off from BetaList)
But more importantly it was my way into the startup community. Turns out creating a platform for startups is a great way to establish yourself in the community and meet lot of amazing people.
It has been and continues to be a very rewarding product to work on.
https://t.co/jnDaGepb9H тАУ discover tomorrow's startups
https://t.co/gywnB67Zj3 тАУ promote your own
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1/OK, data mystery time.
This New York Times feature shows China with a Gini Index of less than 30, which would make it more equal than Canada, France, or the Netherlands. https://t.co/g3Sv6DZTDE
That's weird. Income inequality in China is legendary.
Let's check this number.
2/The New York Times cites the World Bank's recent report, "Fair Progress? Economic Mobility across Generations Around the World".
The report is available here:
3/The World Bank report has a graph in which it appears to show the same value for China's Gini - under 0.3.
The graph cites the World Development Indicators as its source for the income inequality data.
4/The World Development Indicators are available at the World Bank's website.
Here's the Gini index: https://t.co/MvylQzpX6A
It looks as if the latest estimate for China's Gini is 42.2.
That estimate is from 2012.
5/A Gini of 42.2 would put China in the same neighborhood as the U.S., whose Gini was estimated at 41 in 2013.
I can't find the <30 number anywhere. The only other estimate in the tables for China is from 2008, when it was estimated at 42.8.
This New York Times feature shows China with a Gini Index of less than 30, which would make it more equal than Canada, France, or the Netherlands. https://t.co/g3Sv6DZTDE
That's weird. Income inequality in China is legendary.
Let's check this number.
2/The New York Times cites the World Bank's recent report, "Fair Progress? Economic Mobility across Generations Around the World".
The report is available here:
3/The World Bank report has a graph in which it appears to show the same value for China's Gini - under 0.3.
The graph cites the World Development Indicators as its source for the income inequality data.
4/The World Development Indicators are available at the World Bank's website.
Here's the Gini index: https://t.co/MvylQzpX6A
It looks as if the latest estimate for China's Gini is 42.2.
That estimate is from 2012.
5/A Gini of 42.2 would put China in the same neighborhood as the U.S., whose Gini was estimated at 41 in 2013.
I can't find the <30 number anywhere. The only other estimate in the tables for China is from 2008, when it was estimated at 42.8.
