No one can predict the future - so my advice would be to not go about limiting your future options. You may be one pivot off from being the next big thing and YC could help find that. At the very least, YC will help you be a better entrepreneur.
I believe there is, but like hbbio said it's a matter of the product. You can make the algorithm into a product by offering it through an API to other developers.
Yes, APIs can change an algorithm into a product. This was done by Diffbot (http://www.diffbot.com/) which presents different text algorithms. I love their API, and currently using it for my thesis.
I am so glad this article is out and I read it. It may be extreme but as someone who has witnesses this type of thing go down, I live with the knowledge that we are all one false accusation away from complete ruin. EVERYTHING can be made to look malicious and calculated, and we should all, in this context, live in fear of the government. Stay out of their crosshairs and keep your attorney phone number close by.
Adding some depth to the pitch might help. It appears on first glance to be one page - try showing users how complete and useful the service is with more screenshots and examples of use. Since security is a primary value prop it would be nice to know more about how the site is more secure than github.
Let people choose what tools they use to get the job done. It really sucks to be forced to use inferior tools/software/hardware/etc at work than what you have become accustomed to using in more progressive environments.
The fact that things like this happen make me crazy. I know we're all looking to make products that sell tons, but what about products that will save even 1 life? Couldn't some machine vision combined with automatically engaging breaks have helped? There must be something we as innovators can do.
Possibly a naive question but: did you use a css template or something to make that design? I have a hell of a time making sites look that great in 48 hrs...
I don't know who renowned iOS developer Mike Lee is, but I think this is fantastic. The only way small timers can effect this legal change is to band together like a union. And we've seen how powerful a union can be.
He's a well-known figure in the indie Mac & iPhone communities and is a co-founder of Tapulous and also worked on Delicious Library for Mac. If anyone in this community could do a good job in this fight, it's Mike.
I recently met him at the Startup Weekend Amsterdam and was amazed to find out what a nice guy he is. He is really straight forward, develops ideas on the fly while being totally honest with you.
I'm really glad i could meet him, he is really an inspiring person.
You may not have heard of this, but a union of companies is called a "trust", and there's an entire division of the Department of Justice devoted to preventing them from forming, and destroying them when they do arise: http://www.justice.gov/atr/
Congress has actually enacted specific legislation to exempt the MPAA and RIAA from some aspects of antitrust law. I don't know about the BSA.
To be more specific, though, there are some ways that companies can legally cooperate under current antitrust law — for example, standardizing screw threads and grades of steel. But boycotting the "products" of certain "vendors" is probably not among them.
> I don't know who renowned iOS developer Mike Lee is
Apparently, he's a man who develops software for a proprietary, patent-encumbered platform owned by a company who uses patents offensively. Presumably it's acceptable to use iPatents predatorily because they're broadly linked to a gadget he likes. Or maybe this is just how you think different.
