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Ask HN: What are some Paid Ads/Social Media agencies early-stage startups use?

3 pointsby lionhead2 yıl önce5 comments

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geçen yıldiscuss

My startup isn't "tech" enough so I hesitated before making this post, but I saw that people talked about their PhD or master thesis and all sorts of cool things, and after all, the prompt is "what are you working on", so here we go!

I am hard at work preparing the 2nd edition of Seoul SPARKS (seoulsparks.com), a 6 weeks pre-college summer program in Korea (currently aimed at US students but open to students all over the world). It is designed to be a high quality, rigorous but also as immersive as possible program, for high school students who want to deepen their understanding of Korean language, culture, and history while earning academic credit at Seoul National University. My aim is to educate the future generation of Korean Studies scholars and I hope my program can be a stepping stone for that! My program director designed a chronological history curriculum, that explores Korea’s past and present through site visits and expert-led discussions. Each week focuses on a specific era of Korean history, beginning with the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1897), where students visit palaces, wear hanbok, and learn about Confucian traditions. The following weeks cover the Japanese colonial period (1910–1945), the Korean War and its aftermath (1950s), Korea’s rapid economic rise through the Miracle on the Han River (1960s–1980s), and finally, modern Korea, including democratization, globalization, and the Hallyu wave. These themes are reinforced through guided tours of historical sites, museums, and cultural landmarks. We try to make it fun too and I think our students last year had a blast!

We try to offer a lot of other really cool things, such as a 100% Customized Cultural Activity (these have included K-pop dance training at a professional studio, Korean Sign Language classes, traditional calligraphy, culinary workshops, and even mini-internships with local businesses ), the opportunity to work on a research project under the supervision of a Korean PhD student if they'd like, and we also link them with university mentors (basically, Korean college students) who hang out with them, answer their questions about life in Korea, help them adjust to life here, and just have fun with them really.

Last year's pilot program was very successful, we were blessed to have a fantastic cohort of very bright and motivated students. The program was also highly rated by parents and students alike (the only serious negative comment we received was: why is Korea so hot and humid during summer?), and I hope we can continue to grow and keep attracting the best students from all over the globe!

Anyway applications are open until April 30th so if any of you have kids or know someone who could be interested, I would be very grateful if you could spread the word :)

Thank you for reading!

2 yıl öncediscuss

Because he is either selling his shares in the company, or the individual assets owned by the company, either way it should be taxed as capital gains.

2 yıl öncediscuss

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer! I do think I have at least product market fit, we know exactly who our customers are, we closed 10 of them and their reaction to your product is ecstatic. I really don't think we have a product problem, but reaching these customers is definitely harder than expected. We did run into high minimums with agencies sadly, so I guess we will have to invest the time and learn what we can!

3 yıl öncediscuss

I applied their advice: "It’s a crucial skill to know how to read the news as it’s presented to us, whether it’s CNN’s rightward swing or the British media’s achingly inescapable royal propaganda during the coronation. One should be able to dissect how a story is told, who is telling it, and what the intended endgame is." and stopped reading right at this paragraph.

4 yıl öncediscuss

Interesting, thanks for sharing. What does this imply for the GPU market in your view?

5 yıl öncediscuss

>The US GDP directly translates into the amount of taxes paid. Suppose a 50% drop in the value of USD happens. If nothing else happens taxes increase by 100%, and people need to acquire more USD which drives the value of the currency up.

? GDP is produced and denominated in USD, domestic taxes are paid in USD. How does a drop in the relative value of USD compared to a foreign currency influence domestically paid taxes in any way?

5 yıl öncediscuss

Okay, I have (a bit) more details for you. I got a copy of the bill so I could check the exact wording, I am not a lawyer, just a concerned citizen but I am sure many of you are curious to know so I am sharing it.

First, to understand how this law amendment was introduced, it's important to understand the original act, called the "TELECOMMUNICATIONS BUSINESS ACT" which is the main act regulating the sector. Article 50 of this act defines a list of prohibited acts by market participants, and the related Enforcement Decree prescribes a number of punitive measures the Korean Communication Commission is allowed to take against entities found in breach of Article 50 (the measures range from corrective orders to penalties).

Here is the original article:

   Article 50 (Prohibited Acts)(1) No telecommunications business operator may engage in any of the following conduct (hereinafter referred to as "prohibited acts") which undermine or are likely to undermine fair competition or users' interests, or allow other telecommunications business operators or third parties to engage in such conduct: <Amended by Act No. 13823, Jan. 27, 2016; Act No. 15858, Dec. 11, 2018> 1. Placing unfair or discriminatory conditions or restrictions on the provision of equipment, etc., joint utilization, joint use, interconnection or joint-use services, wholesale services, provision of information, etc.;

. . . ...and the list goes on, to end at number 8:

  8. Unfairly restricting measures to delete any software unessential to implementing functions of a communications terminal device or measures equivalent thereto; or installing and operating or suggesting any software that unfairly restricts the installation of other software.

Now what this amendment does is add the following three prohibited acts to the list:

Korean:

  9. 앱 마켓사업자가 모바일콘텐츠 등의 거래를 중개함에 있어 자기의 거래상의 지위를 부당하게 이용하여 모바일콘텐츠 등 제공사업자에게 특정한 결제방식을 강제하는 행위
  10. 앱 마켓사업자가 모바일콘텐츠 등의 심사를 부당하게 지연하는 행위
  11. 앱 마켓사업자가 앱 마켓에서 모바일콘텐츠 등을 부당하게 삭제하는 행위

English:

  9.  For app market operators, abusing their dominant position as intermediary in mobile contents transactions to force upon the mobile content providers the usage of a designated (specific) payment method 
  10.  For app market operators, unfairly and unduly delaying the review  of  mobile contents submitted to the marketplace [by mobile contents providers]
  11.   For app market operators , unfairly and unduly deleting mobile contents from the marketplace

Please note:

1) All translation is mine.

2) I am not a lawyer.

3) I am only sharing this because I learned so much from the HN community and because I've repeatedly seen requests for details about this law.

4) The bill(Korean): https://likms.assembly.go.kr/filegate/sender36?dummy=dummy&b...

Telecommunications Business Act, with its Enforcement Decree (English): https://elaw.klri.re.kr/eng_service/lawTwoView.do?hseq=50189

5 yıl öncediscuss

I agree in a way; there has been a lot of inflation due to printing money, but that inflation went straight to and stayed in the financial sector, supporting assets prices for the last decade. The recent inflationary trend in the real economy is due to "real" factors, including the covid-19 shock.

5 yıl öncediscuss

Give it a few days then check this link: https://elaw.klri.re.kr/eng_service/recentlyLawList.do

5 yıl öncediscuss

If what you are saying is true, then there is a huge arbitrage opportunity there, unless there are sufficient transaction costs or legal deterrents involved.

If the value of bitcoin relative to MXN is steadily going up (meaning that MXN is losing value relative to USD), then it automatically mean that the value of MXN is also steadily losing value relative to USD. So at the end, from a "value" point of view, nothing will change for you because both currencies are "pegged" to USD. If parity doesn't hold, there is an arbitrage opportunity there; suppose

1 USD = 2 BTC 1 USD = 4 MXN

The implied exchange rate MXNUSD would be BTC = 2 MXN. But imagine as you say that for some reason, this doesn't hold, and actually 1 BTC = 5 MXN in Mexico. I have then an incentive to buy 1 BTC at 0.5 USD, use that 1 BTC to buy 5 MXN, and sell all that MXN at the original rate of 0.25 USD, earning 1.25 USD.

I can understand that it may be easier to physically hold BTC as opposed to fiat USD in that situation, but I don't get the value store proposition. Anyone saying that they see Bitcoin as a store value, are implying they believe that in the future, some people will want to pay for 1 Bitcoin the same amount (or higher than) it's currently worth. It's a perfectly valid claim to make, but what is this belief based on?

5 yıl öncediscuss

It doesn't matter if masks were hard to source at the beginning, every single country found itself in the same situation. Korea is one of the biggest producers of what you call FFP2 masks in the world yet we had a severe domestic shortage here too (the reason for the shortage, after a government investigation, was that suppliers exported most of their production because China was ready to pay x10times the regular price; old dear capitalism at work), forcing the government to nationalize the supply (basically buy all the production) and take over distribution under a strict rationing scheme, until supply stabilized. Nowadays a KF95 (FFP2 equivalent) mask costs less than KRW 500 and supply is plentiful. In early March last year, I had to line up once a week for the chance to buy a maximum of three masks for KRW 2500 each. Sure, the government should have anticipated all of this and establish an export ban early, after all "gouverner c'est prevoir". But what's more important is to be honest with the people who elected you and fix things as soon as possible.

None of what you mention can excuse or justify the blatant lies of the French government. A democratically elected government should not lie to its population, under no circumstances. You don't send a spokesperson on national TV to tell the population that masks are useless, and that the general population wouldn't even know how to use one(!!!).

I suspect the French population will be far more forgiving of a government fuckup followed by an apology and visible and effective efforts to fix the situation, than an outright lie that was only necessary in the first place because of arrogance, complacency and incompetence.

5 yıl öncediscuss

At the early onset of the Covid-19 pandemic started, many countries sent special planes to repatriate their citizens either from the Wuhan region, or from other countries where they got stuck because of a sudden borders close. The US also organized flights, but I was personally very shocked to learn that they charged close to $1,200 for those trips, although it was clearly a case of force majeure. That was the moment I thought that Americans don't actually get their tax money worth in terms of government support, while being subject to taxation on their worldwide income even when not residing in the US.

To be clear, most if not all countries chartered special flights for free. Later on, some more flights were organized with the help of airline companies, but those were paid.

5 yıl öncediscuss

>The virus could be squashed pretty much completely.

In Korea, we tried, succeeded for a couple of weeks, then failed.

5 yıl öncediscuss

Generally, the landing page is not an MVP, it's just that: a landing page. It's a cheap and quick way to get at least some market validation before you start working on your actual product.

But depending on the product, It could be little more than a more elaborate form of customer interview (asking someone: would you pay for this? Does this sound like something you would use?), or it could be actually an effective sales page.

Let me try to give you a couple of examples to clarify: if your product is trying to solve a moderately big and complex problem, let's say personal finance, team project management, home security, etc. With a landing page that only contains a product mockup and asking for an email, you are effectively only gauging initial interest. The thing with this kind of feedback is that an explosive, huge amount of initial interest does tell you something meaningful (You are onto something, keep going!), but moderate or low amounts of feedback don't necessary tell you much about your product-market fit or predict success. It could be that the idea sounds initially interesting but your execution is poor, it could be that your product sounds really cool but fails to solve a definite problem in a definite way, or it could be that there is a real need for your product in the real world but your landing page/marketing copy sucks, resulting in poor email engagement. In this case, the landing page should be used as one tool among many to de-risk your startup early on, along with traditional market research, customer interviews, etc.

But let's say your product is an online programming course on Flutter, or an Indian food cooking guide. You want to know if there is a market for this. If you design your landing page in a way that promises delivery of the product very soon, even if you have not yet started working on it, then your customers are already in "show me where to send the money mode" and the feedback obtained from the landing page is actually meaningful. In this case, the gap between the landing page and making a sale is much smaller.

This is just my take on this, having thought about this specific issue some time ago.

5 yıl öncediscuss

I don't know man, I beg to differ. I am a non-ethnic, naturalized Korean who immigrated to Korea fairly young. I am fully assimilated (note that I am not saying integrated, but assimilated; this is critical) and part of society, I feel I have an equal opportunity at doing anything a "native" Korean would do. I could run for politics if I wanted to (which I am considering), my relationship with people are as normal as they could be. I don't feel "tolerated" nor "accepted", nor have I ever felt the need to. People basically treat me the same as they would treat any other Korean.

Sure, there is some minor "friction" because of my different ethnicity (basically I look white), such as random people first assuming that I am a foreigner, which is completely understandable for historical reasons. I do that myself, whenever I see a white or black person, my first reflex isn't to assume that they are Korean too, there is a 99% chance that they are foreigners. But all it takes is a 10mn conversation for them to know that I am "one of them". I sometimes get puzzled looks from people who have never met someone like me, but that's mainly because most of the population don't even know you _could_ naturalize and become Korean. At the airport, the staff speaks in English to me at first, but as soon as they see my passport they profusely apologize and switch back to "Korean" mode. That's about it.

I do however understand and sympathize with the fact that many foreigners, even long-term residents, might feel the way you described. I am just disputing your claim that it's "impossible" to become Korean.

I personally think because Korean society functions in a very binary way: either you accept everything and take it in as a whole and then can become a member of society, or you just do a few things (such as marrying a Korean person, speaking Korean to a certain level, etc.) and you don't. There are valid reasons to act like that, there is this instinct of jealously preserving Korean culture out of fear that it will be taken over by other giants: China, Japan, the US, etc. And Koreans would rather keep the bad aspects of their culture than risk losing it all. It's just part of the deal, and I think many foreigners have a hard time understanding/accepting this fact.

5 yıl öncediscuss

As a Korean citizen, I am not even allowed to cross the border to the north, yet alone give a talk.

5 yıl öncediscuss

In your opinion, where can I find resources about solid medical research results on acupuncture and chiropractic? Thanks.

5 yıl öncediscuss

I had a little scare that I wouldn't find Peter Thiel in the list, but I did and now I am subscribed ;) The concept is awesome actually, for the exact reasons you are mentioning: content is scattered, I might not use or be on some of the platforms, etc. Now my question for you is: how do you make sure you don't miss any of their contents? thanks anyway and good luck!

5 yıl öncediscuss

That makes no sense. Trading desks at the banks are not dedicated to "efficiently allocating capital", they are there to turn a profit no matter what. What's good for a trading desk might not (and often is not) always good for the economy.

You say that passive investment provides no value to society because it provides capital for failed and successful businesses equally. But there you said it: it contributes capital to companies that will succeed. How is this "No value to society"?

>It's only more profitable than mutual funds because ETF's have lower fees due to special tax rules around rebalancing.

No, it's the other way around. It's because ETFs have been found to be more profitable on average than mutual funds, that it was heavily incentivized to invest in them. ETFs are profitable for structural reasons, because it's really hard to beat the market on average.