With all the buzz about TechCrunch40 -- both self-aggrandizing and critical -- the timing of this email couldn't have been better. Steve and I had a phone conversation with this unnamed VC firm well over a year ago; just yesterday, Steve got this friendly follow-up:
Steve,My name is UNNAMED VC ANALYST, and I am an analyst at UNNAMED VC FIRM. I was hoping to touch base and reintroduce you to US, as I believe you spoke to a couple of my colleagues, VC #1 and VC #2, a few months ago. As investors in a variety of internet companies, WE HAVE a tremendous amount of expertise and depth in the software, e-commerce and infrastructure space. Reddit has recently been getting quite a bit of exposure and traffic, and I would love to discuss your growth and plans for the future. WE ARE a $3 billion venture capital/private equity firm, and we focus exclusively on internet, software and software-enabled service companies. If you would like, you can take a look at our website, www.blah.com, for further reference. Some of our portfolioMaybe we should get back to him and "do lunch"...
companies include ...Again, I would like to speak to you more about Reddit, as well as reintroduce you to US and our unique advantages. Please let me know when you are free to speak this week. I look forward to hearing from you soon.Regards, UNNAMED VC ANALYST AT UNNAMED VC FIRM
Steve and Jeremy are going to hate me.
Or I'll make them appreciate silence...
Well, "Mr. OMFG MY HAND IS A BLOODY PULP OF GROUND CHUCK!" to be precise.After my condemnation of the anti-teddy bear warning sticker on my paper shredder, a number of concerned parents emailed me for help. They had read my suggestion for a more effective warning label and wanted to see it created. So in the style of the classic, yet fear-inducing "Mr. Yuck" (he never did marry), I brought Mr. Chuck to life.
Some people have already gone so far as to call my contribution heroic, given the number of adorable kid fingers it will likely save. I don't think of myself as a hero; I'm just a designer doing his job.No word yet on when these will go into mass production.
When we left our intrepid mascot, its deportation rocketship had crash landed on a distant moon.The lone survivor, our deportee assess the alien landscape and takes a moment to regain composure.
Some of you (the nerdier ones) probably deduced the location of our mascot from my clues. The rest of you should just be thankful you're not this obsessed with the Aliens series.
Having spent the last two years just standing around, reading reddit, our pudgy alien is no match for these drones. It's captured alive and brought to the queen's lair.
The United States Colonial Marines save the day, pulse rifles blazing.
Growing up, I was really addicted to this sci-fi universe. Can you tell? I even read the Dark Horse novels -- and studied this. If you'd asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would have said a M56 Smart Gunner (who wouldn't?).
Thanks to the USCM heroics, our mascot is safe. Or is it...Find out Monday. For now, just admire the alien's pink shirt. We hate bullies.
And not "special" in the euphemistic way.I've never been so happy to be bumped off a flight. Waiting in LAX with some spare time and my beloved evdo card, I hopped onto reddit and was so pleased with what I found.
Earlier today, pragma submitted a self post that directed redditors to keep the link at #25 on the front (hot) page. I know of no other sites that function like reddit in this regard -- stories are alway rising and falling on our front page, most never even make it to #1, or even the top five.Go ahead, load reddit. Ten minutes later, hit reload and watch things shuffle around; perform this vigorously throughout the day, our advertisers will love it.I suppose Steve and I benefited from our ignorance of the competition when we started reddit. We just did what made sense. The first time Steve pointed me to the site on our dev server, he had to explain to me just how the hotness algorithm worked. It involved basic arithmetic, so all I remember is what we'd agreed upon -- stories needed to rise and fall. What we simply thought was a better user experience turned out to be pretty unique.I guessed it helped that we didn't know about any of our competition until a month after we launched.The model you'll find everywhere else is easy to explain: once a new link gets X votes (say, 50) it jumps to #1 on the front page and will enjoy a hearty dose of traffic. The next new story to get X votes becomes the new #1 and the old one drops down to #2. It's like any blog, only those first X users are selecting the next story.On reddit, links have to work their way up to the #1 spot, fighting their way up against down votes and time (yes, hotness involves time - stories that aren't getting votes up are always cooling off). If as a result of this neat experiment, you've figured out our algorithm, Steve has already promised to change it. Heh.Perhaps we (read: I) haven't done a good enough job explaining this in the past. Thanks for giving me some encouragement today, reddit.UPDATE: I've just landed and it's still the #25 story. Hurray.Oh, and a clever redditor (danweber) did something awesome. Hopefully it'll never happen again ;-)CORRECTION: Apparently, JelloShotz did it first. Props to you, sir.
Fry is without a doubt the hottest thing on reddit tonight. Who says you need to go out on a Fryday night to have fun?(-25 points for me on account of that pun. I'm sorry.)
The other reason I flew out to L.A. this week was the offer to see the future a little before everyone else. I even got to play before those 10,000 school children stormed the L.A. Convention Center.
Instead of pummeling you with my entire report, I'll break it down into two more manageable parts. Think of it like splitting the Oreo in half. Well, it's probably more like a Hydrox. With that in mind, let's begin.
Kickass Kung-fu gave me the biggest workout I've had in years. Well, except that one time Steve and I played in a pickup basketball game near Davis Sq. The man who invented full court basketball obviously never tried running up and down a court for thirty minutes straight. Is that you, Dr. Naismith?
I rest my case.Anyway, it basically involves punching and kicking air to fend off virtual attackers. I think I even saw them give the school children a 2x4 for a more potent swing. I was getting Streets of Rage flashbacks. If you can sneak a massive lead pipe in, you'll be all set. Oh, and they even included a Mortal Kombat uppercut. Nice touch.The founder I spoke with, Ari, even thoughtfully listened to my suggestions -- fatalities and projectiles (there's nothing more embarrassing than trying to do a Hadouken and have nothing happen). I'd even settle for animalities.He also took the above photo for me. Fortunately for me, he didn't capture my attempt at a Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku. I learned my lesson.The other lesson I learned was even more obvious: Robots -- especially samurai robots -- are not to be trifled with. I've seen that Tom Cruise samurai movie; if human samurai could do that much damage to a gatling gun wielding army, imagine the destruction samurai robots would cause. They'd be unstoppable and anachronistic.Sure enough, there was a samurai robot in attendance. Behold Kiyomori:
<script src="http://flash.revver.com/player/1.0/player.js?mediaId:396173;affiliateId:114419;height:392;width:480;" type="text/javascript"></script>
It walks and sits, eh? Cool, but why did you give it a samurai sword and body armor? Kiyomori wouldn't be walking around with a katana unless they were training it how to use it -- or it already knew.We need to find Miles Dyson. Now.
<script src="http://flash.revver.com/player/1.0/player.js?mediaId:396173;affiliateId:114419;height:392;width:480;" type="text/javascript"></script>
It walks and sits, eh? Cool, but why did you give it a samurai sword and body armor? Kiyomori wouldn't be walking around with a katana unless they were training it how to use it -- or it already knew.We need to find Miles Dyson. Now.
