HN Explorer

Ask HN: Why did YC fund two startups that do exactly the same thing?

19 points by araneae ↗ HN
I thought perhaps they were imprints of the same things but it looks like they're entirely different start-ups since they are from two different YC seasons.

Both Picwing and Picplum send printed photos to recipients on a monthly or bimonthly basis.

http://www.picwing.com/

https://www.picplum.com/

14 comments

[ 206 ms ] story [ 146 ms ] thread
c1sc0
Why not? Isn't competition supposed to be a good thing? Also: if you're convinced an idea is going to be big, why not bet on a few companies at the same time? This is not a horse -race.
corin_
Off-topic point about horse racing - plenty of people place multiple conflicting bets on races!
iheartmemcache
An alternative answer is that PG, et al have said time and time again that they invest in people not technology. The partners are probably expecting one (or both) of the start-ups to change dramatically down the road
joshu
Because it is considered sub-ethical by the rest of the industry.
NaturalDoc
How is competition "sub"-ethical? Competition drives innovation. VC's say it all the time, the IDEA is worthless without excellent implementation. I find it perfectly admirable that a VC would invest in two companies that have the same idea. It helps the VC feel more comfortable with their investment and adds enough competition that the two (or more) companies will have to do their extreme best to come out on top. The VC wins, the best company wins and the customer wins. Sounds like something Apple might consider unethical, but it's really not, it's competition.
staunch
He's just stating a fact. It is considered a no-no by most people.

The most common problems happen when privileged information is exchanged between the competitors.

An example: Company A discovers a killer marketing technique that gives them a big advantage but they keep their success quiet. Then the shared VC tells Company B about it. Company A loses their competitive advantage (driving up their costs, etc).

That's one of a myriad of scenarios where information exchange can be unethical and highly damaging. The hard part is that even if your VC is 100% ethical they can easily make mistakes that cause problems.

Thunderdome
Two startups enter, one startup leaves.
tptacek
Aren't these the same company, with two different branded services? Didn't Picplum acquire Picwing some ways back?

Also, Picwing didn't start as an online photo sharing service. It was, if I'm remembering right, a hardware product. The service there now was a fallback for them.

dazzla
I think the same team runs both now. However maybe they are both abandoned now as I can't get any response to support emails.
kevin_wan
they don't want put all eggs in a single basket.
lyime
One of the founders of Picplum here.

We acquired the Picwing last year when we started Picplum. The core idea behind Picplum was based on Picwing.