Kicksend (YC S11) goes free. Send unlimited files to anyone.

[whyleyc]

So what's the business model here now ?

[larrys]

It's the "wild goose chase" business model. You tie up a bunch of capable guys/gals with some money and prevent them from working on something that might harm some of your other investments and/or prevent them from getting into the hands of other angels/vc's. If the idea fails you then pivot the team into one of your other investments. If the idea succeeds you make a profit off of that. So in essence tie up the team. Companies have been doing this for years, tying up the best legal minds so their competitors don't get to use them.

After all, YC will invest even if you don't have an idea. So what's the big leap if you have a mediocre idea and they manage to tie you up and then steer you to another idea with a little investment?

[mbreese]

I agree, isn't this now the "gain users as fast as we can, regardless of cost" model?

My guess is that they would try to become so useful, then try to either:

a) up-sell (something) or

b) get bought by someone who finds them useful or

c) start to threaten Facebook with a new file/photo-sharing network and get bought

[aslewofmice]

Hope they get bought out until they come up with a better idea?

(Not knocking the product, or saying they're doing it wrong; just agreeing it's difficult to immediately see the business model)

[pdenya]

I'm curious about this too. Maybe get as many users as possible and then either get bought or add a different set of premium features.

[DenisM]

"Now that we've got you setup with using your Facebook account, you need to create a password for Kicksend. This allows you to login to our apps with your email address ([email protected]) and password."

I think you guys need to drop that password requirement...

[DenisM]

More feedback:

1. This is also broken: https://img.skitch.com/20120517-fq5cdhtchw39nrfti2a3qcw8t9.j...

I was trying to type in [email protected] and the problems are:

  1. I can't see 123 anymore
  2. I can't move cursor at all, cursor keys seem to be ignored.
  3. the last letter is partially obscured.

Using latest Chrome on Lion here.

2. Next, the upload dialog does not have a cancel button and no completion estimate. The upload is slow; my files are large and the uplink is slow, so it's my fault, but there could be better handling of this problem I think.

3. Further, there is no way to send feedback. When I click "feedback" I am presented with a search box for FAQ. I don't think it's time yet to be afraid of too many people sending in suggestions and feedback. It's safe to let people send you email.

4. Finally upload is complete and I received my sharing email, and it has a separate link for each file. This is a show-stopper for me - I am not sitting there and clicking links one by one. How about a simple "get all the stuff as one zip file" link?

[rdl]

It is kind of crazy that in 2012 this isn't already a solved problem for most people. (for me, I just do an scp to a machine with shared unix accounts, which is the 1990s solution (very similar to the unencrypted 1980s solution), and obviously not an option for the 99%.

I'd really like to see this take off, get integrated into various apps, etc.

[dsrguru]

http://www.42share.com solves it pretty well and doesn't require a download or registration

[unnamed]

That totally reminded me of http://xkcd.com/949/.

[Devilboy]

I just use email

[aymeric]

Services that don't charge hurt the rest of us entrepreneurs.

It sets the expectations that this kind of service should be free the same way the iPhone AppStore has created the perception that $2 is expensive for an app :(

[wvs]

Only if they're unsustainable. If they are sustainable, then that's disruption.

[dsrguru]

At first glance this looks like a more polished 42share (http://www.42share.com) but forces you to sign up before using. The only about page is linked to in tiny print at the bottom and is just about the members of the team. That might just be because it's in beta, but it will net more users if they can see some kind of description of how it works before having to provide information for nothing in return. Better yet would be to go the 42share route and make signing up optional.

[biot]

I find it rather amusing that the stated problem is people stalking you through your social media timeline, but then to get started with Kicksend's solution to this problem the only authentication option offered is to use Facebook connect.

[ChrisClark]

How is this different from Google+? I can send my photos to specific people through Google+ and if I don't give anyone else access they will never see it. I can even restrict them from re-sharing the photos with anyone else.

[Timothee]

“However, sharing those photos with a subset of your contacts or sending full quality personal images to just your family members is still remarkably difficult. That’s where we come in.”

Hmm, not really. My sister who is not the most technical person has been uploading pictures to PicasaWeb and sharing them with specific people and groups. With the extra storage (whose price sadly increased with Google Drive), I also always upload my files at full resolution and sharing is easy.

The odd thing to me is that if you position yourself against Facebook (who is the implicit target of the first paragraphs), and you go completely free, you have to wonder what the catch is. I pay Google some money for the storage at least.

[cargo8]

If you sign up for Google+ dont you get unlimited photo storage on PicasaWeb and can do the same thing + with circles?

[larrys]

"We were living far from our families and needed an easy way to send and receive large batches of original quality photos, videos and other files."

Although many good ideas start this way obviously you have to take into account how many others are in the same situation.

By "original quality" I'm assuming they mean the full, say, 3 to 8mb file not some 60k jpg. While there are certainly people in the printing and graphic design industry (and others) who might need this even keeping in mind that the service is free I don't see a large user base developing. And the relatively small user base won't even be paying for the service.

[DenisM]

On the other hand, I never recompress/resize my pictures because it's too much work, and the cameras are geting ever higher resolution.

[tlogan]

Maybe, just maybe, they should not require that receiver needs to register also.

[verve]

"Discretely?" Really?

[cypherpunks01]

Yep, each distinct photo is independently sent.

[unnamed]

slipped through the proof readers i supposed..

[mmahemoff]

Is it a response to Dropbox, Google Drive, et al? Seems like they're a more elegant way to handle this problem nowadays, but since Kicksend launched well after Dropbox, I'm possibly missing something.

[brianfryer]

Another startup that doesn't make money. Woo.

[barbazfoo12]

This seems easily doable without involving a third party that needs to keep a record of every file sent, the time and the sender and recipient.

But at least this is a step in the right direction.

Now, what if she sends an encrypted file consisting of copyrighted materials? RIAA, MPAA, are you reading along?

What are we going to do to prevent that?

[notJim]

I wonder if this could be done as a desktop app that makes a peer-to-peer connection. The peer-to-peer part makes it so that no one has to spend any money relaying the files (as well as your security/privacy point), and that plus the fact that it's a desktop app means no one has spend any money hosting servers or anything.

[TommyDANGerous]

Never heard of the site until now, I really like the design and the idea. I can see why this can be useful.

[zanek]

I'm really surprised this company received money from so many VC's.

They're offering photo & video sharing by email ! Seriously ? Is it that hard for someone to login to Flickr or YouTube and click the email icon.

I feel like any 1/2 way decent engineer could make a clone of this company in 8 hrs

[sgdesign]

I kinda miss the previous design, I thought it was more distinctive:

http://mikekus.com/archive/kicksend-homepage-page-design/

[huhtenberg]

But current one has a ballsy

     letter-spacing: -0.05em;

:)

[nchuhoai]

Just curious, could one use this as a backup solution for your own files? Because it looks like you can if they truly go unlimited

[skyahead]

can believe this is a YC company, can not see any value out of it....

[mbreese]

Sharing files between people who do it infrequently is still an unsolved problem. How do I send pictures of my kids to their grandparents for example? It is still easier for me to just email photos to them.

Hell, I just got my lab group to start using Dropbox for group sharing...