Apr 10 2020 16 mins
Show Notes:
This week on FounderQuest, it's a cutting room floor clips episode. Hear vintage, unreleased clips of episodes that you weren't supposed to hear. Discussions include: 90's software stores, Alan Turing, water heaters, buying top quality spyware dongles from China and even FounderQuest itself!
Links:
Wish
Apple Arcade
Full Transcript:
Ben Findley:
Hello there. This is Ben Findley, the other Ben at Honeybadger. Don't worry, you don't have to hear my voice for very long. Before we begin, this is just a heads up that this episode will be a bit different. Josh, Ben and Starr were hunkered down this week and weren't able to record an episode.
Ben Findley:
We didn't want anyone to go through withdrawals, so I scoured the cutting room floor for old bits of Maxell UR90 and spliced them together to present you with this, FrankenQuest. As a warning, there are no tips on bootstrapping assess business. If you tuned in for that, you may want to see yourself out. However, if you can hear some random discussions held together with jarring transitions, then you've come to the right place. And now, back to the episode.
Announcer:
Three developers, one mission. Build a business to nurture personal fulfillment. It's not stupid. It's FounderQuest.
Ben:
Yeah, I was talking to someone just yesterday and he mentioned the podcast and enjoyed listening to it and he said, I really enjoy how short the episodes are and that you really get in there and dig into things. So maybe we have to cut all that so that they keep all that.
Starr:
Oh no, okay.
Josh:
But on to play devil's advocate, you know that the other, December was it? That we didn't really have an agenda and the podcasts just totally devolved into awkward pauses and jokes about holidays. Well, I mean that turned out great. I think it was fine.
Ben:
I haven't listened to it, so okay.
Josh:
No, you should, I mean, yeah, it wasn't bad at all. So it was, it was pretty funny and like a few people told me they thought it was hilarious, so.
Starr:
That's great.
Ben:
So let's dive in.
Starr:
You know how Amazon is mostly like Chinese knockoffs and junk now? It's all, it's all grossly overpriced. Like I've bought stuff from Amazon. It's like, this is kind of what I need it's okay, but I know this costs somebody like 30 cents to buy and I bought it for $10. Well, Wish is an app for your phone that cuts out the middleman and lets you buy cheap Chinese crap. Just sort of like directly. So, basically like it's, it's just like a bunch of super cheap stuff. A lot of which looks suspiciously like you can get some things that look suspiciously like.
Josh:
iPhones.
Starr:
Air Pods and iPhones for like $3.50. They're not really, they're not Air Pods but you know, if you want to maybe fool somebody.
Josh:
They're not even Bluetooth.
Starr:
Maybe. Maybe, maybe not.
Josh:
You have to wire them.
Ben:
They're just little pieces of plastic.
Starr:
Yeah. But for things like hats and little pieces of clothing and stuff and jewelry and all that, it's super, super cheap. And I haven't actually gotten anything from them yet. I ordered a bunch of stuff about a week ago and I've got another week to go before it gets here. And so I'll have to let you guys know how it is.
Ben:
Yeah. The only problem with ordering like clothes is that you can't really easily return them right?
Starr:
When they get shipped from China. But if it costs you like $3 for a jacket, who cares? Just give it to Goodwill.
Ben:
I suppose.
Josh:
That's a very Seattle way of.
Starr:
I guess, I guess. I mean, I guess I could go to like the boutique, some boutique store and try stuff on and then buy stuff for $100 and it fits. Sure. But it's like, why don't I just order every size it'll cost me like $12 in total.
Josh:
Yeah, just ship it on an oil tanker from China.
Starr:
You know those, I find those like I've had an oil fumes lend kind of a certain authenticity though.
Josh:
Yeah. Yeah. you can skip the cologne. I see where you're going.
Starr:
So anyway, yeah, I mean everything, everything you could imagine on there. And it's just like, I'm sure it's all flea market quality at, I mean, sometimes that's all you need. Right?
Josh:
So why one thing, why is it called Wish?
Starr:
I Wish? I wish that it would get here sooner.
Josh:
Nice. That's, I'm sure that's why that's, that's their tagline, right? Yeah. Yeah.
Starr:
No, honestly like compared with a lot, with some stuff that like even Amazon you buy it and it ships from China and compare with that. Like it's, I mean it's just, it's like a couple of weeks. It's no big deal. You can also have it shipped like to a store near you. And so I was like this is weird. They don't have stores near me. And so I looked it up, the nearest store near me and it's like some shady like iPhone, right, repair business.
Josh:
Really?
Starr:
Yeah. I was like I got to go to my device repair business and like pick up my headbands or whatever.
Josh:
Like one of those, one of those like PC specialist shops?
Starr:
Yeah. That just seems like a front for something else. Like, you know, shady imports of costume jewelry.
Josh:
Do people get like still get like a whatever shareware infect, or not shareware, spyware infected PCs and have to take them into like some specialist guy at, at one of the strip mall stores? Is that still how, that works. Do you like that's what those places do, right?
Starr:
Do you even have parents, Josh?
Josh:
Yeah, I bet. I mean like they have, they have me, right?
Starr:
What are they doing if they're not infecting their PCs with spyware and making you fix it?
Josh:
I got them all using Apple.
Starr:
Oh yeah.
Josh:
I mean, come on Starr. We're like upper middle class.
Starr:
Oh, there you go. Yeah. My mom's pretty much on an iPad. Like my dad before he passed away, had this PC and oh my goodness. He was just like, he was. So, this was in the time when they had all those things where it's like, fill out this and get a as stereo or whatever. And what it is it's an affiliate thing and basically it's not a quiz, it's like a form. And what it does is it just like sends you to affiliate offer after affiliate offer in this endless cycle, claiming that you'll get an iPad at the end and eventually you just give up.
Josh:
Yeah.
Starr:
And then you've signed up for like, you've downloaded like 20 spyware programs and anyway he's like, if I keep going like if I keep going, they'll have to give me the iPad.
Josh:
It makes sense.
Starr:
No dad, no. They don't. It's a scam. It's just a scam. That'...