South Park Underpants Gnomes Profit Plan

Ryan Holota · 1.1M views · 2011 · 0:10

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Satire & parodyFilm & TV clipsStartups & entrepreneurshipcomedy

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN uses it as a joke shorthand for startups or plans with a missing middle step and no real business model.

What it is

The South Park clip in which underpants gnomes explain their three-phase business plan: collect underpants, then a question mark, then profit.

Recommended by 0 HN commenters across 0 different months, 2013 to 2021.

What Hacker News said

Cites jackgavigan · 2015-08 · on “Source of the famous “Now you have two problems” quote (2006)”

The South Park underwear gnomes joke was a parody of dot-com startups (i.e. around 1999/2000) who didn't have a clear business model. [this video]

Critical wiradikusuma · 2014-03 · on “Wanelo: The First Million Users”

Call me skeptical, but it reminds me of [this video] Like other commenters have said, how did she, being a non-technical founder with no team, could set up the (what appears to be custom-made) website? It's like going to a hackathon and claim that you build an app within 24 hours, but actually have implemented majority of it beforehand and making it a "library". Anyway, looking at the positive side, had the slides contain more detail, I believe it can be inspiring for many people and not received with skepticisms.