Your new designer will be able to have a crack at an original homepage ;)<p><a href="http://i.imgur.com/fRI8Q.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://i.imgur.com/fRI8Q.jpg</a><p><a href="http://i.imgur.com/KbQo0.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://i.imgur.com/KbQo0.jpg</a>
I was super excited to see the data presented and understand its implications for my business and then when I read the comments on YC and TC, all that washed away as I realized that the credibility of the data was probably about as good as the credibility of the designers...<p>Initially, I was excited to check them out because their referral rates look a lot better than mine. Then as I paused to consider what was really going on, brought on by the design controversy, I realize that there was a strong likelihood that these rates couldn't be all that solid because as an MVP, their sample size is probably immaterially small.<p>I wouldn't say that I'm writing Curebit off, but it will be a while before I'm excited about them again...
Serving the assets was a big mistake, but isn't this the same forum that overwhelmingly says copying isn't stealing and that no harm is done to the original creator when you duplicate their work? Now, suddenly everyone's a hard ass about IP? In this case more than all the others argued here, if you exclude the assets problem, there was zero detriment caused by using this design. It's not a competing product, and it did nothing to the value of the original work. If you can write off the assets issue as a bad mistake, and it was, I just don't see how 99% of the HN crowd can suddenly take the high road on appropriation of creative work. Have some consistency.
This is really upsetting for so many reasons. The intent to use these site designs took time and effort to implement. There had to be hours of time that they knew without a doubt they were stealing work they did not produce. To feign ignorance in this case in unacceptable.<p>Furthermore these guys have raised 1.2 million dollars. To think that someone in this position would raise that amount in capital and pull this kind of bullshit is offensive. This is a black eye for the valley.
"And it was the same way with design. I was totally psyched to copy a Müller-Brockmann poster, a Designgraphik composition, or an Apple UI. Merely executing the copy was a thrill. But now every design is supposed to be the next great thing. And as days and weeks and months go by, the design level stays the same while the aspiration goes higher and higher.<p>So maybe it’s time to take one of these Fridays off and just copy something."<p>(<a href="http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2412-how-do-you-turn-inspiration-into-skill" rel="nofollow">http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2412-how-do-you-turn-inspirat...</a>)
Just visited CureBit.. Hmm I think your landing page needs some work. The typography looks a little amateurish (get your customers to refer your friends). The product looks intriguing though. Just fix your landing page because it probably will turn off a lot of customers.