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6,201 | null |
comment
|
planhq
| 1,174,863,804 |
Hi Nick,<p>Understand your concerns about privacy and security, and not everyone will feel comfortable immediately, but we'll keep proving ourselves as independent application providers who really just want to make a really cost effective and smart way to maintain an up to date business plan that you can achieve.<p>I'm trying to think of smart ideas on how we can provide more comfort, maybe have a recognised audit partner perhaps... In the meantime we'll have to get the people who are comfortabel managing their plan online securely with us and go from their.<p>thanks,<p>tim.
PlanHQ<p>
| null | 6,085 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,202 | null |
comment
|
zaidf
| 1,174,863,914 |
I am a sophomore at the moment.<p>Over the course of my freshman year I launched three sites that tanked - along with my GPA. <p>But I guess I was lucky that high GPA and good job was never really an option for me so I kept trying new stuff hoping something would get enough traction to sideline college totally. With the launch of my start-up couple months ago I hit that partial success I was looking at.<p>I am just in a helpless state of doing my own thing and not caring much about college. I still haven't dropped out or taken a year off but I plan my day around my venture rather than classes. Sticking with the minimum 12hrs is helpful.<p>Being in college in and of itself isn't a bad thing. You can work tirelessly on your venture across the desk from someone else working tirelessly on a school paper.
| null | 6,199 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,203 | null |
comment
|
vlad
| 1,174,865,189 |
This is one question only you can answer. In my opinion, if you have to ask, then you should stay in school for the time being.<p>In "A Student's Guide to Startups," Paul Graham writes:<p>"...Our official policy now is only to fund undergrads we can't talk out of [leaving college]. And frankly, if you're not certain, you should wait. It's not as if all the opportunities to start companies are going to be gone if you don't do it now."
| null | 6,198 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,204 | null |
comment
|
chasing
| 1,174,866,382 |
While it's interesting to think about what would be ideal in the abstract, I think any company that puts hiring someone who fits a demographic (ie, "young") over hiring the right person for the job is doing themselves a disservice. We all know woefully boring 25-year-olds and exciting, bleeding-edge 50-somethings, I'm sure.<p>That said, teens and 20-somethings tend to have much more time and energy on their hands -- and a tendency not to be stuck in old ruts. But I imagine they're also much more chaotic and restless. And simply inexperienced. Which could be problematic.
| null | 6,148 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,206 | null |
comment
|
pg
| 1,174,867,409 |
Jeez, Fred, don't <i>tell</i> everyone.
| null | 6,205 | null |
[
6422
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,207 | null |
comment
|
patryn20
| 1,174,867,776 |
It depends on your mindset. I had fully intended to complete my undergrad while working part-time and then create a startup or pursue a masters. <p>Instead, my health forced me to drop one of my activities, and it ended up being my schooling. It was stressful, but at this point I am glad I chose to drop my college courses. I would not have gained the experience I have now and my income and work history would have remained relatively stagnant. I would potentially have been forced to move back to the country and live with my parents while I re-gained my health. I would have never worked with the people I worked with and learned about running a company this early in life if I had completed school first. <p>In the end, it worked to my advantage. In my case, I realized that a degree is something you can get at any time (I still fully intend to complete my CS degree in the future). Work experience and opportunities are harder to come by. For someone else, college (especially a prestigious school) may provide the opportunities I had to look outside for. It all depends on your mindset, your social skills, your location, and your technical/business skills.<p>In short: no one can really answer this for you. You need to consider your goals, your current opportunities, and the opportunities your current course of action may present to you in the future.
| null | 6,198 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,205 | null |
story
|
far33d
| 1,174,866,451 | null | null | null | null |
[
6242,
6206,
6884
] |
http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2007/03/why_seed_invest.html
| 21 |
A VC: Why Seed Investing Is Less Risky Than Later Stage Investing
| null | 4 |
6,208 | null |
comment
|
Todd
| 1,174,868,140 |
The short answer: no. <p>It becomes diminishingly difficult to go back to school as you get older. The same applies for doing a startup, unfortunately. The difference is that you can generate income while building a startup. It's more difficult to get investors to pay you to go to college. Thus, finish.<p>To make your task easier, here's my rule-of-thumb formula for determining the difficulty level for finishing college or creating a startup:<p>(log(m+1) + w^2 + c + s) x log(y+1), where m is any mortgage, in dollars, w is the number of wives, c is the number of children, s is yourself, and y is your age, in years. <p>To give you an idea: the average 20 year old has a difficulty factor of about 1.3. A 30 year old with a family and a mortgage is about 6 and a 40 year old in the same boat is about 15. YMMV.<p>Good luck.
| null | 6,198 | null |
[
6221,
6240,
6547
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,209 | null |
comment
|
pg
| 1,174,868,198 |
Probably the finger-wag:<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/socialmoth/405509951">http://www.flickr.com/photos/socialmoth/405509951</a><p>(Rtm started it.)
| null | 6,037 | null |
[
6316,
6624
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,211 | null |
story
|
msgbeepa
| 1,174,868,592 | null | null | null | null | null |
http://www.wikio.com/webinfo?id=15478316
| 1 |
A Place For Buyers And Sellers To Meet And Make Business
| null | 0 |
6,212 | null |
comment
|
python_kiss
| 1,174,868,640 |
"If you do have to leave grad school, in the worst case it won't be for too long. If a startup fails, it will probably fail quickly enough that you can return to academic life. And if it succeeds, you may find you no longer have such a burning desire to be an assistant professor." - How to Start a Startup<p>That article basically made me question the premise of continuing on with my Electrical Engineering degree. During school, I was fascinated by social networks and dividents of collective capability and genius; so I dropped out of school to learn new web programming languages, marketing and business. Then, a few months ago, I finally let my social network out to the public. It was, and continues to be, a thrilling experience. <p>At this age, we have less responsibilities and a more flexible timetable than we may ever have again. I say leave college; if your startup fails, you can always go back.
| null | 6,198 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,210 | null |
comment
|
Todd
| 1,174,868,211 | true | 6,198 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
|
6,213 | null |
comment
|
wish
| 1,174,869,007 |
its just ur life journey ! its up to you if to take a bus or a train! <p>Good idea or not is depended on who u ask! Important is what wd u like to do now!
| null | 6,198 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,214 | null |
comment
|
staunch
| 1,174,869,578 |
A much more noble attitude than plugging your ears and humming -- which is how many people seem to react to this harsh reality.<p>The fact is that Kapor himself was very young when he made his mark. There are far more similarities between him and Zuckerberg than differences, regardless of their <i>opinions</i>.
| null | 6,186 | null |
[
6448
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,215 | null |
comment
|
joshwa
| 1,174,869,779 |
I was <i>just</i> about to post that...
| null | 6,169 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,217 | null |
comment
|
joshwa
| 1,174,870,113 |
an even better set of notes is here:<p><a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/18290/Y-Combinator-Startup-School-2007-Notes">http://www.scribd.com/doc/18290/Y-Combinator-Startup-School-2007-Notes</a>
| null | 6,087 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,219 | null |
comment
|
staunch
| 1,174,870,377 |
<i>"... in early 20s coming up with next set of Lotus features."</i><p>Why not? The only reason I can image is because they wouldn't likely be <i>allowed</i> to try. Instead they have to create something entirely new and better that makes it obsolete.
| null | 6,166 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,220 | null |
comment
|
BitGeek
| 1,174,870,409 |
In my hiring, there is one thing that is paramount over all- attitude. And generally the attitude that gets people filtered out is arrogance. Not confidence, but arrogance. <p>Discriminating on age is silly. As is technological proficiency for non-technical positions (to a point.) I'll take a killer sales guy who's just getting by technologically over one who has accepted patches in the linux kernel but doesn't have the drive. <p>Too many people of one age fail to value people of a different age group... give me two equally proficient engineers, one with 20 years experience and one with 2 years experience, and I'll try to hire them both. But if either of them is arrogant, I'm not interested.<p>
| null | 6,148 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,218 | null |
comment
|
staunch
| 1,174,870,322 |
<i>"I think building a diverse team (assuming everybody is highly capable of course) wins most of the time."</i><p>We know diversity over the long-term is safer. Perhaps in startups, where the timespan is short, specialization and myopic vision win out?<p>Where do you see examples of diverse startups being successful? From what I see most are made up of young male geeks who could be brothers.
| null | 6,149 | null |
[
6426,
6445
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,221 | null |
comment
|
python_kiss
| 1,174,870,481 |
^haha, who came up with that ingenious formula? I would put number of wives and children as an exponent, e^(w + c) :p
| null | 6,208 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,222 | null |
comment
|
danielha
| 1,174,870,713 |
I spoke to numerous YC alumni about this and they all offered valuable feedback. My takeaway was the same conclusion I always had: it's worth it. I already know what I want to do, and I have no problem leaving school to work on this full-time. This is not right for everybody (or even most), but I can talk forever about why it's right for me.
| null | 6,198 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,223 | null |
story
|
BioGeek
| 1,174,870,902 | null | null | null | null | null |
http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2007/marapr/features/tufte.html
| 8 |
Edward Tufte: "Running my own enterprise allows me to work elegantly, intensely, gracefully and incredibly efficiently."
| null | 0 |
6,224 | null |
comment
|
danielha
| 1,174,871,313 |
Maybe, but they didn't really want to do email either. Individual handsets can possibly be ruled out, but huge (huge-r?) moves in the mobile arena is a given.
| null | 6,189 | null |
[
6248
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,226 | null |
comment
|
drop19
| 1,174,871,605 |
Gang, I submitted a YC funding idea for a new app that would be highly interactive and ideal to put on the web. The closest thing I've seen to what I'm trying to do is DabbleDB; I won't be competing with it, but my idea is 'of a piece' with Dabble. It's implemented in Seaside, and the more I learn about Seaside and Squeak and Smalltalk in general, the more intrigued I am. But I really enjoy Ruby and I've really loved developing in Rails, so I guess my question is, has anyone tried to implement something as bad-ass as Dabble in Rails, or any other framework out there? How much of a factor should "love of language" play in choosing a framework?
| null | 6,225 | null |
[
6243,
6271
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,228 | null |
story
|
BitGeek
| 1,174,871,751 | null | null | null | null |
[
6237,
6288,
6265,
6230
] | 3 |
Should you really get funding?
| null | 22 |
|
6,227 | null |
comment
|
rwalker
| 1,174,871,659 |
If you want to see the slides, they're online at: <a href="http://www.zenter.com/ed/view.html?id=226">http://www.zenter.com/ed/view.html?id=226</a> (FireFox only at the moment)
| null | 6,168 | null |
[
6232,
6491
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,225 | null |
story
|
drop19
| 1,174,871,392 | null | null | null | null |
[
6226
] |
http://dabbledb.com/
| 2 |
Should I even attempt something of this complexity in Rails?
| null | 5 |
6,216 | null |
story
|
sf2007
| 1,174,869,811 | null | null | null | null |
[
6235,
6231,
6524,
6382,
6276,
6519,
6260,
6381
] | 4 |
Facebook isn't a technology company - funny Mark thinks it is!
| null | 11 |
|
6,229 | null |
story
|
rms
| 1,174,871,925 | null | null | null | null |
[
6255
] |
http://forums.techcrunch.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=2092&tstart=0
| 1 |
Random unverified rumor: Google to start clothing company
| null | 1 |
6,231 | null |
comment
|
staunch
| 1,174,872,655 |
Funny you think that statement means anything useful.<p>Facebook certainly is <i>powered by</i> technology and its future certainly relies on innovating <i>using</i> technology. Why don't you clarify what you mean in more than a single sentence?
| null | 6,216 | null |
[
6309
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,232 | null |
comment
|
rms
| 1,174,873,114 |
Doesn't load for me.
| null | 6,227 | null |
[
6342
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,230 | null |
comment
|
rms
| 1,174,872,009 |
Um... yes?<p>Let me know if you've got any better ideas.
| null | 6,228 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,233 | null |
comment
|
staunch
| 1,174,873,207 |
An attempt an analogy:<p>Some people would find it less stressful to pilot a small aircraft over open waters than be a passenger in a large jet flying over land.
| null | 6,174 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,234 | null |
comment
|
staunch
| 1,174,873,484 |
How useful are type "a" people at all? Sounds like a kind definition of people lacking passion and the desire to grow. Isn't hiring them a recipe for mediocrity at any stage?
| null | 6,158 | null |
[
6341
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,235 | null |
comment
|
pg
| 1,174,873,540 |
Any company that can deal with that kind of traffic has to be at least fairly good at technology.<p>But I think he meant more than that. He meant they approach problems (including nontechnical ones) the way technical people do. That's an interesting idea. And it seems to be working, too.
| null | 6,216 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,236 | null |
story
|
python_kiss
| 1,174,873,714 | null | null | null | null |
[
6250,
6239,
6719
] |
http://foundersatwork.com/stevewozniak.html
| 6 |
Steve Wozniak interview in "Founders At Work"
| null | 5 |
6,243 | null |
comment
|
staunch
| 1,174,875,441 |
I wouldn't consider Ruby a risky choice for implementing something like DabbleDB -- I'd call it the safe choice. Choosing the technology is one of the greatest perks of doing your own thing.
| null | 6,226 | null |
[
6343
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,238 | null |
story
|
danw
| 1,174,873,871 | null | null | null | null |
[
6278,
6261
] |
http://www.gowrikumar.com/c/index.html
| 1 |
C Puzzles, time to brush up on your C
| null | 2 |
6,240 | null |
comment
|
nostrademons
| 1,174,874,559 |
Hah, multiple wives? You sure that's only quadratic?
| null | 6,208 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,239 | null |
comment
|
python_kiss
| 1,174,874,282 |
I found Wozniak's interview, in Jessica's book, as one of the most entertaining [1]. Many of the lessons learned from his early days have a global appeal to other startups as well: starting out with a great team, being young, not having money, adaptability, etc.<p><i>"Entrepreneurs have to keep adjusting to... everything's changing, everything's dynamic, and you get this idea and you get another idea and this doesn't work out and you have to replace it with something else. Time is always critical because somebody might beat you to the punch.<p>It's better to be young because you can spend a lot more nights, very very late. Because you have to get things done, and there's almost no other way to get around that. When the times come, they are critical."</i> - Woz<p>[1] I haven't finished the book yet.
| null | 6,236 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,245 | null |
comment
|
volida
| 1,174,875,886 |
You should realize a few things first and weight them:
1. your wants
2. if you are satisfied or not, if you feel not doing what you love or depressed or pressed
3. your determination, be ready to fail and few other questions PG pointed out in his speech.<p>Thus examine if pursuaing through a break a startup could fulfil what is missing from your life, and if its worth it contrary to what you may miss if you didn't take time off. <p>It can be both an easy and a very difficult decision. And you shouldn't let anyone affect you, because remember most people of your surrounding are not aware and cannot think the same way you do, no matter how close they are to you.
| null | 6,198 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,244 | null |
story
|
staunch
| 1,174,875,879 | null | null | null | null |
[
6283
] |
http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/8034/feedburnerhp1.jpg
| 7 |
Consider Adding a Filter to Your Randomly Generated CAPTCHAs
| null | 3 |
6,249 | null |
comment
|
staunch
| 1,174,876,948 |
I thought #1 was great and the rest felt like watered down or badly written versions of standard advice.<p>The focus on "algorithms 101" is pretty thinly veiled snobbery IMHO. If he knew math itself really well he'd probably claim that was of <i>vital importance</i> to all programming at Google too. Instead he falls back on what he does know that feels like "real computer science".<p>My experience is that most programming is usually pretty unscientific and that things like great taste in design are far more important than the scalability of any given algorithm.<p>I'd bet there are a 100 CS PHDs at Google for every truly challenging problem solvable by a more scalable algorithm.
| null | 6,196 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,247 | null |
story
|
staunch
| 1,174,876,035 | null | null | null | null | null |
http://perlmonks.org/?node=Best+nodes
| 2 |
YCN Feature Request: Best of Day/Week/Month/Year
| null | 0 |
6,251 | null |
comment
|
dmnd
| 1,174,877,761 |
I made this decision about two weeks ago: in my final year of an engineering/computer science double degree, I've decided to take a leave of absence and pursue some of the web startup ideas I have.<p>The decision was made when I saw other people successfully implementing ideas that I was trying to get done in my spare time. I still feel a bit reckless because I don't have <i>the</i> idea, just a lot of smaller potential ones, but the absolute worst thing that can happen is that I graduate one year later.<p>Lots of people told me that I should be careful that I don't throw away my degrees, but I can only see that happening in two ways: (a) I am wildly successful, in which case the degrees won't matter; or (b) I think that I'm on the verge of significant success right when the time comes to go back to uni. The latter is probably the most dangerous part of taking this path, so be sure that you can make a rational decision if (b) does happen.
| null | 6,198 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,250 | null |
comment
|
nostrademons
| 1,174,877,169 |
It's funny, when he describes how he wrote Apple BASIC, it's <i>exactly</i> how a textbook compiler implementation works. His incremental symbol table is just a handwritten DFA. Then his noun stacks and verb stacks are basically how you'd write a parser, though they're usually just generalized into a single stack for a CFG.
| null | 6,236 | null |
[
6336
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,248 | null |
comment
|
phil
| 1,174,876,227 |
it's funny that the quote got reported as "we're not doing a mobile phone," when in his second sentence he pretty much says "because handsets suck right now and we'd rather replace them with something completely different."
| null | 6,224 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,242 | null |
comment
|
Alex3917
| 1,174,875,409 |
When investing in early stage companies, you put in less money and the upside is much greater. If this were the full picture then obviously early stage ventures would be a better deal. Of course, many more early stage companies go under than late stage companies. This extra risk is supposed to balance out the greater reward. But does it?<p>To borrow Kedrosky's terminology, VC investing is really a combination of two separate skills: picking and poking. Picking is choosing which startups to invest in, and poking is helping the startup along to further its chances of success. <p>The vast majority of people investing in early stage ventures are friends, family, and fools. Because these people aren't very good at either picking or poking, their risk level is very high. This in turn drives up the cost of capital. <p>You can reduce your risk by becoming better at picking. You can also reduce your risk by becoming better at poking. And if you can become better at both, you can reduce your risk a huge amount. Because there are so few investors who are good at both, these people are barely even taken into account when determining the cost of capital. Which is why if you are good at both, it's an arbitrage opportunity for the investor.<p>For late stage ventures, there is much more money on the table which means much less amateur investment. Because you don't have as many dumb people pumping up the cost of capital, there isn't really any arbitrage opportunity. <p>Incidentally, PG has reduced his risk even further by creating news.YC so he can get to know the founders a little bit before investing. Theoretically, if a founder knows that PG has less risk because of this, the founder should be able to use this as leverage to get a better valuation. However, this doesn't work in reality because the shortage of PGs creates a market inefficiency (in favor of PG). However, I suspect that anyone who can successfully clone him will have a good arbitrage opportunity.
| null | 6,205 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,241 | null |
comment
|
staunch
| 1,174,874,654 |
Alexa let their technology stagnate and now there are quite a few startups about to run past them. Unless they buy out the competition Alexa will be totally irrelevant very soon.<p>This kind of big company coldness is just accelerating their demise.<p>
| null | 6,163 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,263 | null |
comment
|
drupeek
| 1,174,883,841 |
I read some interesting comments by some of the contributors on this site, that made mention of how cool it would be if we could all meet up somewhere. I decided to see who felt like putting themselves on the map... literally.<p>I've driven 6 hours to meet a potential partner face to face. I've flown across the continent to "ask" for an interview with a dream employer. If anyone out there is as passionate about meeting the dreamers of today and leaders of tomorrow, please feel free to say so.<p>Let me begin: I'm Andrew and I'm in Toronto (yes, Canadians take risks too)<p>At the very least, many of you will find yourselves in the same city as others on this site and to me that's about as good an excuse to have a 2am coffee as any I can think of.<p>I've got a bit of a selfish motivation in that I'm looking for partner #3 and I think face-to-face is the best way to see how well the ideas flow and personalities mesh (and if we're lucky, clash!).
| null | 6,259 | null |
[
6291,
6373,
6560
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,253 | null |
comment
|
chrisjohnston
| 1,174,878,768 |
Working for a company is bad for you. Some people need the safety and security of a job. They need someone to tell them when to be at work and what to do when they get there. They may be dedicated employees, they may even be great managers, but they have no desire to take the risk involved in starting something from scratch. They crave the comfort and security that comes from an established company and can't handle the very real possibility that if that start a company it might fail.
| null | 6,157 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,254 | null |
story
|
eman2611
| 1,174,879,275 | null | null | null | null | null |
http://blog.collegemedium.com/index.php?p=33
| 1 |
atlanta based co-founder (preference for Ga-tech/Emory folks)
| null | 0 |
6,252 | null |
comment
|
staunch
| 1,174,878,002 |
Get a blog man -- they're free :-)<p>Funding is great for providing food, housing, servers, bandwidth, etc. If you can arrange all the practical issues yourself and can work full-time on your startup it definitely doesn't seem wise to take investment.<p>Taking investment is a huge risk and it should only be done in a calculated way. It has to be a net increase in your chances of success and for each company that calculation varies a lot. I don't think there is any right answer to this one.
| null | 6,237 | null |
[
6284
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,255 | null |
comment
|
rms
| 1,174,879,535 |
Wall Street would hate them for it... but you know Google's fashion line would be just stylish enough to be a solid step up for your typical nerd.
| null | 6,229 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,246 | null |
comment
|
nostrademons
| 1,174,875,997 |
This is a hard question. I considered dropping out multiple times in college, but ended up sticking it out and getting my degree. I'm still not sure if it was the right choice, but it seems to be working out so far. Anyways, I have no answers, but I have some observations.<p>One of my main fears in college was that I would graduate, take a soul-crushing job, and then lose all desire to start a startup. This hasn't happened. I still want a successful startup just as much as I did in college, or maybe even more. You're not going to stop wanting what you've always wanted just because you have a degree, a job, money, and options.<p>OTOH, having a job and an income fucks with your perceptions a little. I was lucky (smart?) and didn't change my spending habits; over the past year and a half that I've been working, I banked close to 90% of my take-home pay. Even though I'm financially much more secure than I was coming out of college, it feels much more precarious - I've gotten used to having a certain amount of money coming in each month. Quitting my day job wouldn't be an issue if I didn't have a day job.<p>Don't underestimate the experience you'll learn on the job. I feel like I've benefited significantly from working in somebody else's startup for a year and a half before trying my own. It also creates a sense of momentum and gets your brain in gear; you'll need all the focus you can have when starting your startup. <p>Don't overestimate the book learning you'll get in college. Honestly, I don't think a single thing I learned in the classroom has helped me with my startup. <p>OTOH, a lot of college learning occurs <i>outside</i> the classroom. My impossible quest to complete a computer science major in one semester while the department would not let me declare one turned out to be <i>exactly</i> what startup life is all about. There will be many moments when you have to work like hell for what feels like zero payoff. It's a good experience to really fuck up and then recover from it, because you do that a lot with startups. If you skip the recovery part in college, how do you know you'll be able to do it with your startup?<p>Also, I met my cofounders in college. Had I left after freshman year, I would never have known them. Had I left later, I probably wouldn't have kept in touch.<p>Probably the biggest factor in my decision not to leave is that I didn't have a clear idea what I would do instead. That's probably the biggest determinant: if you know <i>exactly</i> what you'll be working on instead (like Michael Dell, Bill Gates, or Mark Zuckerberg) do that instead. If you don't, stay in school, because you'll probably end up doing nothing instead, and nothing isn't a particularly good teacher.
| null | 6,198 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,260 | null |
comment
|
far33d
| 1,174,882,877 |
By that measure, neither is google.
| null | 6,216 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,256 | null |
comment
|
vo0do0
| 1,174,880,070 |
I believe in small teams and people that has stock options...
I read something that could answer this on the hot or not blog founder few days ago.<p><a href="http://james.hotornot.com/2007/02/on-having-balls-part-ii-staying-hungry.html">http://james.hotornot.com/2007/02/on-having-balls-part-ii-staying-hungry.html</a>
| null | 6,157 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,237 | null |
comment
|
BitGeek
| 1,174,873,777 |
I think YCombinator is attempting great things and has a great strategy. However, after StartupSchool I'm mulling over my intention to build my startup without getting any funding. Yet, what I saw yesterday was mostly based on the assumption that a startup has to go thru rounds of funding.<p>A bit of background: I'm not young, right out of college. I've been working for startups for about 18 years with a couple periodic stints at major tech companies. In all the startups I've worked for, the two leading causes of startup death are 1) Founder friction. 2) Stupid VC tricks.<p>Founder friction is a risk that I'm sure everyone understands. But the risk of taking money from a VC is one that I think is under appreciated. Generally these risks manifest themselves in the form of the VC meddling in the company to the theoretical benefit of the VC, and the companies detriment. Speaking of instances I have intimate knowledge of, in one case the investment was contingent on 1/3 of it being spent on hardware and software from two companies that the VC had ties to-- overpriced hardware when commodity PCs would have done, and very expensive software that caused us to hire consultants (from the company that sold the software of course) to try and make it work, and ultimately forced us to revert to the original plan and build it ourselves. Significantly delaying our ability to scale up the product. <p>In another case the VC required that we hire a new CEO, and manuvered us into hiring a friend of the Partners who was non-technical and was fond of changing company direction quarterly whether we needed it or not, to follow the latest business fad... no matter how irrelevant it was to our industry. (EG: one quarter it was "Push" and we were a company that made video game technology... nothing to do with "Push" but we had to have a "push story" and issue press releases.)<p>And of course, you can find lots of other examples of similar things happening at other companies. <p>I don't want to paint with too broad of a brush. I recognize that my experience is limited to the half dozen startups I've worked for, and the dozen or so VC partners and associates I've known over the years. <p>But I have a strong impression that these are not people who understand technology, or the technology business well enough to give good advice. Further, they have shown a propensity to force companies to go in a direction that helps their other investments, but may be detrimental to the company. <p>And, more importantly, is investment really necessary? <p>In this day and age, you can get servers provisioned easily-- no need to commit to hardware purchases and long term datacenter leases. The tools are high level and easy to use and there's a lot of open source to leverage so that you can focus on the added value part of your product. Leverage has increased dramatically. <p>Furthermore, companies are now starting to go without investment, such as MyBlogLog which was acquired only a few months after launch without doing a VC round. <p>Thus I reach the conclusion that the course for me to take is to not seek investment at all. <p>This may not be possible for someone who is recently out of college. (And thus the funding from YC is not the kind of investment I'm talking about here-- the presusre to use the money to get three months of solid focus on the product is really positive "interference" especially when backed by the rapid feedback, networking, and weekly seminars.) <p>But if you start to get some traction with your product, and you're not building something that inherently requires massive investment... probably small angel rounds are the way to go until you can be acquired or reach profitability.<p>And while being acquired may always be wise-- reaching profitability is a milestone that I think truely marks success. Nobody can ever take that away from you once you've done it-- its victory.<p>Startupschool was great-- was good inspiration, and much of what was said checked well with my thoughts giving me a boost in confidence that I'm on the right track. <p>I love lists like "5 dos and 5 don'ts" or the X things that cause startups to fail, or Pauls 16 reasons... love to check those off and go "Yep, Yep, Yep"... and there were a couple that I need to work on. <p>Hopefully this little rant is not offending anybody... in summary, I'd say winning means making a viable business. Getting VC funding shouldn't be the goal.
| null | 6,228 | null |
[
6252,
6268
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,261 | null |
comment
|
far33d
| 1,174,883,433 |
ah duff's device.
| null | 6,238 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,258 | null |
comment
|
drupeek
| 1,174,881,606 |
I submitted this manifesto by Hugh MacLeod (gapingvoid.com) for one reason and one reason only... it's a brilliant caption of what to do when YCombinator gives your spot away or when your prototype doesn't hit the fan after 6 months. Seth Godin has preached the same concepts when referring to his Squidoo project.<p>I think it's important that we all keep things in perspective. If I was a betting man (and I am), I would say that the first thing that ever drove an entrepreneur to write down an idea was not his visions of acceptance or someone else's money... it was to hold onto that idea forever and someday make it real.
| null | 6,257 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,257 | null |
story
|
drupeek
| 1,174,881,150 | null | null | null | null |
[
6258
] |
http://www.changethis.com/6.HowToBeCreative
| 1 |
For all those who love to hear the word 'NO'
| null | 1 |
6,259 | null |
story
|
drupeek
| 1,174,882,809 | null | null | null | null |
[
6294,
6263,
6290,
6304,
6453,
6270,
6371,
6306,
6737,
6327,
6476,
6272,
6285,
6877,
6528,
6286,
6292,
6457,
6522,
6403
] | 8 |
Where you can find us all (if you're looking)
| null | 31 |
|
6,265 | null |
comment
|
rajamohan
| 1,174,884,751 |
it is not only about the funding but also about the network. Todays world information is wealth and information can be collected by network. Hence for network building funding is necessary.
| null | 6,228 | null |
[
6282
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,264 | null |
comment
|
rajamohan
| 1,174,884,601 |
provide him the ownership and when they feel they too are the owners contribution and dedication automatically flows and that is what bind them together with the company.
| null | 6,157 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,266 | null |
story
|
ginn
| 1,174,885,223 | null | null | null | null |
[
7036,
6441,
6478,
6301,
6421,
6299,
6267
] | 7 |
Y Combinator only considers IVY League applicants?
| null | 22 |
|
6,267 | null |
comment
|
ginn
| 1,174,885,264 |
I read an old RWW 2006 article that said if you're not from an ivy league school, than Y Combinator doesn't consider you. Anyone know if this is true?<p>
| null | 6,266 | null |
[
6275,
6377
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,268 | null |
comment
|
abossy
| 1,174,885,656 |
This brings up a good point: choose your investors wisely. <p>While there are a plethora of non-technical investors that can potentially ruin your company, there's also technical investors who have been in the shoes of an early tech entrepreneur and have made it big. There's no guarantees of success, obviously, but it's important to take into consideration. I especially like Philip Greenspun's account of the tragic downfall of his company, ArsDigita: <a href="http://www.waxy.org/random/arsdigita/">http://www.waxy.org/random/arsdigita/</a> (make sure to read it with a box of tissues handy, it's quite sad ;))
| null | 6,237 | null |
[
6277
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,262 | null |
comment
|
chasing
| 1,174,883,447 |
YouTube doesn't really "do" full-length videos (30 minutes+). At least, that's not what I use it for. It gives me my diet of 2-minute-max vids of clips off of the news, silly crap, and, well, mostly silly crap.<p>So I don't really see this as a YouTube competitor as much as an iTunes competitor. And I'm okay with that. I'm curious to see where this goes, even though I really don't see it being a "game changer," as they state in the press release. BitTorrent was the game changer. These guys are just trying to save their business models.
| null | 5,972 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,270 | null |
comment
|
Readmore
| 1,174,886,692 |
My name is Brandon and I live in Tulsa OK. While it's not on the list of top startup cities there are quite a few great tech people here thanks to the University of Tulsa. ;)
| null | 6,259 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,279 | null |
comment
|
danielha
| 1,174,889,853 |
Read/Write Web.<p>I think he's referring to their profile on you: <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/paul_graham_profile.php">http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/paul_graham_profile.php</a>
| null | 6,275 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,273 | null |
story
|
reitzensteinm
| 1,174,887,680 | null | null | null | null |
[
6274,
6370
] |
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/104394183/
| 2 |
Zimbra announces desktop version of its web mail app
| null | 2 |
6,277 | null |
comment
|
pg
| 1,174,888,553 |
As amusing as Philip's story is, screwups that spectacular are rare.
| null | 6,268 | null |
[
6311,
6348
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,280 | null |
story
|
jamiequint
| 1,174,889,992 | null | null | null | null |
[
6281,
6469
] | 8 |
Don't use Verizon EVDO for your Justin.tv clone
| null | 4 |
|
6,276 | null |
comment
|
JMiao
| 1,174,888,411 |
Just stop to think about how fast those photos load on Facebook, and you'll know they're a tech-driven company.
| null | 6,216 | null |
[
6295
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,275 | null |
comment
|
pg
| 1,174,888,319 |
Sure, I know. It's false (of course). Sounds like something written by someone we turned down. What is RWW?
| null | 6,267 | null |
[
6279,
6349,
6300
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,272 | null |
comment
|
zaidf
| 1,174,887,439 |
I live in Chapel Hill, NC and I am very sad - THE TAR HEELS LOST!
| null | 6,259 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,269 | null |
story
|
Readmore
| 1,174,886,611 | null | null | null | null | null |
http://valleywag.com/tech/panama/a-re+evaluation-of-yahoo-246779.php
| 3 |
Does Panama fix Yahoo?
| null | 0 |
6,271 | null |
comment
|
Readmore
| 1,174,886,969 |
I think Ruby would be a great way to attack something like that. That fact that you can sit at such a high level with Ruby allows you to build great things. Besides, Rails makes you so much more productive than anything else I've tried, if it won't work at least you know quickly because you'll be able to get something done fast. That being said, just go build it! ;)
| null | 6,226 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,278 | null |
comment
|
reitzensteinm
| 1,174,888,802 |
That these puzzles exist at all is the reason I don't use C for anything unless it's absolutely neccessary, like playing with CUDA, or highly desirable, like implementing a higher level language. <p>I mean don't get me wrong, I love the idea of such a thin layer ontop of assembler that with experience you can more or less compile in your head, but for a production environment? No thanks.
| null | 6,238 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,281 | null |
comment
|
jamiequint
| 1,174,890,054 |
"The Unlimited Data Plans and Features MAY NOT be used for any other purpose. Examples of prohibited uses include, without limitation, the following: (i) continuous uploading, downloading or streaming of audio or video programming or games; (ii) server devices or host computer applications, including, but not limited to, Web camera posts or broadcasts, automatic data feeds, automated machine-to-machine connections or peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing; or (iii) as a substitute or backup for private lines or dedicated data connections. This means, by way of example only, that checking email, surfing the Internet, downloading legally acquired songs, and/or visiting corporate intranets is permitted, but downloading movies using P2P file sharing services and/or redirecting television signals for viewing on laptops is prohibited. A person engaged in prohibited uses, continuously for one hour, could typically use 100 to 200 MBs, or, if engaged in prohibited uses for 10 hours a day, 7 days a week, could use more than 5 GBs in a month"<p>I wonder what they would have to say about Joost!<p>Does anyone have Sprint EVDO or EDGE with AT&T or Cingular and know if they have this same restriction?
| null | 6,280 | null |
[
6296
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,274 | null |
comment
|
reitzensteinm
| 1,174,887,863 |
I was just thinking about this this morning - GMail and Hotmail are fine and all, but I've migrated back to a desktop email app simply because web interfaces don't cut it for complex tasks. This is the best of both worlds - desktop app for home and web mail for on the go.
| null | 6,273 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,283 | null |
comment
|
whacked_new
| 1,174,890,274 |
Email verification? Email verification is no filter!
If you use an activation email, there really isn't a need for a captcha. Captchas are useful because users don't need to leave the current website, check their email, activate it, and come back -- they would have lost their thought inertia at that point, assuming they arrived at the verification step because they wanted to do something useful with whatever application.
If I am missing the point, do explain; I fail to see something to consider to add from that picture. That captcha is also terribly breakable.
| null | 6,244 | null |
[
6303,
6437
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,282 | null |
comment
|
BitGeek
| 1,174,890,234 |
Are you sure about that? We're on a network, and I suspect most of us are building networking tools. Networking is a lot easier now. <p>Plus, I think networking is a skill, not a service. <p>And think about the cost- not just the equity, but the strings. It would be cheaper to pay a highly networked individual a fee for making introductions than getting VC funding. <p>I understand the perspective of someone who has no entre into what seems like a closed community. But having had to learn the skill of networking (and still not being great at it) I've found that anyone who you should partner with, sell to, or do business with, is open to at least hearing enough to understand what your value is. Once I realized this, I started talking to CEOs of companies that I would meet at various places - conferences, on planes, cold calling, etc. A few have not understood, some were a bit put off, but this is the reaction maybe %5 of the time. Everyone else has at least thought about what I've said, and even when they've said "no", a good number of times they've given me a name of someone I should be talking to instead.<p>I think by itself, this isn't a good reason to pursue VC funding. Advice and introductions are much less expensive elsewhere.
| null | 6,265 | null |
[
6334,
6298
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,284 | null |
comment
|
BitGeek
| 1,174,890,956 |
I failed to make a distinction-- I am not opposed to funding, but think that VC funding is overrated. <p>If you are seeing your business as a 1-3 year affair- if you believe that in that time period you'll either crash or get bought or go big, and you don't have any resources... then taking VC funding to cover basics like food, housing, bandwidth, maybe makes sense. I would still say that angel funding is better. And if you're just out of college then its kind of a no-lose situation. You get funded, then you've won because you have a job until the funding runs out and even if you crash and burn, you'll still be well set up to do another startup. <p>But if you want to build something that lasts... you have to take into account all the costs of various types of funding. This I may not have illuminated as well. <p>After so many months, the VC funds turn into, effectively, a high interest rate loan with a lein against your business. If you go to sell, you may find that they get the entire proceeds. Sometimes they even put a 2-3x liquidation preference there... so even a success results in nothing to the founders. <p>The essense of these terms is that the clock is ticking, and you are put in a position where you have to hit a home run, or die trying. And the VC firm will guide you in this direction, and replace you if you do not make the choices that lead that way. They are only interested in home runs, not viable businesses. <p>This is also why acquisition is more popular now- the risk reward profile has changed, or at least people learned form the 1990s bubble.
| null | 6,252 | null |
[
6293
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,285 | null |
comment
|
teki321
| 1,174,891,225 |
I'm from Melbourne, looking for something interesting.
| null | 6,259 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,289 | null |
comment
|
zaidf
| 1,174,891,661 |
Key from the article:<p>"In our next meeting, Tim Draper suggested that they should append an advertising message to every outbound email: "P.S. Get your free email at Hotmail. It was very contentious at the time. Would users balk at having this automatic addition to the content of their private messages?"<p>For someone who first touched the Internet in 1997, it is very interesting to have actually seen the evolution of viral marketing over 10 years.
| null | 6,287 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,288 | null |
comment
|
BitGeek
| 1,174,891,580 |
Some positive things that come from VC funding are:<p>-- Greater awareness of your business.<p>-- Their investment may validate your business in the eyes of potential partners, customers, etc.<p>-- Due Dilligence is a process that is always good. (In the same way that dental work is always good.)
| null | 6,228 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,290 | null |
comment
|
BitGeek
| 1,174,891,976 |
I'm in Seattle. Have a co-founder, not really looking for one. <p>Always willing to meet for coffee, though.<p>Am <i>not</i> moving to the Bay Area. <p>
| null | 6,259 | null |
[
6738
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,287 | null |
story
|
zaidf
| 1,174,891,501 | null | null | null | null |
[
6289,
6314
] |
http://www.dfj.com/cgi-bin/artman/publish/steve_tim_may97.shtml
| 1 |
1997 Paper: The special catalyst for Hotmail's torrid growth is called "Viral Marketing"
| null | 2 |
6,286 | null |
comment
|
jamiequint
| 1,174,891,469 |
Portland, OR - Moving to the Bay Area ASAP though
| null | 6,259 | null |
[
6353
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,291 | null |
comment
|
BitGeek
| 1,174,891,990 |
Canadians take risks? Who knew!? (My personal porfolio, %90 of it is companies located in Vancouver and listed in TSX or TSX-V.) Canada is the premier public fundraising country in the world, I believe. (The US stifles innovation with onerous SEC regulation... so Canada, which has smaller population, is the place to do your reverse merger, or buy shelf companies, etc.)
| null | 6,263 | null |
[
6297
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,292 | null |
comment
|
dss
| 1,174,892,120 |
Portland, OR. Maybe moving to SanFran.
| null | 6,259 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,293 | null |
comment
|
staunch
| 1,174,892,580 |
Google is probably the best example of making funding work for you. They took angel and VC and built a company to last.<p><i>"...so even a success results in nothing to the founders."</i><p>No intelligent investor would create a situation in which the founders had no incentive to succeed. They want founder's interests to be aligned with theirs.<p><i>"...hit a home run, or die trying..."</i><p>That's not necessarily a bad thing. VC money can force you to move at breakneck speed to prove your idea is worthwhile or not. It's up to you to decide if its <i>possible</i> to succeed quickly like that, or find investors willing to build more slowly.<p><i>"...replace you if you do not make the choices that lead that way."</i><p>Again it comes down to smart investors. Bad ones replace people frequently and good ones are primarily investing in "the team", replacing you doesn't make sense when that is the case.<p>I think you might be interested in building more of a "lifestyle" business than what most people would define as a startup. I could personally enjoy doing either type of business.
| null | 6,284 | null |
[
6347,
6319
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,295 | null |
comment
|
staunch
| 1,174,892,825 |
Serving massive quantities of static images is probably the easiest challenge they've (<i>uhh</i>) faced -- it's just expensive.
| null | 6,276 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
6,294 | null |
comment
|
davidw
| 1,174,892,822 |
For the next few days, I live in Padova, Italy, but we're moving to Innsbruck, Austria where my wife found a good job doing research(*), and hopefully I will have some time to work on my own ideas.<p>Personally, I'm not convinced that the bay area is the be all and end all for startups. Maybe for classic style VC fueled all or nothing deals, but for those more interested in living cheaply and bootstrapping something, as long as you have a line on the good tech people in your area, perhaps you can make a go of it. Perhaps it's even easier to get a few of them on board, because there are relatively less other interesting things going on.<p>Europe definitely isn't conducive to startups though, even registering a company is quite expensive. I think if I were to head back to the states, I might pick someplace... not too isolated, but sort of "second tier". Portland, Oregon would be great..maybe someplace like Tucson in Arizona, Boulder Colorado, and so on.<p>(*) Biotech/medical - now <i>there</i> is a field where high capital requirements and lots of regulations mean that startups really can't happen without massive investments and thus tend to cluster very tightly in certain areas - bay area, san diego, boston.
| null | 6,259 | null |
[
6320
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,297 | null |
comment
|
drupeek
| 1,174,893,385 |
I had intended to be fecicious but thank you for pointing out some oft-overlooked truths.
| null | 6,291 | null |
[
6321
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,296 | null |
comment
|
staunch
| 1,174,893,102 |
They're all going to have restrictions like this. They put these provisions in so that they can bust you if they want to, it doesn't mean they necessarily will. It's bad PR.<p>At worst the Justin.tv guys might have to get 10-20 EVDO cards under other peoples names and hop around to avoid trouble. Or better yet: make a deal with one of the carriers -- maybe loopt can help with that :-D<p>I ran into this at one point with Sprint's old data network. I was only able to make them back down by threatening to cancel our entire ~250 phone shared plan if they didn't leave me alone. Would have been tough had it not been for that "clout".
| null | 6,281 | null |
[
6393
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,299 | null |
comment
|
staunch
| 1,174,893,482 | true | 6,266 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null |
|
6,301 | null |
comment
|
BitGeek
| 1,174,893,726 |
So, is the claimed "early 20s" requirement also false? <p>I know its a theme, but I didn't think it was a requirement.
| null | 6,266 | null |
[
6312,
6318
] | null | null | null | null | null |
6,300 | null |
comment
|
staunch
| 1,174,893,697 |
How about people with no university education?
| null | 6,275 | null |
[
6317
] | null | null | null | null | null |
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