skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I meant two co-founders who would relocate, i.e. 3 founders total including yourself. Otherwise, what would your single co-founder do all by himself/herself? The primary reason for requiring the move is to be able to work together at hyper speed.

Of course, I'm simply postulating...am neither a decision maker nor an influencer ;-)
I alluded to this in the last Scribd thread, but try doing a search for either Seduction or NLP. The reason both groups were the first to have their stuff pirated is because their business models are based on information scarcity + books.

Scribd is really the first easy way to spread books around the web, so it makes sense that groups using this business model would be the hardest hit.
I think this is all very good advice.

I think the best answer though is probably the one you don't want to hear--option #1 (quitting and doing the startup only) is going to be best. Read Paul's comments about the need for focus and determination. If a startup isn't 100% focused on success then it probably won't get it.

You could try your option of going back as a contractor or doing part time work. Part time consulting though is tough. Keep that in mind. If you're on a tough project and you're only supposed to do a few hours here and there one of two things will typically happen: 1) you'll get sucked into more work, 2) they'll find somebody else that can give 40+ hours a week.

I've got the same issue now so we're in the same boat.
It might be more fruitful to spend that time on developing and brainstorming, where it is being put to its highest and best use.
Wired Interview with the author of 'Almost Human: Making Robots Think'
Hardin talks about the tragedy of the commons and relates it to the model of sheep on a field.

Positive : the herder receives all of the proceeds from each additional animal

Negative : the pasture is slightly degraded by each additional animal

This is very similar to the web 2.0 model on the internet today where applications get smarter/stronger when people use them. Except on the web, each additional user makes the overall web application stronger. A perfect example is wikipedia itself.

When somebody publishes an article, it is a cost of 1. And then to a user reading, he or she gets the benefit of N is the number of articles, but for simplicity's sake, let's say the number of users.

Where do the negatives come in? Is there a "tragedy" in web 2.0?
Thanks for the info nostrademons.

The company I'm currently at is actually really cool about stuff like this, so getting permission shouldn't be a problem. My concern was more the legal aspect, if the startup ever got the point of being considered for VC funding or being acquired. I wouldn't worry about my company taking legal action as much as scaring away investors or a company. I just want to sort out the legal issues before diving in full force...
here a discussion
http://slotblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/inxight-on-google-knowledge-has.html
Don't Fuck With Simple (by Jeremy Zawodny)
Startup work is mundane but still really rewarding because you live and die by your own abilities. Besides, if you make the startup work you can go work on any hard problem you want because you've removed the 'I have to make enough money to pay the bills next month problem. PG did it, they build Viaweb and once they were done he started working on Arc. Nobody pays you to write new programming languages, and I'd bet money the person to make AI real won't be working for Google. The person who solves that problem will do it out of love and determination, not because they wanted to work at the Googleplex.
Sorry, didn't follow the links, fell prey.

I feel so... violated.
I guess I have to take the dissenting opinion... ;)

It's not worth starting a startup when you're married.... especially when you've been marrired for less than 2 years and/or have young kids.

1) Too much risk. Why lose a mortgage (and your wife!) over a dream? If you're married and want to have a family, get a stable job, get a mortgage and take care of your family's future. Not having any money (or very little) for few years can be extremely stressful on a marriage... especially if you're not financially stable. If you're financially stable and have millions in the bank, well, then this does not apply to you and you can do whatever pleases you.

2) You won't have as much time since your wife will demand that you spend a lot of time with her. If you're in a startup, your startup will be your wife and your kid and your family for at least a year. You'll be competing against other teams which don't have time limitations and against people who are working 12-14 hr days. You simply won't be able to compete with them. If you start spending less time in a startup than your cofounders, there will be some serious tensions!

3) Do you have young kids? Spend your time with kids, not in a startup. You'll be glad you did later on. No matter how much money you make, you won't be able to buy back time!

Anyway, I speak from experience. I've been in a startup (I was an employee) in which one of the cofounders divorced after 6 months because his wife ended up cheating on him... since he was never around with her.
Did your friend get rich and make his wife regret cheating on him?
Hi, Omarish. The tragedy of the commons (economists call these situations "negative externalities") doesn't apply to Web 2.0 in my opinion.

The tragedy of the commons stems from a basic cost/benefit calculation: in business, if something costs you more than you make, you either stop selling it or you go out of business. The basic problem of a negative externality is that while the profit accrues to an individual, the cost hidden from that individual and is borne by the community. So a non-viable activity continues to be performed, until the community goes bankrupt. (I.e., the field is depleted and cannot sustain sheep). Some argue that pollution falls into this category. (Note that this is not necessarily an argument for private ownership of everything: the principle problem is costs exceeding benefits, and those costs being hidden from producers so that their incentives are misaligned. Privatization is one way, but probably not the only way, to align incentives.)

But in Web 2.0, there are no hidden costs that are depleting the overall store. Companies pay for their bandwidth, pay for their storage, etc. No costs are shifted to the community as near as I can tell.

A better model for what you're talking about might be network effects - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effects
Ahaha, that's the day I postponed my jury duty to. Anyone see a report from last year?
Desperation?
Throwing down a gauntlet
The problem is almost any kind of change generally brings very polar response. At some point sites have to just trust their instincts and hope that over days and weeks users will get used to it and like it.

I have seen it happen with Digg - every time their new design goes up the hate comments start appearing; or even Facebook - when they launched the newsfeed, it seemed like the end of the world if you went by the chatter on college campuses.
Announcing the 2007 Finalist Teams - UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition
Take a look at your employment agreement. It should have a clause in there detailing exactly how the IP is appropriated. Some companies' agreements say that they own ALL the IP while you're working for them, even the work done in after-work hours. Some say that only the work done on their computers belongs to them. Some agreements are ambiguous on purpose so they can come after you if you leave and they think you came up with stuff while working for them (which is very common... you see something your current customers need and you decide to go solo). Also, where do your customers come from? Are they the same as your employer's customers? They'll come after you. Are you competing with your employer? They'll come after you! Have you signed a non-compete? If you're in a similar/same area as your current employer, they'll come after you.

Anyway, this can become a huge mess... talk to your lawyer.
But a c-corp has poor tax implications. And has yearly (quarterly?) filings. And is much more expensive to set up.
My wife likes money and my wife loves taking big risks. So she's the biggest cheerleader in my "crazy" fantasy. At the same time, my wife's been poor too, so she's not worried about tightening the finances either.

I guess not everyone is as lucky as me.
Yahoo hacks - Is the big Y! learning something?
agree with above, and just went through this a week or two ago. i got a letter from my company saying they have no ownership stake in what i'm doing (an extra complication was that i'm working part time in the office and part time on my idea as part of an agreement we struck.) it cost me like $1,000 out of pocket to get an attorney and a letter drafted saying my employer has no "right, title, or interest" in my new venture and related patents/applications/copyrights/etc., but in the grand scheme of things it's a no-brainer to make sure the IP around the idea/new business is clean.

if you have questions about this shoot me an email at houston at alum.mit.edu ... it was a pretty straightforward process.

-drew
this is dangerous advice -- regardless of whether or not enforcement on these agreements is likely or possible, you will spook investors/acquirers if you don't do your due diligence in this area and don't have the necessary documents to prove ownership of your IP.

-drew
They're not THAT expensive to start up. I'm sure theres ways to get an LLC or S-corp out of being offshore. Probably the managing partner would be in the US.

Here's some Nevada LLC forms: http://www.sos.state.nv.us/comm_rec/crforms/pdf/NRS86FormDomesticpk.pdf

http://www.sos.state.nv.us/comm_rec/crforms/pdf/NRS78Formpk.pdf

Here's the important one: articles of domestication. It's the same with the LLC. That's your ticket there! :)
http://www.sos.state.nv.us/comm_rec/crforms/omni/NRS92ADomestication.pdf

I'd read through those. Obviously, you will probably be incorporating in another state. Nevada is the second most popular, to Delaware.
I'm in the same boat as you as my wife doesn't like computers and doesn't know anything about them. But what she does know is how passionate I am for programming and for creating something that I can be proud of, and because of that she is insanely supportive about what I do. In return though I believe and expect that she wants the same support from me for the things she is passionate about. So thats my advice, show her why you enjoy it, and then support her in whatever she enjoys.
Really well said. My wife and three year old son are on the team. We're enjoying the hell out of this because we're doing it together.
My wife helps support me as well. I'm not sure I would say that I couldn't do it without her. Having serious obligations like a wife definitely distracts me from my startup big time. Of course I would give up my startup in a second if it came down to a choice. I don't want to end up like Kermit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLQRv0RjBBM
This is great, especially the Max Levchin part. Thanks kulveer / kul.
OpenFloodgate: Online Publishing with Control
What do you guys think about the increase in the number of these document publishing sites. Will these morph into web based filing systems to replace the filing systems on our PCs?

What's their business model and which site will become dominant?
bbc startup series: Zooomr
bbc startup series: StumbleUpon
Young people are just smarter
The book analogy falls apart here, because only a limited number of people are accepted to YC or TS, while a (practically) unlimited number of people can read Harry Potter. The existence of two YC-like programs doesn't significantly decrease the amount of interest per program, especially since you can apply to both. It does, however, significantly increase (approx double) the number of entrepreneurs funded, and the competition may encourage YC to improve its program further.

As for your book example comment, if somebody wrote Henry Potter, I imagine lots of people would read it. The story in each new Harry Potter book isn't new and exciting either... it's the same story, new details. Also, just because Harry Potter was the most popular series with that story line doesn't mean there's no demand for other similar books.
If you could only read one, which would it be?
Depending on the employer, they may be quite happy to amend your contract to lay no claim on anything done in your own time and outside their product domain. Mine did.
If you really were a Jobs, it wouldn't matter whether he can tell, or not?
How I Sold My Idea to my Co-Founders
Updated link:
http://www.slideshare.net/zaidf/how-i-sold-my-idea-to-my-cofounders

I post this because I am presenting to a local VC tomorrow for another idea.

I'd love any feedback on what I should put more focus on for the presentation tomorrow.
A Group is its Own Worst Enemy - Social Software Design
I agree the site is way over the top and disconcerting. When I loaded the main page it just felt like they were trying way too hard to sell me something. It looks more like an ad for the 4th of July sale at Macy's than a startup funder. Either that or an ad for Citizen's bank, I cant' decide. It's a stark contrast with the YC site, where you have to read a bit to figure out what's going on. I don't think they need to be worried about getting people to apply, they're giving out free money after all...
Paul Buchheit amused by Likewithyou's camtoy
I read this essay recently in Joel Spolsky's "Best Software Writing". Really a great essay to study what seems to happen to groups on the net. Witness Reddit very recently with the old timers upset about the heavy political content. Fascinating that it seems to happen across decades.
Adbrite launches BritePic - "Steroids for Photos"
Hey that's cool. How'd they do it? I guess some sort of logic to look for movement in the image and put the stars around it?
Facebook meets Yahoo Answers - AnswerU
It seems unlikely that Perl would be the best choice to write this website in.

Timeslicing it into segments of 15 days might be a little too artificial. No one knows really how long it'll take, and it'll probably be 2-3 times your worst case number (the video game industry taught me that one).

Black and white might not be the best color to present the information in. It's simple, but even a little bit of color can help. Up to you though.

Other than that, good luck!
Nice. I need to make one of these very soon. I'm looking for co-founders for a new approach to online gambling, and most people don't really understand the casino business that much deep down. Something like this can help out quite a bit.
This just freaks me out. I can't wait for this one to slide down the frontpage...
Good points!

Like I said, we launched the site three months ago. Perl is working well for us, at least so far. And we launched five days ahead of schedule. But you are right, more often than not that won't be the case.
palish@gmail.com, if you have a spare. I'd appreciate it.
Thank you!
Also on BritePic:
http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=7286
Aren't you the guy that emailed me? Sorry I wasn't able to meet up with you at startup school.

I still don't think its that dangerous of advice. Sure, if somebody is working in a similar industry, doing actual work on the start up in the work place, then that'd be a problem. Businesses often do have large portfolios of IP, many having not much to do with their business, but I don't think somebody is going to have a problem working on something totally different, at home, on their own machines, on their own time.
He had a point. He just phrased it in a way that alienated a lot of people. But there is a certain energy and willingness to see things in unconventional ways that most people lose as they get older.

I also think the world is changing to value it more.
Math, for example, is famously a young man's game. And I think the world is changing so that more things are like math.
Maybe I am just jealous since I am over 30 and have not yet succeeded in a startup, but I think it is lack of commitments that allows younger people to be more inventive. If your mind is occupied with IRAs and Cars and Kids ... etc, you never have enough time to get immersed in the process of solving problems.
Infomercial as inthe kind you see on TV, or just some super dooper presentation whipped up in 3dsmax/premiere?
Paul Erdos was prolific into old age. I contend it is a lack of focus that prevents older people from innovating, not age:

"Paul Erdos never learned to tie his shoes, never drove a car or sliced his own piece of fruit"

http://teenink.com/Past/1999/10666.html
would have been useful when I was a freshman. What do you guys think?
Looking for entrepreneurial team - have technology and first client. You find funding!
A point about black/white: be careful about the looks. You might get a false response if your presentation looks great. At least when pitching to potential cofounders, I care more about them understanding what they are getting into than blindly accepting whatever I say because the presentation looks cool.

Ideal would be a presentation that looks indifferent.
I haven't quit my job, but I'm going to leave it as soon as I reasonably can. It's really hard to say whether Paul Graham had anything to do with it. I'd read inspirational stuff from Kathy Sierra (Creating Passionate Users) and Pamela Slim (Escape from Cubicle Nation) first, which I think is where I started getting the idea to start my own company.
I could see some limited use out of it. Hopefully there will be something more.

Other than that, it seems like chocolate syrup on a yummy hamburger.
The more you say in here, the better chance you have of finding a person. Pitch something.
I think he meant smart as in that their more apt to know what is 'cool'. It's obviously being blown out of proportion though. A comparison is with music. In high school and college everyone knows the music scene and all of the up and coming bands. It's all around you and you can't avoid it. When you're a little older it's harder to stay on top of those new artists and underground musicians.
A 21 page analysis of a one page sales letter that resulted in a 75% response
I think that open-ended creativity has little to do with math. Yes, most people get worse at math as they age, but some get better at open-ended creativity.

For most web 2.0 startups, I would say that creativity is more important than math.

As for the actual programming part, well many people can do that. It's not that big of a deal.
Hi. My name is Vinay Gupta. I'm an environmentalist and refugee infrastructure consultant by trade, although I did spend about 10 years doing software including a number of start ups. My projects include minor roles in http://oilendgame.org/ http://smallisprofitable.org and technical lead on http://database.biomimicry.org/

My main project is an award winning, public domain / free/libre refugee shelter system called the hexayurt.

So, I've got a technology that I'm looking to get turned into a product. For ethical reasons there will be no patents or IP protection - you could write a closed implementation, patent additional side features etc - but the basic ideas are already disclosed. The cat is out of the bag, because this is refugee stuff which just happens to have some other applications, and so I disclosed it to make sure it would not be patentable from my work. There may be other patent issues, although none have arisen so far - we have yet to hit prior art.

Technologies: mobile phone programming, 2D bar codes, very large databases, and some basic understanding of cryptosystems. Like, how to call the libraries, not how to roll your own broken encryption.

Now, here's the kicker: if I'm not entirely mistaken, I have a customer lined up. A Large Customer. If that turns out not to be true, there's no point starting this thing.

If, however, it is, the gig would start with one large contract, and then if you can then make this into a company, you go right ahead. I'm fully engaged pushing the Hexayurt Shelter System (a free/libre refugee infrastructure system) and don't have time to do a start up. I can advise, and make the introductions. From there in it would be up to you to make it a success, working with that client. My compensation is likely to be largely as a subcontractor to that client, working on the design end.

Interested? hexayurt@gmail.com
Math seems to becoming less of a young man's game. There is simply to much to learn now before you reach a field still ripe with unsolved problems. There still lots of said problems, they are just built on top of other things.

http://www.slate.com/id/2082960/
So all they had to do was submit a business plan?

Do these things, such as the disease detection and other medical devices actually work or are just theory?
I can fill in a little more of the technical side of things here. The core challenge is to print a lot of data on an A4 / US Letter sized piece of paper, and then get that data back off the paper and into an application running on a cell phone.

Ideally, this would work on any old phone. Realistically, this would be vertically integrated - you'd get to pick the phone, and the printing format for the page containing the data. From the specs and the initial discussions I've had with companies in the field, the speed of light for 2D bar codes is about 3mb per page (Data Matrix) and the choke point is mobile phone camera quality, particularly focal length issues (can't focus properly on the close page.)

Approaches: using better phones, deconvolution algorithms, c'mon guys, you know how to fix this.

After that, there's some extremely simple large scale database stuff which looks, to my eye at least, to be a natural fit for REST.

Basically:

Yank data off the page

think about it

do stuff over GPRS/3G or - ugh - SMS (yeah... SMS out, SMS back... terse data formats.)

Done.

Nothing about this is difficult. The crypto fits in just to ensure data integrity - make sure that the bar codes haven't been damaged, or that the data on the bar codes isn't stale.

Ok? Enough here to be going on with? Do we need to belabor the point further? For the right team, assuming the deal comes through, this would be an easy gig.

If it doesn't, there's no gig, no client, no business, even if I disclosed the rest of the pieces here. So it's a potential and there's not much you can do to make it happen or not. But if it does come through, first plausible team might make a pretty good living for a few months and possibly be left with a viable company at the end of it. Can't promise more than that. In terms of IP, there would be full disclosure, no NDAs, no patents on my work as I described. There could be competition, although probably not, and for other reasons I'm not simply posting the whole damn design on the internet (more on that angle later.)

Ok, done. Nothing more I can think of to tell you, please ask more questions either here or by email.

Vinay
Very cool. So this is what Justin was flipping out over at the YC mixer, I take it?
On finding a cofounder: what is the likelihood that people will like your idea AND your proposed implementation technologies?
Give up your dreams and spend the rest of your life locked away in a cubicle? Maybe you should just get a new wife instead, one that isn't so high-maintenance :)
There are many different ways to build a web app and this can present a significant hurdle to finding cofounders. After all, some may like your idea but hate your choice of implementation technologies.
Yep - if I end up homeless I am coming to his house to beg :P