skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
This is a problem I have right now in my current start-up, Wakoopa.

We're currently working on a thematic social site, which will launch in about a month. We've had a small investor gives us some seed money, which could last us for about a year. We both have our personal laptops to develop it. I use a 17" Acer, my partner has a 13" Macbook. He sometimes uses an extra screen, property of another company at our shared office, a 20". This ofcourse saves him a lot of stress and lets him develop somewhat faster.

We'd like to buy him an extra screen of course, but is this really fitting for a small start-up that isn't earning money yet? We've got the budget, but should it be tapped into? And of course: who pays for this thing? Should we just order it through our company and forget about it, or do we hold it in on my partners (very modest) salary?

This all has to do with your personal guidelines and budget, but what do you guys think? Buy the thing and be done with it, or be more thoughtful of what you spend in such an early stage?
I actually know a Dutch social network that killed of their Spanish audience by targeting more on national events. It all depends on strategy I guess.
Shouldn't be hard to match me up either.

my $me;
my $last_name = $ynews_uid;
our @facebook_names = importNames('Startup School 2007');

for my $facebook_name (@facebook_names) {
if ($facebook_name ~= /Matthew $last_name/) {
$me = $facebook_name;
}
}

print $me;
The idea is fundamentally disgusting. Giving someone a government enforced monopoly on a thought. It's not even interesting to speculate about- it's completely untenable- impossible to organize and define, impossible (and immoral) to enforce, and it would completely kill innovation and economic growth. All ideas are derived. [no offense, amichail- I know you were just throwing it out there]
Very cool. This new crop of ventures is definitely the best yet.
If it were me I'd fly out the morning of the day before, schmooze with the people who were around all day, and then skip the presentations and take a red eye back a few hours later in time for the contest. But then again I'm kind of crazy like that.
Five Principles to Design By
3 Ways To Use Your Competition To Build Links & Targeted Traffic
I added myself to the event even though I can't go this year. Feel free to add me as a friend though. :-)

/Alex Krupp
I believe I am "Dan W" over there :)
I've just created a general YC news group on facebook called 'YC News Addicts' at http://bristol.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2253411233.

Some of us don't get to come to startup school but still want to get to know our fellow YC'ers.
True, getting stuff running on 'dumb' phones like the razr is crucial. Wonder if python could run on top of javame? I would anticipate it be very slow.
it's not a real event until there's a facebook group for it!

i'm the guy with the profile picture of a bear.
Why Apple is the best retailer in America
Perhaps they use highly advanced computers called 'humans'? :D
YC News Facebook Group
Start-Up Aims for Database to Automate Web Searching
'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says (text only; video link in comments)
Jobs' speech is about 1.5 years old. It's probably a classic for this audience, but the few who've slipped through the cracks must not be denied this utterly inspiring speech. We should be so lucky to one day be able to give a speech that chronicles a life of amazing achievements. Don't focus so much on whether what he's saying is true, of if you think he's this or that. All that matters is that if you feel something deep within you move, listen to THAT.

Also, here's the YouTube video of the speech - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA

Do enjoy!
I ll be there (from Atlanta,GA)
If you liked this interview, Fast Company also published a "best of" of their last ten years.
I'll be coming from PA.
IIRC, Seth Godin was a CS major in college though.

Don't forget, hacker originally meant someone who crawled around in steam tunnels. It really just means someone who explores and takes stuff apart because they want to learn how it works. That could be code, could be social systems.
I read this a couple times a month ever since I ran into it.

What I like about Jobs is that he has a story of ups and downs which better reflects the reality of the average entrepreneur than a one way constant linear progression.
"That said, his book 'The Art of Start' did not live up to my expectations."

His book Selling the Dream is a lot more out there. A lot of his ideas has since been appropriated by others, so it's not entirely fresh. Still, there are some good things in that book that you won't find anywhere else. He has this huge list of people who told famous entrepreneurs their ideas sucked. Like, "I think there's a world market for maybe 5 computers." But about 100 of those quotes in a row. Including the quote where he turns down the chance to be CEO of Yahoo! because "there's no money in search and the commute is too far." :-)
Another question: Let's say you've already spent considerable time (12-24 months, say) developing a product and then find somebody to partner with. What is the breakdown in company ownership? Certainly not 50/50 or even 60/40, I would think.
Always buy what you need to get the job done. If you're doing a web startup then you need the hardware and software. Get it, spend the money, and consider it an investment in your company. When it comes to having the right tools don't be cheap!
Yeah, I'm pretty impressed. I have to say some of the Y companies have tapped into my cynicism in the past.
Isnt facebook only for college students?
Why dont you put it somewhere else so that the rest of us can also join?
Seth Godin: Selling the Show
YC represents a good demographic of undergrads, grads, and recently graduated students so I think it's a pretty good place to start it. Moreover, Facebook opened up to everyone two months ago.

Alternatively, if Danw prefers, we can start a YC group on my social network instead (Shuzak.com). People don't have to register to post there.
"Like Photosynth, View3 will let you walk into and explore 3D images of photos, but will let you use as little as one photo to get started." This sounds very interesting. Maybe this is related work?

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dhoiem/projects/popup/

http://www.ri.cmu.edu/pubs/pub_5164.html

http://www.robots.ox.ac.uk/~mukta/cvpr06/1123_Prasad_M.pdf
You can get the content of the presentations online later, if that is what you're after.

And honestly, it's not like you're going to be bumping into people with their checkbooks open, or something, at startup school.
Facebook is open for everyone but mainly used by students. I created the group after noticing how many people joined the startup school event.

Feel free to move over to shuzak, looks like it could become a great community and it matches the YCN demographic perfectly.
I'll be there from Jersey.
Does shuzak have a YCN demographic? From browsing the site briefly I found it hard to tell if it was for me or for people who collect Star Trek christmas tree decorations.
Are there some features I could add that would make YC News itself do what you need in this respect?
'collect Star Trek christmas decorations'

Isnt that YCN? Kidding! It's a social network for geeks which sounds like us. Addmitedly I've barely used shuzak so I may be mistaken.
a photo upload per user so you can pick out someone you know here in a crowd, and a simple message queue (per user) would probably do it, imo.
I'm not sure if the facebook group is even going to be usefull apart from making it easier to find/contact other users. Now that we have an about field on profiles it will be easier to contact people. Anyone who wants to be contacted can stick a url/email in the field.

Perhaps the ability to send messages to users? Or to add people as 'friends'? There are some people who consistently add article that I like and it would be great if I could add them as a 'friend' and then look at a 'your friends submitted articles' page that would aggregate all the stories and perhaps comments submitted by the people on my friends list. It would let people look at new articles being submitted without being deluged like in the current 'new' page.

Anyone else think this feature would be good and actually used by us?
Coming from Miami, looking to see if I still own a coat. :)

http://carlos.bueno.org/2007/03/startup-school-startup-culture.html
I estimate that 85% of the people on there are hackers. In fact, there are a number of users involved in actually coding the social network. Moreover, there is a chatroom there so we may converse in real-time.

Here is the YC community:
http://shuzak.com/Community.php?ID=6472
Where in FL? I'm in Miami. Maybe we can meetup before or after.
Oh and for Star Trek lovers, please visit:
http://shuzak.com/UniversalSearch.php?query=star&Type=Communities

lol.
Customer Value and the Network Effect
US Workers Hate Their Jobs More Than Ever
The First Song Someone Wrote About Google
Startup Culture vs the Art of Software
Also: This facebook group doesn't mean that YCN is missing some feature that fbook groups has. Being a member of a group in facebook is mainly about identity creation and signaling. It's so that anyone viewing my profile know that I'm into this 'YC news' thing.

Edit: Looks like theres a new post on the facebook blog about how groups are used: http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=2249512130. "On the other hand, groups can be great just to declare an affiliation, such as my obsession with Thin Mints."
Comparing investors to record labels etc is a little harsh. They're notorious for leaving bands with nothing. Whereas as rich as investors get from startups, founders get richer. (Myspace is a famous exception precisely because it's an exception.) Two YC startups have gotten bought so far, and the founders made a lot more than we did.
Seth Godin operates one of the most famous blogs in the world. To be honest, I don't think his posts warrant the popularity his blog receives. Seth is a great guy, but his ideas are somewhat redundant.

Books by Seth that I highly recommend:

1. Permission Marketing

2. All Marketers are Liars

3. Purple Cow

4. Small is the new big

Books by Seth that I do not recommend:

1. The Big Moo

2. Free prize inside

3. Idea virus

4. The Bootstrapper's Bible (I am not finished reading this
one, so don't take my advice on it)

I ended up writing him an email explaining my frustration over "The Big Moo" and "Free prize inside".
So when I was reading Book "The Perfect Store" by Adam Cohen, I found out that similar was the Situation for Ebay. John Stokes joined later than Pierre Omidyar, so they decided with different equity levels. I guess it was 28/72. Not sure..
Si, a little harsh. You are not Lou Pearlman. I am trying to get at the effect of fashion and the star-making network on how "talent" behaves and the art advances.

It's a great time to start a startup. You can get going on the cheap, just as a band can get their equipment from the pawn shop and start off at their favorite bar. But to keep going, to scale and get that big prize you need to embed yourself into the larger network of financiers & promoters.

At times you position YC as an alternative to the VC world, when it's really a leg up into it. Is VC pressure to hire a CEO that different from replacing Pete Best with Ringo?
This is relevant:

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/jul06/4109
That is a really amazing speech. I had not seen it yet, so posting it at least brought it to the attention of one new person. Thanks!
This article has some wonderful correlation-vs-causation confusion, eg.

"Job-satisfaction levels tend to rise as the hours worked per week increase" could be better phrased as "People work more hours per day as their job satisfaction rises (but start to hate their jobs once they start working 60+ hours per week)"

and

"respondents who expect to remain in their current position a year from now reported higher satisfaction levels" could be better phrased as "People with low job satisfaction do not intend to remain in their current position a year from now."
A similar argument was raised on another blog, to which Adam Siegel left an appropriate reply. Have a look:

http://www.midasoracle.org/2007/02/22/are-nathan-kontny-and-adam-siegel-of-inkling-markets-being-exploited-by-paul-grahams-y-combinator/

Like most other hackers, I am not applying to YC for the investment. 5000(1 + n) is really not a large sum. In fact, I already have half that amount sitting in my bank account (student fees, :p). Our reason for applying to YC is to have the opportunity to create something larger than us (apologies for the cliche). There is no better place to do it than through Y Combinator. YC works at the same wavelength as its hackers; that is a considerable difference between a VC and Y Combinator.

If you were an aspiring hip/hop musician, would you rather go to Shady Records for a record label or Donald Trump?
The mathematical explanation behind "Y Combinator" function
From wikipedia's article on Lambda calculus:

"..in other words, f must expand to g(f). This call to g will then expand to the above factorial function and calculate down to another level of recursion. In that expansion the function f will appear again, and will again expand to g(f) and continue the recursion. This kind of function, where f = g(f), is called a fixed-point of g, and it turns out that it can be implemented in the lambda calculus using what is known as the paradoxical operator or fixed-point operator and is represented as Y -- the Y combinator."
I got an email as well, and I'm looking forward to it. I'm in the Bay Area, so the drive is short. Did you fill out the RSVP link yet?
Yes I am in Silicon Valley.
I will be going! My name is Robert from Phoenix, Arizona our site is TallStreet.com, if anyone cares.
I'll be 'attending'...via podcast.

When I first got involved with a proto-startup (redundant?) I came across a podcast of some previous year and it was by far the best crash course in startup business I've seen.

Has there only been one previous year? Other online?
5 Quick Pointers on Startup Hiring
Sure, sure, it's a good gig, and more help than you get from a bank or Uncle Ralph. I am not too worried about how the pie is cut, but more about the fact that without involvement from the network, everyone says you have no chance at all. That influences which projects we kids think about, what talents we choose to develop, and so on. Just like the music biz.
O'Reilly launches venture fund: O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures
Isnt Facebook for College students; What about the rest of us - How can we join?
Why enter a business competition if your competitors are weak? What exactly will you learn from the experience?

Having your friend present for might be ethical, assuming your friend states that it isn't his business plan that he is presenting upfront to the judges. But as a judge, my first thought would be 'If this person's business plan is so wonderful, why can't he even give it the importance to present it himself?', regardless of the excuse. So it seems kind of scattered to try to do both things simultaneously in this fashion.

Okay, here's what I would do: put the business plan competition out of my head, and focus my energy on making the most of the startup school experience. Forget about the prize money - you'll have lots of opportunity to make money, but fewer opportunities to get the kind of experience / contacts startup school might bring.

Good luck.
Guys I missed the deadline for application. If anyone got approved but can't attend, please, I'd be very thankful to you for sharing your invite with me, I can even consider buying it! Thanks! Please drop me a few words to white@chief.la
Does YC offer $5K per founder for ~6% or 6% for $10K?

Some of these apps are very cool though!
Humanized  Weblog: Command Line for the Common Man: The Command Line Comeback
Publishing Is To 2007 As eCommerce Was to 1997
With auctomatic thats not the only string to their bow. Go Kul & Harj..!
Going to startup school? Add your bios here...
Coming from Wash DC...

Just made a wiki so we can all coordinate stuff to do and share rides: http://startup_weekend.bluwiki.com/
Facebook is now open to all users. I think the best place to organize would be somewhere we could add information and organize, such as the Infogami Wiki.
chiefwhite,

last time I went (in 2005), there was absolutely no security and plenty of free chairs. Anyone could've easily shown up without being questioned...

I don't know if it will be the same this year, but if you're in the area maybe you can try showing up?

Who knows... if they catch you... maybe PG will appreciate your hacker-ish persistence :)
The part about 30boxes and Google Calendar's quick add features brings the point together:
"The quick-add feature doesn't even really feel like an interface, which is the highest compliment an interface can get: the better an interface is, the less it's noticed."

Clearly many tasks will be more efficient if you can convince people to type instead of clicking around a bunch. The trick is setting it up in such a way that what they have to type is completely intuitive. Almost as if they are typing out what they want done in natural language.
5 Quick Pointers On Startup Hiring
They offer $5000 + $5000n, where n is the number of founders. The percentage claim ranges between 1-10%, with the reported median at about 6%.
View3 is one that I'm particularly looking out for. The premise just sounds completely awesome.

I've tried Microsoft's Photosynth and I was pretty impressed. I can't wait to see what the team behind View3 has come up with.
What should you *not* skimp on?
Hey guys,

I just set up a wiki to discuss getting together: http://startup_weekend.bluwiki.com/go/Startup_Weekend/Events

I was thinking we could grab coffee at 8, and then walk over to the auditorium together. Who's in?
Facebook became un-exclusive middle of last year sometime, you can just go and sign up
Want to get coffee the morning of startup school?
0 users for the YC community, 5 for star trek

Kidding. I'll check it out if its really 85% hackers.
No prob, now I just need to find time to use it myself!
"Woz (Apple). All the best things I did at Apple came from (a) not having money, and (b) not having done it before, ever."

There's a lot of poor, inexperienced people here in Cleveland. I wonder why it hasn't become a start-up hub...
The great thing about being a startup is that you can skimp on many things. Being cheap (many of us have no other choice) forces us to optimize and scrutinize the details.

That's why we can create some cool things that are also efficient with little resources. Big companies will dump a lot of money to realize the same results.

Since a lot of us are doing software and web stuff, there isn't a lot of cost-related items we shouldn't skimp out on. We can even skimp on hardware in the early stages (just make sure to have the appropriate servers for launch).

What we really should not skimp out on is fundamental decisions in design -- in our code and in our "backbone" implementation. These things are addressable later too, but it could cause headaches. The next thing is relationships and talent. Don't compromise on your founding team in regards to talent or passion. Don't insist on making it work when it's for the wrong reasons. A team needs cohesion.
5 Reasons Internet Brands Have Better Loyalty
I'm sure pg has thought of this already, but it seems like there is a demand for more community features surrounding YC news. Unlike everyone else creating social networks for the sake of creating a social network, it looks as though you might be able to grow one organically here.
I'll be there. I am working on Social Marketplace called Onista. http://www.onista.com
Hmmm. In 1997 I was writing ecommerce software, and now I'm working on a news site...
We know these guys pretty well and we like them. They understand hackers better than most VCs.
Probably, but why bother. I think most of the target demographic here is already happy with Facebook, so it would be easier just to add a permanent link to the Facebook group in the footer. Reimplimenting Facebook just leaves users with (n + 1) profiles to keep up-to-date. I suppose you could use the Facebook API to grab people's profile pictures and interests and contact info and stick them in each user's news.YC profile, but I think more than that is unnecessary.
Is Silicon Valley a meritocracy? How can it be if it is based on social networking?
While DH is a smart guy, one of our rules of thumb at YC is to be skeptical of any application containing the phrase "semantic web." It's a bad idea magnet the way AI was in the 1980s.
BTW, this might make some interesting reading: http://www.stanford.edu/group/esrg/siliconvalley/docs/siliconvalleyedge.pdf
That is what I'm thinking about right now. We said explicitly when we started news.yc that one goal was to get to know founders before they applied to us. I think I'll add messaging next. If anyone has suggestions about how it should work, or other community features we should add, just let us know in this thread.
personal guidelines (by justin kan - kiko cofounder)
This is our responsibility
Read this article over a year ago and I revisit it every couple of months to remind me of why I stay up late researching the ideas in my head. Some look good, some don't but at the end of the day, opportunity is around us all. Read it, it's worth the time.
Actually this year we're tightening up security a bit.

Please don't just show up. It's very nice of Stanford to lend us the auditorium, and we don't want to be bad citizens. If we have too many people for the room, the campus police won't like it.
Both are true, but there's no contradiction: people are selective about who they "network" with, and they select based on ability.
YC News Traffic So Far
But then you could miss out on more qualified people who are not in your immediate social network. It seems wrong for example that most VCs will only take you seriously if you are introduced to them via someone they know.
Hey bgold, the BarCamp monthly dinners are a pretty good venue for that kind of meetup. I went to one in January - it was pretty cool and I'm planning on being at the next one. Unfortunately, BarCamp LA itself is the same weekend as Startup School. But the monthly dinner is the Tuesday before:

http://barcamp.org/BarCampLosAngeles
I assume they are closer to the traditional VCs in their model and not as much seed funders like Y Combinator. Is that your understanding as well Paul?
What about providing a way for YC news to identify other users who potentially share the same interests as me? Basically, the set of links which I have upmodded provides YC news with a set of potential topics that I am interested in. Naively comparing this group of links that I have upmodded with that of another user may potentially provide a non-null intersection and show possible common interests; thus, that other user may be someone I am interested in collaborating with.

Now that I think about it, another benefit of this is that more relevant news may be surfaced to me - if person X and person Y have a largely overlapping set of upmodded links, then perhaps the set (X-Y) may also be interesting to person Y, and vice versa. Perhaps this could be a way to deal with the perceived quality of news degrading as a site gets more popular as well, as it would allow the system to break off into smaller clusters of news items/people, where each item may be highly relevant to those who belong to the cluster.

Sorry to ramble on like that - I don't expect (or necessarily want) such a complicated feature to be a part of the obviously minimal YC news site...just thought I'd bring it up for discussion.

Edit: Used in combination with jwrecker's idea of having a more personal space, this could be a great startup idea - instead of YC News determining your set of links, it could simply be the set of links you post to your personal space :D
Y Combinator: Discussion
Drag and Drop doesn't work in IE. Creat a new favorite with javascript:window.location=%22http://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=%22+encodeURIComponent(document.location)+%22&t=%22+encodeURIComponent(document.title)