The YC email arrives ...

GEEK #1: So read the message. Did we get in?

NERD: READS EMAIL, looks dejected, tears streaming from eyes. Starts blowing on sleeve. Honking
sound.

'... We're sorry to say that we can't accept your proposal for funding. Please don't take it personally, because most of the proposals we rejected, we rejected for reasons having nothing to do with the quality of the applicants ...' [0]

GEEK #2: "So did we get in?"

NERD : "No, we didn't get in."

GEEK #2: "Why, do you think it had something to do with me saying, 'I wanted to give it a try for 3 months then go back home and continue my PhD.?'" [1]

GEEK #1: "You what?"

NERD : "I told you, first we do the startup, make a good product, then the PhD., then we party, not before."

GEEK #1: "What about this?" ... interesting offer, "show off hackenpreneur skills?"

GEEK #2: "Isn't 'hakenpreneur' one of the Thunderbirds?"

NERD: "Thats Hacken - backer" [2]

ALL: Read article, mouths words, absorb information [3]

GEEK #2: "You do almost the same thing, same place, similar money, coding! LOOK! They even give you a idea to start working on."

GEEK #1: "Sun Tzu says: 'a wise general makes a point of foraging on the enemy. One cartload of the enemy's provisions is equivalent to twenty of one's own, and likewise a single picul of his provender is equivalent to twenty from one's own store.'" [4]

NERD : "Hmmm. What about our idea?"

NERD : You know. Our idea to revolutionise the storage and retrieval of unstructured data across the Internet. We have a demo, we've launched, got great feedback, users. We have what it takes. It will probably change. We can adapt.

GEEK #2: "Goggle stopper!"

NERD : "No, Google stopper."

GEEK #2: "Thats the code name, 'Goggle Stopper'."

GEEK #1: "Sun Tzu also said 'when your weapons are dulled, your ardor damped, your strength exhausted and your treasure spent, other chieftains will spring up to take advantage of your extremity' [5]

GEEK #2: Ancient Art of War, I love that game. If you get enough knights, take the bridge you can ...

NERD : But if we work for something else, we miss out on working on our own stuff, the people stuff, the business stuff. We could always go home, scrape some money together, polish our idea, skills and pitch again?

GEEK #1: "Sun Tzu also reminds me that, 'our men must be roused to anger; that there may be advantage from defeating the enemy, they must have their rewards'". [6]

NERD : Every day we aren't working on our own product, is a day wasted. Nothing will stop us!

GEEK #2: You're right. Why would we want to work on other peoples ideas? We're street wise. We do things on our own terms.

NERD : Working for a boss, sucks.

GEEK #1: Right. [5]

GEEK #2: You tell 'em boss.

Reference

[0] I read this straight off a 'mauricecheeks' post ~ http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=9464
It is by far the best current Plan B that I have read.

[1] I know someone who did exactly this. Sad story.

[2] Really Brains name is "Hiram Hackenbacker" ~ http://www.google.com/search?q=hiram+hackenbacker

[3] Dharmesh Shah, "Why Not All Great Hackepreneur Get Picked By Y Combinator"

[4] Sun Tzu, "Mit Classics, II. Waging War, #15" ~ http://classics.mit.edu/Tzu/artwar.html

[5] Sun Tzu, "II. Waging War, #4", Ibid.

[6] Sun Tzu, "II. Waging War, #16", Ibid.

[7] Straight out of 'Alien', Brett.