skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The issue with scalability is the same problem many corporations faced 50 years ago. This was before Ray Kroc turned McDonalds into a "turn-key" operation. This model provides the franchisee licensed trademark along with tried and proven methods of doing that particular business; which, in our case, involves establishing mini-YC companies to fund startups.

For scalability, YC will need to experiment with establishing several offices around the country and then provide guidance, connections, and resources from the central office to all the smaller branches. The essence of turn-key operations is to work on building a business rather than the product.

I don't claim to know much about this. So if anyone is interested, they should check out "The E-Myth Revisited".
The Entrepreneurial Mind: Instilling the Entrepreneurial Spirit
Last question from YC's FAQ:

Q. Are you looking for investors?
A. Not at the moment.

I always wondered why YC was reluctant to take outside investment. Now we know why :)
How about hooking up previously-successful YC entrepeneurs with new applicants? At this point, I'd value the Reddit guys as much as mentors as you or RTM (no offense).

YC would then grow like a B-tree. In the beginning, all founders are on the same "page". As the page grows beyond its size limits, the page is split, successful founders are promoted up to the parent level, and there's more room to new founders at the leaves.

You'd need to run it by former YC-entrepeneurs, and it'll probably be a few years until their startups are self-sustaining (or bust) enough for them to take on other projects. But if they're like other entrepeneurs at all, they'd probably love to take a role in mentoring new YC applicants.
Social Network For High School Sports
In addition to venture capital, co-founder searching, and ROI numbers, there's another aspect of startups that we really should not forget.

Building the product.
Looks like partnership negotiations completely fell through.
The 'Big Four' have 92% of online ads - Maybe it's time for a new business plan
How many summer Y Combinator fundees decided not to continue with their startup and go back to school? and what were the reasons?
I know pollground decided to go back to school after getting y combinator funding
I have never really considered it in terms of shrinking markets. I guess what it all boils down to is how much of an affect your growth has on the competitor. Seems like if you are a small startup initially you would want the market to grow so you go unnoticed and then eventually shrink as you get enough momentum behind you, right or wrong? Any one else got other interesting market resizing points?
flickr and netvibes... clean and simple makes it fun
This is just total hogwash -- old media suing new media in the name of copyrighted content to ultimately protect distribution control.
That's not my list; that's just the list of names I got from asking people I know. There are a few firms on it that I haven't met partners from personally, and quite a lot of partners I know who didn't make the list. We don't have an official relationship with any VC firm, but we did invite GK to Demo Day.
Begun the copyright war has... Yoda
hmm, but the Big Four are like advertiser aggregators (probably a real term for that, reselllers?) since they resell the advertising. So this doesn't seem that surprising to me, the people it affects are other people providing a similar service as a startup. Or am I missing the point?
We already do this. We actively introduce new founders to "alumni" that can help them. There are now a lot of them. At the first dinner, instead of having an outside expert speak, we invite all the alumni. This time there were more speakers than audience at that dinner.

The peer-to-peer aspect of YC already scales. The hard part to scale is what we partners do.
What I meant is that you should base your decisions on your own situation, not statistics. You are likely to end up average anyway - that's the nature of statistics. If you don't, that shouldn't bother you..
Going back to school is not identical with giving up. Some founders go back to school and keep working on the startup while there. However, those do so much worse than the people who work on the startup full-time that going back to school seems, in practice, not too far removed from a death sentence for a startup.

Off the top of my head, I'd guess we've had about 8 startups where the founders went back to school. It doesn't only happen with summer batches. Founders from winter batches do it too.

Usually the reason is that the startup isn't doing very well. However, that judgement depends a lot on how determined the founders are. One reason we now shy away from funding people still in school is that they often unconsciously want the startup to fail, because the idea of dropping out frightens them.

A lot of startups look bad after 3 months. Someone who's out of school and has to make it work or get a job in a cubicle will say "don't worry, we'll figure out how to make it successful."
Please, when visiting already-submitted-stories via the bookmarklet, DON'T consider that an upvote. I'm just using it to find the comment thread.
To PG: Please, when visiting already-submitted-stories via the bookmarklet, DON'T consider that an upvote. I'm just using it to find the comment thread.
There will invariably be those who don't see the success they set out for, and they fall back to their original path.

That's why a founder's commitment is so critical. When your one plan is to become a startup founder, regardless of school or any other factors, you will do your damndest to make something of value and succeed. It's part _doing_ it better than the next guy and _wanting_ it more than the next guy.
excellent site, this will save me loads of time.
Were there any of the (approx.) 8 groups where you felt: "These guys are really close to having something. It's a huge mistake for them not to continue pursuing this."?
Guy gave a fantastic talk at Stanford a few weeks ago. I'll admit that I was initially skeptical given the many posts that have appeared on the web questioning his track record. In response Valleywag's sarcastically-titled "Guy's Golden Touch," Guy had this to say:

"It's not really Guy's golden touch. It's more like 'anything golden, Guy touches.'"

In all seriousness, though, my first-hand experience with Guy has given me a lot of confidence in him as a VC. He's frank about his own professional experiences, going as far as to count his time at Apple a "failure" because Apple never realized their initial goal of dominating the personal computer business.

I understand how track record plays a role in fundraising, but too many people overestimate a VC's track record and underestimate personal attention/advice. This isn't to say that the big VCs aren't good -- one of Sequoia's partners gave me great advice when I was a sophomore in college -- but I think that there is a false pretense amongst startups that raising money from big-name investors is somehow in itself a measure of success (it's like being proud of your mortgage).
I guess it really depends on how hungry you are and how much you believe in your product. I'm only 24 and still in school as of the moment, yet I'm more than willing to leave school in order to initiate my start up. Come to think of it, I'm willing to travel half the world just to get advice and connections from YC.
Field Studies: The Best Tool to Discover User Needs
True but it's better to development a actual business model than rely solely on Ad revenue.
Yes, but that is not surprising, because the biggest predictor of success is determination. In startups, merely being determined to succeed tends to make it so, if you're reasonably smart and flexible.

The Kikos are the only startup so far that has died of causes not of their own making. As everyone will soon realize when they launch justin.tv, they did not fail because of lack of balls.
Where are you based jamonklad?
Founder At Work :)
SXSW: The Figures Behind The Top Web Apps
8 Things Intelligent People, Geeks and Nerds Need To Work Happily
dupe; currently on the front page
"(it's like being proud of your mortgage)."

that was funny!
Entrepreneur's life is a lonely one....
Ahh Harj knows that there were other startups in the neighbourhood ;) what he really means is to be in an environment where the density of people who are better at starting companies than you are is greater. This is certainly what all London based young internet entrepreneurs crave. Undoubtedly SV trumps London esp when one considers the 18-25 aged entrepreneur bracket.
Photos of a YC dinner happening
Is there a mirror of the economist article out there for us non subscribers?
There are few photos of YC dinners. Usually we'd frown on it because it would be distracting. But we wanted some new images for our site, so we asked one of the founders who was a good photographer to take some. The speaker that week was Ron Conway. We also had Steven Levy and Paul Buchheit visiting.
While, in dollars, founder time and equity don't cost anything, in real terms, they do. Unfortunately, even in public companies, there isn't a good way to really account for these numbers... So I believe the bigger numbers (Mobissimo, Wesabe) are more indicative of the "real" costs of starting a business.

For instance, if I were start and self-fund a new business, the development and design costs would be zero, but I'd be paying rent, eating food, paying for gas, etc etc, since I'd be working full time. For a real account of the overall costs, I'd have to take those expenses as "salary" in my overall cost evaluation.
I meant for the labor components of the "build", not maintenance, costs.
Good post with metrics on Customer Support for a micro ISV
Startups that execute with the end in mind do much better than those that code with ambiguity. Unfortunately, I feel that YC might be encouraging startups to not strategically plan ahead due to the emphasis put on "The original idea is not important because it will change anyway". Yes, ideas do change, but that does not give us the excuse not to make a long term plan before they do.

Startups should always have a week long tactical plan and a rough strategic goal stretched upto three months.

"If you don't know where you're going, you will end up somewhere else."
That is a good point! Dropping out of school is analogous to "buring all your ships". Sun Tzu writes that "put your enemies in a spot where they have no place to go, and they will die before fleeting. If they are to die then, what can they not do? Warriors exert their full strength. When warriors are in great danger, then they have no fear. When there is nowhere to go, they are firm, when they are deeply involved, they stick to it. If they have no choice, they will fight to death."

You do your "damndest" when your success depends on the success of your startup.
New YC startup: Send photos from your phone to your blog, MySpace, etc.
This is a great thing, and IMO, exactly why Google bought Youtube.. They paid for this lawsuit.

When you think about it, everything Google does, the Cache, Google Groups, The Image search, and even their golden baby, Search, requires that they deal with the copyrighted material of other people.. It's their bread and butter. They can do it under the law, or at least their lawyers are convinced they can, because of a legal concept known as Common Carrier (Some people in the audience will notice I'm simplifying. I'm trying to encourage discussion, not write a legal essay ;)

The Common Carrier clause, written under the (otherwise) dreaded DMCA, says that carriers, such as Earthlink/aol/etc are just carrying information, and they aren't responsible for it.. It provides rules, which say you need to take things down when you're asked, but you're otherwise not culpable- As long as you take it down when asked, you're OK.

Now, with Youtube, before Google invested anything in it, Google sees a lawsuit coming which could change that.. They KNOW that youtube is likely to be sued, and don't want to have the judge define the laws in a way which screws them over.. They know this lawsuit is coming one way or another, and that Youtube is poor, so their legal defense is likely to..well..suck.

Google realizes that if they buy Youtube, they can use their considerable legal muscle and financial capital to DEFEND youtube, and to make sure that they law isn't redefined in a way that screws them..

Since the US system works by a process of Common Law, the precedent is binding. That means that this case will be VERY influential in dertermining any other cases. And it's THOSE that is worried about.

THAT's why Google bought Youtube. They want this Lawsuit very badly.

Well, As an aside- There's also the line of reasoning that Sequoia Capital was heavily pushing Google for the acqusition.. YouTube was smart/lucky enough to convince Sequoia to invest, which gives Google a good inventive to do the buyout.. That said, I think this was an ancillary factor, not a primary one. Winning this lawsuit is worth a billion to Google by itself.

Ways to prove me wrong? If Google settles, I'm full of shit.
maybe because you still call them girls?
There is something strange about that Segway; the wheels and the handle on it look very different. But anyway, great photos! I think this topic was posted earlier as well :)
While I'm on the YouTube side of this one, the web does place content creators in something of a dilemma. If content producers can't make revenue from the web, how are they going to afford to make quality content in the first place? While a lot of tech has brought the cost of media creation down, the only profitable web-exclusive stuff right now is content that can be created for free. Some of the zero-cost content is good, but most if it is just kids hurting themselves for a laugh.

What good is it to make money as a content aggregator if no one can afford to create content in the first place? There's a market here, I'm just not sure what it is.
How can/should I publicize my startup?
From what I gather on justin.tv, it seems we'll continually be seeing some interesting things coming out of that team, independent of the success of this new offering.
It's true but because they control the majority of online ads end-users are stuck accepting their rates and agreements. I'm not saying that Google is bad but I don't really know how large a percentage I get from their ads. If there were more ad startups with a larger percentage end-users would see a better competition on percentage paid.
You could start by giving us the url lol!

My #1 guideline is never pay for publicity. Look for free publicity always!
A little background: I'm the lead developer on a self-funded Web startup. It's a (mostly) free service to help musicians and bands stay in touch with their fans. I have a lot of confidence in it as a great product. What are some (cheap) ways I can make noise about it and get people using the site?
http://www.scriggle-it.com/
It's not nearly that simple though- Google position isn't "copyright doesn't matter", it's that "Look, we'll take it down if you ask. The law says that's OK! Why are we still arguing"?

Take a look up a few posts for my perspective ;)
Set up a website for a business you don't have - Call it Sneaky 2.0
Thanks for a link to a subscriber only article!

But seriously, being lonely as an entrepreneur should be the least of your concerns. If you're looking for reasons to not quit your day job there are plenty out there. Real entrepreneurs know the risk of failure, look it in the eye, and proceed anyway!
Failing Cheaper
It's not a Segway. It's better. http://www.tlb.org/scooter2.html
Is this the Mountain View location? That's a snazzy looking room.
Jessica left out his interview!
I blogged this - and used it - here: http://herdrick.blogspot.com/2007/03/heysan-blog-slideshows.html

Summary: I like.
Holy crap this is one of the most retarded articles about CS I've seen in a while.

If the premis is that cs programs are out of date, then yes, the article has a point. If the premis is that everything in software has been "done" and there's nothing interesting left to do, then it is completely ridiculous.
I completely agree. Google knew that they needed to be involved in this lawsuit or the future of their business, and perhaps the Internet, could be in jeopardy. If YouTube had to settle or try to fight the lawsuit on their own it is very likely that the outcome wouldn't have been favorable for Google. By buying them and taking the lawsuit on themselves Google is able to use their warchest to fight for the future of the Internet. I'm very excited to see how this plays out.
The best C hacker I've ever met (probably the best programmer, period) swears by Haskell and functional programming. So does the second best.

In my time here at my full-time job I've mentored a lot of kids straight out of school. So often I hear things like "I can't wait to start programming in a real language with pointers" after they've been doing support scripting in python or tcl or whatever. Unfortunately, people like to feel like they are controlling the computer.. because they want to show how well they know how it works. They love the HOW of programming, because it makes them feel smart.

But Great Programmers want to solve problems quickly. They want to do what first, how later.
Exactly. Even with micropayments, I would still have to think about it, and I don't like having to think. This is part of the reason why the most popular micropayment system on the web is Google AdSense.

On the other hand, I regularly send text messages on my phone without much though given to the crazy $0.15 per-message fee.
To clarify I wasn't referring to London here. I was referring to real startup dead spots like Missouri or Alaska or other places that literally have no startups there. In those cases you have no option but to move.

In places where there's a fledging startup scene, the decision is tougher but ultimately we still decided to move as that was the best decision based on our circumstances.
I'm not saying it is that simple. Google is in the right here. They obey the law, they give customers exactly what they want.

The issue is on the supply side: How can content producers adapt to this altered economy? Right now, their answer has been to sue and hold tightly to the old business models. My argument is more nuanced than just protecting copyright -- I believe there is a way to make money producing quality content, but maybe not for the big, hollywood sized producers. I'm more interested in how to empower the people in-between viacom and the lone camcorder.
How 'bout breakfast?:-) Sorry...
Currently Building Ideal Social Incubator- Can I interview a current or previous Y Combinator member
I'm planning on flying out from Connecticut to join the meetups and try and get to know other people who share my goals even though I won't be attending the actual startup school event. I look forward to being able to tell the story about how I met my cofounder while crashing a YC "everyone is welcome" social session.
Accepting credit cards: a Tactic, not a Business Model

Obviously "free" is not a complete business model, but how blind do you have to be to keep repeating these silly anti-free arguments despite the overwhelming success of many businesses based of free things? (Google, television, etc)

If you can build a product that will get a lot of users and has low per-user costs, then free is an excellent option and almost inevitable (because you will face competition from free). On the other hand, if your product has limited appeal or high costs, then you probably need to charge.
Ugh. Macintoshes. I know pg came out in their favor a while ago ("All the hackers I know are switching to Macs"...something like that). But, man, to see it in reality. My mother has an older OSX machine. What a piece of work. Even the parts of it that are supposed to be good, like the interface, are just clumsy. The mouse is ungainly, with one big "button", making a laughable full-palm-press-down the most reliable way to click. The scrollbars and window-edges are mysteriously hard to grab. The icons in the taskbar would have seemed childish to me when I was 10. The power of Unix is pretty well hidden. If I'm on my linux machine, you can bet I'm not using KDE. Without the shell, linux might as well be Windows.

Now, if it was OSX vs. Windows 98, sure. But XP (*) is stable and the candy colors are easily removed. The security problems only concern the ignorant. I'm not too impressed by people who will pay a 400-800 dollar premium for the geek equivilent of a status symbol.

(*) I've never used Vista.
Raising money from big-name investors gives you a lot more credibility. This will help with hiring (I would rather work at a Sequoia backed startup than a NoName backed startup) and partnering.
One reason this works is because the established players will be afraid to compete directly with you because that would mean undermining their existing business.
GigaOM: Viacom sues YouTube for $1 billion
Ignore :p. This link was already posted below: http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=3878

I just got excited and hit the bookmarklet button.
This is like a beaten defender grabbing a forward's shirt as he runs by. Time to sell VIA and buy GOOG.
Working (or not working perhaps) with friends
For an example of offering too little equity, see the Equity section at http://blogs.xobni.com/asmith/archives/5
Casabi raises $10 million in Series B funding
Thanks Ethan! We're launching a new version of the slideshow today with support for desktop upload. Other sources will follow.

- Gustaf, heysan!
I think the photos were taken this winter, so it must be Mountain View. I like the padded walls; are those to reduce echo?
I'm curious - why is a pre-launch startup hiring a COO to begin with? Don't you have to launch in order to have something to operate?

(I'm of the opinion that founders should avoid hiring anyone for as long as possible, instead bootstrapping off their own abilities until they gain some traction in the marketplace. In addition to saving money, this also gives you a better idea of precisely what you *need* so you don't hire for the wrong qualities. It'd suck to hire a COO with experience scaling Java enterprise apps to 99.9999% uptime, only to find that your actual business model demands a Python consumer webapp with few uptime requirements but massive social scaling challenges.)
Here is a nice tactic I came up with: Type your competition's name in Technorati and determine all the blogs that reviewed your competitior. Next, dispatch an email to all those bloggers informing them that you have created a rival product. The bloggers are usually interested in covering products similar to those they have covered in the past :)
Pitch your new startup using Filmator presentation site. Its easy to use and you can produce powerful presentations.
Drop-send's cost are quite accurate. He paid for developer and design time on contract.
try startupcrunch