skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Hm... I don't understand why did they opt to go with TWO(!) SQL servers so early. If your DB is designed well and your queries are written well, you should max out on HTTP side first.

Even on super-fast ASP.NET, we started with two HTTP servers plus only one single SQL server behind and it worked very well...
One interesting observation I've had: I've yet to encounter a YC funded company that has had a negative outcome from the YC program. I've talked to several in person and through email and its been nothing but positives.

I realize that its probably the successful ones who will be outspoken and positive, but still something worth noting.

The equity argument is plain stupid IMHO. I'm actually more curious with the trend that YC and its copies are creating with branding. It seems to be turning into a kind of "school" where its companies are identified as much by association with the program as the company's idea itself. So far this seems to be very good in generating publicity, but I am curious about the long term effects of this as there are more successfully funded companies and more copies pop up.
Finally--Sync your Phone's Calendar and Address Book Over The Air -- Supports 75% of new phones, Treo, iPod, and 750,000,000 devices (Win + Linux servers)
undoudtedly pg is getting better and better at spotting the entrepreneurs who are most likely to benefit from YC and who are receptive to the environment for making something big.

In doing so pg is definately making something YC funded companies want and appreciate. Hence the positive feedback. I love how fearless these startups are in going after big big markets, its insrpirational to susequent generations of YC founder.

May there be more black T shirts dished out soon.
It's odd that they criticize the amounts raised so often: $15K for 5% means YC's average bet is that the output of one project from two coders is worth $300K. How many of the slashdot commenters think they could take a summer off with a buddy and make $300K worth of software?
Thanks, I used your suggestion to get apostrophes, which is why it will seem incomprehensible to anyone reading it later.
Yes, true. What I actually said was that if anyone turns us down simply due to the implicit valuation, they've failed an IQ test, but these things get compressed when reduced to one sentence quotes.
Why Mobile Services Fail
Microsoft Intend To Launch Rival To Google Analytics
Crop everything to the right of the ? in the url and it won't ask for registration.

I.e., visit http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/10/technology/10pogue-email.html
Ah, and I see my original post has been modded down to zero, in the classic Digg-style mob rule fashion.

I'm outta here.
Make your site mobile friendly
New MySpace copyright tech turns heads, raises brows | CNET News.com
3 Things Investors Won't Pay the Founder For
7 States Ask MySpace.com For Names, Addresses of Registered Sex Offenders
Dancing with Jimmy Wales in 'Second Life'
Disclaimer! Eating will take time away from creating something people want!

I think if the value you gain from doing something outweighs the opportunity cost paid for not working on your startup, you ought to go ahead and do that thing. Whether these videos are worth your time is your opinion. But they are excellent resources, and others might find them worthwhile.
I guess this guy's favorite web site must be microsoft.com. Cold business-style, pressing, unfriendly, but probably highly usable otherwise.

principles of good design and usability established over the last decade

Anything can be re-established if necessary. As long as you preserve the grammar of your language, do whatever you find appropriate for your users. If they love it, it means you got it right.
Hopefully, this time the dispute will go all the way to the supreme court, and we will get a ruling that makes the whole IP environment more predictable. At least for startups and smaller players without huge legal resources, as well as for those who would like to invest in them, the current uncertainty is worse than any probable ruling.
ICANN says new domain names could be available mid-2008
why should it matter to any of you?

pg does not need (nor appreciates) any of us to be his defenders.

If we can help each other out some on this newsgroup (and I am willing to), that is all that is necessary. [gets back to work].
due diligance is loooooong, almost makes you not want to get funding unless you really really need it (a good thing).
Seth Godin sends you beyond "mediocre-ville".
Truemors Goes Public
I think if the value you gain from doing something outweighs the opportunity cost paid for not working on your startup, you ought to go ahead and do that thing.

Quite true. Ive been going through the videos, an SICP (albeit slowly). Yes, I sometimes feel that I could be writing production code instead of getting an education. I believe, though, that having some additional insights on software development will pay off quite well in the future.

Plus it's fun. :)
good article, hard to get yourself into the mindset that failure is a good thing, but its true.
Valleywag: Eric Schmidt at Burning Man
Microsoft has CUSTOM home pages, has anybody noticed?
Lists such as these have a Rorschach test quality to them. They are often little more than pithy assertions that tend to resonate with some people. But the meaning and value is what the reader infers based on personal biases, not so much what is in the actual message

As you've noticed, though, aphorisms tend to come in pairs. E.g., Many hands make light work; too many chef's spoil the broth. Which one is "true" will depend on whether you're surrounded by busy-bodies, or unloading a moving van by yourself.

I tend to favor this one: "Skill to do comes from doing."
YEurope introduces its team, one day before their submission deadline
Aaron Swartz now thinking about public radio?
Uh, so, just to clarify, you a) like reading Reddit, and b) don't like government conspiracy pontifications?

Right.
Web traffic impact of a TV press appearance
On the flip side there are more and more applicants which counterbalances the improved selection. Also it's unlikely that anyone who got accepted would give a negative review of it because it's valuable even if it doesn't "work out".

With sites like http://overhear.us the phrase "they can't all be winners" springs to mind; however, I have a hard time believing they were more promising than the hundreds who got turned down. I'm not sold on the prophetic ability of YC.
They're really running on a tight schedule...

On the other hand, my understanding is that they've been hard at work since their original announcement, figuring out how their program is going to work legally and organizationally. Being willing to set themselves a tight schedule when necessary and being able to meet it might not be such a bad thing for a startup investor. :-)
I'd like to see the stats on overhear.us but my feeling is that a corporate backchannel can be a compelling timesink.
The difference between Slashdot and Reddit is:

- Reddit is a big group of paranoids ;-) rather than just one gun-toting Michigan hick, and

- the government "conspiracy" stories on Reddit are, by and large, true or close to true, whereas on ./ they're complete mis-readings of stories or out-and-out BS. It's a matter of degree, in other words.
QUIZ: What percentage of tech bubble start-ups have failed?
I have no doubt that what Wil's saying here is true. But it's a shame if it is.

Investors would do well to 1) pay the founders good salaries so they aren't building up debt while they work, and 2) help the founders out by paying at least part of the debt they'd built up.

The way things are, a lot of people will not want to take VC -- or any investment. I don't expect to get rich while actually working on my idea(s). But unless an investor helped me out by giving me less distraction (read: financial stress), I just can't see the point in taking his money unless it was out of absolute desperation. I think a lot of entrepreneurs would agree: investors are only hurting themselves -- there will simply be fewer things to invest in because hackers will find a way to self-fund into profitability. And you can believe that they'll pay themselves first.
great article and discussion. lots of yc companies have gone this way -- we will probably as well. anyone have experience raising hundreds of k (in convertible debt) from multiple investors, or is it preferred to get that amount from only one or two?
Seeing as how I'm in Austria (albeit on the other side of the country), I went ahead and applied, just for the heck of it. Maybe I'll meet some interesting people even if they don't invest in me.
The Opportunity to Fail
Only half of Bubble-era companies out of business
Too bad I didn't find this before my facebook interview! =P
Adam Greenfield's Keynote notes:  Ethics of Ubiquitous Computing Lead to Better Solutions
Yep, but then he explained it even further and made clear that the quote didn't quite make clear what he said :-)

http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=21967

I've had the same reaction as boris when reading the original quote. But what he was talking about was the case where someone turns them down because of the valuation. And I can see Paul's point there, actually.
Actually in most universities this is a graduate level course. Only in MIT and a few elite schools is it introductory. It's meant to scare the freshmen and put their career into perspective before they dive too deep into the rabbit hole. The first few chapters seem pretty straight forward, but it gets advanced very quickly.
What a great course. BTW, MIT recently decided to retire 6.001 course. :( :(
My co-founders take on ycombinator in response to the Slasdhot article...
Admittedly, he is a lot smarter than I am.
List is unimpressive. Where are the real entrepreneurs? All I see is a bunch of lawyers (and they make the worst entrepreneurs).
YC and pg do not even try to push the image of having prophetic ability. He repeats over and over that there are great ideas, business models, and people that are not selected.

I got interviewed for this summer. While I am disappointed that we were not selected, I understand that there's a bunch of great people, with great ideas, and only a handful of spots. When you're trying to pick the best 19 apples from a barrel of 420 apples, you're bound to throw out a couple good ones.

My question is, how many people that were not YC selected went on their own, and now are successful? same question but with people that were interviewed and not selected?
Email and IM: Web-based and in One Location
Tim Draper can can lift Natalie Portman. She is starting a live webcam feed of her lifeÂwow!
It certainly isn't PG and company, but at least they're trying is all I can say. Europe really is 'that bad' for startups in some ways:-/
CodeGear (ex Borland) unveils new Ruby on Rails IDE
Is Mahalo (Jason Calacanis) worth $100m before it's even launched?
Techmeme: Could Gabe Rivera be Craig Newmark 2.0?
Overhear.us is an example of YC funding smart people, rather than any particular idea. Paul and Evan are smart and really good at what they do (development and design, respectively).

I agree that they may not have hit on the right idea for their skills yet (overhear.us is fun as hell to use and eats time like nothing else I've ever used, but it doesn't seem to be getting traction, so far), but I have no doubt they will build something great. They may end up going back to the drawing board (maybe even a few times) before doing it...but you'll hear about them again. They're still young...plenty of time to make a few mistakes before hitting on something great.

YC is a very early stage investor. They bet on people more than ideas. I believe betting on Paul and Evan was a well-placed bet, even if Socialmoth and Overhear.us never explode into popularity.
Google and Burning Man: Talent hunting in the counterculture
Interviewed for this summer but not selected.

I have no idea if we will be successful or not.. I know for certain though that we will keep trying until we are (which may be never). My co-founder is my cousin, so he isnt exactly going away :) He's keeps my fire lit and I do the same for him.

My biggest fear is not being able to move as fast as if we were in the YC program. I think YC is a gentle push to release as soon as possible, which is important. I suspect many of the early-stage teams who are rejected do not actually execute their idea and release. (Hence the apparent absence of successful "rejected" groups maybe?)
DoD to block social networks and entertainment sites
8 Companies We All Hate (and why we use them anyway)
Very well said. That site is a lot of fun to use... People who think they are prophetic regarding consumer internet ideas are kidding themselves. The only way to know whether an idea will work or not is to just go ahead and TRY IT. And Paul/Evan have already done this twice in such a small amount of time. That speed and taste for great execution is what YC's bet is.
totally wrong on all three counts. I've seen ideas funded with just a half-baked demo. Any VC funded stratup with 1M+ in funding, the CEO is making 100K+, and in my current situation, the founder had his back debt paid up.
List of *all* YC Companies So Far
BitGeek has a few valid points, but they're hidden amongst so much vague muck, that I'm not sure it's wise to try to follow it as advice.

So, the primary bit worth really noting:

"Build your think" (I'll assume "think" was intended as "thing".)

This is the "build something people want" of the YC model. There's nothing better you can do if you want funding than to build something people want. It's possible to get funding for things people don't want, but much harder, and why bother? Get to the point where you're sure people want it, before trying to get big funding (big being anything over $50k). You'll be in a stronger position in negotiations, and you'll be able to choose from good investors.

"network with your peers"

This is the weekly dinners part of the YC model, and I believe it was more useful to us than all of the other great stuff that YC brought to us (and I frequently say so). If there were a "technical startup founders club" that existed in some startup hub, and had some kind of barrier to entry akin to the YC application process, I believe it would produce nearly as many good businesses as Y Combinator. You need the barrier to entry, because business idiots flock to events that have lots of hackers looking to start businesses, hoping to find someone to implement their killer idea. They end up making it a useless business card exchange--I noticed this at quite a few of the more open YC events and meetup type things around YC--hackers are shy, and so the business idiots end up doing all the talking, and the hackers just kind of stand around being assaulted by the loud jackasses with killer ideas. Without the seriously smart hackers and designers-only rule, there's no value. Even without the money or Paul Graham, this kind of weekly event would product great results.

"Slashdot is read by an older (more experienced) crowd than news.yc. It would be a good idea to understand some of where they are coming from-- after all they were around during the last boom when the average YC foundre was not yet a teen!"

On this bit, well, I'm kind of stunned as how much the trolls have taken over Slashdot in the past couple of years. I've been a slashdot reader since it was chips and dips (yeah, I'm old), and it was once a place where people starting companies would get a warm reception and reasonably good advice. The remaining old-timers seem to be just bitter about failed ventures during and in the aftermath of the boom...that's not wisdom. Take note that I've founded a Y Combinator company, and I'm also one of those Slashdot old-timers of which you speak (hopefully, having the experience needed to make rational judgment calls on these issues), and I found little but trolling on that thread, which is was I felt compelled to respond.
I don't want to sound negative, but first impression is pathetic. A bunch of suits with no apparent startup experience , plus a techie that gave up after trying once, blatantly parasitizing on the YCombinator brand. And what with this Stephan Zeinler's Bono picture? Screams phony.

Don't judge a book by its cover and all that, but still.

[Edit: To be fair, I hadn't read the disclaimer: "This site is inspired by, but not affiliated with YCombinator." I still think they could use some personality.]
Dupe - http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=21904
thanks for the call out and link : )

overhear.us is extremely experimental at this point and could change dramatically. we spent 6 weeks and made it on a whim and it has already proved useful as a feedback device internal to YC.

there remain a lot of obvious improvements to be made product, but it is an experiment. right now we are eyeing it and seeing how people are using it, and how we can get them to use it better.

i'd love to talk more about it, but i have a feeling i'm already being pulled in to an online war by responding to this comment.
Steve Jobs on innovation at Apple
I am tired if all these articles saying WEB2.0 is easy.
There are pros and cons of each approach but in general I don't think the distinction is important.

Take whichever route is faster -- and you'll only be able to determine that once you're on the road. I think the pros and cons of either approach are probably a wash.

On one hand, it is more work to close and manage more investors who are each putting in small amounts. But it is also tougher for multiple investors to send a single coherent signal that influences your next round of financing negatively.

On the other hand, it is harder to get big checks from a few investors. But once they are sold, getting a bigger check may be better because they will be more likely to help since they are more invested.
oops

-paul from overhear.us

i'd love to write up the whole overhear.us story but i don't think this is the place.

also this isn't my normal account
Several writers claim that because technology costs have tremendously dropped in the last few years, it is easy to create a successful company. Man. Common. It's just like saying "Sneakers cost $15.00, now everyone can be the next Michael Jordan". Yes, it is easy to put something up on the Net, but I bet you turning that website of yours into a successful business is going to take more than a nice design and private beta.
Congratulations, you just annoyed your customer when all they were looking for was a simple business card.
Built to Flip: Y Combinator's Startups
My point is that no place is perfect and that different countries have different problems. It's not US bashing to suggest that we are not perfect, and that everything isn't black and white.
Y Combinator's one success story, Reddit, sold before it was making revenue.

Actually, reddit did have revenue when it was sold. I think it was also profitable. To be fair, the revenue was low (my wild guess is about $50-$150k/yr). A big reason why it was so low was because they decided to focus on speed & usability over advertising/profit. They probably could've made much more had they been trying to monetize their traffic.

Valleywag's been rather negative about YC & it's startups recently. Seems like they're trolling for linkbait.
I appreciate that info, because (if you can't tell from my other comment) I would have no freaking clue whether Wil is correct or not.

Maybe Wil just means this as a warning, as in "don't count on anything." But I admit: his ideas were a little hard to believe.
He's not talking about graphic design here. You can take one look at his site (useit.com) and realize that he doesn't give a darn about graphic design.
haha - mpb - spoken like a true valley insider. 550,000 businesses are started every month in the U.S. alone. How many are VC-funded? I'm glad you've seen startups get funded with a half-baked demo and get $100k salaries from well-funded VC's. As it happens, the rest of the world doesn't work like that.
Q: Is this common in the industry?

A: Look at Microsoft (MSFT ) -- who's running Microsoft?

Q: Steve Ballmer.

A: Right, the sales guy. Case closed. And that's what happened at Apple, as well.

Ouch.
To paraphrase Samuel Johnson, software patent lawsuits are the last refuge of a scoundrel. Bye-bye, Microsoft. :-p
The man behind Apple's Insanely cool products
what was the case for suggesting these companies would make the founders billionaires?
Paul, unlike at Overhear.us, you can edit your posts here. No need to hit reply to add something. ;-)
"He'd probably be excited about a site that allows you to split the tab at restaurants."

Was that a subtle dig at Buxfer?
IIRC, this idea was proposed by Fred Wilson on his blog a few months before this site launched. Not sure if the founders got the idea there or independently. Either way, Pogue's idea here isn't that original.
Exactly. This guy must be kidding. If I ask for business cards and someone starts spamming me and interrogating me on the phone, that's the last they hear from me.
i just think that is an assumption by the reader that these companies in (even these companies in their present form) will make the founders billionaires. I think it is safer to assume that the experience gained is more likely to lead them to be come billionaires in future endeavors rather than in these companies or even their next.
Dupe: http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=5031
It doesn't have to be MIT scheme. I'd recommend Dr. Scheme for ease of learning.
It makes for a more eye-catching title, is all.
from Rise of Sillicon Valley

Steve says " Microsoft has no culture, they just make third grade products."
Profit from India
What Entrepreneurs Most Want to Know: April 2007's Most Popular Work.com How-to Guides
All friends aren't created equal (why we need better relationship marking in social networks)
Dont get how this guy comes up with such innovative designs at such a pace...
I think it's more fair to say that s-expression is analogous to XML, Lisp just happened to be written in s-expressions. Lisp could also be written in XML, but I doubt it's a wise choice. In fact, Lisp could be written in any nested tree structure, since the idea is to write code in parse-tree directly, instead of letting the compiler transform your code into parse trees. So Lisp macros manipulating s-expression is like manipulating parse-tree directly, and thus you can create new language constructs.
Is Java dead?
Looks lovely, somewhat similar to http://jumpchat.com/ at all?
Guy Kawasaki left a comment on my blog saying "We considered accounts, but wanted totally friction-free sign ups."

What do you think, will you do the same (at least in the early stages of your startup) to attract customers?

Comment link: http://raminasser.com/2007/05/13/truemors-goes-public/#comment-748
Wait .... 550K businesses a month = 6.6M businesses a year. There are 300M _people_ in the US (including children, and others not immediately suited for the entreprenurial life). If each business was started by only one person, that would mean that about 1 out of every 45 people started a business in any given year.

That seems high. May I ask the provenance of the 550K/mo number?
Hi! I posted both the link and disclaimer. You're welcome! I'm glad you enjoyed the link. I hope you enjoy these and other links I find. Thank you for taking time to reply!
There's a very narrow view that's become popular regarding YC. No one is claiming 100% success rate, or even a guarantee of good value companies. Take the program for what it is -- an invaluable launching pad for entrepreneurs who can make the most of YC's added value.
what they are talking about is "easy entry".
wow, look at that. wonderful
"Over the period from 1996 to 2004,
an average of 0.36 percent of the adult
population created a new business each
month, representing approximately 550,000
new businesses per month." from a Kauffman report

http://www.kauffman.org/pdf/kauffman_entrep_index_0905.pdf