skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
"But why a $4M first round?"

The inside scoop is that Vinod sneezed when he was opening his wallet and that's the pocket money he had on him.

Really though I think it's probably so they don't ever have to take another round before they're profitable or exit.
An interesting issue but I've never seen any reference to this kind of problem. I personally wouldn't worry about it. As already pointed out trademarks/copyrights are unrelated and also patents are for specific implementations of ideas -- they don't cover broad concepts.
The gentle art of selling yourself
I love this explanation. So okay, I'll give the Xobnis a congratulatory finger-wag.
Cost breaks help get Web businesses going
Having to listen to all those speakers would be extremely annoying. If you aren't intellectually curious enough to read through all the books and blogs written on these subjects on your own, then you're probably the kind of person who should be working for someone else. There is a reason why so many entrepreneurs drop out of school...

Plus, their website makes them look really creepy.
MarketWatch Adds Community Stock Predictor
Would be funny if, given the audience, the site became popular enough that the picks became self fulfilling.
"Over 30 of the best entrepreneurial minds in Colorado" seems like a lot (especially for Colorado). Is this an educational experience or capitalist enterprise for the founders?
Techstars is a clear second to Y Combinator. But there's nothing wrong it. They have a solid program lined up. Yes, the application is completely plagiarized. PG, did they ask permission or did they just do it?

Regardless, the YC application is pretty much perfect for this type of program, so I can understand that they didn't want to mess with something that worked. Plagiarism is a high form of flattery. The three or four changed or new questions make the TS application worse than the YC one, they shouldn't have bothered.

A venture capitalist is one of the founders of TS -- PG sees that as a negative but it could make it easier to get money from a friendly venture capitalist or provide insight into the notoriously obtuse mind of a VC.

TS also has more than one session a week. I see that additional structure as a good thing but I'm sure PG would argue that it's taking time away from hacking.

The website of each company certainly shows a difference in mentality -- YC is stylized minimalism, TS is over the top web design you get when you pay someone too much to design you a site.

So what should you do? Apply to both. Don't sell yourself short. Boulder's a nice city. So is Boston (even though the trains don't run past midnight).
The definition of technology that I use is: a way to organize or process information.

So is Facebook a technology? Yes, I think so. It's a useful tool for promoting events and for keeping track of friends (contacts, what they are up to).

I agree that it isn't the most challenging or complex type of technology, but I've found some of the features (on Facebook) to be quite useful and entertaining.
If you're soliciting applicants and interviewing and putting people through a "hiring process," yes. If you're only hiring your friends or people you recruit from school or your online contacts, I think it's a lot less well-defined.

Better question -- is he planning to hand the company over to an undergrad when he turns 30?
I think TechStars made three mistakes:

1. Low publicity.

2. Asked too many questions (i.e. what does it mean to be an entrepreneur?)

3. Deadline too soon.

They should've kept the deadline for applications at April 12th since by that time, all YC applicants will know if they have been accepted/rejected. The rejected ones could then apply at TechStars. This is not necessarily a bad thing since YC only picks 15 teams, while leaving a big pool of other great startup ideas and founders behind.

I have had phone conversations with numerous entrepreneurs on news.yc, and almost all of them plan on applying to TechStars while keeping YC as their first option.

TechStars could have, for marketing purposes, used aikido strategy and turn Y-Combinator's strength into weakness: since TechStars is new, they could've claimed that they place greater focus on the startups they fund as a way to prove their model superior to YC. A lot of people would've bought into that argument.

Having competition actually validates Y-Combinator's business model. While two similar programs may not be good for either parties, it is definitely good for the prospective founders.
I tend to see a VC being in charge as a negative as well. I won't get all Olin Shivers on you, but VCs are not your buddies by profession. Getting money from a VC isn't a favor, it's a business transaction.
- We've built a lightweight but powerful multi-language RPC framework that allows us to seamlessly and easily tie together subsystems written in any language, running on any platform. Facebook is built in PHP, C++, Perl, Python, Java, and even a little bit of MLÂand it all works together.

- We are the largest user in the world of memcached, an open-source caching system. Originally developed by LiveJournal, we've since made so many scalability improvements and performance upgrades that we will be the primary contributor of features in the next major release.

- We've created a custom-built search engine serving millions of queries a day, completely distributed and entirely in-memory, with real-time updates.

http://www.facebook.com/jobs_engineering.php
"Freemium" Pricing Plans: IT and the Startups
So social networking is a way to hire only young people without breaking the law?

More generally, it seems that you can use social networking to get around all the antidiscrimination laws.
--Ten years ago, such a venture would have cost roughly $5 million to $10 million just to get the technology, such as servers and a fleet of software developers, before an entrepreneur could get an Internet company off the ground.

Typical mass media ignorance. PG said somewhere that Viaweb spent about $2m in its entire existance. All that's changed is that the tools have improved and dedicated web hosting with decent bandwidth costs are in the hundreds instead of the thousands of dollars. It's always been possible to start a web business off a credit card or a digging into a modest nest egg - the only difference is, back then, most people saw little reason to when someone would gladly give them $5-10 million bucks (which needed to be spent) to get the site off the ground.

Of course, this isn't new to anyone reading this, so please excuse my audienceless rant. :)
The vast suburbia outside the city of Los Angeles.
Anyone who cares, here's a tip. Go find somewhere that has Yellow Pages listings (and if all else fails your local telco is required by law to sell it to you), and guess what, in its basic form they're not copyrightable. Address plus name plus phone number, even when combined with a business category, is not original enough to be afforded copyright protection. So copy them. I know that's hard to believe because the US has such a low bar for copyrightability, but there have been very specific court cases that I commend to you in order to check it out for yourself.
Well, it's an atypical VC, as policy his firm does funding rounds of $100,000 and greater up to a more standard 5 million.
TechStars almost sounds too good to be true. What's the catch?

There's no catch. You can do this!
I have been following Brad Feld's blog longer than any other blog. For sure TechStar has a solid lineup and I am sure the entrepreneur pool is larger than what YCombinator and TechStar can support together meaning there shouldn't be any lunch stealing between the two.

My biggest problem at the moment with TechStar is their 5% non-negotiable valuation. I understand they want to keep it simple and totally respect that. But that does not take away the unfairness of things when you give the same valuation to a start-up that is already operating and a start-up that is only an idea. I am sure going forward they will adjust that.

-Zaid
It is an interesting equation, if it costs them almost nothing to create and 10 people buy it, the profit margins are astounding!

Not that I know anyone who would buy a facebook gift, but it still is a smart concept. You can see it a lot in some new Korean MMO games that have come out, where they charge small fees for equipment that doesn't cost them anything to produce after the initial design phase. This model isn't new by any means, but it always surprised me when it worked.
Those are the reasons why I'm moving to malaysia to create my startup....

1. Living cost are cheap

2. good internet access

3. lots of people speak english there so you can go on your daily life with english (good for attracting employees from other countries)

4. While I don't discount the usefulness of the networking effect in the bay, it's much more useful if you need investors... Since I plan to bootstrap my company, this is not such a problem....

5. Nice weather, smiling people makes for a place where people are not depressed....

6. I strongly believe that the best employees for a startup are curious and adventurous, an employee that is willing to relocate to malaysia display those qualities
From their point of view, it makes sense that they don't position themselves as a second choice. Why would they want to defer to YC instead of at least having a crack at the applicants accepted to YC, perhaps offering them better terms?
A group of people who copied someone else's funding idea verbatim are supposed to be good at picking original ideas?
Ask The VC - Location, Location, Location
Don't get me wrong, he's one of my favorite VCs, but still, it's a little concerning.
No, of course they didn't ask permission to copy the application form. And it's not just the application form. Reading their site is a freaky experience, because I keep coming across bits and pieces of my own thoughts, and even idioms.

I'm a bit indignant about the whole operation, actually. I feel like J. K. Rowling would feel if she came across a book that was set at a boarding school for kids with magical powers, with a hero called Henry Potter, who lived with his disagreeable non-magical ("moggle") step-parents, his own parents having been killed by the evil Valdemort...
Perhaps the time has come for a startup that starts startups that start startups.
A half-assed program will likely yield half-ass results.
biggest red flag: social network
Maybe I am dense, or I just don't have them big enough... I mean, I quit my job to co-found my startup. But, I don't think I could go and found a Kiko or a xobni(I think these are both brilliant ideas, but not every startup can work the same way).

Our revenue model is completely in line with this article. We charge our customers a fair price for our service, and in return we will do just about anything to keep their business... We figure out ways to scratch their itch. This is how I understand software.

If I could give advice to anyone in the process of founding a startup, it would be to do something that has revenue potential besides advertising. If you can do something that solves someone elses business problems, it may be worth the cost of a full or part time employee for that company.
Despite Techstars' copying of YC's approach, it definitely is an appreciation of YC as a viable business model. And it is a great thing for student entrepreneurs unless, as people may suggest, a VC-run YC copycat do entrepreneurs more harm than good.
For Mark's comment, I think an entrepreneur over 30 would tend to ask to "address a market", while those under 20 tend to just build a cool thing and see if anybody is willing to pay for it. The latter is more likely to build revolutionary products because they see market needs that haven't emerged yet. Having said that, older entrepreneurs are more experience and still capable, but perhaps can only build incrementally better products.
I signed up for the beta. Can't wait for the email!
I'd suggest to add ^2 or even ^3 after c ! =P
I left school due to money problems. As much as I want to go back, I won't be able to for another couple of years.

So, going to school is the number one priority in my opinion.
We did it so that we can hire a dream team of hackers. All interested hackers please apply: jobs@xobni.com
Is that a quote from their site?
Releasing early with bugs: GrandCentral A Little Too Beta For Some
Yes, it's on their FAQ.
As I've gotten older, one thing I've learned is that some thoughts are best kept to yourself (or those you trust), even if they are true. :)

Publicly suggesting that you hire based on age isn't especially brilliant.

In Mark's defense, I thought that he might really be trying to say that younger people are systematically undervalued, and so hiring them is a bargain. (the market has under-priced their work) Of course I'm sure that others think that the opposite is true and that older people are under-priced. Obviously those people should hire the under-priced old people and build a competing social network. :)
It's interesting that this write up is not as negative as it could be. For a phone service some of the failures he mentions are pretty bad. Is Arrington pulling punches because he's already been positive?

Arrington claims people expecting Grand Central to do what is says are putting too much faith in a beta product. What you can get away with has a lot to do with your offering. I'm not going to stop watching justin.tv because it's down (like right now, completely dead). But I'm not sure if beta is a good enough excuse for me to miss calls from clients. Especially now that beta is ubiquitous and virtually meaningless. Gmail certainly would not be off the hook for losing my emails. Is it really just caveat emptor for beta products as he suggests?
It's great that support for young entrepreneurs is expanding. The entrepreneurial world is a brutal one and you want as many people on your side as possible.

Because I live in Colorado (but go to college in Austin), I'm surprised I hadn't heard about this before -- despite it launching about 4 months ago. Boulder is an awesome town, and you have the Rocky Mountains all around.

Regardless of the detrimental effect the attraction of nearby ski resorts could have on a startup (which also makes it a great place to live), I feel that Denver's/Boulder's weakness is that there aren't universities with better computer science programs. All the major startup hubs have excellent universities nearby whose talent they can feed off of:

Cambridge: MIT, Harvard
Silicon Valley: Stanford, Berkeley
Seattle: University of Washington
Austin: University of Texas

(Darn -- After visiting PG's website, I realize I am re-iterating what he says this in his essay, "How To Be Silicon Valley.")

I can see this first-hand, attending the University of Texas. I've interviewed with many startups, and you can see how they're student quality is evident in the company's work.

I would imagine this is true even moreso in the better CS programs like MIT and Stanford, and double that with towns that have two great programs.
Justin.tv on CBS 5 right now!
but the site seems down?
I think Mark largely pulled his "two points" out of his ass honestly. Did anyone else get that impression? Of the entire startup school, the aspect I was most dissappointed with was the fact that he simply did not give a flip about preparing a speech for 650 people, many of whom (myself included) traveled from far to attend the school. I honestly think he walked up on the stage and started talking about the first two things that came to his head.

Other than that the school was great. And if anything Mark served as an example of what not to do when giving a presentation.
Colorblind Web Page Filter
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Justin.tv on real TV: CBS 5 interview
The Efficient Crank Call Tool
From their app:
"What does entrepreneurship mean to you?"

Seriously? Does TechStars come with a free team building retreat?
Paul, the Henry Potter reaction is understandable... this certainly could be interpreted as blatant plagiarism of your ideas. But the other way to read it is as a validation of the vision behind YC. The new model for startup investment that you all have pioneered is clearly in line with the current trajectory of innovation on the internet. You figured it out first -- everyone reading this knows that -- and it almost seems like it'd be MORE worrisome if other investors didn't jump on the same bandwagon right about now.

I mean, at the end of the day, "who's committed and who's merely involved?" -- as Dharmesh put it -- is a pretty damn important thing to know when making the decision to invest in a team. Is it that surprising that other investors are asking the same question?

Point is, techstars just proves that you guys are on to something. And, considering the growing buzz around YC -- not to mention the rockstars who post here at news.yc, speak at your events, and contributed to Jessica's book -- well, seems like Harry Potter's got a pretty serious first-mover advantage. =)
I guess times are tough. What did Hunter S Thomson used to say... "when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."

Brad Feld, the all knowing VC prophet, left Mobius Capital after Mobius cratered and now he's trolling for scraps with "borrowed" equipment. He used to do deals for millions and now he's throwing $10Ks around. Sad.

http://valleywag.com/tech/brad-feld/feld-folds-vc-blogger-brad-feld-goes-silent-199802.php
you could have 11,000 reasons not to move to the Bay Area and they would be out numbered by the one single biggest reason to move here:

This is where the best startups have been formed and will be formed.
Dashboard widget can save schemes (click the "heart"). It works great!
And yet once more, a startup as a reimplemented UNIX command.

for I in `seq 0 9`; do echo "ATDT123456789" > /dev/modem; done
May be you should do your homework. Brad's pretty heavily invested in potential hits such as FeedBurner and TechStar is led by David Cohen and is more of a side thing(it appears) for Brad.

I am personally biased in favor of people who take time to reply to strangers seeking advice. Paul Graham, Brad Feld, Seth Godin and few others are great examples of folks you can write to and expect some valuable words of wisdom in return.
The startup community is nonexistent, its definitely no San Francisco when it comes to being around young energetic people who are doing exciting things.
I think thats overgeneralizing a little, many of the problems they are solving on the back end are not simple, give them a little credit for scaling from nothing to the 6th biggest website in the US very smoothly.

All the people I know that work there are far from "hobbyist programmers" and they are all damn smart, a fair amount have owned and sold companies before working there.

The innovation that comes out of Facebook is not purely technological, but more idealistic. They took stuff that had been done before and uniquely applied in a way that hadn't done before, doesn't that pass as a definition of innovation?
ITT TechStars
Why does it feel like this:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=rVLiAvZ_N1w
Money is money; whoever has it, has it. Resources and opportunities aside, YC money is also a business transaction. Whatever the source of the money, you just work hella hard and do your part.
Its not your phone number calling, which is an important difference.
Hey! I'm in Columbus, too; I just graduated from OSU and I'm now working on my Masters. Hit me up at bmintern on GMail if you want to talk, or meet sometime. I have a feeling that there are more of us here in Columbus than we think.
While I'm not really less ignorant, it certainly doesn't look like bull :)
But I think the age group is important, because I want to know how I compare with "young people." If "cell regeneration" refers to brain cells, then I'm old. If it refers to organ tissue cells or something, maybe I can call myself "young." Slim chance though, haha.
My problem is that I get bad food comas unless I sleep something 9 hours a day; this is a long-term observation over many years. I don't know anybody at my age who sleeps 9 hours though.
"Go deep into the foundations and change anything you want."
You mean, they're aready taking that big step of "obtaining an LLC"?! These people are serious.
I would say that the answer to your last question should be a resounding "yes". The whole point of the "beta" label is to alert potential users that the product is not completely stable, but is in some usable state. The problem is not so much that the service was not 100% reliable, but that the NYT readers expected it to be and relied critically upon it.

As most Linux and 'BSD users have come to learn, "beta" means just that: not ready for critical use. The user gains some privileges, like being able to use "bleeding-edge" software or to get a valuable service for free, and in return they sacrifice the stability and reliability that comes with time-tested software; all that as they actually are an integral piece to testing that software. Without such a beta stage, the whole rapid development movement would fail as projects get mired in extensive internal testing stages.

Your GMail comment especially strikes me, as I hadn't considered that before. Perhaps they grew much faster than anticipated and are still working on stability issues, and the "losing my emails" scenario may not be far off the mark. By attaching the "beta" label to their service, they can probably avoid any liability that may arise if such an event did occur.
I wonder what the odds are of a TechStar startup competing with a YC startup? That could be interesting.
sorry, accidentally hit the 'post' button
"Hold some features back in your first release.

Release them next week or next month. This makes your customers think that you are actively developing your product and that there is momentum behind your product."

This statement really irks me, not just as a programmer, but as a consumer. I initially thought the article might be a little joke, but since the other tips were more reasonable, I have to assume that it is serious. I can understand holding back features in your initial release, but there are much better reasons than those that were cited. To purposely trick your potential users seems to me to be a bad business model, and smells of the corporate mindset of money and growth over all else. I think it is important to remember that the whole point of developing a product is to fulfill a need (or want) of the customer, and I think that as the average consumer gets more intelligent, these types of tactics will be more transparent and will do more harm than good to the startup.

As for better reasons for holding back features:

1. In any interesting piece of software, I would imagine that there are potentially hundreds of features which could be added. The difficult problem is deciding when to be (temporarily) content with what you have and release. Thus, some desired features must be left out in order to avoid the perfectionist mindset, where nothing ever gets released.

2. A mostly-implemented feature may work correctly most of the time, but fail mysteriously at other times. Even with a beta release, it's probably best to avoid these types of features which only serve to make your product less reliable.

3. A feature may be fully-implemented, but there may be no clear way to integrate it into the UI. In this case, it would probably be best to hold off and drop hints of the feature to beta testers, who could give their feedback on how best to integrate it. After all, the feature is meant for the users to actually use, isn't it?

4. A feature may add computational complexity to the software which may be overly taxing on the initial hardware that a startup company is using. Improve the hardware before adding the feature, or better yet, improve the code which implements the feature.

Am I being overly idealistic? Am I alone in thinking that the proposed "marketing trick" is a bad idea?
Web Services Coming To Twitter