skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
In the last week of 2006 and couple weeks before the launch of our site, I had what I thought was a great idea(thankyou2006.com). I shared the idea with my partner, he liked it, we worked on it for a day and launched it.

I had to break my own promise to not work on anything else. And it made me a little nervous that this might cause the distraction we didn't need few weeks before our launch.

Keys:

1. Know your and your team's limits from past experience. What has happened in past when you worked on side projects?

2. Find some angle where the side project has the potential to compliment your primary company. In our case, if the side project it would have given us some much-needed $$$s for our main start-up.

--Zaid
I see two challenges in this idea:

- to make a darcs-like tool intuitive to non tech types (lest you filter them out), and

- to represent such specs so the system can track them while keeping them palatable for humans.
Is Y Combinator right for your startup?
Maybe it's time I finally explained the math of taking investment. You should give up n% of your company iff (not a typo) what you'll get in return for it will increase the value of the remaining (100 - n)% enough to put you net ahead.

So in the case of YC, you should trade us 6% of your co if you think that the money plus whatever else we add will increase your average outcome by 7%. (.94 x 1.07 > 1) Do we increase the average outcome of the startups we fund by 7%? I think few would say we didn't. I'd guess we at least double the outcome for the average startup.
Filmloop "Betrayed By Investors"
Sounds like a great story, but what's really going on here? Surely there's a side that isn't presented. Everyone in the comments is talking about how evil the VC firm is, but the outcome wasn't exactly great for them, either. Their interests should be at least loosely coupled with those of the founders (different risk/return rate preferences for sure, but that doesn't make shutting down promising companies profitable). It's not like they screwed the founders over and made a tidy profit, from the figures available it was more like stemming the bleeding of a cash hungry company that wasn't really going anywhere.

So if what they did is evil, what was their motivation? Killing FilmLoop to increase the other companies chance of success? Bumping up their fund statistics by trying to call it a liquidity event? Either could explain the short deadline for liquidation, which otherwise doesn't really make sense. Anyone know more about this?
Microsoft Retires Visual J#
It sounds like you guys are already on your way. I guess in 6 month's time you can join YC if you need. I have always wondered if you could join YC at a later stage. When your company is already up and running
I wish TechCrunch commenters would read this.
Yes, a bunch of startups in the winter funding cycle were already up and running.
We see them; you have to if you want to catch abuses like voting rings and sockpuppets. But I can't actually remember any votes, no.
SQL injection? You'd need something more like alist injection.
for us it was simpler then that, we just tried to answer the question, how do I easily add photos to my myspace-page from my mobile phone or other sources. stay tune for more exciting features though
there are a couple of people who've tried this before. simplicity is key, and I'm not saying heysan is simple in every way, but we just try harder than some others
you mean without having a myspace account? you can always grab the embed code if you want
thanks for your feedback!

1. Valid critique. We're working on it but didn't imagine many user reading it at this point.

2. We'd love to try OpenID but it's complicated concept for many users. You can totally create a slideshow without giving us your email, today. If you give us your email we'll auto-post it to myspace so you don't have to

3. Look out for changes here

4. On the roadmap for the next couple of weeks

5. Yep

6. Agree, it's a question of how much time we had at that point.

thanks again!

/Gustaf
I understand the timing thing. The Y Combinator schedule is rigid, it's not always going to fit your situation perfectly. After that though, the rest of the downsides listed just seem like quibbling compared to the list of upsides.
That math assumes that the only two options on the table are either accept funding from YC or don't accept funding at all. The benefit you get from multiple investors is not orthogonal because you get diminishing returns from extra funding and because of the potential (for better or for worse) for interplay between investors. So, if you have a different investor offering you different terms (or even the potential for such), as is more likely to be the case for a more established startup, then things get more complicated than that simple cost-benefit analysis.
I already suggested alternating row colors on all news list pages.

-Zaid
Yes, they had 53K a year ago, and now they have over 300K

Doesn't that prove the post wrong? Clearly those 53K were a very powerful group...
Check out this graph in an old post by Seth Godin:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2005/12/squid_soup_part_2.html
His point is that in order for a new idea or product to catch on, it first needs to be adopted by the "innovators" -- the "geeks". Then, and only then, can it spread to the broader population. If you try to skip the geeks and go straight to the mass market, you will fail.

I'm not sure I buy that as a hard and fast rule, but I think the concept is generally solid. If a company makes it on TC, it will subsequently and consequently grow beyond TC.
If Ben is serious about making his startup a success, then he should do his best to get into YC. The "downsides" he lists are all excuses that suggest he's not really that committed and isn't willing to go "all in".

It's also important to understand that the 6% that goes to YC will be diluted by subsequent rounds of investment, and could easily end up as 1%-2% by the time they cash out.
Anybody have any cool ideas to build the "semantic web"?
I am one of the Pretheory Founders, and I agree the downsides are not that strong. This is why we generally think Y Combinator is still a really good move for us. Since we aren't sure if it is as large of benefit to our company as it can be to others, we wanted to think about it, and start a discussion. Seeing if any other founders would add potential positive or negative issues that we haven't been evaluating.

I guess the biggest point is the benefits are far more than the money. The advice is probably priceless, but if you feel your on a pretty good track with momentum, is it worth the change up? Possibly having to move away from established local relationships (banks, lawyers, advisers)...

Is there some angles we are missing when evaluating the decision?
A Y Combinator Story - What's the interview like?
I found the girlfriend and location issues to be the biggest challenge for submitting. Luckily my partners gf lives close, I can't score a girl and we both live in Massachusetts. Works out perfect!
apparently I posted this, I must have accidentally clicked the "Share on YCombinator" link on my linkbar. Sorry its kind of irrelevant, in any case, I'm jamiequint on twitter.
I hope I didn't come across as not willing to go "all in." I certainly didn't intend that. My intent was to outline the issues we considered, with the hope that others might find it useful and even suggest variables we hadn't considered.

At this point, I really couldn't back out if this startup even if I wanted to (and I have no desire to): I quit my job, spent a ton of money to move, and told everyone I know about my plans. As Dharmesh Shah of onstartups would say, I'm emotionally committed, which is more significant than my financial commitment (He has a good post about this at http://onstartups.com/home/tabid/3339/bid/1204/Startup-Founders-The-Involved-vs-The-Committed.aspx ).

As dfranke pointed out, we have more options than only accepting YC funding or not accepting. The real question is whether it makes more sense for us to keep going with money we have in Denver and find angel funding on our own, or move and take YC funding in a few months.
"NewAssignment.Net | an experiment in open-source reporting"
Is this about upmodding the Phil Mickelson comment from the YC dinner pictures?

http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=3921
Creative? The striking thing to me is how similar they all seem. Except Jamglue of course...
Drop the background color would work for me.
I read this a little while ago. It's a really good story, especially the dialogue sprinkled throughout. I could almost hear the conversations as written, even "4 of 4"'s.
The problem is that most people buy into "the pie fallacy", as PG called it. An amazing number of people would honestly rather have 50% of $1 million than 10% of $100 million.
Nice story. I like how the Y Team talks over the ideas and propose improvements to you. Seems like a really good environment to be in, everyone with energy and ideas feeding off of other's people energy and ideas.
No.

I just think that a lot of people would think twice about voting if that were to be considered in their YC application.
The downsides to something like this is absolutely context-dependent. But the reasons given in that post just aren't convincing. Going to Cambridge is not a "disruption" given the milestone it represents in your startup's progress. When you're a new founder with little to go in regards to beginning a company, it's the ideal scenario. For my goals, I could not think of a better use of time and energy than being involved in YC's program and working on my startup full-time.
While developing side projects, especially as a tool to your main project, you may come across something you may not have otherwise. Who knows -- one of these "cool side projects" may become the product you end up focusing on.
another side of the FilmLoop story
2007 Digital Outlook Report -- Trends in Digital Media
In case anyone didn't bother to make it to the end of the TC article and click through....
How many angels and VCs do you personally know? How many other startup founders do you regularly meet with there in Denver?

People who already have a lot of startup connections and experience probably don't need YC, but I don't get the impression that you are one of those people.
Most of these are clean, but I'm curious to know what some were thinking when completely following the Web 2.0 trend look. "Let's find the quickest way to sink our brand into non-distinctive mediocrity."
Reading the news from news.yc keeps me more productively in tune than any of the other places I might browse to.
Why forming an LLC might be a useful setup for many startups
It raises my motivation level.
Investors do want to see confidence and saying "We have three leasing options, hopefully we'll get one" is not as good as "We will be signing a lease very soon". Perhaps his VCs aren't very good and he feels forced to tell them what they want to hear?
From what I understand, it's actually ideal to incorporate your startup rather than forming an LLC. One reason would be that many VCs won't fund your LLC given that you cannot go public.

The SFGate article offers the other view. It might be a beneficial read for someone unfamiliar with the differences.
Productive advice was continually coming at Aaron even before an offer was extended. Pretty cool, if you ask me.
No, it's not anything you're missing, just your conclusion from the data given. In my opinion, if we're talking about value here, the negatives listed in that blog entry just don't stack up against the value add YC brings (e.g., as mentioned, connections, exposure, advice...).

That's not to say that YC is right for you. There are plenty of potential reasons that YC is not a good fit and obviously plenty of ways to succeed without them. Some of the negative points you bring up have a lot of bearing on your lives as founders and probably should be considered. I'm just skeptical that, were you accepted into the Summer Founders Program tomorrow, it would be a sound business decision to turn YC down. Then again, maybe there is something you know that I don't...
Interview with Google's Matt Cutts about Next-Generation Search
Guy Kawasaki on "The Effort Effect"
Integrating revision control with the editor seems interesting. Anybody have details on that?
Small Biz 101: Cash Flow - Signal vs. Noise (by 37signals)
The Effort Effect
I gotta agree with you.

Though everything in this argument depends on the relativeness of things, in general I do think as ADD'd coders we love to simply code the next thing that comes to our mind. And that has its advantages. But as I've realized, it can be super healthy to explore the other end and instead of simply coding the first idea you get, to do few days of contemplation of making the initial idea better.

Get idea - Process idea - Code

I think there is too much of "Get idea - Code it" going on in this audience. A little mix can really help.
'... The real question is whether it makes more sense for us to keep going with money we have in Denver and find angel funding on our own, or move and take YC funding in a few months. ...'

No the 'real question' is, in the words of pg is ...

'... Most of the groups applying have not stopped to ask: of all the things we could do, is this the one with the best chance of making money? ...' [0]

The article link is cactus. [1]

Reference

[0] pg, 'Why Smart People have bad ideas, A Familiar Problem'

http://www.paulgraham.com/bronze.html

[accessed thursday, 15 March 2007]

[1] The article link has a ').' appended to it so it gives a 404.
I never really thought of praising effort in this way. The examples provided to use in lieu of praise makes normal human interaction seem so deliberate and robotic. The author seems to imply that simply acknowledging someone's talent makes them less likely to make risks or innovate in fear of failing their image, I wonder if the author would also contend that, at the least, the person would continually strive to maintain the "good" image. In that case, that's certainly better than inconsistent performance.

Here's an audio interview with the author: http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail1011.html
Hopefully this isn't too linkjacky. Guy's got some interesting comments, but the full article's better. I read the blog entry first.
For me school is a way to be connected to what is going on in the "real world". I entered school thinking it is EITHER school or entrepreneurship. But in last year my views have changed. I really think there is a middle path where you do JUST enough to stay in school all the while trying out new ventures. (May be the Steve Jobs route?)

School is an awesome platform to launch your site off and get quick feedback - ESPECIALLY if your venture fits in with the social networking ecosystem.
Whoops, my fault. Thanks for the heads up. I've fixed it.
I can't think of a better way to draw specific attention to your voting history than asking this question. ;)
It's a good realization of "release early and iterate." Provide something good for your users and then listen carefully to what they have to say. That's way, way better than hiding in development for an overextended period, hypothesizing -- without foundation -- what new features are needed.
That's a good point. We don't have a strong network of angels, VCs, and other founders here in Denver. That's definitely a huge plus of the YC experience. I do wonder if we could build a network that would be good enough in the next few months, since we have a few good contacts and Denver/Boulder is pretty good for that type of stuff (admittedly, not as good as Cambridge or the Bay Area).

Again, not knocking YC, just weighing our options.
putting a poor social scene as a con. amusing. that's a con if you're deciding where to go on vacation. not whether to accept startup funding from yc.
PlentyOfFish Founder says Social Networks are Stealing Dating Site Users
intelliContact VC Pitch
Disney Goes 2.0 -- Family.com social network aimed at mothers
This made me laugh, lol:

"Paul explains. 'Haven't you seen the Segway he built?' We walk into the other room. 'See, this is typical Trevor-logic. He wants to lose weight so he starts biking to work, but biking is too easy so he teaches himself to unicycle. Then when he builds his own Segway, he decides that two wheels are redundant, so he builds a self-balancing unicycle." :p

I am wondering why it costs $1000 to incorporate in Delaware? That is quite a lot compared to how much it costs us in Canada.
Clever way of putting an extra ad on a page:   click "Share" on a New York Times article and the article tools are sponsored by someone
Perhaps that includes some fees for lawyers and things of that ilk? You can go to a lot of those web sites and get incorporated for much cheaper.

Never having done this before, though, I don't know what the difference is between an el cheapo site, an expensive law firm, or much of anything else.
And why is it good to know about trends and competitors?

I for one successfully raised startups, being very very focussed and not caring about competitors at all. Until know, people often ask me how my products compare to the main competitors and all I can say is: I dont know. I never looked at the other products.
Yes, thats the main reason, why I read too.
I hope this helps:

"Financially, a startup is like a pass/fail course. The way to get rich from a startup is to maximize the company's chances of succeeding, not to maximize the amount of stock you retain. So if you can trade stock for something that improves your odds, it's probably a smart move." - How to Start a Startup
That must be it. I incorporated my dad's company as a sole-proprietor and it was dirt cheap. I am guessing the process gets complicated when more than one founder is involved. Blood thirsty lawyers!
Hey Dan, see you there
It makes me a bit uncomfortable, too. YCNews is a month-long web interview. On one hand, it encourages thoughtful discussion, but on the other, it's a bit exhausting. I end up spending a lot of time crafting very short posts.
I think the New York Magazine article on this was my first ever news YC post. Its a pretty good summary, check it out at...

http://nymag.com/news/features/27840/?imw=Y
I agree, if you seriously worry about a poor social life for 3 months or your gf can't understand the opportunity the situation presents, its either time to get more dedication or a new gf.
It's pretty easy to do S corp election in the case that investors come along, so an LLC is not a bad way to start.

For my consulting biz I did an LLC because it was cheap and easy and I can handle doing the taxes myself (All you have to do is file a Schedule C in addition to your 1040) If you do any significant amount freelance work at all (Think over $1000/yr) you are probably getting screwed on taxes and should incorporate so you can deduct stuff, or just reduce your taxable income by purchasing biz stuff on your biz account. It saved me money, and will probably save you a lot too.

Most of the single member LLC operating agreements you can find online and hack to your liking, then just have a lawyer look over it. Minus the legal fees you will probably pay less than $100 depending on the state to file ($55 in Oregon)

If anyone wants more info on this just let me know, I'd love to help.
far33d, I think you're right about the y-axis.

Here's a relevant page from Cambridge Associates (the source for this data): https://www.cambridgeassociates.com/Indexes/

I couldn't find the exact stuff Kedrosky graphed but most of their stats are for net end-to-end return to LPs, which would be value actually returned to investors.
"Know your enemy and know yourself, find naught in fear for 100 battles. Know yourself but not your enemy, find level of loss and victory. Know thy enemy but not yourself, wallow in defeat every time." - Sun Tzu, The Art of War

I keep a very close eye on my competitors. I follow their rss feeds, coverage on blogs, and features that make them better than us. I am surprised this is even up for a debate.
I admire your friend's dedication to his gf and you being a great friend in understanding. However, you have to consider this: you're just starting out now..once your startup is in its later phases, you will be MUCH busier. If the gf can't understand now, would she understand later?

The gf 'issue' shouldn't be an 'issue' at all
"Come back with an idea that you can do quickly and that you can take public or get acquired within 12 to 18 months."
If you allow "much-needed $$$s" to determine what you work on, you'll never get your real project done. This is how consulting businesses are born (and products die).
All of the potential YC startups should get together and unionize to force higher valuations and shorter working hours.

/irony
Apple iPhone's alternate 'dial' interface
I'm curious about that whole aspect of things. At this point, they must have it down to some sort of a formula. What kinds of variables are there? Stock, board of directors? They've got to have something of a cookie cutter by now...
Which verticals are most promising for a web startup today?
SharePoint--The next big 'OS' from Microsoft?
Another VC Bites the Dust
Yes - if you can "cross the chasm" at some later date.
WWW 2007 Program (which papers do you like? which ones might make for compelling startups?)
Salim Ismail To Head Yahoo Brickhouse
To get things started, here's one that I like:

A Content-Driven Reputation System for the Wikipedia

http://www2007.org/program/paper.php?id=692

http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~luca/papers/07/wikiwww2007.ps

http://www.cse.ucsc.edu/~luca/papers/06/ucsc-crl-06-18.pdf
Zattoo, the New Kid in Online TV
Seems like you have to have a starting point in order to get direction for your project from users/customers. The initial idea doesn't have to be stellar, just something fairly specific. I hear posing the idea as a question helps.

Pasting a big bulletin on the web that says "What do you want me to make?" would likely be useless. (Or would it? There's something to try...) The domain is too big; trying to gathering the web into a room and giving them a blank whiteboard might generate a lot of ideas, but how many of them would you be interested in? In fact, isn't that kind of what the web is to begin with: a big whiteboard with a bunch of ideas written on it? So which ones get your attention?

Solve some problem that you're interested in, place it in public view, foster communication with the users/customers, and listen. Building something specific ("hey, here's a web-based classifieds system..."), getting people to use it, and giving them a place to critique it seems to be a good way to get people to tell you what they need built.

Building a prototype and then getting people to use it is like writing that initial phrase on a white board, circling it, and asking every one on the web to generate ideas. Interested people will cluster around the idea and talk about it. Some of the talk will be horrible, and some outstanding -- but it will likely be more focused than if you just ask the web "what should I make?"
Venture Capital Bubble Looming?
I've been involved with SharePoint for some time as a consultant. I'm not a huge fan of the product from a usability perspective, but I agree with the author of this blog post that it's Microsoft's direction to tie all of their products into the platform. Anybody writing applications for the Microsoft platform should be aware of this suite of products.
The Two Cultures: Mashing up Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web (pdf)