skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I couldn't agree more, but:

1) You can't just ignore YC's decision regarding your project, especially when you believe that your webapp will revolutionize the Web in some ways. These people are highly experienced profesionals:if you haven't caught their attention, get back to work because something key is missing.

2) YC is not like any other funding cycles... we are talking about mentorship here as opposed to financial back-up. Of course there are plenty of ways to raise money, but very few to get strong expertise.
You should not call it 'rejects', but 'YCommunity' or something like that. If I were in the area, I'd be interested, but I'm not a YC reject (I'm a didn't even apply:-) Heck, maybe some of the YC-accepted would be interested in meeting up and sharing information.
I don't care how to call this community. Name is not that important comparing to the value of community itself :)
Well Im web/graphic designer with a bunch of ideas, who would love to get to experience the Menlo Park of today!

With the experience comes great networking opportunities that would facilitate creating the first XM and Siruis like Internet Radio type company.

Hopefully, I will be apart of such, as there is so much cool stuff to be done with it. Right now though I'm focused on my startup, which this hack prompted me to start.
StartupCampWaterloo (Oct 23)
On the internet, nobody can see you fail. Peer pressure, weekly dinners, demo day - you can't really replicate that on the web.

As for organising in Europe, where? London is very expensive, and nothing else springs to mind.
I liked the advice, but I couldn't help feeling a little peeved by the continuing "yc news readers are a cult" thread.

I mean, come on, there are obviously a lot of people who have big dreams and look at YC as an easier way of getting to them, and yes, deadlines and tests bring out the neurosis and suck-ups in people, but this talk of cult-dom ALSO has a strange narcissistic quality about it which is just as bad.

If I thought the board was too cultish I wouldn't participate. Geesh -- on one side we get the hype of how great YC is, how it's all milk and goodness. On the other side there's a significant sour grapes contingent. For those who have already made it through or have an interview, congrats! For those who have not, it's not the end of the world! If this site wants to be useful to the hacker community, the board has to be, well, useful. I understand it got a little freaky over the past couple of days, but having people tell me I'm part of a cult is not a way to keep me around. I'm here for the other hackers -- YC is just the facilitator for that.
Spain? Never been there though :)
It would have to work like this:

(1) You send a $100.00 deposit in advance of your application.

(2) YC ticks off boxes next to a stock set of sentences that describe their impressions based on your application.

(3) If 3 months go by and you haven't contacted them to argue about it, you get your deposit back.

Otherwise they would have no way of dealing with the torrent of two-way conversations that would ensue. They're evaluating hundreds of applications; they can't deliberate over each one like a jury.
Why do you need YCombinator's permission to do what you want?
You have to get extremely technical to claim that "either severely misinformed about the world or an idiot" is not an ad-hominem attack. Perhaps a compiler could not prove that the ad-hominem is reachable, but all us humans see it.
Please take this as constructive, because I'm speaking from the voice of experience here.

"I told by those whom I show it to, that it is an industry changing concept!" -- this phrase is a red flag for me. (Another big red flag phrase is "if we only capture x% of the market...") I've had applications like that too. I would just be careful that you base how cool your idea is on one thing: number of active users. People can say all kinds of great and wonderful things about you and your app; and they will. But it all boils down to users. If you got 'em, doesn't matter what people say one way or another.
Latinamerican applicants to YC?
Are there any other applicants, either accepted or rejected, from Latinamerica out there?
We are from Argentina and got rejected and like to find out about other experiences.
Google 3Q Profit Soars 46 Percent
Sorry, but I have the same reaction to any "programming language" argument, no matter how eloquent: so what?

90% of your code should either be generated or copied from standard templates. I've put over 2500 new programs into the library in the past couple of years, yet I don't remember the last time I wrote a program from scratch.

I, too, am a stickler for details, but I let the compiler (or interpreter) do its job. Why worry about nanoseconds when I have users running the asylum?
I'm actually a US citizen, but I'm sick of silicon valley and don't really fancy going back, unless it's for my wife (she's in biotech, and they're way more cluster-dependent than we are in computers).

Part of the reason I don't want to go back there is quality of life issues. While I'm sure Finland is a nice place for many things, it looks too cold and flat for my tastes. Also, the language is supposedly not very easy, and even though most people probably speak english well, it's always a plus to be able to integrate as much as possible.

Anyway, that's just my personal take on it, which comes down to my tastes, not anything objectively wrong.
Media Companies Regain Appetite for Taking Risks in Tech Start-Ups
That was my bad, sorry.
SV is very expensive. I think London is a perfectly good place.

John.
Isn't London expensive too?
I'm not so sure about that. VC's are the car salesman of the startup world... if you're not careful you'll get screwed. There are plenty of stories...

That's one of the main things that has attracted me to YC. It's very transparent and they seem fair and trustworthy. (too bad we got rejected - o well we're still releasing this year regardless)
Judge attacks nine errors in Al Gore's 'alarmist' climate change film
DNA shows Neanderthals had gene critical for speech
100 years on, DNA casts doubt on Crippen case
Where are you now? We are coming from Argentina so we have immigration challenges too.

Does anybody know if it's legal for us to work on our startup in the US without having a work visa (if we aren't taking a salary) _after_ we incorporate in the US?
Is there life on a moon of Saturn?
And don't forget the dancing and the singing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm1-VsiznAU
YC is great because you get environment and advise from people who were part of successful startups. Also their connection helps. After the rejection - it is better i do my work myself and then if needed - for connection and advise - I will apply again in YC for next round. You might be next BillGates or PaulGraham but at this time you are just like me and other developers who wants to be their own boss. So, as you don't have proven track record - I am not gonna move to SV just so that I can stay with other like minded. I am motivated enough to do same by staying at my place. I might be wrong but people should rethink about what they wanna achieve by moving...
> It's meant to be funny and it was funny

Really? I don't believe that you said that with much conviction. I agree with your other comments. I thought the comic sucked. I rarely find Dilbertian cynicism to be funny.
"Y Not"s sound pretty good, actually.
Fred Wilson: Saying No
I am currently in Ukraine.

IANAL, but I suppose it is ok to have a kind of usual visa for three month or so and commit to your own US company wherever you are (while you have no salary).

I am a co-founder of US company already.
I'm interested in the idea for weekly dinner and demo day - just wondering how would you get all the VCs to attend?
Yeah, that name is awesome :-)
Profit measured in dollars, with revenue coming in across the world means part of this isn't real growth.
How about gathering in one of the countries that recently joined the EU: Bulgaria, Romania... Living is cheap, labour is cheap, people are smart. Anyone interested?

On the other hand conditions there not that professional and engineers don't have adequate experience. Hmm...
Great advice. What exciting times for the hackers accepted to interview with YC! Best of luck to all. Now listen to Matt and get working on your demo!
Thanks :)

Why is my phrase a red flag to you? I was just conveying words from those who have seen the YouTube video. Sorry if it sounded I was implying this is the best concept over anything, not my intent!

As for users that is a future milestone for YCombinator companies. Y assesses the applications to find the best of the bunch! This concept did not meet Y standards and that's great, I look forward to seeing the startups chosen and wish them good luck!
I understand that Copenhagen and Amsterdam are thriving tech centers. They are also full of English speakers and beautiful women.
I second it :)
as the old saying goes, success has a thousand fathers
Copenhagen is awesome, but realty is expensive. Though Malmo, Sweden is quite close and it is cheaper.
Hi imasr, we are from Peru, maybe we can share experiences (En espanol por supuesto) email me at:

german (at) prezentit (dot) com ;)

Update:

Another idea:
Lets create Latin American Y-Combinator!

(maybe we can sell it as a reality show)
I believe it's not just about mentorship, the best experience is knowing people like you and sharing knowledge and ideas.
I had a guy once that spent 15 minutes telling me how great my invention was. Then I asked him to pay for it.

The room got very quiet after that.

Talk is cheap, that's all I'm saying. I would never judge a quality of a business model, good or bad, simply because of what somebody says about it. I'm sure you have a great application. I look forward to hearing how it goes!
I have a US work visa, when I first came here I came with an E visa (Executive or something), because I worked for a finnish start-up that was launching their US operations here. I later heard that it's a good visa class (not sure why) and quite difficult to get.

I'm from Finland btw, your home country does affect your chances with some of the visa types.
that's a brilliant name..
Spain is hugely bureaucratic and their social security system is insane for startup founders.
legalzoom.com
any need to interfere with their social security and bureaucracy being incorporated elsewhere?
I am from Uruguay, we should try to create a new YC'like in Punta del Este. Could you find one referent in your country to make it happen? I can find some of them here.

I am sure after posting some photos of punta del este girls everyone in California would want to move here with us, including pg :)
He's right. If you are in a position that requires you to say no a lot, you should learn to do it quickly and honestly. It probably helps him keep his sanity, and shoot-the-messenger type entrepreneurs aside, probably makes his relationships less messy.
Cambridge has a lot of tech companies on it's science park these days.

http://www.cambridgesciencepark.co.uk/companies.php
Images: Future Firefox fitting in
That depends on the problem you're trying to solve.
A social operating system beyond Facebook's platform
I sure hope they fix the problem of FF bogging down when using JS dense applications like Google Docs/Mail. I have to shut down FF and restart on a regular basis to keep my system from slowing down to a crawl.
Within europe the UK and Ireland are best in terms of social security and tax law. Beware of countries with minimum social security contributions of which there are many. On another thread someone suggested destinations close enough to London to commute.
I don't think this really needs to be on Hacker News but this is an interesting argument over word choice. So I think it is important to remember that people can listen to the same presentation and assume far different meanings.

http://ninepoints.pbwiki.com/low-lying%20inhabited%20Pacific...

"That's why the citizens of these pacific nations had all had to evacuate to New Zealand." Is Ambiguous if it's saying all the people who left for that reason then it's true as some people did. If it's saying everyone who was there left it's false because there are still people there.

http://ninepoints.pbwiki.com/Hurricane-Katrina
http://ninepoints.pbwiki.com/shutting-down-the-ocean-conveyo...
http://ninepoints.pbwiki.com/Sea-level-rise
etc.

PS: If you're going to do a demo / presentation try it out on a friend who does not know anything about what you are saying to see how they interpret your words. Having coworkers listen to a presentation it's like proof reading while you type it's hard to distinguish what you meant from what you said.
If you want to stay on the legal side you must tell them. Unless you have no income from your business I guess.

edit: I'm assuming you're talking about more than just 3 months on a beach ;-)
CTO vs. VP/Engineering
Totally agree. It is always good to tell the truth so that person on another side stops guessing the reason.

We got rejected by YC and I am just guessing the reasons. Thinking that all founder aren't ready to move to SV for three months and also few are not ready to leave their full time job...etc... but still it is just guessing game... hey could you tell PG to tell everyone about reason for rejection ;)

Few people might not able to digest the reason..but all are not same...many can take that as a advise and that could help in future..
I would argue a language that is eloquent, concise, and for lack of a fancier word, pretty, is important. Language features change how you view and approach a problem. I approach problems much differently in scheme given I have a macro system than I would in C. I think differently depending on the language.

And it's usually not about performance for me. I like code that looks good and is dense.
The most interesting, underutilized and least known aspect of Facebook's platform, imho, is the fact you can export Facebook data to other sites and other communication systems (albeit in a limited way). O'Reilly's been blogging about this lately.

http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/10/mark_zuckerberg_fa...

"I do think that there are two views of the social graph, though, and how it gets deployed: there's a platform view in which it can be exploited to build smarter applications on Facebook; there's a deeper view in which the Facebook-discovered social graph can be accessed by other applications elsewhere on the net. Facebook's granular control of what information you reveal and to whom is thus a key part of the platform -- but the question is how far Facebook will go in letting other sites use this information. If Mark's answer is the first, Facebook is ultimately a closed platform; if the latter, it becomes a true open platform and value enabler."

Here's a relevant post to that:
http://gigaom.com/2007/10/18/big-internet-is-web-20s-os-so-w...

The Economist article also confuses news feeds (your friends actions, on your FB homepage) and mini-feeds (your own actions, on your profile page). Makes you wonder if the author has actually ever been on to Facebook. Perhaps there's less to The Economist's analysis of Facebook than meets the eye?
The Russians use pens now as well.

http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp
Idea: Dating/Meeting Site In Real Life
What is the cost of living there? How about social security contributions and health insurance while you're not making any (or just a little) money?
YC can't and shouldn't provide reasons why. They've already said as much. In their case, it's different from Fred Wilson. YC has to say no just twice a year. For Fred Wilson and any other VC, it's an ongoing thing. There's a difference.
Why not just organize some regular BarCamps?
I'm living in Romania. It would be a great place to join up with other entrepreneurs. My biggest problem is finding entrepreneurally-minded people (co-founders).

Finding experienced programmers to hire is not a problem, there are plenty. There's an entire outsourcing industry working for US and Western Europe clients.

Finding "professional conditions" (office space? net? or what?) is not a problem either.

Living costs are still cheap, but rising, and so are wages.
The profit is up 46% year over year... The Euro has risen about 18% against the dollar in the same period. Even assuming that ALL of their business was in Euros (which it isn't by far), this still represents pretty darn good growth for a company that already had the market cornered.
> "Spain is hugely bureaucratic and their social security system is insane for startup founders."

Do you have experience with this?
Is anyone from YC gonna be there?

I found the schedule here if you are attending:
http://wiki.startupcamp.org/wiki/StartupCampNYCGrid
When I graduated college as a philosophy major, I left with an uneasy feeling. Craving utility and connection with my childhood interests I took up software development.

I'm glad to finally see an explanation for the letdown I experienced as an enthusiastic but inexperienced scholar. I remember when I asked my first philosophy professor, someone I had struggled with intellectually (and physically during a dinner party) for a recommendation letter to leave philosophy and study law, and his reply that I had "not spent enough time with the classics" for him to feel confident that I was a real enough philosopher.

I am glad now to state that I am not, and that like many my response to its flaws was to turn to other pursuits.
The YC approach to "no" is easier when your only point of contact is a web form anyone can fill out and submit.

Most VCs (and I've never met Wilson, but I'm guessing this applies to him) meet people in person, because they've gotten introduced or referred by someone in their network.

So in that context, it's tougher to reject people without providing more details.
A "thriving tech center" is overstating it a bit for Amsterdam, but we certainly have our share of small web start-ups, and there are plenty of programmers available. The atmosphere is great, the climate is no distraction, (but the nightlife is).

Language is not a barrier, but I don't think you should incorporate here - we have high capital requirements. NTIAALOA (not that I am a lawyer or anything).
With the way they generate revenue, I imagine about 12,000 are now doing SOX compliance.
What does it cost you to ask? Building a business upon guesses is like building a house upon sand. Find out and turn those guesses into data.
Other startups have had the emphasis (or requirement) of face-to-face interaction. This one is specifically for dating. From what I hear, it actually works quite well.

http://www.zoodango.com/
I think this is a great idea! in SV, I bet you easily could find more speakers and mentors than you need, and they could generate a buzz to get the VC community out for a demo day.
"I am not too disappointed that our application was rejected on those grounds. Really, who wants to give up so much for a few dollars and a chance to give a presentation? "

This is of course tongue-in-cheek right?
I doubt those beautiful women would enhance your prospects.
I'd be interested to learn more about Romania. Danny76, please contact me if you wish to discuss this further: kmt at ftml dot net.
Get a techcrunch posting and also start rumors that your demo day has change the world startups with amazing profit potencial. Get 20/30 people just to go around places and just mention it in a offhand way.
If anyone who wasn't accepted wants to move to Cambridge, my roommate and I may have a deal for you. We'll provide you(or ya'll--up to 2) with free room & board in return for doing some development for our company(an angel funded web 2.0 startup). Then you can spend your time working on your company in the center of innovation in Cambridge. I'm not saying this will definitely happen, but if you're nice enough and seem like you just need a boost like this to get going I just may. Email me breck at breckyunits.com if interested.

BTW- Our company started the YC application but our customers are closer to Cambridge so we never finished the app. Judging by the acceptance rate we most likely would have gotten rejected anyway but it still was too bad we couldn't apply. I've been living in North Carolina for 5 years, is there something about the winter in Boston I should know ;)
AIR is for the desktop. Why would you expect Adobe to use it to deploy their web applications? It is no where near powerful enough to take on the tasks of the Creative Suite either.

"Adobe AIR lets developers use their existing web development skills in HTML, AJAX, Flash and Flex to build and deploy rich Internet applications to the desktop."

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/air/
Heh, I thought I was the only one addicted to that. This makes it so much more frustrating to those of us that do that.

NYTimes is one site that does it, see this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/19/us/19arctic.html
Did more than one version of "An Inconvenient Truth" circulate, or is error #1 just totally made up?

From my recollection seeing the movie, and from the transcript below, Gore never claimed that a 20 foot rise was inevitable 'in the near future.' He said that scientists have been surprised at the higher-than-expected rate of melting, and that the potential exists if all the ice melted to have a 20-foot rise.

Other "errors" also seem to be much more definitive statements than what was actually said in the movie.

http://forumpolitics.com/blogs/2007/03/17/an-inconvient-trut...
Turning a sphere inside out [video]
Readability, Uniqueness, Hackability and Meaning in URL Design
I was thinking about it a bit more, and I would consider it ironic (real irony, not Alanis Morissette irony). A legal document binds someone to legal obligations, so breaking other legal obligations to get the document has to somehow be ironic.
I would be a great idea for all southamerican founders to know each other personally.
Why don't we organize it in South America?, it's cheaper than US or Europe.
> how would you get all the VCs to attend

You're not going to get that. If there is no way to keep bozos out, there is no guarantee of quality, and thus less interest. So just stick to fun meetings once in a while, rather than anything smacking of an 'organization'.
> With the experience comes great networking opportunities that would facilitate creating the first XM and Siruis like Internet Radio type company.

How so? What can't you do on your own? Internet radio is kind of in trouble as it is, let alone inking any new deals.
SF Y Demo Practice
For those of you flying to Cambridge (we didn't make it) and those who did not but have an application that they need practice demoing and would like feedback, I propose having 2 practice demo runs prior to the YC deadline. The first one to find the glaring problems, and the second to polish the presentation. We are going to demo for other investors, so we need the practice too. We have an office right across from Cnet.com with a large conference room perfect for demoing. Let me know if you're interested.
Congrats. I don't think that you can turn that experience into the rule you made in your last line, though. It nearly sounds bitter.
Will Google Crush The iPhone?
I am participating of the Open-Coffee Club here in Montevideo (http://upcoming.yahoo.com/group/3668) and I think it's a good kick off...

I was kidding about replicating YC because it's impossible to do. YC is the YC'people.

But, we could organize a startup weekend like this: http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/07/startupweekend-70-found...

What do you think? We can start the company with the required hype all over the continent... I think 70 people is too much... but maybe 20-30?

Drop me a line to leovernazza [at] himalia.net
How To Maintain Momentum With VCs
Getting the VC to invest requires that the deal evaluation process maintain positive momentum. Maintaining momentum can be achieved by the periodic contact strategy described in my post: Creating Momentum. However, another important tactic should also be leveraged to maintain momentum X the creation of urgency...