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3,400 | comment | paul | 2007-03-10T08:19:19 | null | Which one will you learn the most from? Choose that one. | null | null | 3,132 | 3,131 | null | null | null | null |
3,401 | comment | paul | 2007-03-10T08:24:44 | null | Only if they are really dumb. If you are worried about pagerank spammers, just use the nofollow attribute.<p>http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/01/preventing-comment-spam.html | null | null | 3,352 | 3,348 | null | null | null | null |
3,402 | story | zach | 2007-03-10T08:30:13 | "It's surprising how hard we'll work when the work is done just for ourselves." - Bill Watterson | null | http://home3.inet.tele.dk/stadil/spe_kc.htm | 18 | null | 3,402 | 7 | [
3432,
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3,403 | comment | zach | 2007-03-10T08:34:32 | null | The first link I submitted to reddit. It garnered 27 points, at that time a huge number. Watterson is a fascinating character. He's last storied to be painting landscapes near his hometown of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, burning them once they're completed. | null | null | 3,402 | 3,402 | null | null | null | null |
3,404 | story | danw | 2007-03-10T08:53:13 | Career Advice: Don't Spend Half Your Work Day On Facebook And Then Brag About It | null | http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/03/09/career-advice-dont-choose-facebook-over-your-job/ | 5 | null | 3,404 | 0 | null | null | null |
3,405 | comment | pashle | 2007-03-10T09:25:38 | null | Thanks for the comment, zach! Even though the pic from your link said, "Strap on some plums.", I did manage to find THE YC T-Shirt pic from it so it's all good:<p>http://www.shoutfit.com/items/51371/in/closet/ickmonst/in/trend/38<p>Also, there's a link above it that takes you to YC's Shoutfit category, "Y Combinator Gear". Perhaps a new design is in order? | null | null | 3,394 | 3,389 | null | null | null | null |
3,406 | story | volida | 2007-03-10T10:07:26 | What to do next after launching your software start-up? Start-up your engines! | null | http://youtube.com/watch?v=BWYqrv2VgHg&mode=related&search= | 1 | null | 3,406 | 0 | null | null | null |
3,407 | comment | Harj | 2007-03-10T11:12:45 | null | highly recommended to everyone who can to attend this event. jessica has learnt ALOT from interviewing all these founders and she can relay the experiences fantastically well. | null | null | 3,297 | 3,291 | null | null | null | null |
3,408 | comment | Harj | 2007-03-10T11:18:31 | null | i'd just like to say it's great to read actual thoughtful comments about YC companies for once. i'm fed up of reading pathetic comments on Techcrunch from people who were rejected by YC and still like to claim they are into the startup scene without having anything to show for it.<p>i hope to meet some more of you guys at startup school this month.
| null | null | 3,098 | 3,098 | null | [
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] | null | null |
3,409 | story | python_kiss | 2007-03-10T11:54:43 | Jeff Bezos'(Amazon CEO) Video Lecture on User Experience | null | http://www.princeton.edu/WebMedia/lectures/20001020bezosTV756K.asx | 4 | null | 3,409 | 0 | null | null | null |
3,410 | comment | immad | 2007-03-10T12:02:37 | null | I don't see many people being discouraged to make social apps. A lot of the internet is based on social interaction (forums, comments, reviews, chats..) and wherever there is spam there are anti spam-measure in place that work reasonably well since these apps are all pretty usable. Maybe I just don't get what you mean | null | null | 3,362 | 3,348 | null | null | null | null |
3,411 | story | robertgaal | 2007-03-10T12:43:33 | Got schwag? Submit your start-up's own merchandise on this blog | null | http://schwagthedog.com | 1 | null | 3,411 | 0 | null | null | null |
3,412 | comment | jgamman | 2007-03-10T13:29:15 | null | i don't know about you but when my local new zealand newspaper has a "reddit-this" button it heralded a large decline in quality. i think a smaller, focused community is more use. | null | null | 3,033 | 2,929 | null | null | null | null |
3,413 | comment | smackaysmith | 2007-03-10T13:50:04 | null | She's a superb interviewer. This isn't your 60 Minutes style of interviewer where she's the star and the subject is simply the vehicle to make her look smart, etc. Also, Paul Graham's forward is one of the best essays I've read in a long time. And, perhaps, the best opening paragraph. Damn, the man should be hired just to do that. The sprinter metaphor: genius. | null | null | 1,259 | 1,211 | null | null | null | null |
3,414 | story | mattculbreth | 2007-03-10T15:07:42 | Three reasons business owners avoid marketing | null | http://www.synapsoftware.com/blogit/articles/2007/03/09/3-reasons-business-owners-avoid-marketing | 3 | null | 3,414 | 1 | [
3428
] | null | null |
3,415 | comment | iamelgringo | 2007-03-10T15:11:42 | null | Not me... I got my rejection email yesterday. I thought I'd be more disappointed at getting turned down, but I'm not. It's actually motivated me to step out on my own. <p>One of the big reasons that YC exists is to mentor young entrepreneurs. I would love to have a mentor, but I think that I"m going to branch out on my own to find them, instead of drowning in the crowd at Start-up school to exchange three words with Jessica or Paul. Instead, I've been considering volunteering at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View to hang out with some elder geeks. The Computer History Museum has a bunch of volunteer hardware/software hackers who restore vintage main-frames. These are all really smart hackers who have spent decades in the tech business, and they are spending time in retirement doing geek stuff, because they love it. These are the kind of people that I want to spend time with.<p>My team and I just moved to Silicon Valley this past year, and we're setting up out entire lives around the idea of having a series of start-ups. We've driven a combined total of 12 thousand miles to get here. We're set up financially so we can afford to iterate through start-up ideas without breaking the bank. We have a great space to work in, and we're meeting a lot of cool people. I actually talked with a man a few weeks ago who knew William Shockley of Shockley Semiconductor fame. <p>Yeah, It's been a hard road just to get to Silicon Valley. I'm sad that I didn't get in to the startup school. But, I'm sure that I'm going to get a lot more rejections throughout my career as an entrepreneur. If I wanted something easy, I'd choose a different career. I'm doing this because I enjoy the challenge. I'm doing this because I love technology. I'm doing this because I love the game, and I'm in it for the long haul.
| null | null | 3,086 | 3,086 | null | null | null | null |
3,416 | comment | pg | 2007-03-10T15:15:33 | null | Yes, they're VCs. I think they'd be more willing to do small (e.g. 500k) deals than many other VCs though | null | null | 3,267 | 3,222 | null | null | null | null |
3,417 | comment | iamwil | 2007-03-10T15:41:56 | null | I suppose there are correlations between his life and founders. He failed as a political cartoonist right out of college, and failed for a couple of years drawing C&H...not a lot of newspapers wanted to take his work. <p>The most amazing thing to me, though is that he chose a stopping point. He stopped C&H at what one might call the pinnacle of his popularity because he felt he had completely explored what he wanted to explore with the medium, unlike those long running one-liner and uninspired strips like Garfield. <p>Software might be amendable to the same time of attitude--they only should go up to a certain point, instead of add feature after feature, ad nauseum, creating an uninspired pile of features. <p>It might be like how the Ilwrath just got a little bit too good and wrapped around to evil. | null | null | 3,402 | 3,402 | null | [
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] | null | null |
3,418 | comment | notabel | 2007-03-10T16:03:18 | null | Even if there isn't a cut-off for adding features to software, there's probably a cut-off for where adding features is the best occupation for the founder. Either the software fails, and its moot, or it takes off, and if it takes off, there is probably a point at which it makes more sense for the founder to leave and work on a new project--one where the hard problems still have to be solved. | null | null | 3,417 | 3,402 | null | null | null | null |
3,419 | story | theudude2002 | 2007-03-10T16:13:08 | User Interface Is As Important As Code | null | http://a-simian-mind.blogspot.com/2007/03/user-interface-is-as-important-as-code.html | 6 | null | 3,419 | 6 | [
3427,
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] | null | null |
3,420 | comment | omarish | 2007-03-10T16:33:08 | null | also coming in from dc. | null | null | 3,234 | 3,086 | null | null | null | null |
3,421 | comment | pg | 2007-03-10T16:37:07 | null | Long term, certainly. There are a lot more features coming. | null | null | 3,304 | 3,264 | null | null | null | null |
3,422 | comment | drop19 | 2007-03-10T16:37:18 | null | concur, this would match my usage pattern much better (read interesting articles from RSS, then bring up another window to read the comments) | null | null | 3,338 | 3,264 | null | null | null | null |
3,423 | comment | pg | 2007-03-10T16:43:05 | null | There are actually three kinds of shirts: gray ones that say MSPW, plum-colored ones that say "Strap on some plums" (the other half of succeeding in a startup), and black ones, of which there are only 7 in existence, that say "I made something people want." | null | null | 3,399 | 3,389 | null | [
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] | null | null |
3,424 | comment | pg | 2007-03-10T16:45:15 | null | To get one, just fill out this simple form:<p>http://news.ycombinator.com/apply | null | null | 3,396 | 3,389 | null | null | null | null |
3,425 | story | pg | 2007-03-10T16:52:20 | "Suits petrified" about open-source | null | http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/03/09/open_source_licensing/ | 2 | null | 3,425 | 0 | null | null | null |
3,426 | story | perler | 2007-03-10T16:56:19 | Why startups succeed where big corporations fail | null | http://compoundedthought.blogspot.com/2007/02/people-factor-why-startups-succeed.html | 5 | null | 3,426 | 1 | [
3457
] | null | null |
3,427 | comment | notabel | 2007-03-10T17:10:31 | null | I'd actually go one step further, and say that user interface is /more/ important than code. In almost all case with a start-up, you users don't really care about your code, they care about the functionality, and its usability. That means that HCI trumps code, to some extent.<p>Of course, interface matters only in so far as it exposes functionality; that's why craigslist, which is a monster of design, but highly usable, can do so well. The interface facilitates the user's interaction with the functionality. | null | null | 3,419 | 3,419 | null | [
3463,
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] | null | null |
3,428 | comment | mattculbreth | 2007-03-10T17:25:09 | null | Unfortunately marketing gets a bad name because of the correlation with slimy sales guys. Really, I look at marketing on more of the strategic side, answering the question, "What do people want?" If you focus on that then the actual marketing tasks tend to be more palatable.
| null | null | 3,414 | 3,414 | null | null | null | null |
3,429 | comment | seijitanaka | 2007-03-10T17:52:39 | null | A well planned project shouldn't have this problem since the UI should come before the code. The decisions for UI should be resolved before the code since it will dictate how the different functions will interact. Sometimes a good interface design will reveal that a there's no room for certain seemingly good features, thus eliminating a lot of potentially trivial work. Also, while designing the UI before the code won't necessarily affect the quality of the code, doing the code before the UI could substantially jeopardize the quality of the UI. | null | null | 3,419 | 3,419 | null | null | null | null |
3,430 | story | msgbeepa | 2007-03-10T18:08:34 | Create And Share Mindmaps | null | http://www.wikio.com/webinfo?id=14507593 | 1 | null | 3,430 | 0 | null | null | null |
3,431 | comment | imp | 2007-03-10T18:08:49 | null | Working for the man. | null | null | 3,339 | 3,339 | null | null | null | null |
3,432 | comment | mynameishere | 2007-03-10T18:16:38 | null | Open up a newspaper, and look at some of the strips. Rubbish. Absolute utter rubbish. And yet they all got published! Somebody looked at them and said, "Yep, that's a winner."<p>And here, unsurprisingly, is Watterson talking about how hard it was to get into print. Maybe--since this website is intended for businesspeople as much as creators--maybe it would be fitting if everyone remembered just how completely powerful people can fail--and not even realize it, nor be punished for it. | null | null | 3,402 | 3,402 | null | [
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] | null | null |
3,433 | story | jadams | 2007-03-10T18:23:12 | TiddlyWiki - A Reusable Non-Linear Personal Web Notebook | null | http://www.tiddlywiki.com/ | 3 | null | 3,433 | 1 | [
3434
] | null | null |
3,434 | comment | jadams | 2007-03-10T18:25:04 | null | I love this thing! I can store all of my notes, ideas for articles, and business ideas in one HTML page. I can back it up or transfer it by copying a single file. Nice. | null | null | 3,433 | 3,433 | null | null | null | null |
3,435 | comment | brett | 2007-03-10T18:51:43 | null | Agreed. What users see is way more important than what they do not see (except maybe in the sense that the code is producing what they see, but, anyways).<p>As for craigslist, the author of that post seems to be using "design" interchangeably for "interface design" and "visual design". Yes craigslist is ugly, but they get away with it because the interface is designed quite well. I can go to craigslist with a task and figure out what I need to do and get it done relatively quickly. So while a appreciate your intent with "monster of design", I think it's better put "monster of visual design". | null | null | 3,427 | 3,419 | null | null | null | null |
3,436 | comment | juwo | 2007-03-10T19:07:02 | null | Depends upon the platform. Designing a cool user interface in Swing seems to be like dressing a dog up in a tuxedo. (my frustrations!) | null | null | 3,419 | 3,419 | null | null | null | null |
3,437 | comment | smackaysmith | 2007-03-10T19:13:33 | null | A way to 'share' stories like I can on Google Reader. | null | null | 363 | 363 | null | [
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] | null | null |
3,438 | comment | Alex3917 | 2007-03-10T19:27:27 | null | It's only surprising if you've missed out on the last thirty years of research into motivation.<p>Rule of thumb: As books read decreases, the insightfulness of other people's blog posts increases.<p>Kvetching aside, the speech as a whole is a great read. | null | null | 3,402 | 3,402 | null | null | null | null |
3,439 | comment | danw | 2007-03-10T19:27:30 | null | Based on the stats of other web apps I would predict that there are around 140 active users who comment and submit articles. This is however just a guess. | null | null | 3,373 | 3,264 | null | [
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] | null | null |
3,440 | story | danw | 2007-03-10T19:27:44 | What is the 1% rule? | null | http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1823959,00.html | 9 | null | 3,440 | 0 | null | null | null |
3,441 | story | drop19 | 2007-03-10T19:32:19 | Find a co-founder (inspired by news.yc threads) | null | http://www.founderfinder.com/ | 23 | null | 3,441 | 29 | [
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3,442 | comment | drop19 | 2007-03-10T19:34:45 | null | A few weeks ago there was a thread about starting a free-form way for entrepreneurs to find each other in different cities:<p>http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=445<p>...so I decided to try setting one up. Please let me know what you think. There's no ads on it or anything, this is strictly a project to make connections and learn more about web development. | null | null | 3,441 | 3,441 | null | null | null | null |
3,443 | comment | drop19 | 2007-03-10T19:35:53 | null | all,<p>I decided to give this a try. Please let me know what you think:<p>http://www.founderfinder.com/ | null | null | 493 | 445 | null | null | null | null |
3,444 | comment | iamwil | 2007-03-10T19:44:27 | null | Well, though I share the same sentiments in general (there are a few good strips), someone out there is reading all that rubbish. Either we're not like most people, and most people like rubbish, or good content is not how strips are being evaluated to make it to print. Perhaps they're catering to something else other than good content. | null | null | 3,432 | 3,402 | null | [
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] | null | null |
3,445 | comment | danielha | 2007-03-10T19:50:19 | null | Will you be joining our after school yc.news meetup, or do you YC alums have your own exclusive event?<p>If anyone's willing to participate, I would love to set up something where current YC founders and potential YC applicants can gather, chat, and pick each others' brains. | null | null | 3,408 | 3,098 | null | [
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] | null | null |
3,446 | comment | iamwil | 2007-03-10T19:54:25 | null | How about Chicago? Anyone interested in meeting up in the Chicagoland area? Talk tech, talk startup, over joes or en grosse bier. | null | null | 2,757 | 2,757 | null | null | null | null |
3,447 | story | amichail | 2007-03-10T19:58:50 | "Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats." (Howard Aiken) Is this true? | null | null | 11 | null | 3,447 | 13 | [
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] | null | null |
3,448 | story | danw | 2007-03-10T20:13:51 | Offending Experts and Pleasing Everybody | null | http://www.subtraction.com/archives/2007/0309_offending_ex.php | 4 | null | 3,448 | 2 | [
3452,
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] | null | null |
3,449 | comment | danielha | 2007-03-10T20:17:02 | null | The best ideas are innovative and edgy. Any competitors will be behind the curve once they realize what you already know.<p>If your idea is good in a duh-obvious sense, then you can be damned sure someone else is already doing it or has done it. The way to succeed in this aspect is by doing it better where others have been lazy. | null | null | 3,447 | 3,447 | null | [
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] | null | null |
3,450 | comment | juwo | 2007-03-10T20:21:47 | null | Amazing! I can tell you will be very successful as you have actually done something about the problem - the rest of us (especially myself) sat on our butts bemoaning our fate.
| null | null | 3,441 | 3,441 | null | [
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3,451 | comment | juwo | 2007-03-10T20:29:38 | null | see here | null | null | 3,056 | 2,841 | null | [
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] | null | null |
3,452 | comment | farmer | 2007-03-10T20:29:48 | null | Nice looking page, but surely the peak of users is not at intermediate. In my experience most users are beginners. | null | null | 3,448 | 3,448 | null | null | null | null |
3,453 | comment | juwo | 2007-03-10T20:30:02 | null | http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=2615 | null | null | 3,451 | 2,841 | null | null | null | null |
3,454 | comment | jwecker | 2007-03-10T20:31:45 | null | Great name for the site. A couple of suggestions: technical strengths and weaknesses are important, but not necessarily more important than general strengths and weaknesses- at least not for a founder. If it was an employee search that would be one thing but I would possibly relabel those "technical & business strengths" etc.<p>"My dream is to start a company that" should probably be more along the lines of "I have plans and/or interests in the following areas-" I guess I would just step the seriousness up a little bit so you get people who are generally serious partners.<p>Finally, I'm normally against this, but this is one place where you may want to consider having the site invitation-only, either that or password-protect the site and let the password spread among founder-networked people. A lot of garbage profiles would ruin the usefulness of the site.<p>[upd]
oh, and one more thing- maybe one more field where the potential co-founder can write about themselves- "about me" or "unique things about me" or something along those lines. Finding a cofounder is a lot about chemistry and an alignment of personalities, not just matching up needed technical skills. It's not a school project, it's more like a.... marriage, to be honest (nothing weird of course). | null | null | 3,441 | 3,441 | null | [
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] | null | null |
3,455 | comment | farmer | 2007-03-10T20:32:39 | null | I think it's the former: we're not like other people. | null | null | 3,444 | 3,402 | null | null | null | null |
3,456 | comment | juwo | 2007-03-10T20:32:46 | null | would you like to collaborate on an idea i have had for displaying the founders? | null | null | 3,441 | 3,441 | null | [
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] | null | null |
3,457 | comment | python_kiss | 2007-03-10T20:33:55 | null | Any sufficiently large corporation cannot continuously hire smart people since there is a tendency to push for the average. Google has avoided this by applying something known as the "Lake Wobegon strategy" (http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2006/03/hiring-lake-wobegon-strategy.html). It states that a company should only hire candidates who are above the mean of the current flock of employees.<p>Though, as I stated earlier, even Google cannot continue to endlessly hire smart individuals. A sample of the average IQ of University students would most likely be the same as the rest of the population. There are always a few exceptional individuals in any group, but the group itself is most often average. | null | null | 3,426 | 3,426 | null | null | null | null |
3,458 | comment | juwo | 2007-03-10T20:34:54 | null | I had no idea Jobs was adopted. | null | null | 3,173 | 3,173 | null | [
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] | null | null |
3,459 | comment | drop19 | 2007-03-10T20:35:46 | null | Thanks! This might sound like I'm blowing smoke, but I'm not: I've been really inspired by all of the great articles here and at other sites, and by the 37signals book Getting Real. I grew up very much cultured to think I would have to join a large organization to be successful, and now I'm starting to realize it's better to strike out on my own. | null | null | 3,450 | 3,441 | null | null | null | null |
3,460 | comment | drop19 | 2007-03-10T20:41:16 | null | I like your suggestions about the strengths and weaknesses and dream section. I'm going to go change that right now. My original thought was, I want to really focus on the kinds of motivated technical people reading YCombinator, but you're right, it sounds too much like an employee search. <p>It also makes sence because people might be looking for skills that are not always technical (or maybe for people who do not self-identify as having technical skills).<p>As for the name, that is a big relief to hear you say that. My girlfriend thought it wasn't very 'cool-sounding' (i.e. not a web 2.0 name).<p>I never thought about the potential for garbage profiles. I'm not sure if I could be successful with it by using invitations -- I don't know anyone else in this world (yet). | null | null | 3,454 | 3,441 | null | [
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] | null | null |
3,461 | comment | drop19 | 2007-03-10T20:42:12 | null | sure thing! e-mail me at [email protected] | null | null | 3,456 | 3,441 | null | [
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] | null | null |
3,462 | comment | volida | 2007-03-10T20:46:27 | null | I think I've read it in one of PG's essays, who sais always choose the harder solution because you thought the easy one because you are being lazy? | null | null | 3,449 | 3,447 | null | null | null | null |
3,463 | comment | jwecker | 2007-03-10T20:51:19 | null | I agree. In addition, some interesting notes about HCI. First- if you haven't studied HCI or know what the acronym stands for, you may make it as a programmer for some company, but you're not going to reach your full potential creating new things.<p>Anyway, I was reading an HCI paper in one of the publications a few years ago and came across these interesting statistics:<p>75% of software does _not_ in fact increase the productivity of the end-user. (over a paper-based alternative)<p>Doing a single user-testing session results on average of fixes that take less than 2 days and that increase the usefulness of the product by 80% (that is it increases the end-user's productivity that much).<p>Here's a poor-man's usability test. Get a bunch of people who have never seen your product and don't know much about it, but that are in your target demographic (shouldn't be difficult- a brother, roommate, family of the employees, someone off the street). Sit them down in front of your product and tell them you're not going to be allowed to answer any of their questions because you're measuring the usability of the system. Then stand over their shoulder and let them do their thing. Don't make a sound- no guiding, no "oh- that actually works by doing this"- just observe and take notes. A few sessions like this will mean a world of difference in your UI. | null | null | 3,427 | 3,419 | null | null | null | null |
3,464 | comment | jwecker | 2007-03-10T20:59:32 | null | well, the users would be able to invite. it wouldn't eliminate the garbage, just slow it down. news.yc people would spread the word pretty effectively, I think, or some well placed invitations on facebook, etc. | null | null | 3,460 | 3,441 | null | null | null | null |
3,465 | comment | zaidf | 2007-03-10T21:01:17 | null | When displaying list of stories, it would make readability much easier if alternate rows were white. Current listing of stories requires too much mental engagement for me personally. <p>Alternate row coloring would increase page scability for story listings.<p>-Zaid
| null | null | 363 | 363 | null | null | null | null |
3,466 | comment | eli | 2007-03-10T21:39:19 | null | But that'd be like creating an iPod/iTunes that doesn't let you rip your own CDs. People want a DVR just like they wanted a really nice player for their existing music collection. Ya gotta soft sell the distribution service.<p>Apple wants you to buy things from the iTunes store, but nobody would agree to that level of lock-in (i hope!) | null | null | 3,398 | 3,276 | null | null | null | null |
3,467 | comment | davidw | 2007-03-10T21:43:13 | null | From everything I've read, it's not quite that simple. You don't just pick someone out of a web site to go through thick and thin with, it's a process that takes time. I guess it can't hurt though.
| null | null | 3,441 | 3,441 | null | [
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] | null | null |
3,468 | comment | drop19 | 2007-03-10T21:49:44 | null | True; I'm just hoping to help make that first introduction. I chose to mimic the craiglist home page by listing cities on the right. I'm hoping that people like me will see their city name their and get inspired to make a connection. | null | null | 3,467 | 3,441 | null | null | null | null |
3,469 | story | joshwa | 2007-03-10T21:51:42 | Blog written by Markus of PlentyOfFish.com - (one-man company is the largest(?) AdSense publisher) | null | http://plentyoffish.wordpress.com/ | 2 | null | 3,469 | 0 | null | null | null |
3,470 | comment | Alex3917 | 2007-03-10T21:53:12 | null | The problem: While there are potentially many great co-founders out there, you have no one to work with. This problem has two parts:<p>A) Not knowing enough people interested in startups.<p>B) Not knowing if people would make good or bad co-founders.<p>So this is certainly a step toward solving part A. The problem is it really does nothing toward solving part B, which is by far the hardest part of the puzzle. <p>I'm sitting here reading news.YC and there are comments from dozens of smart people, some of whom would make great co-founders and some wouldn't. The issue isn't for the most part isn't the fact that I don't know they exist; I know they all exist. The issue is a lack of identity. <p>If you want to solve the co-founder problem, the solution isn't to get a large amount of people interested in starting companies in the same room. The solution comes from getting them to know each other. This comes from two things:<p>A) Identity.<p>B) Interaction.<p>Identity is 10% what we say about ourselves, and 90% what others say about us based on previous actions. To solve the identity problem you need a way to either aggregate what others say about us or else shine light on previous actions. (Previous actions being anything from college degrees to old blog posts.)<p>Interaction comes from objects of sociability. Playing games. Breaking a loaf of fresh bread. Sharing a bottle of wine over dinner. A pot of tea. Solving hard problems together. Solving difficult problems together. etc.<p>Anyway, my point is that the website doesn't solve a problem. At best it is the first 10% of the solution that enables a few people with really good judgement to solve the problem themselves. More likely it encourages people to enter really dangerous territory and potentially get into a lot of trouble with people they barely know. | null | null | 3,441 | 3,441 | null | [
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] | null | null |
3,471 | comment | drop19 | 2007-03-10T22:02:15 | null | This points out an unexamined assumption on my part, which was 'getting a large amount of people interested in starting companies in the same room is bound to lead to interesting interactions'. I also assumed people would vet each other, but you're right, it would be more valuable to have other kinds of assessment available.<p>It sounds like you are saying that the interaction problem is best handled off-line, so is there any website that can really do that?<p>I recently joined a Meetup group in Baltimore and have already had some great interactions that way. There are far more technical people in my area than I had realized. | null | null | 3,470 | 3,441 | null | [
3472,
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] | null | null |
3,472 | comment | Alex3917 | 2007-03-10T22:23:48 | null | Think about it this way. PG built news.YC in large part to get to know people before committing to working with them. News.YC has relevant articles that you can comment on. PG could have just as easily built a site that let you upload your profile pic and interests.<p>The thing is, uploading a profile pic and interests wouldn't let PG know how smart you are or what your personality is like. On news.YC, users are literally creating their own identities through their interaction with the site and with each other. Furthermore, PG designed the site so that users would interact in a way that would reveal the aspects of their character that are most salient to knowing whether or not they'll build a successful startup or go out and blow his money on hookers and beer. <p>news.YC is the solution to PG's identity problem. However, the problem of whether or not to fund a group is very similar to the problem of knowing whether or not to work with someone. PG's a smart guy. Think about which parts of his solution are relevant to your problem, and go from there. | null | null | 3,471 | 3,441 | null | [
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] | null | null |
3,473 | comment | ljlolel | 2007-03-10T22:40:50 | null | I'm in Miami too. Not sure if I can go, though. When are you flying up? | null | null | 3,199 | 3,086 | null | [
4112
] | null | null |
3,474 | story | clintonforbes | 2007-03-10T22:46:23 | Diving into INTERCAL - Part Isa - Introduction, Manners & 'Hello, World' | null | http://divingintointercal.blogspot.com/2007/03/good-programmer-constantly-strives-to.html | 1 | null | 3,474 | 0 | null | null | null |
3,475 | comment | pg | 2007-03-10T23:10:22 | null | Actually I'm planning to add more stuff to help people meet communicate with one another. The new "about" field in the profile is a step toward that.<p>I don't want to just solve YC's problem; I want to make this site do what users need. | null | null | 3,472 | 3,441 | null | [
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] | null | null |
3,476 | story | smackaysmith | 2007-03-10T23:16:49 | The 100% guaranteed easiest way to do Enterprise 2.0? | null | http://theobvious.typepad.com/blog/2007/03/the_100_guarant.html | 2 | null | 3,476 | 1 | [
3585
] | null | null |
3,477 | comment | Alex3917 | 2007-03-10T23:37:23 | null | Ahh, that is a good direction for the site to go in I think. <p>My thinking is that YC's problem is mainly figuring out how likely people are to MSPW and how fun they will be to work with.<p>I am trying to think out how the co-founder problem differs from the YC problem, but I'm not sure which assumptions to use:<p>1) The productivity of the startup is mainly the sum of the traits of each individual. Plus, to a lesser extent, the synergies between them.<p>2) The productivity of the startup is mainly an emergent phenomenon that is difficult to predict from looking at either of the two co-founders alone. Plus, to a lessor extent, the traits of each individual. (For example, the output of someone working with Steve Jobs is different than their output in other circumstances.) <p>Whether it's more of case 1 or more of case 2 matters when figuring out in which direction to take the community, because in each case you are going to want a different systemic design to bring out the different salient factors. (Of course it could actually be case 1 for some startups and case 2 for other startups, which would make the problem even more difficult.) | null | null | 3,475 | 3,441 | null | [
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] | null | null |
3,478 | story | arasakik | 2007-03-10T23:50:17 | What are the founders of SUN up to now? | null | http://news.yahoo.com/s/infoworld/20070226/tc_infoworld/86309 | 2 | null | 3,478 | 0 | null | null | null |
3,479 | story | msgbeepa | 2007-03-10T23:56:35 | Web 2.0 Media: Important Notice To Our Readers | null | http://www.wikio.com/webinfo?id=14518189 | 1 | null | 3,479 | 0 | null | null | null |
3,480 | comment | dfranke | 2007-03-11T00:04:36 | null | Well, here's one:<p>lynx -source http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=$USER_IN_QUESTION | grep '<span class="comhead">' | wc -l | null | null | 3,373 | 3,264 | null | [
3491
] | null | null |
3,481 | comment | domp | 2007-03-11T00:15:28 | null | I have no idea if this has already been brought up (considering I just skimmed over the responses in this discussion) but I'd like to see another tab on top that maybe is for questions that people are curious about. I see that people are posting in the news areas not links but a single question that they're looking for people to respond to and create debate. They're not necessarily news worthy contributions but important none the less in fueling conversations.
| null | null | 363 | 363 | null | null | null | null |
3,482 | comment | dfranke | 2007-03-11T00:19:39 | null | That's a surprisingly low number, actually. The first SFP had 227 applications[1] and I assume it's grown since then. Based on nothing at all, I'll guess that the average application has 2.35 founders, so that's 533 applicants. YC has been pretty explicit that they want applicants to participate here.<p>[1] http://web.archive.org/web/20050414040411/ycombinator.com/sfpannounce.html | null | null | 3,439 | 3,264 | null | null | null | null |
3,483 | comment | semigeek | 2007-03-11T00:24:10 | null | I'll be there (From Cleveland, OH). Staying downtown with a rental car - left my cell number on the bluwiki site. | null | null | 3,086 | 3,086 | null | null | null | null |
3,484 | comment | akkartik | 2007-03-11T00:28:19 | null | More important than being able to talk to each other is being able to see who's talking to one, I think.<p>a) Notification when someone replies directly to one's comment.<p>b) Some way to easily find new comments on a thread. Instead of marking comments read, let me click a page-level button to "reset new marks". Couple that with sorting the front-page by 'number of recent comments'. Especially in periods when the front-page changes infrequently it'll allow users to follow discussions after they've read the submission.<p>Let me find interesting users and filter them for potential co-founders.<p>c) Show me users whose submissions and comments I upmod most and who I talk to the most.<p>d) Provide tags for me to add on my profile: location, horizon to startup, areas of interest, etc. Allow others to set constraints and highlight for them users who match those constraints/tags. | null | null | 3,258 | 3,171 | null | null | null | null |
3,485 | story | semigeek | 2007-03-11T00:33:43 | YC & Techstars investment is more than just cash (Feld's thoughts) | null | http://www.feld.com/blog/archives/002175.html | 5 | null | 3,485 | 0 | null | null | null |
3,486 | comment | iamwil | 2007-03-11T00:37:43 | null | While it might not be entirely true, it certainly gives you an attitude that affects your behavior for the better, especially at early stages. From my limited experience, talking about your ideas to both laypeople and technical people can only help you.<p>Talking to laypeople helps you solidify and lets you practice pitching what it is that you're doing. When you're working at a company, you don't have to explain yourself very much. But when you say you're doing a startup, I've found that most people will demand more of an explanation. However, most people don't have the patience in everyday settings to listen to more than 2 or 3 minutes of it. This helps you whittle out the core of what it is that you're trying to build. Call it a functional spec cleaning, if you want.<p>Talking about your ideas with technical people might give you insight into different areas you're not as familiar with. The more that I read, the more I realized everything is inter-related. But it's hard to have that kind of breadth in this day and age of specialization--there's just way too much to know. Talking to technical people will often times help you make connections and leads to other technical fields that will help you get a feel for where else you can dig or if you're digging in the right place.<p>That said, most people won't steal your ideas for the same reasons mentioned before by others. Doubts and eagerness to point out how it might not work. Lack of vision, breadth and depth to understand the problem and implications. Lack of technical ability. Lack of time. Lack of motivation.<p>And after reading and talking to people, it seems like ideas end up changing. It's only when you're a bit bigger that you'd have to worry about secrets. | null | null | 3,447 | 3,447 | null | null | null | null |
3,487 | story | ereldon | 2007-03-11T00:53:28 | The Economist starts to innovate (?) | null | http://projectredstripe.com/blog/ | 6 | null | 3,487 | 2 | [
3501,
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] | null | null |
3,488 | comment | jamiequint | 2007-03-11T01:11:58 | null | I'm pretty sure I'm gonna stick with startup school on this one now. See you all there. | null | null | 3,131 | 3,131 | null | null | null | null |
3,489 | comment | mynameishere | 2007-03-11T01:27:03 | null | See, this is why wordpad generates more revenue than Word.
| null | null | 3,448 | 3,448 | null | null | null | null |
3,490 | comment | JoeEntrepreneur | 2007-03-11T01:27:33 | null | I would love to apply to YC for my upcoming startup http://www.onista.com but YC had made it clear so many times that they do not like either "Single Founder" Or "Moonlighters" and unfortunately or fortunately I am both.<p>Not sure why YC guys think that way (May be they want to play safe bets) but I am on very well course to release my application "Onista" for public use in Summer Timeframe.<p>Honestly I do not even need the funding (Amount) that YC offers, but what would be great to have is their brand-name with my startup.<p>May be YC should start some category like "YC Certified Startup". Funding is not major worry here. I got that.<p> | null | null | 445 | 445 | null | null | null | null |
3,491 | comment | notabel | 2007-03-11T01:28:07 | null | It works, but only under the assumption that user liveness is constant or increasing over time. A liveness metric should differentiate strongly between a user who has commented 30 times in the past 4 days, and someone who commented 25 times in the first 4 days of news.yc. and 5 times since. Perhaps I'll hack something together. | null | null | 3,480 | 3,264 | null | null | null | null |
3,492 | story | JoeEntrepreneur | 2007-03-11T02:07:50 | Any ideas on how to create buzz before launching a startup. Need advice as I am about to launch http://www.onista.com in summer timeframe. | null | 2 | null | 3,492 | 14 | [
3495,
3500,
3497,
3503,
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] | null | null |
|
3,493 | story | sharpshoot | 2007-03-11T02:20:44 | Advice for applying to Y combinator - by Justin Kan (Kiko co-founder) | null | http://jkanstyle.com/2006/09/13/advice-for-applying-to-y-combinator/ | 10 | null | 3,493 | 6 | [
3526,
3541
] | null | null |
3,494 | comment | juwo | 2007-03-11T02:54:38 | null | Actually the idea is still nascent even though I wrote it down 10 years ago!
But here's another:
http://juwo-works.blogspot.com/2007/03/co-founder-match-making.html | null | null | 3,461 | 3,441 | null | null | null | true |
3,495 | comment | lucas | 2007-03-11T02:58:04 | null | I would say that a lot depends upon the type of product that you're building. For example, if it's a web-based social networking app, send your beta announcement mail to, say, 10 people or 50 people and track views and signups for 2-3 weeks. See what kind of network effect you get. Pick your initial invitees wisely. If you want users, then you want them to be the so-called influencers.<p>I also have this question. I am a little reticent, though, because I'm concerned about scalability. In my case, I am writing the front end in typical database-backed fashion, but the backend is several custom C++ components. So while I want users, I'm not sure how much I want them on day one. Everything I read says, "get users, figure out your weaknesses, and scale as needed." That's reassuring. Nevertheless, the unknowns that we face can still be daunting.<p>Larger companies and people who have been around the block will often use a PR firm or will simply file a press release themselves. It costs about $1000, from what I understand.<p>I think from the standpoint of your average bootstrapper, guerilla tactics are in order. I plan on using Google Analytics. I haven't tried it yet, but I plan to. It will, for example, show hits based on geographic location. You can use that to target local advertising in the markets where you're getting some initial traction. I don't think there is really a set approach. When you're a guerilla, anything is possible.
| null | null | 3,492 | 3,492 | null | [
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3,496 | story | juwo | 2007-03-11T03:01:18 | pls. delete this duplicate thread. What do you think of this idea that could be used to match cofounders? | null | 1 | null | 3,496 | 0 | [
3511
] | null | true |
|
3,497 | comment | Harj | 2007-03-11T03:04:32 | null | creating buzz is not necessarily a good thing. the first product you launch will be bad because it hasn't had user input (nothing compares to real users using your site). it will become incrementally better as more people tell you how they actually want it to work.<p>taking the pre-launch buzz approach is high risk. take powerset for example - they have generated so much buzz that their product had better be a google killer from day one or they're in trouble. | null | null | 3,492 | 3,492 | null | [
3504
] | null | null |
3,498 | comment | Harj | 2007-03-11T03:06:09 | null | that sounds cool. we've all been so wrapped up in investor day we've not organized anything for startup school by way of meetups. keep me posted on what you plan. | null | null | 3,445 | 3,098 | null | null | null | null |
3,499 | story | juwo | 2007-03-11T03:08:48 | What do you think of this idea that could be used to match cofounders? | null | http://juwo-works.blogspot.com/2007/03/co-founder-match-making.html | 2 | null | 3,499 | 6 | [
3524,
3540,
3510
] | null | null |
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