571–580 of 768 posts
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Even more than basic income in the west. Basic income in developing countries could go farther for less. It's pretty easy to work a job and still have time to develop if you want to here in the states. It's really hard to starve doing what you love here.
Assuming doing what you love is software development.
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I can second this. I worked for a similar unnamed incubator company in the Bay Area and a vast majority of the ideas sent to us were from good-hearted people, but absolutely ludicrous and—at least from our opinion—would never be able to become successful businesses. Some people just really seem to have problems understanding product-market fit. My guess would be that applicants to Y-Combinator are probably along the…
If possible to ethically disclose this, what was the craziest thing you think could have worked, amd the outright craziest.
I'm at a YC startup that's successful. How do you look at early employees of such companies, and how I tactfully apply? There is no way I could without it getting back to my CEO (or so it seems to me)
Why haven't you told them you have a side project/ are interested in starting your own company?
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They have not become a citizen just because they have a work visa. If they become a citizen, of course they shouldn't be second class. They've been given a visa for a specific purpose, and in the eyes of the law are not "first class citizens". If your argument is that we should grant citizenship to anyone that wants it: OK, vote for it.
Well, as a H1B visa holder paying same taxes as citizens, I either need the country to provide me a path to citizenship or stop taxing me like citizens. I can go either ways. Your ancestors fought for taxation without representation. I come from a democracy too and yes my country is not as conducive as United States for starting businesses but I just won't be made feel inferior to citizens because I was born elsewher…
"Taxation without representation" doesn't apply here, because you aren't forced to live or work here. You do have representation in your own government, which is exactly what the founders of the US fought for. They did not fight for the right to go work in other places, like the UK, untaxed.
I'm at a YC startup that's successful. How do you look at early employees of such companies, and how I tactfully apply? There is no way I could without it getting back to my CEO (or so it seems to me)
YC is so big and has so many (1) existing portfolio companies and (2) applicants to go through that they simply don't have the time to even care about this. We graduated YC in S12 and, outside of fundraising, talk with partners on average once a year. I don't think we've reached out to YC or YC partners have reached out to us in any meaningful way for the past year or two. Perhaps counterintuitively, this is even mor…
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EDIT: i should emphasize this is only my experience as a startup hiring manager. maybe YC attracts nothing but geniuses, i dunno. i'm just a guy on the internet. since yc is obviously not going to talk shit on their own applicants, i'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that it's just like every other job application process when six figures (or more) of money is on the line. big paychecks attract plenty of, sh…
Oh wow. I wish they said that the bar was so low. I would like to apply as well if that's the case. Edit: I still think the idea of Dropbox is pretty stupid and I wouldn't have given Drew Houston a penny if I was an investor. But I never thought the average application would be so far worse if Dropbox got funded and succeeded.
This is going to sound crass, but if a founder can't make the sacrifice to spend 3 months in SV for YC, are they really prepared to build the next billion dollar company?
Hey Sam, Any comment regarding Jason Calacanis being banned from YC's upcoming demo day? Jason tweeted[1] his side but didn't know what the YC side of it was and was curious. [1] https://twitter.com/Jason/status/710176806184349696
a suspicious number of people seem to have signed up just to comment here...
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You're making the mistake of judging the idea too much and forgetting that Drew Houston went to MIT, and had worked as a tech lead at a company. That already puts him in the top 10% of applicants, regardless of his idea.
I guess so. I, on the other hand went to a state school and my work experience is working on fairly straightforward line of business applications. I am not so much criticizing Dropbox as much as I'm making fun of my own lack of vision.
the most uncommon and valuable skill in the world is for a smart person to willingly put themselves in a position where they could easily fail, or be ridiculed. dumb people do this all the time. this is an advantage to being dumb. you have no ego to lose. nor much of anything else.
that is the cross-section of intelligence and success. just look in the mirror for an example.
and for what it's worth, if you think dropbox is a tepid idea, just consider slack. enterprise irc with history and attachments. worth billions. there's more to it than just a cool idea. the example i always use is: i've got a great idea. let's build a time machine. it'll be great!
What kind of security companies do you look out for? How much importance do you place on technical certifications when it comes to founders in security?
Security is one of the areas we're most interested in, but we leave it to founders to show us the most promising sub-areas. We don't care about technical certifications. I forget which company it was, but some large tech company found that the only negative predictor of success for its employees was technical certifications...