Jessica Livingston: How to Build the Future • Hacker News Board

Re: Jessica Livingston: How to Build the Future

#61

Post by greggman » Wed, Aug 31, 2016, 5:33 AM UTC

nickpsecurity wrote: post #49

greggman wrote: post #43

AirBnB is an evil company and YC should be ashamed to be apart of it. AirBnB has the official policy that it's okay to lie about where listings are. I booked one that turned out to about about half a kilometer away from where is was marked on the map. I would never have rented it had it been correctly marked. When I complained I was told it's their policy. It's buried in their privacy policy in a paragraph aimed at h…

I was tempted not to reply given the topic but she mentioned them exemplary enough that it was worth checking. Plus, I added "ruthless" to her recommendation that determination trumps all other traits for success. Made me curious. So, I looked at their policy pages to find something about location listings. Here's my first find: "Misrepresenting your spaces You should not provide inaccurate location information, have…

Yes it's that second part they quoted to me in email from their customer service

" The Platform may also display the Accommodation’s approximate geographic location on a map, such that a user can see the general area of the Accommodation”

First off its ridiculous to claim that part of the privacy policy is something clear and obvious to guests and that they will therefore understand that listing are not representative of the actual locations.

Second, while I can except they might choose to have such a policy to protect hosts it is a arguably deceptive practice. If it's their policy that locations on the map may not by accurate that should be on the map page itself in a hard to miss representation. Not buried in section 5.B of their privacy policy in a section that starts with "Your public listing page..." making it clearly directed at hosts not guests.

Re: Jessica Livingston: How to Build the Future

#62

Post by mbrock » Wed, Aug 31, 2016, 5:51 AM UTC

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #53

bobbylox wrote: post #17

I think there needs to be a moratorium on that AirBnB political cereal box story. "The most important thing to do is to focus on your business, but also it's cool if you spend time on a random side business," is a big mixed message.

I hope people remember that AirBnB spammed Craigslist to grow their user base. Not a great example of ethical behavior, IMHO.

The takeaway lesson being perhaps that ethical violations are often good for business?

Re: Jessica Livingston: How to Build the Future

#63

Post by wott » Wed, Aug 31, 2016, 6:06 AM UTC

utefan001 wrote: post #42

enraged_camel wrote: post #3

Jessica is awesome. That said, this part near the beginning, where Sam says... >>Sometimes they create a small success, and sometimes they create these companies that really transform the world, and YC has been very fortunate to be involved in a lot of these, Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe, the list goes on. I mean... really? OK, I'll grant you Airbnb, but Dropbox "transformed" the world?

Stripe has transformed the world. In 1999, I was asked to look into how to setup credit card processing for our company. I contacted Authorize.net for technical help. They just asked me to fax some information to them. Two months later my boss receives a bill for $3,000 claiming we had signed a contract agreeing to that fee. I think Stripe has made CC processing a lot easier for everyone.

Ah. OK. Transformed the world, no less.

I don't even know what it is.

Re: Jessica Livingston: How to Build the Future

#64

Post by wott » Wed, Aug 31, 2016, 6:07 AM UTC

rezashirazian wrote: post #37

throwaway991199 wrote: post #12

I have to agree with you there. I'm in Europe and I just polled a whole bunch of friends, anyone using these companies and got a resounding NOPE. I just polled a bunch of US friends too and they say the same. Sure, purely anecdotal. But for me, none of these have changed the world. Maybe if you worship at the alter of YC or a wannabe Paul/Jessica groupie or liberal/progressive fantasist then I guess you totally buy i…

There are many companies that change the world that you nor your friends would probably ever hear from.

Define 'world', then.

Re: Jessica Livingston: How to Build the Future

#65

Post by ioda » Wed, Aug 31, 2016, 6:54 AM UTC

The best I have read from her so far is this- http://www.foundersatwork.com/1/post/2012/10/what-goes-wrong...

Re: Jessica Livingston: How to Build the Future

#66

Post by rgbrenner » Wed, Aug 31, 2016, 7:22 AM UTC

utefan001 wrote: post #42

enraged_camel wrote: post #3

Jessica is awesome. That said, this part near the beginning, where Sam says... >>Sometimes they create a small success, and sometimes they create these companies that really transform the world, and YC has been very fortunate to be involved in a lot of these, Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe, the list goes on. I mean... really? OK, I'll grant you Airbnb, but Dropbox "transformed" the world?

Stripe has transformed the world. In 1999, I was asked to look into how to setup credit card processing for our company. I contacted Authorize.net for technical help. They just asked me to fax some information to them. Two months later my boss receives a bill for $3,000 claiming we had signed a contract agreeing to that fee. I think Stripe has made CC processing a lot easier for everyone.

I setup credit card processing with authorize.net in 2003. Used authorize.net's API docs. Didn't have any significant problems. I like(d) their API less than Stripe's.. but I wouldn't pay a premium for Stripe just for that.

Interesting how much difference 4 years makes.

Re: Jessica Livingston: How to Build the Future

#67

Post by berpasan » Wed, Aug 31, 2016, 9:14 AM UTC

What Jessica has done in YC is an amazing example of how to build great culture in a Startup (and YC was and still is, in several ways, a startup!).

It's a challenge, but I believe YC can be an organization that can outlive its founders by the force of its strong, enduring culture. As a YC founder I didn't have the pleasure to meet Jessica (or Paul) yet (they are in a Sabbatical in London). But just spending those 3 months in YC and all the amazing people they put there made me feel as if I had.

Re: Jessica Livingston: How to Build the Future

#68

Post by berpasan » Wed, Aug 31, 2016, 9:22 AM UTC

cdupiton wrote: post #51

But how did they have the money to even invest in startups?

Paul Graham (and Trevor and Robert) founded a company, Viaweb, that was sold to Yahoo for close to $50M in 1998. Like Jessica said, they invested $12k per company in the first batches of YC.

Re: Jessica Livingston: How to Build the Future

#69

Post by berpasan » Wed, Aug 31, 2016, 9:24 AM UTC

T2_t2 wrote: post #41

jedc wrote: post #29

"Y Combinator has funded 1,500 startups" Really? http://www.ycombinator.com/press/ quotes 1297 startups http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/view?acceleratorid=1011 has 1069 companies (+ ~100 from the S16 class) for ~1200 in total Where do the extra companies come from?

Would you have been as mad with 1703? How many were in the most recent batch? I have no idea, but 1500 seems close enough to me for a non-specific number.

There's close to 110 companies in the current batch, that just had demo day last week.

Re: Jessica Livingston: How to Build the Future

#70

Post by tomhoward » Wed, Aug 31, 2016, 9:59 AM UTC

beambot wrote: post #56

sandslash wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To answer your question: no, nope, no. Absolutely agree with you there. This anecdote is definitely the most extreme and not-advised route of keeping your company alive. They were extremely lucky this worked at all in their favor. Please don't try this at home :) There are way more reproducible methods of keeping your company above water, such as reducing burn or spending your time wisely and focusing on your core pr…

So if I'm reading you right, the tldr: that was a crazy-foolish, low probability move by the airbnb founders rather than a sound "stay alive" strategy. In which case, it should not be fetishized as a "be like them" move (at least in some respects)? Though it does make for an awesome 'hustle' story (on that, I agree; same with startups being hard). It sounds like they were just having fun, and happened to earn some sc…

Jessica's words were:

They really were doing this because they were out of money. And this is like a Hail Mary for them.

The sensible advice YC partners will always give you is to avoid running out of money.

If you've run out of money, there's not much advice the YC partners can give you, and the only options are to (a) shut down immediately, or (b) throw a Hail Mary.

The lesson here is that if you're the kind of founder who, in a do-or-die situation, can figure out a Hail Mary that actually hits the mark - and if you believe in your idea enough to be willing to try anything to survive, even when nobody else in the world believes in your idea - you're more likely to be the kind of founder who will accomplish huge success in the long term - due to the determination and inspiration you've shown yourself to possess.

Of course, nobody should fetishize getting in a situation where you have to throw a Hail Mary - but as Jessica explains, in the 2008 climate, it was hard to imagine how they could have avoided it.

But offering this story as a perfect example of how determination and inspiration can lead to massive success continues to be entirely appropriate.