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Why Y Combinator Made All the Difference

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Re: Why Y Combinator Made All the Difference

#91

Post by tylermenezes »

A few things she doesn't mention which also helped:

Cindy and Denny are probably the hardest-working and most persistent people I know. Experiment's early history is the epitome of pg's advice in "How Not to Die."

They're also just genuinely nice and fun people. I don't think I've ever heard them gossip about other founders, and think I've maybe heard them say a total of one or two bad things about others (which were justified). One time they turned their office into an after-hours coffee shop so people could hang out while working. (https://www.yelp.com/biz/microryza-coffee-roasters-san-franc...)

As you might have noticed in the post, Cindy is also very strategic in solving problems.

Re: Why Y Combinator Made All the Difference

#92

Post by sprafa »

good_vibes wrote: post #75
aaron-lebo wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't doubt that you might change the world, but you should temper your expectations. My question to you is do you really need YC or another incubator to do it? If what you've got is so world-changing, what they can offer you does not matter. Do you have no other alternatives than moving to one of the most expensive work locales in the world and joining in the rat race? Can you bootstrap? Do you have close friends…

I can't do something this ambitious alone. That's the main thing, I need more engineers, scientists, and designers involved in order for this project to scale and make a significant impact. I understand your train of thought though. I left Tattooine aka Atlanta because there were not very many people who were fit to co-found this project with me. Moved to Utah instead of Denver to improve as a developer and deepen my…

Good luck. And remember to read! Read read read like your life depended on it

Re: Why Y Combinator Made All the Difference

#93

Post by good_vibes »

sprafa wrote: post #92
good_vibes wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't do something this ambitious alone. That's the main thing, I need more engineers, scientists, and designers involved in order for this project to scale and make a significant impact. I understand your train of thought though. I left Tattooine aka Atlanta because there were not very many people who were fit to co-found this project with me. Moved to Utah instead of Denver to improve as a developer and deepen my…

Good luck. And remember to read! Read read read like your life depended on it

Thanks. :)

Currently reading a textbook about Math for CS from MIT, written by a Googler.

Also, have a stack of books helpful to entrepreneurs/scientists that I will bring with me.

Re: Why Y Combinator Made All the Difference

#94

Post by valuearb »

koolba wrote: post #9
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We convinced our friends in the current Y Combinator batch to let us stay in a closet at their East Palo Alto home office for $600 per month. If we spent $1,000 a month we would have 25 months of runway, which seems infinite. I'm all for frugality and cost controls, but this is ridiculous. It's things like this that brainwash a generation of fools into throwing their lives away at nonsensical ideas. I'm not saying…

> Are you kidding? I would do it in a heartbeat. I'm not joking. Who wouldn't want to work on something awesome with all their heart with their friends in East Palo Alto for a couple years? Working on something awesome with friends should not, and in most cases does not, require living in a closet. In most cases it doesn't require being in the same room, city, state, or even country. > Why not? What an incredible, am…

You can never start a successful startup without drinking the koolaid. Every single startup is a crazy impossible idea, until someone buckles down and grinds it out.

It's far easier to do this with a partner than alone. Self doubt is a killer and it's easy to lose motivation, but when you make a commitment to another person it will reinforce and motivate both of you.

Re: Why Y Combinator Made All the Difference

#95

Post by elmar »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #50

There aren't many positive toplevel comments, and I don't think that's a reasonable situation for such a fine piece of writing. So: Your story is wonderfully illustrative, in-depth, and inspirational. Thank you for taking the time to share it. For what it's worth, I really like your writing style. I hope to see much more of it!

personaly I think is one of or maybe the best article on YC experience.

Re: Why Y Combinator Made All the Difference

#96

Post by johan_larson »

Desperately hopeful young founders, willing to work crazy hard and live in pitiful squalor to make their ideas happen.

Is there a similar story on the VC side? Young venture fund operators who have secured an itty bitty bit of LP money, working crazy hard to find worthy investments, couch-surfing and living on KD to stretch the money as far as it will go. That would be a story worth reading.

Re: Why Y Combinator Made All the Difference

#97

Post by valuearb »

koolba wrote: post #5

> We convinced our friends in the current Y Combinator batch to let us stay in a closet at their East Palo Alto home office for $600 per month. If we spent $1,000 a month we would have 25 months of runway, which seems infinite. I'm all for frugality and cost controls, but this is ridiculous. It's things like this that brainwash a generation of fools into throwing their lives away at nonsensical ideas. I'm not saying…

I disagree with the idea that a startup is just a vastly unlikely to cash lottery ticket. The vast majority of the time it's actually a great idea. I've helped start nearly dozen companies, and less than half had any measure of success, and only two reached a profitable exit.

The value of doing a startup isn't just the value of the lottery ticket. It's the value of the journey and what you can learn from it.

I worked at Apple for 2 years between startups. I was a valued engineer but was never given a lead position on a project, or any managerial responsibilities. Which was fine, I was young, in my twenties.

But at startups in my twenties, at various points I - was lead engineer on the company's key product.

- was product manager on a company's most important product.

- ran tech support for all of the company's products.

- ran product development for a two person startup all the way up to a 140 person company (45 in development).

I formulated, or helped form, marketing plans, product strategies, architectures, and business plans. I helped pitch VCs, and we raised over $20M total in those businesses. I even presented to John Warnock at one point.

Every single thing I did at startups helped make me a better engineer, manager and opened up career opportunities I might have had to wait a lot longer for.

It's not just the lottery ticket.

Re: Why Y Combinator Made All the Difference

#99

Post by dluan »

johan_larson wrote: post #96

Desperately hopeful young founders, willing to work crazy hard and live in pitiful squalor to make their ideas happen. Is there a similar story on the VC side? Young venture fund operators who have secured an itty bitty bit of LP money, working crazy hard to find worthy investments, couch-surfing and living on KD to stretch the money as far as it will go. That would be a story worth reading.

I was making $30k a year doing university research before starting a company. what you call pitiful, most fields outside of tech call normal.
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