Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why Y Combinator Made All the Difference

bold.co

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 128 posts

Re: Why Y Combinator Made All the Difference

#101

Post by Judgmentality »

aaron-lebo wrote: post #67
good_vibes wrote: post #56

This is a life-changing read for me. I was debating if I should move to Seattle or Bay area to pursue my 'science project' or not. My current job is going to give me 7 weeks of severance starting in late April and I think it will be enough to at least make the leap and cross my fingers. What I am working on will change the course of history if I even get close to succeeding. I was wondering if YC or TechStars would b…

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…

> There are just as many failures as successes

There are way more failures than successes - at least an order of magnitude difference

Re: Why Y Combinator Made All the Difference

#102

Post by lutorm »

ruleabidinguser wrote: post #21
koolba wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not saying that pursuing a startup is always a bad idea. I'm saying that romanticizing living in somebody else's closet as part of the startup journey is wrong. Building something that people what is what counts. Getting customers to pay you for it is what counts. Having profits is what counts. Software (and startups in general) doesn't get created because you're eating beans and rice, heated off a hot-plate, in…

This is exactly correct. Whats good about a startup is not living in a closet or getting to talk about how cool you are for living in a closet. That is exactly what is bad about the experience. Pretending it is good is roughly denial or some other similarly named vice.

Would you say the same thing about doing an Ironman, or climbing Mt Everest when you can just get helicoptered to the top?

Part of the attraction of doing things like these lies in proving to yourself that you can do it, and by doing this you fortify yourself mentally for the challenges that lie ahead.

Another result is that you become a "team" precisely because you have this shared experience. It's sort of like going through basic training in the military.

Re: Why Y Combinator Made All the Difference

#103

Post by nostrademons »

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…

What's wrong with living in a closet? It sounded like she was the hustler out of the founding team, which meant that she was out talking to users & investors all day. If you're only at home to sleep, there's no sacrifice in sleeping in a tiny closet. Hell, most of Asia does it all the time.

Re: Why Y Combinator Made All the Difference

#105

Post by Hydraulix989 »

scrollaway wrote: post #36
raspasov wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever gone as frugal as this to speak about it? And what would you suggest the "generation of fools" do otherwise? Get a 50k job at a big company and live happily ever after? Too much hate in that comment. (edit for grammar/typo)

"As frugal as this"? $600/month on rent? It's $100 more than I was spending back in Leicester on a two-bedroom flat. And six times the price of a 1-bedroom in Athens. If you want runway, try not living in California for a while. Even in the US you can find far cheaper than Palo Alto...

"Even in US..."

This is shocking? California (and New York) are some of the most expensive places to live in the world. The US is a big country, and many great places here are but a small fraction of the cost to live (Pittsburgh, Houston, Cleveland, etc...).

I can get a huge apartment in Pittsburgh for the same amount in rent as it costs to park my car here in SF.

Re: Why Y Combinator Made All the Difference

#106

Post by personjerry »

How can one get connected to this network outside of applying to YC?

I'm a noob engineer and I'm trying to learn more about startups. I live in SF and I'm looking on meetup.com and the startup events listed there mostly just seem like a lot of "founders" wasting time "networking" instead of building their products. It seems there is this network of people who want to look like they're building a startup, which is quite separate from the network mentioned in the article of people actually building a startup (or involved otherwise).

I don't know a lot of people here, and I'm not sure how to get started either. Does HN have any insight here? Or I guess if anyone here is interested, I'd love to get a quick coffee with anyone who is building a startup.

Re: Why Y Combinator Made All the Difference

#107

Post by sillysaurus3 »

personjerry wrote: post #106

How can one get connected to this network outside of applying to YC? I'm a noob engineer and I'm trying to learn more about startups. I live in SF and I'm looking on meetup.com and the startup events listed there mostly just seem like a lot of "founders" wasting time "networking" instead of building their products. It seems there is this network of people who want to look like they're building a startup, which is qui…

You might have some luck if you put an email in your profile. (You have to put it in the profile section since the email section is private.)

Re: Why Y Combinator Made All the Difference

#108

Post by personjerry »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #107
personjerry wrote: post #106

How can one get connected to this network outside of applying to YC? I'm a noob engineer and I'm trying to learn more about startups. I live in SF and I'm looking on meetup.com and the startup events listed there mostly just seem like a lot of "founders" wasting time "networking" instead of building their products. It seems there is this network of people who want to look like they're building a startup, which is qui…

You might have some luck if you put an email in your profile. (You have to put it in the profile section since the email section is private.)

Thanks! Done :)

Re: Why Y Combinator Made All the Difference

#110

Post by scrollaway »

Hydraulix989 wrote: post #105
scrollaway wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"As frugal as this"? $600/month on rent? It's $100 more than I was spending back in Leicester on a two-bedroom flat. And six times the price of a 1-bedroom in Athens. If you want runway, try not living in California for a while. Even in the US you can find far cheaper than Palo Alto...

"Even in US..." This is shocking? California (and New York) are some of the most expensive places to live in the world. The US is a big country, and many great places here are but a small fraction of the cost to live (Pittsburgh, Houston, Cleveland, etc...). I can get a huge apartment in Pittsburgh for the same amount in rent as it costs to park my car here in SF.

Apparently it's shocking enough that people would choose to pay $600 to live in a closet rather than spend $500 of it moving a couple hundred kilometers away and have a lower rent and more than a closet...
Post reply on HN