Paul Graham's Search for the Next Facebook • Hacker News Board

Re: Paul Graham's Search for the Next Facebook

#31

Post by redthrowaway » Fri, Feb 25, 2011, 4:48 AM UTC

jarek wrote: post #19

mindcrime wrote: post #10

(Think MTV's Real World, but for geeks.) Oh, boy... The idea of some TV executives out there, champing at the bit to create a reality TV show about entrepreneurs is either f!#@ng scary or LOL funny. I can just see it now... " Survivor: YC " or " The Entrepreneur: Paul Graham Edition ." Even better: " Entrepreneur Death Match: Paul Graham v. Steve Case ." And the inevitable " VC Revenge Stunts, hosted by Sean Parker .…

It exists and is called Dragons' Den.

If memory serves, the deals they offer on websites are terrible. 50% stake, $250k sort of thing. Also, they don't have any worthwhile experience to offer. I don't get why tech startups would go to them.

Re: Paul Graham's Search for the Next Facebook

#32

Post by marcamillion » Fri, Feb 25, 2011, 4:48 AM UTC

nopinsight wrote: post #27

thematt wrote: post #8

I find it surprising that Heroku was the breakeven point. There have been other (what I consider) rather high-profile exits, such as Cloudkick, Reddit, Etherpad, 280 North, etc. These were good companies and were acquired for significant amounts; it seems like YC would have realized some significant gains on them.

The article might have meant YC recouped their past investments in all startups combined: "YC broke even on its past investments when Salesforce.com (CRM) bought YC company Heroku" Since the sales price is above 200 million, YC's equity would be worth 12+ million, which likely surpassed the total monetary first-seed investments in every startup they did so far.

That is kinda staggering given that there are still many stars that are doing pretty well...that YC is yet to exit. From Dropbox to AirBnB to WePay to Wufoo to Justin.tv to Posterous to Scribd, etc. All of those I suspect, if they have an exit (I doubt Wufoo will - mainly because I don't think the founders are interested), it will be pretty substantial.

Re: Paul Graham's Search for the Next Facebook

#33

Post by quellhorst » Fri, Feb 25, 2011, 5:13 AM UTC

tastybites wrote: post #29

waterlesscloud wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at a Hollywood contract sometime, with such lovely concepts as "triple breakeven" and "rolling breakeven". The creativity in LA isn't just behind the camera!

Our lawyer (we're based in LA) says that on many smaller Hollywood deals you're lucky to even have a written contract...

I had 2 Hollywood deals that were written only because there was an email thread.

Re: Paul Graham's Search for the Next Facebook

#34

Post by DilipJ » Fri, Feb 25, 2011, 5:21 AM UTC

marcamillion wrote: post #2

I love how pg always has this kinda 'child like joy' smirk on his face for these press pictures. Like he is thinking "this is SOO cool...Mom is gonna be soo proud."

yes, he never seems to show his teeth when people take his photo. I suspect it's because he's British?

Re: Paul Graham's Search for the Next Facebook

#35

Post by barista » Fri, Feb 25, 2011, 5:30 AM UTC

pdaviesa wrote: post #12

barista wrote: post #9

Loved this quote from the article: "This is the Harvard, so to speak, of entrepreneurship" Says something about YC.

Shouldn't it be the Stanford of entrepreneurship :)

Or may be Stanford is YC of CS.

Re: Paul Graham's Search for the Next Facebook

#36

Post by dasil003 » Fri, Feb 25, 2011, 7:23 AM UTC

bfe wrote: post #16

I think it's inaccurate about the deal with SV Angel and DST, isn't it SV Angel and Yuri Milner as an individual? As for breakeven, I wonder whether that's accurate, but considering the low percentage of shares YC takes I wouldn't be surprised if lots of successful but not blockbuster spawn could still leave them without huge returns.

What does YC take? 5% for $20,000? They're getting a return if it sells for $500,000. Granted there's going to be a lot of dilution 99 times out of 100, but if most acquisitions are in the $10m-$100m range then they can still take the dilution and do pretty damn well with their current batting average.

Re: Paul Graham's Search for the Next Facebook

#37

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Feb 25, 2011, 7:47 AM UTC

marcamillion wrote: post #2

I love how pg always has this kinda 'child like joy' smirk on his face for these press pictures. Like he is thinking "this is SOO cool...Mom is gonna be soo proud."

[deleted]

Re: Paul Graham's Search for the Next Facebook

#38

Post by d8niel » Fri, Feb 25, 2011, 9:30 AM UTC

Great article.

Re: Paul Graham's Search for the Next Facebook

#39

Post by zackattack » Fri, Feb 25, 2011, 9:44 AM UTC

mlinsey wrote: post #20

jarek wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It exists and is called Dragons' Den.

American version is called Shark Tank, and based on the deals the investors offer, it's aptly named. Mark Cuban has signed on to be part of the next season!

i was offered a role on Shark Tank season 2. turned it down.

they wanted something retarded like 3% of my company or 5% of annual profits.

Re: Paul Graham's Search for the Next Facebook

#40

Post by MediaBehavior » Fri, Feb 25, 2011, 12:06 PM UTC

idoh wrote: post #15

plainOldText wrote: post #13

I believe the title is a bit misleading. Nowhere in the article was the name Facebook mentioned except in title.

The people who write the articles are different from the people who write the headlines.

And the headline stringers probably think, "I've never heard of pg, so my readers haven't either. I better put 'Apple' or 'Facebook' in this headline." [/cynicism]