What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old • Hacker News Board

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#141

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Sep 04, 2020, 9:28 PM UTC

user5994461 wrote: post #135

disown wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (I dropped out of a non-prestigious school and had work experience at one company, have raised $120m+ in In other words, you had connections? I'm guessing you weren't a poor single mother who dropped out of school to raise her kid. How do you drop out, have 1 job experience and raise $120m? Either you are extremely privilege and/or extraordinarily lucky. Stop making it sound so easy like everyone can do what you di…

You don't drop out and get 120M. You drop out, start a company because nobody wants you, get some seeds funding with sheer luck, grow the business progressively, hire some more people, grow some more and eventually raise 2 more rounds reaching 120M. That takes many many years. It's a massive combination of luck and being at the right place at the right time selling an okay thing. Then persevering over numerous years…

[deleted]

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#142

Post by austenallred » Fri, Sep 04, 2020, 10:23 PM UTC

exolymph wrote: post #136

disown wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (I dropped out of a non-prestigious school and had work experience at one company, have raised $120m+ in In other words, you had connections? I'm guessing you weren't a poor single mother who dropped out of school to raise her kid. How do you drop out, have 1 job experience and raise $120m? Either you are extremely privilege and/or extraordinarily lucky. Stop making it sound so easy like everyone can do what you di…

https://twitter.com/Austen/status/997604313362034689 > My experience: everything I own in one suitcase, here’s my sleeping situation. Would shower at YMCA and work at coworking space. $300/mo personal burn. If you could combine the two you’d fill it 100% and make SF possible again. https://twitter.com/Austen/status/1093540469022195712 > Lambda School wouldn't exist without Gumroad. > We bootstrapped for the first sev…

You’re saying because I wrote a book and sold it I have credentials?

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#143

Post by bergstromm466 » Fri, Sep 04, 2020, 10:32 PM UTC

user5994461 wrote: post #135

disown wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (I dropped out of a non-prestigious school and had work experience at one company, have raised $120m+ in In other words, you had connections? I'm guessing you weren't a poor single mother who dropped out of school to raise her kid. How do you drop out, have 1 job experience and raise $120m? Either you are extremely privilege and/or extraordinarily lucky. Stop making it sound so easy like everyone can do what you di…

You don't drop out and get 120M. You drop out, start a company because nobody wants you, get some seeds funding with sheer luck, grow the business progressively, hire some more people, grow some more and eventually raise 2 more rounds reaching 120M. That takes many many years. It's a massive combination of luck and being at the right place at the right time selling an okay thing. Then persevering over numerous years…

> It's a massive combination of luck and being at the right place at the right time selling an okay thing

Yes that, as well as: having a secure attachment to primary caregivers (Bowlyby & Ainsworth) and live in relative security, have encouragement and patience early on from parents or other guides to help you manage complexity and 'learn how to learn' autodidactically from a very early age. The people who do well in school inherited a calm nervous system.

Honestly I think 99.999% of what people attribute to 'hard work, or call 'success', purely has to do with the state of the nervous system of the individual. Unlucky? You'll face systemic disadvantagement.

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#144

Post by austenallred » Fri, Sep 04, 2020, 11:36 PM UTC

disown wrote: post #128

austenallred wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may be easier if you have credentials, but it’s certainly possible without them. I’d argue how your business is running is 10x as important as credentials. (I dropped out of a non-prestigious school and had work experience at one company, have raised $120m+ in <4 yrs).

> (I dropped out of a non-prestigious school and had work experience at one company, have raised $120m+ in In other words, you had connections? I'm guessing you weren't a poor single mother who dropped out of school to raise her kid. How do you drop out, have 1 job experience and raise $120m? Either you are extremely privilege and/or extraordinarily lucky. Stop making it sound so easy like everyone can do what you di…

It wasn’t easy, never said that, but I also had no credentials and no one cared.

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#145

Post by exolymph » Sat, Sep 05, 2020, 5:14 AM UTC

austenallred wrote: post #142

exolymph wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://twitter.com/Austen/status/997604313362034689 > My experience: everything I own in one suitcase, here’s my sleeping situation. Would shower at YMCA and work at coworking space. $300/mo personal burn. If you could combine the two you’d fill it 100% and make SF possible again. https://twitter.com/Austen/status/1093540469022195712 > Lambda School wouldn't exist without Gumroad. > We bootstrapped for the first sev…

You’re saying because I wrote a book and sold it I have credentials?

No, opposite, I was defending you.

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#146

Post by Schwan » Sat, Sep 05, 2020, 8:05 AM UTC

dang wrote: post #130

Schwan wrote: post #40

Puh you can read the unexperiennce in this blog post in every sentence. And the most weird thing is, that it feels that he sees himself now as an entrepreneur. He just might not realize that those snowflakes like Uber or Microsoft are what they are snowflakes. He will learn that either he becomes very quick and disruptive to an specific industry with a lot of luck and a lot of hard work and then he might have a chanc…

This crosses into personal attack, and we ban accounts that do that on HN, regardless of who you're attacking. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the spirit of this site more to heart when posting here, we'd be grateful.

How is it a personal attack?

Aren't comments here to be able to show/tell my own opinion on a article/blog/whatever?

I'm really not sure what exactly is an attack.

Stating an opinion and being open for discussions.

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#147

Post by dang » Sat, Sep 05, 2020, 5:57 PM UTC

Schwan wrote: post #146

dang wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This crosses into personal attack, and we ban accounts that do that on HN, regardless of who you're attacking. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the spirit of this site more to heart when posting here, we'd be grateful.

How is it a personal attack? Aren't comments here to be able to show/tell my own opinion on a article/blog/whatever? I'm really not sure what exactly is an attack. Stating an opinion and being open for discussions.

You're welcome to share your view of the underlying topic or interesting questions, but please don't frame it as a supercilious analysis of the author. That's cheap, and a step into nastiness.

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#148

Post by joshspankit » Sat, Sep 05, 2020, 10:12 PM UTC

troquerre wrote: post #103

ian-g wrote: post #88

I have a lot of thoughts about this. I'm glad he's seen some success! That's great for him! I just don't know that all or even much of what he's learned is transferable > I was able to get a job in SF with a single cold email and zero connections This seems like sheer dumb luck. For every one of him (or you, if you're reading this) there's a lot of people who thrash and struggle. I went through 80+ job applications b…

> This seems like sheer dumb luck. For every one of him (or you, if you're reading this) there's a lot of people who thrash and struggle. I went through 80+ job applications before I got one offer last search, and that's less than I thought I would need Author here. There was definitely luck involved (the luckiest part imo was that Teespring was an incredible company to work at and I had no idea when I reached out),…

Appreciate you looping back on this. I’m personally curious whether there was something about the wording that got you the reply.

If it was full of “Silicon Valley” culture, for example.

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#149

Post by patio11 » Sun, Sep 06, 2020, 7:35 AM UTC

barry-cotter wrote: post #30

blocked_again wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Growth chart will get anyone funded anywhere. Not only in silicon valley.

Patio11, we need you! Tell us of the atrocious funding environment in Tokyo. Tptacek, tell us of how much more conservative the funding environment is in Chicago! Patrick Collision, pc, speak of why you live in the US, not Ireland! A growth chart very much who not get you funded anywhere. Numbers that would have people writing cheques in Silicon Valley or even Boston would be lucky to get a loan, personally guarantee…

I endorse the above comment in my personal capacity.

Valuations in Japan are below a fifth of similarly situated YC companies, where funding is available, and there are founder/business profiles trivially fundable in the Valley which would never raise a yen here.

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#150

Post by rdlecler1 » Sun, Sep 06, 2020, 12:27 PM UTC

jariel wrote: post #134

rdlecler1 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has been exactly my experience. Even in the earliest stage startupS they’ll be looking for the fastest line to profitability rather than prioritizing to build something that’s big and important. It’s low conviction investing where the financial model matters more than traditional west coast indicators of future success.

"they’ll be looking for the fastest line to profitability rather than prioritizing to build something that’s big and important" First - don't assume that the 'big thing entrepreneurs are building' is in any way 'important'. 9 times out of 10 the 'big thing' is just neat idea, a project, and may have nothing to do with profiability. Most 'grand visions' are that. MS, Amazon, Snap, FB, Insta, Google - they all started…

Either you missed the point or you’d be a bad VC.