Harjeet: I'm a partner at Y Combinator. Ask me anything.

Post by JoachimSchipper » Wed, Jun 29, 2011, 10:31 AM UTC

redthrowaway wrote: post #61

yarone wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, it looks like an accessible-to-normals version of r/IAMA and I see the appeal clearly.

Reddit's not exactly having trouble attracting a mainstream audience. It attracts a far more "normal" crowd (as in, broad and varied) than any other social news site, with the possible exception of stumbleupon and twitter, which are completely different kinds of sites and not conducive to AMAs anyway. Also, the (apparent) lack of ability for follow-up questions and conversations based on answers seems to be a big dow…

Post by edanm » Wed, Jun 29, 2011, 12:56 PM UTC

mtogo wrote: post #42

GraffitiTim wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, AnyAsq is a YC company. We hadn't asked Harj to do an AMA though. :) And we hadn't really intended to launch quite yet but we're not complaining. Ways we hope AnyAsq beats reddit ama: -The concept should make more sense to people as a standalone site than as a sub-section on another site. (Easier to explain, easier to link to, etc) -As a standalone site we can optimize the interface for this concept, which is re…

The concept should make more sense to people as a standalone site than as a sub-section on another site. (Easier to explain, easier to link to, etc) Should isn't very strong. I don't think the 15 seconds it takes to get used to an /r/IAMA thread is worth a whole new product. As a standalone site we can optimize the interface for this concept, which is really a very different idea than reddit.com That's true. Twitter…

Post by pg » Wed, Jun 29, 2011, 5:25 PM UTC

cperciva wrote: post #60

pg wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd have to guess, but maybe 4% and 1% respectively. What percentage are married and/or have kids I couldn't even guess, because we don't ask and it's not the sort of thing that comes up unless it's related to what they're working on. All we care about is whether the startup seems likely to succeed. Think how stupid we'd have to be to miss out on a great startup because they failed to meet some arbitrary constraint.

What percentage are married and/or have kids I couldn't even guess, because we don't ask... Is this something you don't ask because you don't think it's a useful question, or because your lawyers told you to not ask it? I would expect that "what does your significant other think of this" would be an illuminating question where relevant, both in terms of demonstrating an ability to recognize problems and demonstrating…

Post by staunch » Wed, Jun 29, 2011, 6:50 PM UTC

pg wrote: post #65

ph0rque wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that founders change, is there something one can do as a founder to change into one whose company is more likely to succeed?

Yes: become tougher and more ambitious, and less self-indulgent. Probably the single most important change is to overcome the fear of failure that makes one accept early, small acquistion offers. It's hard to turn down an early offer for a few million, but every successful startup has.

Post by yters » Wed, Jun 29, 2011, 10:30 PM UTC

pg wrote: post #65

ph0rque wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that founders change, is there something one can do as a founder to change into one whose company is more likely to succeed?

Yes: become tougher and more ambitious, and less self-indulgent. Probably the single most important change is to overcome the fear of failure that makes one accept early, small acquistion offers. It's hard to turn down an early offer for a few million, but every successful startup has.