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

Dear Y Combinator, we bet you we can solve a problem of yours in 72 hours.

seedlauncher.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 160 posts

Re: Dear Y Combinator, we bet you we can solve a problem of yours in 72 hours.

#151

Post by lusr »

peterhunt wrote: post #68
dominikb wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, that is ridiculous. 72 hours is not even enough to analyze a fragment of the initial problems. I'm not even talking about coding yet. Just starting to code some crap is exactly what's wrong with the current market. Anybody can do that. And for most, it won't turn out well. What can you do differently? Invest more time and create something better.

When building the new Facebook photo viewer, we would ship a redesign to a small percentage of users, look at its metrics impact, and ship another redesign 2-3 days later based on the data. Simply being able to execute on something like this for 72 hours, no matter how blindly you do it, is indicative of a worthwhile skill that many people don't have.

That's a great way to iteratively develop a new design (which, BTW, is quite a nice improvement) for an existing product, but what if you didn't have the existing product? How long did it take to build the all the dependencies of the photo viewer?

While engineering the front-end can be done on a 2-3 day turn-around, I'm fairly certain that the engineering problems of storing and retrieving the petabytes of photos that Facebook users upload took far more than 2-3 days. If it used existing infrastructure then you need to count that engineering time in too.

I'm currently 2 months into developing the core technology for my project, working 1-3 hours in the evening after a 10 hour day at my client. Much of this work is with new technologies and mathematics/algorithms I'm unfamiliar with. In this situation, being unable to iterate on a front-end UI design in 2-3 days has nothing to do with skill.

Re: Dear Y Combinator, we bet you we can solve a problem of yours in 72 hours.

#152

Post by dhimes »

littlegiantcap wrote: post #89
patio11 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Step back from this conversation for a second and reread this, pretending it was from someone you don't know. Does this person who wrote this post sound like a winner who is going to make the next Dropbox? That's who YC wants in their next class. Be the winner who is going to make the next Dropbox. There is nothing wrong with making affirmative efforts to sound like a winner. This is a skill which will take you far i…

I just wanted to say you've brought up some good points and given us some things to consider. That being said, I would think that someone who had the guts to throw themselves out there and say let us prove that we're worth your time is the kind of guy who could make the next Dropbox. This may seem like a cheap stunt to a lot of the people on here, but we're just trying to prove that we're more than our credentials an…

I am going to go against the grain here and say I like what you did. Whether it works or not depends on the personalities and mood of the targets, of course, but it's different and counts for something in my book.

Of course, you should be mindful of the pressures from YCombinator. If they accept your challenge, they will have to either (1) do it in such a way that there aren't a lot of copycats; or (2) if it is wildly successful (they discover you, the group that builds, not the next dropbox, and not the next facebook, but the first dropface), they'll try to find a way to incorporate it into their business waters.

YCombinator is breaking new ground and trying different things. I think this was worth a shot. Maybe a "team challenge" will become part of the interview process eventually.

Patrick is right: networking your way in can be better. But it can also fail. Having a network connection can sometimes get you a courtesy audience, but it may do so in a way that is done as a favor to someone rather than someone who is actually excited about meeting you. It also can take a lot of time to build that network, at least if you do it organically. Indeed, most of us are on the lookout for the sniveling idiots whose only function in life seems to be to network. In the early part of the century a lot of folks thought that was a good idea. However, we quickly learned that most of the good people were working, not networking.

Besides, if this doesn't work you can always try networking.

Re: Dear Y Combinator, we bet you we can solve a problem of yours in 72 hours.

#153

Post by lrvick »

littlegiantcap wrote: post #107
MortenK wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe distill that into: Seedlauncher is crowdfunding for small, local businesses. That actually sounds like a really good idea. Why not just do this without waiting for yc?

We are doing it. We've been working hard for months. We're just waiting for the SEC to write the regulations for crowdfunding following the passage of the JOBS act.

If it existed today, I would almost certainly be using it. This needs to exist, and with the JOBS act passing it will. The race is on to see who gets a user base first, or before someone like angelist does it with their existing user base.

If I were in your shoes I would spend 72 hours getting a full profiling system up and online with the vision, get THAT on hackernews, and start building a user base. By the time you actually finish the integration of backends to allow for micropayments, tracking users, and equity allotments, you already have users and are that much further ahead of anyone else working on something similar when you turn those features on.

YC is awesome, but they only are one of many options available to you. From where I sit, there is nothing about this project that _needs_ a lot of funding to get a prototype built, an a prototype will be what you need to prove you guys have the chops to take this all the way. The prototype just needs a few weekends of time, infrastructure knowledge and programming skill. The only thing I really see you needing some cash for early, is legal counsel to build solid terms of service and investment agreements carefully written to make sure you are fully protected and acting within the JOBS act.

Feel free to contact me if you want to discuss this further.

Re: Dear Y Combinator, we bet you we can solve a problem of yours in 72 hours.

#154

Post by larrys »

sgrove wrote: post #129
larrys wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I would think that someone who had the guts to throw themselves out there and say let us prove that we're worth your time" The problem is what you are trying to do lacks creativity and originality. And without that I would question whether you could in fact build the next "dropbox".

This made me chuckle. Dropbox was one of the least creative or original startups I know. But it was born out an immediate unfulfilled need and a subsequent deep fury, and then executed and refined insanely. Before and since Dropbox there have been many, many attempts to fill this space, but their execution has been phenomenal.

Dropbox's success is in their creativity in solving a problem. (the execution). Here the issue is getting into YC (which by the way I question the entire idea of thinking that is an end in itself - but that's a separate issue). If that is the goal though, someone can put more effort into simply saying "I'm good look at me and let me prove it". How they say that isn't relevant either (putting up a billboard for example..)

Effort doesn't mean doing obvious things either. Simply doing the things that anyone can think of don't count and show creative initiative. Part of the problem is of course that newbies don't know what is "obvious" and tried before in varying degrees.

Re: Dear Y Combinator, we bet you we can solve a problem of yours in 72 hours.

#155

Post by kappaknight »

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #137
DanBC wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea doesn't matter - but the method of getting the idea? The way that idea is tackled?

If the idea doesn't matter, the method of getting the idea should matter even less. What's important is whether the team can a) respond to feedback on their idea and b) code quickly and effectively to put that response into action.

The idea matters a bit, even if it's not the top priority. If the idea doesn't matter at all, why not just take your team of gifted programmers and start a consulting company hacking and finishing all client requests in 72 hours or less? If such a company existed, they can probably charge six figures for every project they take on.

Re: Dear Y Combinator, we bet you we can solve a problem of yours in 72 hours.

#156

Post by dclowd9901 »

littlegiantcap wrote: post #72
patio11 wrote: post #39

Life skill for you: putting a message into a bottle and then flinging it onto the Internet could get it read, but that isn't the way to bet. Here's a hypothetical for you: how many people do you think have social permission to contact a YC partner and say "X is awesome and deserves a look." I'd ballpark that in the hundreds to low thousand range. Many of them are accessible on the Internets and less overwhelmed with…

http://b.qr.ae/Hktlyv This explains our dilemma. Frankly, we are a bunch of "nobodies" in the middle of Iowa. We don't know any Y Combinator Alums, and even if we were to reach out the best we could hope for is a lukewarm they seemed "nice". We have a lot of drive and are trying to prove ourselves any way possible. That's what we're trying to do with this post.

You sound a bit like my co-founder: determined, but ultimately thinks very little of themselves.

Stop it.

As that beat-up old Twitter account "ShitMyDadSays" once said: "...Out of your league? Son. Let women figure out why they won't screw you, don't do it for them."

In other words, focus on your problems, hell, list them out. Then make a plan to address each one, and get going. Between the sense of accomplishment you'll get by actually doing something, and the self-confidence of becoming what you think you should be, you create a field of competence around yourself that makes you hard to ignore.

When your life goes from one where you're focusing on your shortcomings to one where you're focusing on your successes, you go from liability to asset, even in your own mind (arguably the most important place).

Re: Dear Y Combinator, we bet you we can solve a problem of yours in 72 hours.

#157

Post by lacker »

littlegiantcap wrote: post #118
newobj wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'''We don't know any Y Combinator Alums, and even if we were to reach out the best we could hope for is a lukewarm they seemed "nice".''' '''We have a lot of drive''' Somehow these statements seem contradictory... and I'd be taking a hard look at your "business guy" right now if he can't even start by at least attempting a little networking...

That would be me. :) The thing is I'm finding cold emails aren't generally well received, if they are even answered at all. We'd go to more networking events and the like but most are on the coast and plane tickets are expensive. We're building up a strong network here in Iowa. What I was referring too was Y Combinator specific people. So we do what we can with where we're at. Not that I'm complaining because im real…

The thing is I'm finding cold emails aren't generally well received, if they are even answered at all.

I'm confident there is at least one YC alum who would respond to your cold email. Stop assuming you can't solve this problem, and solve it.

Re: Dear Y Combinator, we bet you we can solve a problem of yours in 72 hours.

#159

Post by blasdel »

efsavage wrote: post #147
littlegiantcap wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just wanted to say you've brought up some good points and given us some things to consider. That being said, I would think that someone who had the guts to throw themselves out there and say let us prove that we're worth your time is the kind of guy who could make the next Dropbox. This may seem like a cheap stunt to a lot of the people on here, but we're just trying to prove that we're more than our credentials an…

A business, startup or not, is not a solution to a problem (that's called a product). It is a series of solutions to a series of problems. As some of these problems are caused by the aforementioned solutions, it's important to be able to spot problems, and select the problems to solve, to continue the series. When the series stops, the business stops, even if the solutions live on. What you're saying here is that you…

Exactly, "come at me bro" is a position of ridicule for good reason

Re: Dear Y Combinator, we bet you we can solve a problem of yours in 72 hours.

#160

Post by vjohnson »

littlegiantcap wrote: post #118
newobj wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'''We don't know any Y Combinator Alums, and even if we were to reach out the best we could hope for is a lukewarm they seemed "nice".''' '''We have a lot of drive''' Somehow these statements seem contradictory... and I'd be taking a hard look at your "business guy" right now if he can't even start by at least attempting a little networking...

That would be me. :) The thing is I'm finding cold emails aren't generally well received, if they are even answered at all. We'd go to more networking events and the like but most are on the coast and plane tickets are expensive. We're building up a strong network here in Iowa. What I was referring too was Y Combinator specific people. So we do what we can with where we're at. Not that I'm complaining because im real…

I see people are giving you lots of grief but I commend you for trying something new to get the attention of YC. In terms of networking, are you sure you're not connected to any YC alum? I live in New Zealand but was able to get introduced by email to 4 via LinkedIn. One YC alum was a college buddy of a friend I made at a rock climbing gym 2 years ago in Virginia. It's a small world. All the YC alum I was introduced to were happy to chat. Get your LI updated with everyone you know and see what second and third connections you have with the keyword YC.
Post reply on HN