The Leanest Startup in Silicon Valley • Hacker News Board

Re: The Leanest Startup in Silicon Valley

#31

Post by capsule_toy » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 2:24 AM UTC

mindcrime wrote: post #8

Man, I love this guy. I'm not convinced that the idea is big enough to get him where he wants to go, but the moxie, the hustle, the spirit... you can't help but root for somebody like this. I'm shocked he didn't get into YCombinator, to be honest. Pg always talks about how it's about "the team, not the idea," and if anybody has the moxie to get in as a solo founder, I'd have thought it would be Kurt. Anyway, Kurt, ke…

A lot of ppl have the drive, and have made sacrifices. I was temporarily homeless for a few months and slept out of the company's office. One of my friends is living rent free in an investor's living room, and I've heard of others doing this.

Don't get me wrong. The vast majority of people probably wouldn't be willing to make these kinds of sacrifices. I'm also not putting down Kurt's drive, but sacrifice is probably not a big enough limiting factor to auto get into YC.

Re: The Leanest Startup in Silicon Valley

#32

Post by wpietri » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 2:41 AM UTC

Lukeas14 wrote: post #17

Met Kurt at a few meetups and based on his pitch I have to disagree with the "too niche" criticisms mentioned in the article. The number of people, including myself, who have trouble getting up in the morning is a huge market. I'm not sure if his current idea is the right solution, but if he can make me productive during the 30-45 minutes that I spend hitting the snooze button every morning that'd be worth paying for…

Amen. I used to try to control when I woke up by setting an alarm clock. Now I control it by having a regular schedule, getting plenty of sleep and making sure there's bright light, hopefully natural, at the time I want to wake.

It reminds me of when I was a young sysadmin, leaping from emergency to emergency, alarm to alarm. That was fun, but eventually I realized that the maximally lazy approach was to rig things so that alarms were never necessary.

Re: The Leanest Startup in Silicon Valley

#33

Post by BradleyStC » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 2:43 AM UTC

damonpace wrote: post #23

Repeat after me...You do not have to suffer to build a business. So many stories like this are sensationalized in the media and it convinces so many young entrepreneurs that it's a right of passage to struggle while building a business. It's not true. Yes, other entrepreneurs had determination and some sacrifice...but they most likely didn't suffer so dramatically, nor make their loved ones suffer along with them. Do…

"Capitalism says that in order to improve your life you must first improve the lives of others."

I absolutely love this quote. It so succinctly wraps up the core idea of PG's essay "How to make wealth - "http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html I think everyone should write that quote down and reread it before even thinking about executing their next great idea.

Re: The Leanest Startup in Silicon Valley

#34

Post by jordanthoms » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 3:53 AM UTC

rokhayakebe wrote: post #24

This guy needs to start a rent-your-car-for-the-night-as-a-bed , an AirBnB for your car. Or a startup that sells kits allowing you to turn any car into a place to live while camping or travelling cross country. Or a startup that sells life-saving kits allowing you to live out of your car for up to x days in case of an emergency.

I have seen people renting their cars overnight on airbnb :)