I totally agree with your niche market strategy and writing about stuff people care about, stickability is vital too! Thanks for these great ideas, Its a shame my deep passion is gobbled with my (NONPROFIT) star trek sci fi blog! A source of income would help run it!!
How Not to Die
61–70 of 154 posts
Re: How Not to Die
#62I will say it plainly: This is the most influential, well written essay I have ever read. It hit a chord very deep with me..
Agreed, this is the best one yet. Here's to determination.
Re: How Not to Die
#63Argh! I just moved back to Minnesota....
Re: How Not to Die
#64It's kind of depressing to not have any real startup peer group in Pittsburgh. News.yc is serving as a kind of substitute, for me. I'm really looking forward to when we get to turn our startup's shopping cart on and ask news.yc for feedback.
You need to get to a startup hub, if you're serious. It makes a huge difference in mindset, and odds of success. I've started companies in Houston, Austin, and now in the Valley. Austin was vastly better than Houston, but Silicon Valley is worlds apart from anything I've ever seen. The only benefit to not being in a startup hub is that you don't have as short of a runway during that very early self-funded stage. You…
I should also add that, given the conversations I've had with investors since being out here and the things I know now: I believe quite strongly that my previous company would have been a success had I started it (or brought it) here. Several companies with very similar implementation and business models started around the same time (and whom I actually had numerous personal interactions with--their products being deployed along-side my companies on a similar scale) here in the valley have gone on to quite nice success.
Re: How Not to Die
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
What makes this inspiring is the extent to which it really is analytical; it's based on his accumulated experience with startups. Someone known for careful thinking is stating that for 90% of startups that look good based on an application and a single interview, success is only a matter of determination.
It makes sense when you think about it. The yCombinator application weeds out people who are unintelligent; the interview weeds out people who are inflexible. So anyone who gets into the program is bound to be both intelligent and flexible. What can go wrong with startups? You can work on the problem wrong, which is hopefully averted by smarts. Or you can work on the wrong problem, which is averted by flexibility and…
" It makes sense when you think about it. The yCombinator application weeds out people who are unintelligent; the interview weeds out people who are inflexible. So anyone who gets into the program is bound to be both intelligent and flexible. "
That statement is self-serving, so, whether it is true or not, it stands that there must be a better way to express what you're saying (and without speaking for YCombinator, as well.) Right now it runs the danger of scaring off a lot of applicants.
No specific college, degree, or major can define someone as a great, dedicated, productive, and fervent entrepreneur or hacker in the consumer application space.
Secondly, YCombinator isn't a one-hour Intelligence Quotient test, but a commitment far-and-above graduate school or work at any college or enterprise. The last thing Paul would want to do is 'weed out' the 'weed' who are not from great schools or 'intelligent.'
Thirdly, you're implying two things: that Paul interviews all intelligent people as of primary concern, and those who are not interviewed are therefore unintelligent.
Both of those deductions do not fit what Paul has said in the past.
It's true that every founder from YCombinator has been smart, and has at least been accepted, if not graduated from, a good, famous college. And yet, that's not what Paul states he looks for in any of his speeches, essays, or posts. In fact, he has said things in conflict to your ideas in all of those media.
I think the best way to put this is that YCombinator picks those applicants who offered a better 'package deal' than those who would be later rejected. It might be two MIT guys with experience. It could be two european guys from Cambridge with little programming experience but with a good background in a similar venture.
There are Olympians who win Gold medals in Olympic Games who have to match that performance along with others _just to qualify for the event only 4 or 8 years later._ I just watched a segment on TV about that two hours ago. I don't think it's wise to pretend there are only so many intelligent people (or good candidates) out there, that one should rest on one's laurels.
Re: How Not to Die
#66Before you get too excited about this article, realize that if you are not in the YC club, this article was not intended for you. In other words, the warm encouraging phrases have qualifiers - you have to figure out what they are and if they apply to you.
For a more broadly targeted, more nuanced version[1] of this I found The Dip, by Seth Godin, quite helpful.
Like this essay, the book gives much advice of the "don't give up" type. But the book also mentions some cases when you should quit: you should quit activities that are a cul-de-sac, those in which you are not committed to become the best, or that don't help you become the best at what you most want to do. The rationale is that current society rewards the very best, ignoring the rest, out of proportion with actual quality/merit. I'm oversimplifying of course.
Obviously, PG doesn't think any of the YC startups is in a cul-de-sac, so he can dispense with that exception and tell all of them to just push forward. If anything, he warns the folks not to 'unquit' school and other attention/commitment escape valves.
[1] Edit: I was focusing on the "don't give up, don't lose focus" part. This essay has other big theme, shame as a motivator, which is not touched in The Dip.
Re: How Not to Die
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
The only qualifiers I see are "smart" and "flexible". If both those things apply to you, then so does the article.
How about this: If you are in the YC club, you and your cofounders, the idea, prototype, business model, user base have passed muster. Your team is in a startup hub like SFO/BOS. You will have the backing, connections and resources of YC. Otherwise, the qualifiers that apply to any other startup in general, apply.
If this talk didn't apply to people not accepted by YC, Paul wouldn't have bothered publishing it.
Re: How Not to Die
#68A big part of why The Woz was so eager to hack up a PC was to show it off to his peers at The Homebrew Computer Club. Once he got a reputation for being smart it must have been a lot of motivation to maintain and improve that reputation.
Re: How Not to Die
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
It makes sense when you think about it. The yCombinator application weeds out people who are unintelligent; the interview weeds out people who are inflexible. So anyone who gets into the program is bound to be both intelligent and flexible. What can go wrong with startups? You can work on the problem wrong, which is hopefully averted by smarts. Or you can work on the wrong problem, which is averted by flexibility and…
" It makes sense when you think about it. The yCombinator application weeds out people who are unintelligent; the interview weeds out people who are inflexible. So anyone who gets into the program is bound to be both intelligent and flexible. " That statement is self-serving, so, whether it is true or not, it stands that there must be a better way to express what you're saying (and without speaking for YCombinator, a…
There's a difference between "Everyone who gets into yCombinator is smart" and "Everyone who doesn't get into yCombinator is not". The former is true as far as I've observed; I don't have a whole lot to go on, but I've met a couple YC applicants at startup gatherings and frequent the sites of a few more, and they all seem like sharp cookies. I never claimed the latter. There are bound to be smart people that don't get into YC. (At least, I hope so, since I've been rejected twice and have no affiliation wit yCombinator besides posting on news.YC.)
Re: How Not to Die
#70I wish I had known about Octopart before reading this essay. I needed a part a couple weeks ago that I had no idea what the technical term for it was, my best guesses lead to things that were totally wrong, and the company that made it was now under a different name, and I could find no trace of the device or anything similar on their online catalog. Oh, and my predecessor, who bought the thing in the first place, 'p…
Cool. Could you shoot me an email with the part number? Just curious. (sam octopart.com)