also - i felt there was too much focus on the 22 year old hacker set - this is a segment not the only segment of hungry, savvy, smart entreps. A real solution to the leaky pipe problem needs to include the slightly older pipes as well.
The Future of Web Startups
81–90 of 173 posts
Re: The Future of Web Startups
#82Prediction: Angel investors will ink deals with VCs to create an official pipeline. For example, let's say KPCB agrees to fund at least one Techstars company per year in exchange for first pick or something like that. That's the way elite prep schools interface with certain Ivy's, and it seems to work out for both of them. Of course startups will never get as locked down as colleges because there will always be more…
I always assumed the prep-school -> ivy connection was informal, much like the one between certain software companies and cs programs. For instance, Yale takes 10 kids from andover every year because they know all about how smart the 10 smartest kids from andover are from previous experience.
Most of them are informal, but not all. Here are a few situations where an Ivy would offer guaranteed admissions:
1) The university promises admission the top student from the Japanese language program of a certain high school each year. Situations like this often arise from alumni putting crazy earmarks on the donations to their colleges.
2) The university guarantees admission to a certain percentage of state residents each year in exchange for state funding.
3) The university wants to buy more land but the town tries to block the deal because it doesn't want the property taken off the tax roll. The university brokers a deal guaranteeing admission to a certain number of students from the local HS in exchange for the land.
4) A top prep school comes to some more formal agreement with a university for purely strategic reasons.
Situation #1 seems to be the most common in terms of connections to prep schools, although it's hard to say since the relationships aren't exactly published.
Re: The Future of Web Startups
#83Problem: you're confining your thinking entirely to "web" startups. This irritates me, as one currently involved in a non-web oriented startup. The world is bigger than the web.
Re: The Future of Web Startups
#84Problem: you're confining your thinking entirely to "web" startups. This irritates me, as one currently involved in a non-web oriented startup. The world is bigger than the web.
He did present on the topic "The Future of Web Startups" at a conference called "The Future of Web Apps." Perhaps you can forgive his limited perspective.
Re: The Future of Web Startups
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
Human Rights trump Economics. That's what our society has decided, therefore employment laws, while imperfect, have good reason. For reference, see 19th century factory conditions.
So you think that seed and VC firms should be bound by the same laws? If not, why the distinction?
Do I think we should expect seed and venture companies not be racist when deciding on how to hand out money? Of course.
I'm not sure we need laws that commit them to be though for the simple fact that it would be very hard to actually enforce those laws.
Employers are a completely different situation, and thus are bound to a different set of expectations.
Re: The Future of Web Startups
#86Problem: you're confining your thinking entirely to "web" startups. This irritates me, as one currently involved in a non-web oriented startup. The world is bigger than the web.
He did present on the topic "The Future of Web Startups" at a conference called "The Future of Web Apps." Perhaps you can forgive his limited perspective.
True enough. It just irritates me occasionally that the startup community seems overly focused on the web. There is a lot more out there that can be done than just web sites.
Re: The Future of Web Startups
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
Human Rights trump Economics. That's what our society has decided, therefore employment laws, while imperfect, have good reason. For reference, see 19th century factory conditions.
Economics drives human rights. For reference, see the conditions of the 19th century farms people fled to go work in those factories. See also: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118134633403829656.html?mod=... And I don't understand what you mean about laws being proof that people feel this way. I assume that the proof that people feel a certain way is that they act that way. For example, if I think being a coal miner…
Want to know what else those conditions led to? death, disease, revolution, communism, fascism and war.
>For example, if I think being a coal miner is too risky, I won't be a coal miner.
Unless of course you're not in the position to make that choice. You are speaking from a position of privilege and assume all share that privilege. It leads to only a half understanding of why we've instituted the systems we have.
>Why do you need a law to deprive me of my freedom to make those decisions?
Wow, that's a warped view of freedom. Too many Ayn Rand books to be sure. If you were right in your theory, the nation you live in (assuming you're American) wouldn't exist right now. Think about that a little.
Re: The Future of Web Startups
#88"At the moment, there is no one within big companies who gets in trouble when they buy a startup for $200 million that they could have bought earlier for $20 million. There should start to be someone who gets in trouble for that."
I think it's right that startups will be acquired earlier and earlier, but that makes me wonder: might those earlier acquisitions (which sometimes decrease productivity to 1/13th what it was) sabotage the success of the startup either because once acquired the founders don't have to work as hard to keep their heads above water or because when not constrained by a tiny startup budget the founders won't worry as much about finding efficient ways to do things--which in the past made them better startups/companies?
Re: The Future of Web Startups
#89"JOIN ME MY MINIONS! ITS IN YOUR INTEREST!" - P.G.
Re: The Future of Web Startups
#90The same old mistake, assuming a transitory boomlet will continue forever.