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

Thoughts on Startup School

daemonology.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 125 posts

Re: Thoughts on Startup School

#51

Post by eps »

dfabulich wrote: post #11

I attended Startup School 2011; I regret wasting the day there. I thought that "Startup School" would be more like the "How to Start a Startup" lecture series that YC is running at Stanford. Instead, it was just a bunch of celebrities talking about their startup experiences; a concentrated shot of survival bias. There's nothing practical to learn from the Startup School talks. As for inspiration, I guess some people…

> a concentrated shot of survival bias

Depends on whether any of speakers had a track record of two or more successful startups. Not advising, not managing, but actually starting a company from zero and growing it into a meaningful business.

Because, as they say, once - you're lucky, twice - you're good, a bunch of once'es is a selection bias example.

Re: Thoughts on Startup School

#52

Post by timedoctor »

I checked out the http://www.tarsnap.com/ website and it looks like very interesting technology but extremely unfriendly to the "ordinary" user. Perhaps not designed for ordinary users, but seems like there is a lot of potential for improvement to the marketing (which is exactly the type of content that you can teach in a startup school). They prefaced the entire content by saying that mostly you can't learn startups from a lecture, because the most important information you need to know is what the customer wants and it's specific to each market. You can learn something more general about marketing and user acquisition.

Personally I've been watching the videos online. I think the information is incredibly valuable because it's from people who have some of the most experience in the world at advising and working with startups. Even more useful if you have no experience and no prior education on what it is like to start a new venture.

Re: Thoughts on Startup School

#53

Post by tim333 »

cperciva wrote: post #38
tlb wrote: post #31

Colin: I'm sorry we didn't deliver what you needed. YC's goal in selecting Startup School participants is to get a mix of deeply technical people and popularizers. The combination of those two skill sets makes a great startup. When I saw you at Startup School I was like, "Hey, it's cperciva! Maybe he'll find a co-founder who can sell and together they can make Tarsnap take over the backup business!" That would be a g…

Trevor: Thank you for replying. I hope you (and Jessica, and everybody else involved with Startup School) don't take what I've written personally -- I nearly didn't post it for exactly that reason, but decided in the end that you're all grown-ups who won't be offended by honest criticism. ;-) And thank you for your comments when we met -- talking to you was the highlight of the weekend for me (I didn't mention it in…

>really don't think I could bring in a co-founder at this point.

Rather than a co-founder at Tarsnap you might consider a co-founder at a new backup venture using Tarsnap's technology but with a new brand name and user friendly stuff like a graphical interface and not deleting everything if you don't pay for 2 weeks?

Re: Thoughts on Startup School

#54

Post by cpg »

Kind of agree, however, there is an element of contagious/infectious energy that is hard to get in many other events. Of course, there are the giggly and hyper, but one has to learn to tune their over enthusiastic oozing a bit.

Re: Thoughts on Startup School

#55

Post by albakes »

cperciva wrote: post #13
dfabulich wrote: post #11

I attended Startup School 2011; I regret wasting the day there. I thought that "Startup School" would be more like the "How to Start a Startup" lecture series that YC is running at Stanford. Instead, it was just a bunch of celebrities talking about their startup experiences; a concentrated shot of survival bias. There's nothing practical to learn from the Startup School talks. As for inspiration, I guess some people…

Throw away the talks, let PG give a keynote, and turn the whole thing into Office Hours. Now that would be an event I could imagine attending.

Yes, please.

Re: Thoughts on Startup School

#56

Post by yongers »

I was present for the Startup School Europe in London this year, and I have to admit I agree with Colin. Perhaps Startup School SF is a little different, but Startup School in London seemed more like a sales pitch for Y-combinator (not in itself a bad thing). The speakers were interesting for sure, but did little to add value for budding, first time entrepreneurs. I hasten to add however, that the networking was great and my personal disappointment was perhaps more due to "misaligned expectations".

Re: Thoughts on Startup School

#57

Post by patio11 »

cperciva wrote: post #38
tlb wrote: post #31

Colin: I'm sorry we didn't deliver what you needed. YC's goal in selecting Startup School participants is to get a mix of deeply technical people and popularizers. The combination of those two skill sets makes a great startup. When I saw you at Startup School I was like, "Hey, it's cperciva! Maybe he'll find a co-founder who can sell and together they can make Tarsnap take over the backup business!" That would be a g…

Trevor: Thank you for replying. I hope you (and Jessica, and everybody else involved with Startup School) don't take what I've written personally -- I nearly didn't post it for exactly that reason, but decided in the end that you're all grown-ups who won't be offended by honest criticism. ;-) And thank you for your comments when we met -- talking to you was the highlight of the weekend for me (I didn't mention it in…

You'd make a perfect business co-founder for Tarsnap. The math problems standing in the way don't even crater the approach to the bridge of the Putnam.

This is the point of Thomas and I trying to convert you to The Dark Side, for values of dark which include "delighting more people, including more Colin."

Re: Thoughts on Startup School

#58

Post by selmnoo »

cperciva wrote: post #13
dfabulich wrote: post #11

I attended Startup School 2011; I regret wasting the day there. I thought that "Startup School" would be more like the "How to Start a Startup" lecture series that YC is running at Stanford. Instead, it was just a bunch of celebrities talking about their startup experiences; a concentrated shot of survival bias. There's nothing practical to learn from the Startup School talks. As for inspiration, I guess some people…

Throw away the talks, let PG give a keynote, and turn the whole thing into Office Hours. Now that would be an event I could imagine attending.

But that's the YC business. Startups wouldn't apply to YC if they could get the Office Hours for free (instead of in exchange for significant equity).

Not knocking on YC, just pointing out that that's not happening, doesn't make financial sense for YC.

Re: Thoughts on Startup School

#59

Post by alecco »

tlb wrote: post #31

Colin: I'm sorry we didn't deliver what you needed. YC's goal in selecting Startup School participants is to get a mix of deeply technical people and popularizers. The combination of those two skill sets makes a great startup. When I saw you at Startup School I was like, "Hey, it's cperciva! Maybe he'll find a co-founder who can sell and together they can make Tarsnap take over the backup business!" That would be a g…

Why does he need to get a co-founder? Can't he just hire PR, business, and marketing? Why tinker the structure of a an organization already surviving?

Re: Thoughts on Startup School

#60

Post by benihana »

selmnoo wrote: post #58
cperciva wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Throw away the talks, let PG give a keynote, and turn the whole thing into Office Hours. Now that would be an event I could imagine attending.

But that's the YC business. Startups wouldn't apply to YC if they could get the Office Hours for free (instead of in exchange for significant equity). Not knocking on YC, just pointing out that that's not happening, doesn't make financial sense for YC.

Surely there's more value to being a YC backed startup than just the office hours?
Post reply on HN