81–90 of 125 posts
it was a fantastic event with nuts and bolts business and hacker types talking about how they actually got companies/products off the ground and then operated them.
point is ..need more of those! @nickpinkston on twitter was one of the organizers > that team brought in all the right presenters.
1. YC Hacks Hackahton Goal: Idea (0 People) - Founding Team (2-3 People) People who wanted to build products. It was all designers and engineers with ideas working together for two days to build a product. The end goal was light pitches of products to prominent people in the startup community. Lots of design, building, and engineering.
2. Startup School Goal: Founding Team (2-3 People) - Small Team (6-10 People) People who want to run startups. After you've got your product, startup school answered questions like: Where do you go from there idea? What keeps you going? what pitfalls are you going to encounter? What types of people are you looking to work with? etc...
From your post, it seems like you were expecting YC Hacks. I would suggest going to that next year.
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…
They prefer young people because bullshit is harder to swallow the older you get -- and if your bullshit detector is hyper sensitive, like Colin Percival or Maciej Ceglowski, you either can't tolerate the thing (Maciej) or you feel like it leaves you cold (Colin).
But it's also an extremely successful cult --possibly one of the most successful ones ever?-- so who are we to criticize.
I always appreciate a good critique, but I think maybe you nailed it when you said: "Perhaps my expectations were misaligned" The comment about the power outlets, leading the piece, seems like the clearest example of misalignment. I'm not able to speak for YC, but I think the point of startup school is to help people (hackers) who might not have read every PG essay but have some interest in startups learn how to star…
Imo the socializing can be demoralizing or exciting, driven by sheer luck since there are so many different people in attendance. As a commenter on the article says, "it's difficult to find like-minded people" there. I just decided to roll the dice a LOT of times, and came out with a few serendipitous contacts that will probably be sustained for years to come. But I do think that you need to go in with the mindset of…
I have dozens of people like that in my orbit. Smart, ambitious, connected etc. We just haven't found the right opportunity yet.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't understand either why many are suggesting you get a cofounder . You just need another person who can work on UI, branding, PR, etc. Don't give them any equity, don't give them any control over the innards of tarsnap, just pay them a handsome wage (for the handsome job that they'll do). p.s.: in my ideal world, you are every founder (doesn't partake in shitty, ethically-questionable growth-hacking techniques),…
> p.s.: in my ideal world, you are every founder (doesn't partake in shitty, ethically-questionable growth-hacking techniques), and your company is every company (offers a decidedly great service, no gimmicks) Are you a Tarsnap customer?
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…
It's obvious that in an audience of 1000+, there are differing people at different stages of their startup.
Some people need to hear the motivational speeches to dare take their first step toward starting their startup.
Other people are further along and really are just looking for very practical or tactical advice that would solve their current issue (it could be related to growth, finding customers, dealing with press, dealing with co-founder fights, the list is long).
And other people are looking to network, find their co-founder or that business person who'll help them close their first sale, or get an intro to a famous VC.
When you put an event together, you try to address all those differing needs into one coherent package. Therefore, any geek can figure out that some content will not be directly applicable to why they attended. But overall, if the organizers do a good job, the event will turn out to be valuable.
The last important factor is that a significant part of the audience doesn't know what they really should know, so they sometimes attend for one reason, but are enlightened by something completely different.
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.
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…
Y Combinator has many characteristics of a cult; a Dear Leader (who appoints his successor himself!); a devout following of young people who are ready to make great sacrifices just to be part of it; mega-churches and mass events such as Startup School; dubious characters as spokesmen (Andrew Mason, Travis Kalanick); apologists who contemplated a career as priest (patio11). They prefer young people because bullshit is…
The event was ok... but really lacked anything you couldn't find elsewhere. I was particularly annoyed that they didn't even try to sort the companies or founders or attendees into discussion groups, make connections, or even foster conversation after the event. In fact, it was almost like they were working against that, by whisking away all of the speakers and interviewers imediatly following the event and during the one intermission....
------------------------------------------------- [1] My complaint letter:
Hi Kathrina,
I really enjoyed ~87.3% of startup school, but wanted to pass along a few thoughts on how future events could be better.
1) Introduce the interviewer - not just the interviewee. I had no idea who Aaron Harris was until 2/3'ds of the way through the interview.
2) Don't choose startups at random. Everyone had to apply to be at Startup School - you should use those applications to chose which startups get to present at office hours.
2A) Don't chose 3 startups at the same level of growth. I run a b2b saas startup in its early growth stage. the three startups chosen for office hours we're all in the early development stage.
2B) Don't choose 3 b2c startups. I'm sure I wasn't the only enterprise b2b company in the audience.
Office hours was the section that fell flat with me. None of the companies interviewed we're in my companies stage of development (all earlier), and none we're business to business.
Furthermore;
3) I guess its OK to leave the attendees to fend for themselves... but it could work a lot better if you used the intermission to have groups cycle through quick talks with the speakers, or with YC partners. That would also add more value to attending the conference.
3A) The speakers should be more public during the break, and during the social following the event.
I'm Looking forward to future startup schools, and I hope this advice is helpful!
All the Best, Jason
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
Startups that get big have more than one founder. If your goal isn't just to survive but to grow big, statistically at least you are better off with a co-founder. I say this as a single founder of a startup that didn't grow.
That's awfully shortsighted. What about Bezos and Amazon?