Thoughts on Startup School

Post by patio11 » Sat, Oct 18, 2014, 7:10 PM UTC

throwaway85252 wrote: post #83

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…

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…

Post by selmnoo » Sat, Oct 18, 2014, 7:15 PM UTC

throwaway85252 wrote: post #83

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…

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…

Post by cperciva » Sat, Oct 18, 2014, 8:29 PM UTC

yellow_and_gray wrote: post #72

cperciva wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I feel there's something inconsistent to be reconciled here. On one hand single-founder startups don't get as big, which is a bad thing. On the other, writing code for 8 years as a single founder is right about the definition of doing things that don't scale, which is a good thing. So you can't say Colin running Tarsnap as a single founder for 8 years was bad for Tarsnap. But it also sounds like unexplored terrain. T…

Post by tptacek » Sat, Oct 18, 2014, 8:32 PM UTC

patio11 wrote: post #57

cperciva wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

Post by dcre » Sat, Oct 18, 2014, 8:59 PM UTC

jonny_eh wrote: post #77

weaponofchoice wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Popularity hacker in 3...2... I bet the next 10 years will see a lot of celebrity-driven startups. Will.i.am, Tom Hanks, Justin Timberlake etc. Looking for your 3rd co-founder? Talk to your local celebrity agent. Something about the term 'popularizer' annoys me. Why not just call them 'marketers'. IMHO, the perfect startup team: 1 technical co-founder, 1 technical co-founder who loves analytics and online marketing,…

Like FunnyOrDie has Will Ferrel.