How I Crashed and Burned in Y Combinator • Hacker News Board

Re: How I Crashed and Burned in Y Combinator

#71

Post by gravedave » Sat, Jan 10, 2015, 9:48 PM UTC

sparkzilla wrote: post #41

The article makes it clear that the YC interview selection process is deeply flawed. Leaving out the idea that they were selected because they told a story about the sound of biting a bottle, surely at the interview stage, if the entrepreneurs do not know what the company is making, or the business looks weak the interviewer should just say no. It's not enough to say "here are two bright people that can pivot". Brigh…

I agree with it being arguably unethical, but mostly because it's a business model that tries to appease two sides (the techies with ideas, and the investors), which, in my opinion, easily leads to one side being product for the other side.

Some such businesses may work, like job recruitment, but I think it's mostly because the weaker side (the unemployed) doesn't have much to lose.

Re: How I Crashed and Burned in Y Combinator

#72

Post by reledi » Sat, Jan 10, 2015, 9:52 PM UTC

nakovet wrote: post #20

I don't get it, I have been working with web development for the past 10 years, I never had problems finding a job but I wouldn't know how to do remote consulting while I travel around the work to "take a break", nevertheless the tone set from OP is confusing you don't know if he is humble, spoiled or bragging. It's all mixed up, and like other people noted pivoting is not changing your idea completely, this is start…

I'm also interested in how he's travelling the world while doing consulting work. Travelling (for leisure) and working don't go well together in my experience, curious how he's pulling it off (so I can try too).

Re: How I Crashed and Burned in Y Combinator

#73

Post by jlarocco » Sat, Jan 10, 2015, 9:55 PM UTC

femto113 wrote: post #23

andrelayer wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only part you're missing is that PG has said many times in the past that they invest mostly in the team and that many teams that go through YC end up changing their idea slightly or completely. So the beginning of this situation doesn't seem very unusual, just that they never actually figured it out.

I can accept this rationale for investing in teams over ideas, but when did "pivoting" go from meaning "a modest change in direction" (e.g. switching the target market for your SASS product from consumers to enterprise, or making what was initially a secondary feature a primary one) to "start over from scratch with an entirely unrelated idea"? Seems like another term is needed--"flailing" perhaps?

Yeah, that almost seems like a bait and switch scam.

Re: How I Crashed and Burned in Y Combinator

#74

Post by ryanSrich » Sat, Jan 10, 2015, 9:57 PM UTC

edent wrote: post #12

Am I missing something here? You can get $$$ and top quality advice for an _idea_ and then just turn around and say "bored now - let's do something else"? And then, so it seems, when that idea runs out you just say "uhhh... let's do this instead!" So, what are the YC people investing in? Two guys who seem pretty smart? I appreciate that you might need to pivot from "a social network for dogs" to "a social network for…

> So, what are the YC people investing in? Two guys who seem pretty smart?

Standford CS grads.

Re: How I Crashed and Burned in Y Combinator

#75

Post by georgeecollins » Sat, Jan 10, 2015, 10:02 PM UTC

This seems like a parody of entrepeneurship. Like instead of defying the odds to be an entrepeneur he's defying the odds to avoid getting startup funding as a recent CS grad from Stanford.

The world it full of things that sound appealing. But you may find when you get a chance to do them it isn't your thing. You may enjoy art, admire artists, but not really enjoy or be suited to the work of an artist.

Re: How I Crashed and Burned in Y Combinator

#76

Post by no_wave » Sat, Jan 10, 2015, 10:03 PM UTC

nakovet wrote: post #20

I don't get it, I have been working with web development for the past 10 years, I never had problems finding a job but I wouldn't know how to do remote consulting while I travel around the work to "take a break", nevertheless the tone set from OP is confusing you don't know if he is humble, spoiled or bragging. It's all mixed up, and like other people noted pivoting is not changing your idea completely, this is start…

It's a euphemism for not working at all, though likely with one or two experiences that keep it from being a total lie (the majority of the money lived off of being either already saved or coming from family).

The guy just failed hard in a pretty limp way. The options are either to try to "grow personally" and then to try something similar again, or to buckle down with a normal job and develop your skills and knowledge into something that really has value. When you've been drinking the start-up kool-aid the second is a hard pill to swallow - having to actually compete with everyone else - but I think it's worth it.

Re: How I Crashed and Burned in Y Combinator

#77

Post by CPLX » Sat, Jan 10, 2015, 10:07 PM UTC

31reasons wrote: post #50

yesimahuman wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having been in an accelerator before, I definitely related to their sense of dread that they might mess up this opportunity and never be successful again because of it. Watching peers strike it big must have been super hard. I quickly realized after that most "success" is exaggerated in the media, etc. and true success takes a lot longer than we expect. Raising $1M isn't success. Hell, raising $5-30M in today's clima…

>>"Success" is such a vague concept Actually its not in terms of business. Success = Profit + Long term sustainability in doing so.

Actually it's not that either.

Success in a business context means a positive rate of return on the resources invested. Or to refine one step further, a return that is positive and superior to the next best alternative for the deployment of said resources at a given level of risk.

Re: How I Crashed and Burned in Y Combinator

#78

Post by myohan » Sat, Jan 10, 2015, 10:15 PM UTC

"I don’t want to start another company until I find a problem that I care about. A problem that I eat, sleep and breathe. A problem worth solving."

i agree with you but you shouldn't wait for these ideas to come by out the blue moon, you should be constantly searching, trying/testing, and keep living/experiencing a lot of different things...because there are a lot of problems out there that you DO NOT know they exist, and how would you know you care about these problems if you don't know they exist.

good luck.

Re: How I Crashed and Burned in Y Combinator

#79

Post by biot » Sat, Jan 10, 2015, 10:17 PM UTC

charlierguo wrote: post #49

Hey everyone! Author here. First off, thanks for reading! To be honest, I really didn't expect to get this much attention. This is a story that I've wanted to share with friends and family for a long time, and was thoroughly surprised when it was picked up by Backchannel (and then posted here). Regarding some of the points made here, I (mostly) agree. Getting into YC or raising money is not success. Changing your ide…

  > I don't know if the industry has as concise of a term
  > for throwing everything out and starting over

I recommend using the word "flush". Some examples: "we flushed that idea and started looking at something new" or "they had this idea around Uber for dogs but it was a flusher". It's what you do when your idea stinks.

Re: How I Crashed and Burned in Y Combinator

#80

Post by hodgesmr » Sat, Jan 10, 2015, 10:17 PM UTC

ferrari8608 wrote: post #62

bkeroack wrote: post #5

This is what happens when people want to "do a startup" more than they want to build a business doing X. The passion for the idea/product should come first, with incubators (if deemed necessary) being used as a tool towards achieving that goal.

This is something I've been struggling to understand with some of the startups I read about on here. My lack of understanding is probably to do with the fact that I'm not an entrepreneur, nor do I desire to be. What I'm missing, though, is why these people want to simply start a company. I get wanting to start a company around your idea. In that case, the company isn't the goal but rather the medium for pursuing the…

HBO's "Silicon Valley", Arron Sorkin's "Social Network", TechCrunch, The Verge, Hacker News and tweetstorms brought to you by Marc Andreessen glorify the tech-startup entrepreneur. People within our industry have been taught that the best of the best start tech companies. And the best of the best are 20-somethings! It seems so reachable. So everyone thinks this is what they're supposed to do. Anybody who's anybody has launched a startup in San Francisco, right?