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The “Interview” with Y Combinator That’s Not

blog.directededge.com

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Re: The “Interview” with Y Combinator That’s Not

#71

Post by ghshephard »

sailormoon wrote: post #39
gruseom wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're being downvoted because people think the answer to your question is so obvious that you must be trolling. However, I'll assume you're being sincere. The money is the least important aspect of getting in to YC. What matters is the advice they provide and the community/network aspects. These things are so valuable that they are a huge state change for most startups.

This is not obvious to me at all. I admit I have difficulty conceiving of advice so compelling I'd travel to America to receive it. Fair enough I guess. People pay what they think it is worth. That's capitalism; no argument from me. I am not trolling. Carry on.

It's beyond advice. It's the energy, community, contacts, drive, and exposure that you get to a community of like minded entrepreneurs. Getting _into_ that community is something that may change you for the rest of your life. Even just going for the _interview_ may be a life changing experience, regardless of whether you are funded.

In Silicon Valley, you see something similar in companies - there is this massive meritocracy and cross pollination that takes place. Companies get successful. Employees vest out and go form new companies. Then they reach back into their (metaphorical) Rolodex and pull colleagues from years passed who went through the most intense interview ever - working side-by-side for multiple years. It's why I recommend anyone from outside the valley interested in technology, particularly early in their career, to take any job they can get with a good valley company, and pay absolutely no attention to their salary. None. Once you are established, the money will follow.

But it's all about getting in the door, taking that first step. YC is one of those first steps for startup founders.

Re: The “Interview” with Y Combinator That’s Not

#72

Post by theli0nheart »

ghshephard wrote: post #70
theli0nheart wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What company was this? edit: why am I getting downvoted?

From: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html "Resist complaining about being downmodded. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading. "

Sure, I'll keep that in mind.

One point I'd like to make though is that it's less about the karma itself than it is about the reason that people don't like the question. I could understand why if I was trolling, insulting, etc.

Honestly, I don't care if my karma goes to negative infinity, unless that would automatically ban my account, or something to that effect.

Re: The “Interview” with Y Combinator That’s Not

#73

Post by cpach »

theli0nheart wrote: post #67
pg wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We'll fund anything that scales like a startup. We had a very promising startup doing real estate two cycles ago, but they fell apart due to disputes between the founders. I still think it was a great idea.

What company was this? edit: why am I getting downvoted?

If you haven't read about them on HN, they probably never launched.

Re: The “Interview” with Y Combinator That’s Not

#74

Post by gord »

wheels wrote: post #8
gord wrote: post #6

Interesting read and nice success story... On DirectedEdge home, can I enter any search term, or does this need to be a well formatted Wikipedia entry url ?

If you type the beginning of an article name it should autocomplete after a sec (it's a little slower than it should be...) There's also an easter-egg you can use: http://www.directededge.com/?Y%20Combinator

Thanks.

disclaimer : I'm a radical graph data, noSQL proponent, so you had me at 'edge', however...

The only thing that I care about on that page is the graph.

Id like to see just that graph, but prefetched, fluid interactive javascript. Nothing else, except the text bar at top, and the interactive sliding autoscaling graph data app.

That would be wonderful, a new thing packaged out of old things Id half enunciated a thousand times myself.

the other stuff, Id put in some links.

This way you have all the focus on what your about.

So my 'Crazy Thought' is - make that the whole company, trim away everything else.

What would it look like if you had 2000 data points on the screen, gradually getting smaller at the edges, and fluidly navigating with say 500 nodes of prefetch ahead.

This should be in JS using Raphael if its not already .. [ I didnt see a raphael.js inclusion in your source page. ]

Re: The “Interview” with Y Combinator That’s Not

#75

Post by ghshephard »

theli0nheart wrote: post #72
ghshephard wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html "Resist complaining about being downmodded. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading. "

Sure, I'll keep that in mind. One point I'd like to make though is that it's less about the karma itself than it is about the reason that people don't like the question. I could understand why if I was trolling, insulting, etc. Honestly, I don't care if my karma goes to negative infinity, unless that would automatically ban my account, or something to that effect.

My first year on YC was depressing, as comments that I put a lot of work, energy, effort and thought into would sometimes be downmodded into oblivion.

I would write an expose on Hiring practices we used to have at Netscape, detailing precisely what hiring managers though, and how - and people would downmod me like there was tomorrow.

Over time, I realized, that sometimes it's just a popularity contest. Your comments, even if well meant, may just not be in agreement with somebody elses. I just learned to deal with it - over time you get a sense for the Ebb and Flow - and can learn quite a bit about the community. Don't always consider a downmod to be negative - sometimes it's just a reflection of what other people think - not a reflection of your comments value.

Re: The “Interview” with Y Combinator That’s Not

#76

Post by gord »

gord wrote: post #74
wheels wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you type the beginning of an article name it should autocomplete after a sec (it's a little slower than it should be...) There's also an easter-egg you can use: http://www.directededge.com/?Y%20Combinator

Thanks. disclaimer : I'm a radical graph data, noSQL proponent, so you had me at 'edge', however... The only thing that I care about on that page is the graph. Id like to see just that graph, but prefetched, fluid interactive javascript. Nothing else, except the text bar at top, and the interactive sliding autoscaling graph data app. That would be wonderful, a new thing packaged out of old things Id half enunciated a…

Well 'should be in rapheal.js' comes across a bit strong...

I meant : it seems a good kit, you've probably heard of it.

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