Notes from YC Startup School Europe

Thanks nqureshi for making these notes. Unfortunately, I couldn't travel to this Startup School and am really missing it (missed live stream, too, because I'm with my kids). I'm most curious to know if attendees enjoyed the talks and the overall event. I'd like to start looking forward to the 2015 version if there should be one :)

  The voices that interrupt the stillness are the ones
  that are the daemons.

  Redefine success as "learning something interesting".

  External success is a mistake.

  - Paul Buchheit

His goal for Gmail was to get to 100 happy users. "What would it take for your to be a happy user."

Thanks jl! Everyone I spoke to loved the event, particularly because:

1. The talks were awesome 2. It was ridiculously well-organised (and the food was superb) 3. There was a really good crowd there

I look forward to more YC events in London!

Thanks for the notes! I couldn't open the live stream.

About the notes, some of the advice feels great. But i just can't relate to it. I mean: Stripe - they weren't getting a lot traction, then Peter Thiel funded them. Homejoy - they were about to close, then Paul Graham gave them some money.

Then everything else sounds like "good advice if you can get a meeting with some of SV legends". Specially the Homejoy one sounds to want make you feel guilty if you quit. Well, if I am that close to running out of cash to pay my bills and in the edge of quiting, guess what, I can't get a meeting with a legendary VC to get his money and endorsement. I will just quit.

I guess it comes down to how far you're willing to push. If you do move to the Valley (as YC partners frequently advise you to), then you probably could get a meeting with Peter Thiel if you really tried. I mean if someone figuratively held a gun to your head and told you to, you probably could.

I agree with the general point, though - you need a certain amount of baseline opportunity to be able to do this stuff. That is a problem that needs fixing.