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The Aha Moments That Made Paul Graham's Y Combinator Possible

fastcompany.com

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Re: The Aha Moments That Made Paul Graham's Y Combinator Possible

#21

Post by ry0ohki »

pg wrote: post #2

Skimming this, I noticed a few mistakes. I was 30, not 31. My degree is in CS, not computer engineering, which is a hybrid of CS and EE. We were already working on another company when we decided to work on ecommerce. We were making software to generate web sites for commercial art galleries (who didn't want web sites). So we didn't suddenly decide to write software to make stores. It was more a question of switching…

I've never had an article written about me or my products that didn't have some mistakes, I'm not sure why it's not standard practice to send a draft to the subject for fact checking...

Re: The Aha Moments That Made Paul Graham's Y Combinator Possible

#22

Post by dschiptsov »

What he did - he made a pipeline, same like Ford did with a car assembly line. But it not just that.

Usually there are very mediocre people who works at assembly line. The trick is that YC filters out the best people possible, like Google does.

This is why the odds of successful exit (one way or another) are much greater than on average. They don't need each project to turn out into Airbnb. More than one is enough.)

Everything else is second. It is a pipeline of people who motivate, control themselves and push themselves to the limits. This is the cheapest (but hardest) way to get work done.

Re: The Aha Moments That Made Paul Graham's Y Combinator Possible

#23

Post by chintan »

> We do not hold on to our original idea out of sheer stubbornness, or because our ego is tied up with its rightness.

Sometimes sticking it out is what is needed. These days it is fashionable to "pivot" -- I believe that in most cases you've gotta to stick it out enough with the original idea to see where it takes you. The data only tells you what you want to measure. The best insights/pivot you'll get by following your @gut (or as PG did with his "aha" dream of converting into a web-based store)

Re: The Aha Moments That Made Paul Graham's Y Combinator Possible

#24

Post by bibinou »

pg wrote: post #2

Skimming this, I noticed a few mistakes. I was 30, not 31. My degree is in CS, not computer engineering, which is a hybrid of CS and EE. We were already working on another company when we decided to work on ecommerce. We were making software to generate web sites for commercial art galleries (who didn't want web sites). So we didn't suddenly decide to write software to make stores. It was more a question of switching…

> Unix, the open-source operating system

edit : what UNIX did you use ? Linux ?

Re: The Aha Moments That Made Paul Graham's Y Combinator Possible

#25

Post by hnriot »

pg wrote: post #2

Skimming this, I noticed a few mistakes. I was 30, not 31. My degree is in CS, not computer engineering, which is a hybrid of CS and EE. We were already working on another company when we decided to work on ecommerce. We were making software to generate web sites for commercial art galleries (who didn't want web sites). So we didn't suddenly decide to write software to make stores. It was more a question of switching…

I remember viaweb, or webgen as I think it was called at the time, I was at Pointcast then who were also skirting around Yahoo. Back then I am not sure there was much of a distinction between computer engineering and either of CS or double E. It seemed prudent in the 90's to also get a good grounding in the digital systems side of computer science because it was a time where knowledge of the hardware gave software a significant edge. Which this is still true in some areas today, for most people, concepts like byte alignment and endian'ness are irrelevant.

From what I remember there were quite a few making web based software, Hayden's Critical Path for example springs to mind, and of course Yahoo and Nutscrape (as it was fondly called by those unfortunate enough to have to work on it)

Re: The Aha Moments That Made Paul Graham's Y Combinator Possible

#26

Post by bibinou »

filipemonte wrote: post #5

Why the Y Combinator model don't work/exist in other countries? If this model spread to other countries it will be awesome, imagine the number of good ideas dying, when they just need a push.

>People sometimes think they could improve the startup scene in their town by starting something like Y Combinator there, but in fact it will have near zero effect http://www.paulgraham.com/maybe.html

Y Combinator's first batch was in Boston, this essay explain why being in Silicon Valley in important and why it's very difficult to replicate.

Re: The Aha Moments That Made Paul Graham's Y Combinator Possible

#27

Post by emiliobumachar »

leadholder wrote: post #12
pg wrote: post #2

Skimming this, I noticed a few mistakes. I was 30, not 31. My degree is in CS, not computer engineering, which is a hybrid of CS and EE. We were already working on another company when we decided to work on ecommerce. We were making software to generate web sites for commercial art galleries (who didn't want web sites). So we didn't suddenly decide to write software to make stores. It was more a question of switching…

>generate web sites for commercial art galleries (who didn't want web sites). Were you generating the sites in sort of a 3rd-party, no-connection way, or did they just want someone to create their sites for them?

There are a few details in this essay of him:

http://paulgraham.com/bronze.html

Re: The Aha Moments That Made Paul Graham's Y Combinator Possible

#28

Post by jsyedidia »

bibinou wrote: post #24
pg wrote: post #2

Skimming this, I noticed a few mistakes. I was 30, not 31. My degree is in CS, not computer engineering, which is a hybrid of CS and EE. We were already working on another company when we decided to work on ecommerce. We were making software to generate web sites for commercial art galleries (who didn't want web sites). So we didn't suddenly decide to write software to make stores. It was more a question of switching…

> Unix, the open-source operating system edit : what UNIX did you use ? Linux ?

freebsd.

Re: The Aha Moments That Made Paul Graham's Y Combinator Possible

#29

Post by sbisker »

ig1 wrote: post #9
filipemonte wrote: post #5

Why the Y Combinator model don't work/exist in other countries? If this model spread to other countries it will be awesome, imagine the number of good ideas dying, when they just need a push.

It does, TechStars in particular has a huge number of affiliates around the world.

In fairness, the TechStars model isn't quite the same model.

For instance, YC rather explicitly doesn't provide shared office spaces. The shared office space of a TechStars location is a large startup community galvanizer in the cities where TechStars has set up shop - and partially offsets the need to be in the Valley for those companies.

There's no question that TechStars is tweaking the YC model subtilely in its attempts to get global outreach. (This is a good thing, the world could use more experimentation.)

Re: The Aha Moments That Made Paul Graham's Y Combinator Possible

#30

Post by cpr »

"Robert Greene is the author of the international bestsellers The 48 Laws of Power, ...[list of books]. His highly anticipated fifth book, Mastery, examines the lives of great historical figures such as Charles Darwin, Mozart, Paul Graham, and Henry Ford and distills the traits and universal ingredients that made them masters. ...more filler..."

Wow, Darwin, Mozart, Graham and Ford. PG's head must be spinning. ;-)

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