31–40 of 50 posts
http://www.projectwedding.com/ a YC related company
Yup. Know Y combinator funded them. Actually, brings up another point. Curious what people think about applying to ycombinator if they have funded a potential competitor of your company in the past??
Anybody else read that as "wedding" or "niche space travel"? Talk about an unfocused startup...
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regardless of whether you have previous knowledge or not, if you're willing to program (whether it's front end or back) and you do learn, even if it is on the fly, for this project... then maybe a 50 50 split does make sense...
Any suggestions on things to read so I can start to learn. I am going to buy a book on rails (agile web development). Know of joel on software. Programming.reddit.com. Anything else?
http://tryruby.hobix.com/ Read "Programming Ruby" part I
sidenote: seems googling "news yc" no longer asks if I meant "news NYC"
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I prefer Python to Ruby, but language choice is another topic entirely. There are a number of web frameworks for Python that are AT LEAST as useful as Rails, including Django and Pylons. In some ways, I think Django might be better for the type of site you seem to be interested in. Of course, I'm going mostly on assumptions... I know there are a number of Python tutorials that were written specifically for scientists…
I do agree with shooter that python is good technologically... but the problem with Python web frameworks is that there's no one official framework yet for python that's overwhelmingly popular in the python world (though someone can prove me wrong). The end result is that there aren't that many books on stuff like Django (compared to other technologies), which really sucks when you're just starting out. Rails on the…
I also think that having a choice among frameworks is a good thing.
http://www.projectwedding.com/ a YC related company
Yup. Know Y combinator funded them. Actually, brings up another point. Curious what people think about applying to ycombinator if they have funded a potential competitor of your company in the past??
Applying is okay though.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yup. Know Y combinator funded them. Actually, brings up another point. Curious what people think about applying to ycombinator if they have funded a potential competitor of your company in the past??
PG answered this in a post that I cannot find, but they don't share info between companies and they generally don't fund companies that do EXACTLY what someone else before did (e.g. Weebly again). Applying is okay though.
E.g. Snipshot and Splashup. Both are web-based imaged editors, but the similarity ends there. Snipshot is an easy editor for end users. Splashup is Photoshop.
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I do agree with shooter that python is good technologically... but the problem with Python web frameworks is that there's no one official framework yet for python that's overwhelmingly popular in the python world (though someone can prove me wrong). The end result is that there aren't that many books on stuff like Django (compared to other technologies), which really sucks when you're just starting out. Rails on the…
I'd rather have a few good books and "tons and tons" of quality libraries. I also think that having a choice among frameworks is a good thing.
besides the Python community is in the midst of consolidating web frameworks... there's a reason for that
I could be wrong but doesn't Django only have one book? Do the other Python frameworks even have a book for them (as opposed to chapter or two in a general programming book)?
"I am not a programmer" - "I will divide equity equally" Aren't these 2 statements a little inconsistent? "I do have what I consider to be strong ideas" Don't we all? I have a feeling that you need to get used to the idea that a web startup is all about building the product (at least at this stage). 2 non-programmers = bad 1 non-programmer + 1 hacker = better 2 hackers = best I really don't mean to pick and I certain…
I knew I would probably get attacked on this post in some way. I am not naive and I do realize my limitations. Additionally, in a business you are looking ideally for individuals who complement yourself in skills (i.e. one business person, one technology person). What is wrong with 1 non-programmer + 1 hacker sharing equity equally? I realize product development is paramount. I do not expect to be twiddling my thumbs…
Hi Mel, normally I'd be ripping into a "business" founder as well. Well until I was re-reading "Founders at Work" [0] and come across Mitch Kapor. It made for very interesting reading and totally made me re-think non-tech founders. You see Mitch came into developing right at the start of the Apple ][ software building a companion bit of software for VisiCalc called VisiPlot (TIny Troll).
'... I was totally ignorant how long things took
I had no background in computer science. I
was self-taught -- I was still writing in Basic. I
had no management experience; I was in
business school ... I was a transcendental
meditation teacher and a mental health
officer ...' [0]
Then several things happened that played to his advantage mainly through other people severely underestimating his technical & business abilities. A) He was bought out of the royalty agreement for his licensed software (US$1.2M), convinced them his non-compete was not applicable to their product, hired key technical staff to re-build another product with spread sheeting & graphing & releasing the product as a second generation product to the new IBM PC.
Now I really must have glossed over this bit the first time. I didn't realise Mitch was a non-technical. He was completely underestimated and written off by people with "technical". So what did Mitch really do that stood out?
- created product
- recognised that change (new hardware) brings opportunity
- could read people better than given credit
- recognising technical weakness & hiring well
- killer business instinct
So don't let the negative replies curb your determination. Now 2 questions. Are you still at school or have contact with places where people learn to get a co-founder? Is the fact that best friends (potential co-founders) are normally of the same sex a key factor in finding a co-founder?
[0] Jessica Livingston, Founders at work, Ch6 Mitch Kapor, pp 90-93
[1] Ibid, p91. In the Apple ][ there was not enough memory to save data b/w applications and Mitch saw the potential key technology enabling seamless data transfer via floppies.
[2] Ibid p92.