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Would Steve Jobs have applied to Y Combinator?

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Re: Would Steve Jobs have applied to Y Combinator?

#31

Post by damoncali »

lgieron wrote: post #22
hi wrote: post #19

You mean would Steve Wozniak & Steve Jobs have applied to Y Combinator? (Oh yeah, that other Steve...) No! They were too busy hacking phones and building things people wanted to waste time to go through the application process of YC. Money was chasing them. This is true for most runaway successes, they were all true hackers that broke things: Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, etc. Not the "hackers" who are asking for $125k…

> They didn't care about the money, they didn't care about the allure, they didn't care about the status Isn't that a romantization? How do we know they didn't love tech AND wanted to become rich at the same time?

I saw Wozniak on a CNBC stating explicitly that Jobs cared very much about the allure and status of being in big business, for what it's worth. I see little evidence he cared much about the money.

Re: Would Steve Jobs have applied to Y Combinator?

#32

Post by asparagui »

The more dangerous question...would he have gotten in?

After all, you're dealing with a college dropout who didn't study anything related to computer science and had personality issues. I suspect that the HR guys at Apple would drop Steve's resume in the waste bin if he applied today.

Re: Would Steve Jobs have applied to Y Combinator?

#34

Post by larrys »

hi wrote: post #19

You mean would Steve Wozniak & Steve Jobs have applied to Y Combinator? (Oh yeah, that other Steve...) No! They were too busy hacking phones and building things people wanted to waste time to go through the application process of YC. Money was chasing them. This is true for most runaway successes, they were all true hackers that broke things: Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, etc. Not the "hackers" who are asking for $125k…

"They didn't care about the money"

While your statement is true about Wozniak from what I know it's not true about Jobs. He was a business person and he knew how to make a buck in addition to wanting to "change the world". Same with Gates for that matter.

Re: Would Steve Jobs have applied to Y Combinator?

#35

Post by larrys »

damoncali wrote: post #31
lgieron wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They didn't care about the money, they didn't care about the allure, they didn't care about the status Isn't that a romantization? How do we know they didn't love tech AND wanted to become rich at the same time?

I saw Wozniak on a CNBC stating explicitly that Jobs cared very much about the allure and status of being in big business, for what it's worth. I see little evidence he cared much about the money.

"I see little evidence he cared much about the money."

Jobs was not the Ben & Jerry's guys. Jobs cared about money. Just because someone doesn't live an opulent lifestyle doesn't mean they don't care about money. Buffet is a good example of that. He lives in the same house he bought in 1957.

Money, even if you run out of things to spend it on, or if you don't buy luxury goods, allows you to have power and do so many things that you can't do without money.

Re: Would Steve Jobs have applied to Y Combinator?

#36

Post by freshnote »

Oh God no. YC is too unimaginative. They settle for "also rans" and are too prepared to lose.

And Steve could never tolerate the money-fixation of PG and co. Steve was always about blowing people's minds and changing the world with transformative technology.

This is why I will always be a great admirer of Steve (despite his glaring weaknesses) and disdain YC.

Re: Would Steve Jobs have applied to Y Combinator?

#37

Post by larrys »

microtonal wrote: post #23
JVIDEL wrote: post #11

Both Apple and Microsoft started at a time when personal computers barely existed and thus a couple of guys with very little capital could build a computer kit or code a blackjack game in a day. One key difference its revenue: Allen often mentions how any piece of code brought money to the company, simple apps that are 100% free today would have been sold for tens of millions back then. Same with hardware, which is w…

Were in they right place at the right time, or did they mold the future to such an extreme, that in hindsight it seems as if they were in the right place at the right time?

Timing matters. Later example - many things had to come together for the ipod to be a success as well as the iphone and for that matter the ipad. While there is no question that Jobs did much to mold this, there were many other factors such as the price of components and technology the products relied on. So you can't "mold" anything without the proper materials.

Much of what we have today wouldn't be possible w/o broadband. Instagram wouldn't exist unless digital camera technology was developed to the point it had. Facebook became immensely popular because of digital photos. Wouldn't happen if people had to scan photos to get them on Facebook.

Re: Would Steve Jobs have applied to Y Combinator?

#38

Post by mattmaroon »

"none of the copycat incubators have an alumni list or investment portfolio containing names such as Dropbox, Reddit, Clickpass, Posterous or Codecademy. I can't think of a better list."

Clickpass? Really? I could think of a better list containing just YC companies.

And how do Dropbox, AirBnB, Heroku, Weebly, Justin.tv, etc. lack vision?

Re: Would Steve Jobs have applied to Y Combinator?

#39

Post by brudgers »

wissler wrote: post #25
brudgers wrote: post #18

"Is the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates filling in Y Combinator's application form right now, or are they taking the independent route?" YC can reproduce the career arc of Steve Jobs, but not Bill Gates. Until the IPO Microsoft didn't sell stock to outside investors in significant quantities. By essentially bootstrapping, Gates and Allen were able to bring Ballmer on board with 8% equity at a point when outside investo…

But Jobs had to be lucky enough for Apple to nearly go bankrupt so they would entertain having him return and turn them around. This cosmically lucky event is not very reproducible.

Because at the time, Jobs was still hanging around in Silicon Valley, he was the ideal candidate - i.e. cheap, and available.

Re: Would Steve Jobs have applied to Y Combinator?

#40

Post by priv_acy »

larrys wrote: post #35
damoncali wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw Wozniak on a CNBC stating explicitly that Jobs cared very much about the allure and status of being in big business, for what it's worth. I see little evidence he cared much about the money.

"I see little evidence he cared much about the money." Jobs was not the Ben & Jerry's guys. Jobs cared about money. Just because someone doesn't live an opulent lifestyle doesn't mean they don't care about money. Buffet is a good example of that. He lives in the same house he bought in 1957. Money, even if you run out of things to spend it on, or if you don't buy luxury goods, allows you to have power and do so many…

That's what I meant by "status and allure". We're defining "money" differently.
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