Side note: IE is 2.5% of visits. Chrome is 58%.
Harjeet: I'm a partner at Y Combinator. Ask me anything.
41–50 of 72 posts
Re: Harjeet: I'm a partner at Y Combinator. Ask me anything.
#42I am guessing anyasq is a YC company that just launched? Rationale: Harjeet doing an interview at a relatively unknown company/project. Also, how does anyasq beat reddit ama?
Yes, AnyAsq is a YC company. We hadn't asked Harj to do an AMA though. :) And we hadn't really intended to launch quite yet but we're not complaining. Ways we hope AnyAsq beats reddit ama: -The concept should make more sense to people as a standalone site than as a sub-section on another site. (Easier to explain, easier to link to, etc) -As a standalone site we can optimize the interface for this concept, which is re…
The concept should make more sense to people as a standalone site than as a sub-section on another site. (Easier to explain, easier to link to, etc)
Should isn't very strong. I don't think the 15 seconds it takes to get used to an /r/IAMA thread is worth a whole new product.
As a standalone site we can optimize the interface for this concept, which is really a very different idea than reddit.com
That's true.
Twitter integration is really helpful. Acts as both moderation and as a way for people to spread AnyAsq to their followers when they do an AMA or ask a question.
Twitter has a text box where i can tweet anything i like. Your twitter integration makes it harder to sign up and adds almost no benefit. That's a negative, imho.
We're a YC company which will hopefully help us get people like Harj (or pg? Don't do it quite yet though please) on there and maybe help with press.
So is reddit, and reddit doesn't need any help with press, given it's 15 something million users.
You're taking something that works and breaking it.
Re: Harjeet: I'm a partner at Y Combinator. Ask me anything.
#43Super excited to see this concept. I had a prototype of this style of idea last year, but decided it was tertiary to my actual passion (video). Wish you huge luck! Would love to sit down and debrief a part of this you might attack later, namely live events and conferences. I've got some good ideas of how to integrate this to those in a visually appealing manner, and would love to chat.
Thanks! Would love to talk once this rush dies down a bit.
Re: Harjeet: I'm a partner at Y Combinator. Ask me anything.
#44I am not willing to grant anyask the ability to modify my twitter profile and post as me so I'll just ask here. 1) Age-wise, what ratio of accepted YC applicants are over 35? 40? 2) What ratio of them fall into the "married with kids" category? My impression of YC is that you strongly (exclusively?) prefer under 30 people who are unattached or, at least, are married with no other obligations. Can you dispel that impr…
I recall seeing a spreadsheet of ycombinator graduates (sorry, can't seem to find it now - will link it when I do) and noticed that a significantly large percentage of its founders were ivy league/1st-tier school graduates. I bring up this point because you seem to think age is a factor that brings you down... but the statistics would have it that even a candidate in his mid-20s from a non-prominent school could not…
By "graduates" do you mean "people who have just graduated"?
This was the case early on (when YCombinator was marketed using the whole "drop out of college and do a startup meme).
I believe they have stated that the age distribution is much wider now. Having said that, it's probably easier to live on the YCombinator investment if you are young don't have kids than if you do.
Re: Harjeet: I'm a partner at Y Combinator. Ask me anything.
#45There's no way in the world I'm going to sign up for this, regardless of who you have on there. This application will be able to: Read Tweets from your timeline. See who you follow, and follow new people. Update your profile. Post Tweets for you. Access your direct messages until June 30th, 2011.
You give Twitter all those permissions too.
Re: Harjeet: I'm a partner at Y Combinator. Ask me anything.
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
1. I shouldn't say specifically because YC applications are supposed to be confidential, but if you look at the more successful startups funded by YC's competitors, there's a large overlap. 2. How predictable outcomes would be. 3. Airbnb.
More or less predictable?
Less predictable. We thought we'd learn how to pick winners. What we learned instead is that it's impossible. Not just because luck is such a big factor, but because founders change.
Re: Harjeet: I'm a partner at Y Combinator. Ask me anything.
#471. Does YC have any plans to hire associates/interns? 2. What 3 early-stage startups excite you most that haven't been funded by YC? 3. Do you personally invest in startups? 4. What do you like most about your job? 5. Do you have some cool YC-related stories you could share? 6. What's a typical day like for you? (If "typical" doesn't apply, what'd you do today?)
1. No.
2. Square and Quora. Can't think of a third.
3. I've done a bit but don't have enough money to do more.
4. The people I work with.
5. Nothing springs to mind. There's probably some but I find it hard to just pull things out of my brain without context.
6. No typical day. Today I cleared out my inbox in the morning, did office hours in the afternoon and the weekly YC dinner is about to start now.
Re: Harjeet: I'm a partner at Y Combinator. Ask me anything.
#48If you weren't actively involved in YC full-time, what type of company would you be starting? Alternatively, what overlooked/underhyped opportunities do you see in the market?
Re: Harjeet: I'm a partner at Y Combinator. Ask me anything.
#49"I've noticed a trend in people listing employees (i.e. people with sub 5% equity stakes) as founders so they don't seem like they're a single founder. We see through this and mark it in the notes"
Interesting. Can't help but wonder if this factored in the rejection of Decal since my two "co-founders" were technically employees of Working Software at the time of the application (although we've since come to an equity sharing agreement so it's more of a traditional startup now).
Re: Harjeet: I'm a partner at Y Combinator. Ask me anything.
#50[deleted]