631–640 of 768 posts
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Thanks, what about homepage https://comment.ws ? What do you find difficult here? Would appreciate your or anyone else's feedback!
I'm not entirely sure what comment.ws does from the website. Its a bunch of vaguely familiar faces and logo. A page that gives a 1 sentence explanation of the site will be cool. Hope that's helpful
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That's actually much less than I would've expected.
Every HN reader is an above decent potential founder or at the very least potential product starter/inventor/maker... That is 310,000 potential companies. I do not see anywhere else you could have that many of the same profile.
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You are actually citing examples of execution excellence and IP, rather than "ideas" as the word is used in early stage VC circles. For example the idea of making a low radar cross section aircraft is not new or valuable since right after radar was first developed. However executing on that idea to create the stealth fighter design produces something very valuable.
But how to create stealth took some darned good "ideas". Sure, the startup "circles" regard an idea as a short description of a sentence or two to a family member, neighbor, or prospective user/customer of how the new product/service will look to them. But, then what about how to make that product/service work? Ignore that? That part should be crucial: Crucial for having the first good or a much better product/soluti…
My favourite pure good idea with enormous value has to be the Kelly criterion [1].
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We do talk about that every once in awhile, but the average company that applies to YC is not very good and thus the experiment would hurt the network (and be painful for us to work with). What we've more seriously considered is randomly funding some companies just below the threshold. Also, we do look at our ranking to see how companies at the top vs companies near the cutoff do. It's rare (but not unheard of) for a…
Were the companies rejected by YC that have gone on to be the most successful often just below the cutoff?
Hey Sam: So I've been working diligently for the last few weeks putting the final edits on my application to YC. I'm 68 years old an the only founder. On the positive side I've got almost 50 years of work in the project that defines the state of the art. Am I wasting my time in applying considering my age and singleness?
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Just stop working on this idea. The main problem, imho, with the current model of startup creation, is that it heavily selects for young technical people with little in the way of other commitments to take chances on new ideas. Many young technical people are hard-working and driven and that's wonderful, but (1) they form a narrow demographic [if you hang out at too many hacker cons you'll wildly overestimate the pop…
Thanks for trying to talk me out of this. No one has done that before despite me trying to get them to, so I really appreciate the feedback. None of your points causes any concern for me though. I have lot of ideas on how to retain users--it's not simply a single use product. Krewe is not a "Tinder for friends," it's completely different and actually tries to mimic the way people naturally form and maintain friendshi…
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We don't. We think it's much better if cofounders have some sort of shared history together.
I think you should try grouping random individuals as an experiment. They should each already have a project, and be capable of implementing it, but obviously they'll have to choose one when they get together. My two most successful lab final projects in college were randoms. One of them won the annual award for best undergrad lab project, and the other won the in-course competition. These were late-course groupings,…
Startups are fucking hard. A lot harder than school projects. And they last way longer. There are millions of dollars on the line and people's livelihoods. The people who run them, by nature, have a level of intensity that acts as an amplifier for wins and losses.
When you meet somebody, it can take a few months before they let their guard down and begin falling back into their "normal" behavioral patterns. Best case scenario, they were a pretty honest and secure person and not much changes (but maybe they're bad at remembering to clean their dishes). Worst case scenario, they miss a deadline, blame everyone around them and punch holes in walls. Likely somewhere in between the two extremes.
"Emotional baggage" of past relationships is a good thing, because it equates to trust, as long as the people are willing to work together. You usually have baggage because you've seen somebody at their worst. If you're still willing to stick around, that's telling. It means you have a better chance of being able to get through the next thing, and the one after that... and so on.
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Honestly, we are so busy, there are so many companies, and ideas are worth so little, that most of us don't think twice about a specific company once we move on to the next applications. The very best ideas usually don't seem worth stealing.
The concept of ideas being worth near to nothing is new to me, can you explain that thinking? Without monetary arguments this seems not right.
Here's another one: what is an idea? Typically it is a sentence expressing a business proposition, or the essential functioning of a technology. But is it the same "idea" no matter who utters it? I think it's pretty clear that an idea is actually short-hand for a 'space of experience' held by the person saying it. In this sense, it's actually not possible to "steal" an idea, because ideas are linked to the people who have them, and because were someone to try, they would find that they can steal the sentence that refers to the actual idea, but lack the perspective to unlock the true meaning.
Either way, this is a meme in the startup industry, and very true in my experience. Do not fixate on ideas: nobody can steal them and/or they are not important in the first place.