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Thoughts on Startup School

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Re: Thoughts on Startup School

#71

Post by cperciva »

selmnoo wrote: post #70
cperciva wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Leaving aside the semantics, I'd always begrudge any control I gave away after being 100% in charge for so long.

I don't understand either why many are suggesting you get a cofounder . You just need another person who can work on UI, branding, PR, etc. Don't give them any equity, don't give them any control over the innards of tarsnap, just pay them a handsome wage (for the handsome job that they'll do). p.s.: in my ideal world, you are every founder (doesn't partake in shitty, ethically-questionable growth-hacking techniques),…

Right, and that's exactly what I'm planning on doing.

Re: Thoughts on Startup School

#72

Post by yellow_and_gray »

cperciva wrote: post #38
tlb wrote: post #31

Colin: I'm sorry we didn't deliver what you needed. YC's goal in selecting Startup School participants is to get a mix of deeply technical people and popularizers. The combination of those two skill sets makes a great startup. When I saw you at Startup School I was like, "Hey, it's cperciva! Maybe he'll find a co-founder who can sell and together they can make Tarsnap take over the backup business!" That would be a g…

Trevor: Thank you for replying. I hope you (and Jessica, and everybody else involved with Startup School) don't take what I've written personally -- I nearly didn't post it for exactly that reason, but decided in the end that you're all grown-ups who won't be offended by honest criticism. ;-) And thank you for your comments when we met -- talking to you was the highlight of the weekend for me (I didn't mention it in…

I feel there's something inconsistent to be reconciled here.

On one hand single-founder startups don't get as big, which is a bad thing. On the other, writing code for 8 years as a single founder is right about the definition of doing things that don't scale, which is a good thing. So you can't say Colin running Tarsnap as a single founder for 8 years was bad for Tarsnap.

But it also sounds like unexplored terrain. The more specialized a skill you need for some types of work, the more likely this scenario is to happen. What's missing here is a way forward. If the goal of Tarsnap is to grow, the north star is Tarsnap's growth rate.

Colin, could you share more about what you are looking for?

Re: Thoughts on Startup School

#73

Post by fidotron »

With all due respect, while a lot of the criticism there seems valid it does seem that there is a desire for startup school to simply act to validate the preconceptions of attendees. A fundamental error tech people make (I say this having learned the hard way from experience) is to not notice the value of what non-techies are saying, and to be honest I get that vibe here.

An example of this reinforcing itself is the idea of having a laptop for IRC channel usage, however, if no one else in the audience is on IRC what's the point? Even if there were sockets there the only people that would be on IRC are the like minded, when the whole point of the exercise is to get out of whatever bubble you're in.

The successful superficially tech founders are actually really good at both games, but bridging those two worlds is a far rarer skill than it looks, and contributes to the scarcity of successful startups, but also the rarity of good technical management in large organisations.

Re: Thoughts on Startup School

#75

Post by DanBC »

selmnoo wrote: post #70
cperciva wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Leaving aside the semantics, I'd always begrudge any control I gave away after being 100% in charge for so long.

I don't understand either why many are suggesting you get a cofounder . You just need another person who can work on UI, branding, PR, etc. Don't give them any equity, don't give them any control over the innards of tarsnap, just pay them a handsome wage (for the handsome job that they'll do). p.s.: in my ideal world, you are every founder (doesn't partake in shitty, ethically-questionable growth-hacking techniques),…

> p.s.: in my ideal world, you are every founder (doesn't partake in shitty, ethically-questionable growth-hacking techniques), and your company is every company (offers a decidedly great service, no gimmicks)

Are you a Tarsnap customer?

Re: Thoughts on Startup School

#76

Post by neilk »

dfabulich wrote: post #11

I attended Startup School 2011; I regret wasting the day there. I thought that "Startup School" would be more like the "How to Start a Startup" lecture series that YC is running at Stanford. Instead, it was just a bunch of celebrities talking about their startup experiences; a concentrated shot of survival bias. There's nothing practical to learn from the Startup School talks. As for inspiration, I guess some people…

I've seen some Startup School talks and the simulations of office hours or a YC interview are by far the most useful content. (At least if you're sitting in your bedroom, watching videos. In person, it's probably about meeting people).

Alexis Ohanian, Reddit founder, just started a podcast where the content includes real-life office hours. http://www.nyrdradio.com/

Re: Thoughts on Startup School

#77

Post by jonny_eh »

weaponofchoice wrote: post #63
tlb wrote: post #31

Colin: I'm sorry we didn't deliver what you needed. YC's goal in selecting Startup School participants is to get a mix of deeply technical people and popularizers. The combination of those two skill sets makes a great startup. When I saw you at Startup School I was like, "Hey, it's cperciva! Maybe he'll find a co-founder who can sell and together they can make Tarsnap take over the backup business!" That would be a g…

Popularity hacker in 3...2... I bet the next 10 years will see a lot of celebrity-driven startups. Will.i.am, Tom Hanks, Justin Timberlake etc. Looking for your 3rd co-founder? Talk to your local celebrity agent. Something about the term 'popularizer' annoys me. Why not just call them 'marketers'. IMHO, the perfect startup team: 1 technical co-founder, 1 technical co-founder who loves analytics and online marketing,…

Like FunnyOrDie has Will Ferrel.

Re: Thoughts on Startup School

#78

Post by mhartl »

cperciva wrote: post #38
tlb wrote: post #31

Colin: I'm sorry we didn't deliver what you needed. YC's goal in selecting Startup School participants is to get a mix of deeply technical people and popularizers. The combination of those two skill sets makes a great startup. When I saw you at Startup School I was like, "Hey, it's cperciva! Maybe he'll find a co-founder who can sell and together they can make Tarsnap take over the backup business!" That would be a g…

Trevor: Thank you for replying. I hope you (and Jessica, and everybody else involved with Startup School) don't take what I've written personally -- I nearly didn't post it for exactly that reason, but decided in the end that you're all grown-ups who won't be offended by honest criticism. ;-) And thank you for your comments when we met -- talking to you was the highlight of the weekend for me (I didn't mention it in…

I don't like "outing" people, in case they didn't want their presence at an event to be widely known

I understand where you're coming from, but in the present context this is consideration bordering on madness. Trevor is one of the founding Y Combinator partners. How on Earth could it be "outing" him to note that he was at Startup School?

Re: Thoughts on Startup School

#79

Post by cperciva »

gcv wrote: post #65
cperciva wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trevor: Thank you for replying. I hope you (and Jessica, and everybody else involved with Startup School) don't take what I've written personally -- I nearly didn't post it for exactly that reason, but decided in the end that you're all grown-ups who won't be offended by honest criticism. ;-) And thank you for your comments when we met -- talking to you was the highlight of the weekend for me (I didn't mention it in…

> talking to you was the highlight of the weekend for me Sounds like attending was worth it for you, after all, and for the same main reason you noted in your post: networking.

We may be running into terminological variance here. By "networking" I meant meeting new people.

Re: Thoughts on Startup School

#80

Post by cperciva »

mhartl wrote: post #78
cperciva wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trevor: Thank you for replying. I hope you (and Jessica, and everybody else involved with Startup School) don't take what I've written personally -- I nearly didn't post it for exactly that reason, but decided in the end that you're all grown-ups who won't be offended by honest criticism. ;-) And thank you for your comments when we met -- talking to you was the highlight of the weekend for me (I didn't mention it in…

I don't like "outing" people, in case they didn't want their presence at an event to be widely known I understand where you're coming from, but in the present context this is consideration bordering on madness. Trevor is one of the founding Y Combinator partners . How on Earth could it be "outing" him to note that he was at Startup School?

I never assumed that every YC partner would be at every YC event. As far as I'm aware Trevor wasn't organizing Startup School, merely attending it; and PG (for example) didn't seem to be there at all beyond his appearance on stage.

I wouldn't say that Trevor was trying to go incognito, but he certainly didn't seem to be trying to make his presence obvious either.

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