Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a mindset. You believe it, you become it :).
How awesome would that be if I could just believe that I am the King of England and so become it.
You certainly can make that happen. Psychiatrists see this every day.
What We Look for in Founders
81–90 of 188 posts
Re: What We Look for in Founders
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
See, I think that's an example of the "bad hack" because it has the potential of damaging people, e.g. what if I was standing in that line for 15mins ahead of you and because you took that box of pizza, just when my turn comes the pizza runs out (you think it's unlikely? Then you haven't been to the wild world of college-student-after-event-pizza-eating). My definition of a hack is to add value to the an existing sys…
> My definition of a hack is to add value to the an existing system by modifying a property, not changing a zero-sum situation in your favor. That seems like a nice definition of hack, but I don't think it's completely accurate. For example, if a college only accepts a certain number of people and you come up with clever way to get accepted, that's changing a zero-sum situation in your favor, and I would still call i…
I was at Startup School and did this hack as well (grabbing a pizza box) because it was obvious that there were plenty of other boxes to go around. It wouldn't work in a situation where there was a limited amount, like mentioned before, but it was a good hack for that specific situation.
Also, people who grabbed boxes often walked up the line and offered pizza. Hack + good deed.
Re: What We Look for in Founders
#83It is pretty hard to change who you are at the core. But the thing about it is that you have your own way of succeeding. You see at some point in life, you more than likely have succeeded.
Instead of determination, you have passion. Instead of flexibility, you are a perfectionist. Instead of imagination, you can communicate well. Instead of being naughty, you are efficient. Instead of a partner, you are well connected.
The things that pg talks about takes years to develop, especially naughtiness and partnership. So instead of spending two years building a friendship to apply to yc, just go build the business. Inevitably, someone will want to join you when it is finished built.
So yes, if you are undetermined, inflexible, unimaginative, goodie to shoe, friendless, go build your dream.
Let a thousand flowers bloom.
Re: What We Look for in Founders
#84Huh, first thing I thought was "can I go back and change my answer to that 'describe something you hacked..' question?"
There are so many ways to interpret that question from the way the worded it.
Re: What We Look for in Founders
#85"As soon as we heard they'd been supporting themselves by selling Obama and McCain branded breakfast cereal, they were in. And it turned out the idea was on the right side of crazy after all."
How about Sarah Palin tea?
Re: What We Look for in Founders
#86I'm still skeptical about the whole co-founder thing.
Sure, maybe if you're building youtube or justin.tv, and you need to talk to investors or talk face-to-face to potential clients or make deals with giant media corporations gasp then you probably can't do it as a single-founder.
But, there is a large space of problems that can be solved by a single founder.
But I suppose if you're determined enough you won't be bothered too much by people telling you must have a co-founder.
So instead of looking for a co-founder, look for problems that are small enough to be solve-able by you, but hard enough that a big company can't solve it properly.
Re: What We Look for in Founders
#87I think YC should consider removing the "describe your idea" portion of the application. I can imagine that there's some value in it for the reviewers, but I'm pretty sure its presence inevitably causes applicants to over value it (and under value the people portion). Every time a YC partner gives advice about applying, emphasis is always made about how important the team is (as opposed to the idea). The data might be signaling something here.
If there was nowhere to describe your idea in the application then it would be obvious how important the team is.
Re: What We Look for in Founders
#88Re: What We Look for in Founders
#89#friendship
Maybe you should ask, if you don't have a co-founder, why? And what would you look for in a good 1st hire/ partner?
Re: What We Look for in Founders
#90#naughtiness
if you are looking for a less than kosher time a founder hacked the system. maybe you should ask for that.
i know personally would have put a more vulnerable answer up there.