How Not to Die
paulgraham.com
How Not to Die
1–10 of 154 posts
Re: How Not to Die
#2thank you, i needed the boost, perfect timing. ;-D
Re: How Not to Die
#3"I only wrote it down because I only had two hours before dinner and think fastest while writing."
Hmm.. I wonder if writing can help one to think through software design faster, too.
I suppose that writing consists of actual programming, though.
Re: How Not to Die
#4"I only wrote it down because I only had two hours before dinner and think fastest while writing ." Hmm.. I wonder if writing can help one to think through software design faster, too. I suppose that writing consists of actual programming, though.
It definitely helps, as does drawing.
Re: How Not to Die
#5>> We've done this five times now, and we've seen a bunch of startups die. About 10 of them so far.
So, not counting this batch (19), 10 out of 39 [1] startups died so far. So, the survival rate is 72%. Not bad! I know that some more YC companies might die at some point in the future, but the numbers so far seem impressive.
[1] The following article quotes 58 companies funded in all: http://dondodge.typepad.com/the_next_big_thing/2007/08/paul-...
Re: How Not to Die
#6[deleted]
Re: How Not to Die
#7Very good, made me wish I had not given up.
Re: How Not to Die
#8Interesting to hear about this since many of us wonder what ends up happening. Kind of an unappealing subject -- nobody wants to read Founders at Rest, right?
I guess startups are like old soldiers, they just fade away. Anyone want memamp.com? It went to unregistered status a week or two ago.
But this was a good handling of the subject, and good for founders to hear. What I think is great about YC's structure is that it gives startups feedback and deadlines, and I agree that just getting those is enough to keep startups going. Someone should start a startup that just calls people once a week and talks with them about what they got done! It would work even better if the caller was of higher status, but it would work well enough with friends.
But seriously, for startups this would work great. Get together with a group and make a weekly appointment for each person to call another each week and chat about what they're doing, preferably with a little demo. I'm sure one of you is already thinking of how to make this a Facebook app, but I think a personal phone call would work best.
P.S.: "Francisco."
Re: How Not to Die
#9So we're all experiencing the same thing?
That's relieving to hear.
Re: How Not to Die
#10Interesting to hear about this since many of us wonder what ends up happening. Kind of an unappealing subject -- nobody wants to read Founders at Rest, right? I guess startups are like old soldiers, they just fade away. Anyone want memamp.com? It went to unregistered status a week or two ago. But this was a good handling of the subject, and good for founders to hear. What I think is great about YC's structure is that…
I think this is a good idea...
>>I'm sure one of you is already thinking of how to make this a Facebook app, but I think a personal phone call would work best.
Actually, my first thought was meetup group in a certain area.