The Disruptor In The Valley

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/1108/best-small-companies-10-y-combinator-paul-graham-disruptor.html

by andujo • 16 years ago

197 44 16 years ago

forbes.com

trefn• 16 years ago

of course the birkenstocks would be featured prominently...

jedberg2• 16 years ago

I'm surprised they got Paul in pants -- must have been a cold day to get him to not wear shorts.

pg3• 16 years ago

They said I had to. They also supplied the shirt.

edanm3• 16 years ago

"Graham met Morris, an authority on the Unix computer language"

Sigh...

Great article though. And a wonderful portrait of pg!

dlo• 16 years ago

Another one: "Y Combinator--a computer term for a program that runs other programs."

Heh, sure.

Matt_Cutts• 16 years ago

On the other hand, the explanation of convertible notes and valuation caps was clear and helpful.

Great article overall.

eru• 16 years ago

If you take expressions in the lambda calculus to be programs, then that's not too bad. You don't even have to be liberal in your interpretation of `run'.

Of course "computer term" is a bad choice. It's mathematics (or its hyped subfield of computer science).

redwoods3• 16 years ago

Great article tho I worry that it makes raising seed $$ sound easy.

tlb• 16 years ago

It is easy. Y Combinator's application process is designed to take only an hour or two, though it can take much longer if you have to figure out what your company is going to make at the same time. But you have to figure that out anyway -- it's not really a difficulty of raising seed money.

Y Combinator is very selective, but there are many other incubator / tech accelerator programs where the bar is not so high.

projectileboy• 16 years ago

But even failing the YC application would be a valuable learning experience - if YC won't invest in you, you'd do well to consider why.

meltzerj• 16 years ago

Never knew Paul Graham began as an artist. I'm not that surprised though. Art and programming are both forms of creative expression.

danilocampos2• 16 years ago

Paul mentions these origins in his essay on Taste:

http://paulgraham.com/taste.html

After "Why Nerds Are Unpopular", it's one of my favorite things he's written.

"At an art school where I once studied, the students wanted most of all to develop a personal style. But if you just try to make good things, you'll inevitably do it in a distinctive way, just as each person walks in a distinctive way. Michelangelo was not trying to paint like Michelangelo. He was just trying to paint well; he couldn't help painting like Michelangelo."

jmtame• 16 years ago

'why nerds are unpopular' was the first paul graham essay i read in high school (as a sophomore who moved to a new high school). got me hooked =]

harscoat2• 16 years ago

Le goût est le nec plus utlra de l'intelligence/Lautréamont (means sthg like 'Taste is intelligence brought to its highest intensity') _ Original quote "Le goût est la qualité fondamentale qui résume toutes les autres qualités. C’est le nec plus ultra de l’intelligence. (Comte de Lautréamont, Poésies I, 1870)"

herdrick• 16 years ago

http://www.paulgraham.com/hp.html

blasdel• 16 years ago

http://idlewords.com/2005/04/dabblers_and_blowhards.htm

hacker101• 16 years ago

He is not only the Valley Disruptor, he will change how smart kids pursue their education, career ,,,,

sachinag• 16 years ago

"Graham concedes that individual YC partners have invested in a few startups that hadn't been able to attract much outside funding."

Interesting that Paul, Trevor, Robert, and Jessica (maybe Harj and Alexis now?) will backstop companies that can't raise outside money after YC. It's like the exact opposite of the signaling problem.

jedberg2• 16 years ago

It's not just them. YC has produced a good number of qualified investors at this point. ;)

pg3• 16 years ago

The first couple years I used to participate in a lot of the startups' angel rounds. Now I hardly ever do. I didn't invest in any of the startups from the most recent batch, for example.

edanm3• 16 years ago

Why the change?

omfut• 16 years ago

Hacker news is part of my daily diet and i have to admit that PG is Rock star. Though the amount of money he funds to YC startups is minuscule, the end result is unbelievable. I have been in the startup industry for more than a decade and to me it seems like the YC funding is more like paid mentoring.

gridspy• 16 years ago

I imagine that a great number of people who hang out on HN feel the same way, myself included.

It is great to see PG giving back to the community in such a sustainable, profitable way. He has created a product that entrepreneurs want.

Keyframe4• 16 years ago

Justin.tv, now the Web's biggest portal for live video

umm, what? Is Justin.tv bigger than Ustream and Livestream? I seriously doubt that.

ig1• 16 years ago

Yes it is. Check Alexa or Compete, Justin.tv is ahead by a significant margin.

Keyframe4• 16 years ago

I checked google trends: http://www.google.com/trends?q=justin.tv,+ustream,+livestrea...

I didn't know that, if true - serious props, since ustream seems to be a whole lot more.

jwecker3• 16 years ago

Ustream is often higher in unique views (but not always, and not currently), but Justin.tv has people stay on site almost twice as long, and has almost half the bounce rate. It certainly pumps far more video in and out (at one point at least more than even youtube, but I don't think we've measured that in a while). Livestream is a distant third. Ustream spends a lot of money projecting their image, while we just keep making sure that our product is several times better.

Keyframe4• 16 years ago

Thanks for info, I really had no idea. Ustream just, well, seemed like they are BIG (good marketing then). I have posted this ~17 days ago, but I had no response: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1755458

I even emailed you guys, but got no response whatsoever. Ustream and Livestream both responded.

harscoat2• 16 years ago

Wondering if the painting behind PG on the picture could have been one he painted himself?

Towle_• 16 years ago

PG looks very Roger Sterling in that photo there.

The Disruptor In The Valley

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