JL: Why I Do YC

http://www.foundersatwork.com/1/post/2008/07/why-i-do-yc.html

by theoneill • 18 years ago

130 42 18 years ago

wumi• 18 years ago

JL: are there any specific people or companies (that have come through the YC pipeline) that you are most proud of? (or maybe this is too much like picking favorites)

jl• 18 years ago

I don't think I should pick favorites. But it would be difficult even if I wanted to, since I've seen so many of the founders overcome big challenges.

edw5192• 18 years ago

In a startup, you choose to work with people you think are talented. At a big company, you're stuck working with whoever else they've hired.

What a great observation. So obvious, yet hardly ever mentioned.

I'd add...

In a startup, you choose to work on what you want, how you want. At a big company, you're stuck working on whatever they want, however they want it.

crescendo• 18 years ago

In a startup, you choose to work on what you want, how you want.

This depends on what kind of startup and also what stage it's in. In our case, my partner and I are still in the mode of trying to break away from consulting work to develop our own products.

tx2• 18 years ago

With all due respect, I am growing a bit tired of deliberate avoiding startup pitfalls, when we talk about them here on HN.

Yes, I much prefer working in a small company for all these glorified (and popular here) reasons but it doesn't mean startups are good for everybody. In fact I believe startups do not appeal to real hackers, guys who we quote and admire. My limited personal experience confirms this too: smart people I know work at IBM, Motorola, Google and Microsoft and they're HAPPY.

And this is why:

Let's face it: in a startup, most often than not you're working on something trivial, technically simple, something that can be "released often, released early". Some minor "incremental improvement", and you've got PG books saying "it's OK". At a startup you (most probably) will be working on something that most of your friends will call "stupid shit" behind your back. Let's not pretend this elephant isn't there. There are exceptions to every rule, but it's a rule nevertheless.

And this is something I miss the most: an opportunity to work on hard problems, not necessarily even succeeding: this is why startups almost never try. And this is why my ideal "exit strategy" is to cash out (some day) and spend my days in academia.

Wow... This was very sudden (even for me) and perhaps misplaced rant.

pg2• 18 years ago

There seems a bit of a contradiction here. You say that real hackers wouldn't work on startups-- that the really smart people are in academia. And yet a large percentage of the CS faculty at MIT and Stanford have done or are doing startups. There's a joke that you can't get tenure at Stanford without having done a startup.

You're also confusing exploratory programming with doing trivial work. Making a quick version 1 and then iterating works for both big and small problems. It just depends how long you keep iterating.

It's true that a lot of the work you do in startups is crap work, and that a lot of startups only take on trivial problems. But this is also true in research.

ivankirigin2• 18 years ago

I've been exposed to the robotics academic world in depth. Even academics I know are growing tired of the academic mode of work. There is a persistent and growing respect for making real and complete systems. This it often antithetical to the unit of academic progress: published results.

A great test for whether you have a real system is whether you can sell it. That's why iRobot is so awesome. They make robots that people actually use.

Make something people want :)

SwellJoe3• 18 years ago

My limited personal experience confirms this too: smart people I know work at IBM, Motorola, Google and Microsoft and they're HAPPY.

Selection bias is funny that way.

But, I do know several famously good hackers (four, to be precise), and while three of them work with no equity for a mid-stage startup and the fourth works for Canonical, which seems sort of startup-y, none have ever started startups independently.

edw5192• 18 years ago

Nice rant, tx. Now let me tell you why is does NOT resonate at all with me.

I do not think that what we read about here at hn is a random sample of "hackerdom" in the world today. I think that my background is probably much closer to that.

I have done work for over 80 companies, only a few were in the software business. Most did something else and needed some form of IT to do it. I have sat in the worst of cubicles, attended the most lame meetings, and worked on mind-numbingly boring "projects". Just last week I rewrote a 16 year old batch program that was taking 25 minutes to run. I found 12 unresolved bugs; the program has 25% LOC and runs in 3 minutes. My experience may not be the norm for everyone here, but this project has been the norm for me.

The only time I have ever worked on something interesting was either as a contractor with the clout to change the agenda or as an independent software producer providing a solution I already knew they needed.

In my experience, the state of application software in small, midsize, and enterprise businesses is stunningly deplorable. These people desperately need good software and don't know where to find it and have no clue how to produce it themselves.

Maybe you don't think that call center apps that get the agent off the phone in 2 minutes, accounting apps that deliver exactly the info that management needs, or an inventory app that actually allows you to change a SKU are "big problems", but I do. While so many are working on a realistic robot, a social network, or a rocket to Saturn, somebody has to stick around and grab the low hanging fruit that's everywhere.

Then I come to a forum like this where the thinking is "Just Do It" (sorry Nike) and it puts me in the perfect mindset to do what I've always wanted. hn is the antecdote to corporate malaise.

jl said, "I want to give other people a better opportunity than I had in my professional career."

I say, "I want to give myself a better opportunity than I have had in my professional career."

None of this was available as recently as 10 years ago. But now, thanks to modern technology and hn style thinking, I can turn all the little wrongs I've seen over the years into my "big problems" to work on.

I'm doing a startup in order to work on what I want.

</rantResponse>

hello_moto7• 18 years ago

I don't want to sound negative, but that sentence can also be reversed:

"I can't work well with other people. Therefore, I must choose wisely whom I should work with..."

For sure, most of the time you're the only person you can work well with.

At a big company, you learn how to work with other people whether they're considered "match" or "not-match" with you. It's a life-lesson how to treat people regardless their attitude.

I'm currently working at a startup that is owned by someone else. I'm still stuck working on whatever my boss asked me to do, and however my boss wants it.

culley• 18 years ago

psst... I work at a large corporation. I choose who I work with. I choose my own projects. I work 40 hours a week for a good salary. I have good health care (in America).

I do have to describe my projects in terms that matter to my corporation, but how is that any different than pitching to VCs?

danielha• 18 years ago

And you can really feel all of that sentiment when working with Jessica and the rest of Y Combinator. They're not just doing it because it's the next-generation, paradigm-shifting, game-changing micro-investment model (I call that buzzword-dashing).

It's also one of the reasons why, with all these similar funds cropping up, YC cannot be completely duplicated.

gruseom5• 18 years ago

It could be duplicated a lot better if people didn't drop the most important thing, which to my mind is the part about helping creative people make better lives for themselves than the default paths through the soulless wasteland usually afford.

I wondered for a bit if this was unfair. Motivation isn't something you can turn on or off, so it's not within the duplicators' control to duplicate that. But it is within their control to observe better. If I were going to make a YC clone and I didn't have that piece, I'd think twice about bothering.

Incidentally, I'm just basing this on what I've read. I haven't met any of the people involved.

gruseom5• 18 years ago

I spent 13 years in corporate America, mostly because I didn't understand what my other options were. I was hypnotized...

I don't want young people to endure corporate America like I did if they don't want to.

I find these statements very moving. Perhaps it's because they speak simply from deep experience.

hello_moto7• 18 years ago

The same can be said to "startup in America".

"I spent x years working for various [failed] startups, mostly because I hoped to get rich and to avoid corporate Americas. I was hypnotized... I don't want young people to endure [working for 80 hours and eating ramen] at startups like I did if they don't want to".

gruseom5• 18 years ago

It can be said, but I disagree that the statement has the same significance either way. Of course you can hypnotize yourself about startup environments too - I was just commenting on this (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=237891). But nearly all the enormous pressure of social conformity is on the other side, so the hypnotic pull of the corporate mainstream has no counterpart here. Many people believe they have no choice but to work at a corporate job. Far fewer believe they have no choice but to work at a startup.

Also, we're not talking about having a startup job. We're talking about founding a startup around something you yourself find creatively fulfilling, something that is worth eating ramen for. That's a big difference. Eating ramen to fulfill somebody else's dream (and I've done that) doesn't feel very good. We're talking about being free to do work of one's own - and to own one's work.

rguzman• 18 years ago

I felt a little sanctimonious afterward (since I definitely hope YC doesn't turn out to be a non-profit)

I realize that this is sensitive information and you guys may not want to share, but I'll ask anyway. Has YC broken even, yet? Is it close? Nowhere near?

SwellJoe3• 18 years ago

The general vibe I've always gotten is that it roughly breaks even, so far. Jessica and pg have both asserted this in the past, in articles or in conversation.

But, that was a year ago...and with Loopt still iterating and signing on new providers and creating new services, Xobni still growing and getting pretty monstrous press, and at least two or three other potential IPOs (or at least >$50 million acquisitions) in the making, it's definitely too early to say what kind of money YC will make. If I were an investor, there are several former YC companies that I would like a stake in, even at a valuation much higher than what YC bought in at. The average exit in the valley, according to one of the speakers at Startup School this year, happens seven years after founding. On that timescale, all of the YC companies are still very young.

hello_moto7• 18 years ago

Only time will tell if these young-ins have the patience to wait that long (7 years).

echamussy• 18 years ago

I come from a country where there is very little investment in technology and almost no innovation happening. I hope one day I will have the financial freedom to do something similar to YC there because I strongly believe there are many talented people waiting for opportunities and so many places where technology and innovation could be extremely helpful.

So I just want to say thanks for what YC does. It changes people's lives and inspires others which I believe is something extremely satisfying and something to feel immensely proud of.

JL: Why I Do YC

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