A Y Combinator Story - What's the interview like?

http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/001679

by jamiequint • 19 years ago

22 13 19 years ago

danielha2• 19 years ago

I read this a little while ago. It's a really good story, especially the dialogue sprinkled throughout. I could almost hear the conversations as written, even "4 of 4"'s.

Leonidas• 19 years ago

Nice story. I like how the Y Team talks over the ideas and propose improvements to you. Seems like a really good environment to be in, everyone with energy and ideas feeding off of other's people energy and ideas.

danielha2• 19 years ago

Productive advice was continually coming at Aaron even before an offer was extended. Pretty cool, if you ask me.

python_kiss3• 19 years ago

This made me laugh, lol:

"Paul explains. 'Haven't you seen the Segway he built?' We walk into the other room. 'See, this is typical Trevor-logic. He wants to lose weight so he starts biking to work, but biking is too easy so he teaches himself to unicycle. Then when he builds his own Segway, he decides that two wheels are redundant, so he builds a self-balancing unicycle." :p

I am wondering why it costs $1000 to incorporate in Delaware? That is quite a lot compared to how much it costs us in Canada.

davidw2• 19 years ago

Perhaps that includes some fees for lawyers and things of that ilk? You can go to a lot of those web sites and get incorporated for much cheaper.

Never having done this before, though, I don't know what the difference is between an el cheapo site, an expensive law firm, or much of anything else.

python_kiss3• 19 years ago

That must be it. I incorporated my dad's company as a sole-proprietor and it was dirt cheap. I am guessing the process gets complicated when more than one founder is involved. Blood thirsty lawyers!

zkinion• 19 years ago

Delaware has a long, clear history of case law, which is why many companies are incorporated there. Alot are also incorporated in Nevada (my home state). There it's like 200$ total. For a start-up, you normally don't need a whole lot of "lawyer juice" in the equation. The forms are very simple. You basically fill out the articles of incorporation document, then fill out a listing of officers/board members (initial listing of officers), which can be changed later. You also need to have a resident agent, which doesn't need to be a physical place, so long as lawsuit stuff can get there. Many places offer resident agencies as a service for as little as 99$. The deputy just needs to be able to deliver you some lawsuit/whatever. You send it all off to the secretary of state in whatever state you wish to incorporate, then in a few weeks later you get a copy of the forms back plus a certificate signed by the secretary of state saying that you're incorporated under that state. Normally all states have a website where you can look up information about a particular corporation. Every year you have to pay a few hundred bucks or so to rewnew the initial listing of officers. It gets a little more complex if you have investors and the company is initially shared between several people/other companies, but overall, its really that simple.

Delaware might charge more because of the simple fact that so many companies incorporate there. Finally, those "incorporate" services that charge a few grand basically give little advice and just fill the paper work out for you. They take advantage of the naive.

dougw• 19 years ago

"We manage to get back around 1AM and Im stunned to see that kids are sitting and talking and playing ping-pong. Whats wrong with them?, I wonder. I just came back from an arduous journey and theyre playing like its nothing! I head up to my room, but nobody seems to notice a thing. My roommates are also just sitting at their computers, as if everything is normal"

I know the feeling. My friends and family do not understand my desire to start a company. The rush of creation that one expereiences when they are working for themselves makes all else seem insignificant and minor. Well put.

A Y Combinator Story - What's the interview like?

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