Leonidas

Did they change the application deadline? I could have sworn the deadline to submit the startup was end of May, now it's July 6?

Some of you who applied to other programs besides the Y probably got invites during the summer to meet up with those people and other entrepreneurs. Anyone going?

If so, we should hold a mini get together or something. It'll be fun. Three trips planned in one summer, its a lot of money but it's not everyday you get the opportunity to meet exciting people

I've been learning Rails and I LOVE it. I can't stop coding, it's actually kind of "sick" since I get like 4 hours of sleep.

I have PG to blame because his whole advice on "learn to code" was so very true. I'm not a CS major (I did take a 'few'classes) but Rails really makes sense to me. Coding is just so..logical.

I'm sorry you're having difficulty finding a co-founder. If you're a student, try the university.

Y Combinator should really have a dedicated place for people to find co-founders since the 'co-founder' thread seems to be buried.

I'm helping my dad design a replacement for the Digital Signal Processor. Actually, it's already designed and it actually works through the Phase I testing. Talk about years of painfully drawing up electric engineering diagrams and deciphering electric engineering language to a way that you would understand it to draw the diagram and write the description out. It's like having a crash course on 4 years of EE education in a week. (I'm not an EE major). Not to mention making suggestions upon the improvement of the design and have your dad say "no it won't work" only to find out days later that your proposal actually works but your dad is just too proud to admit it. I think the closest he got to an offer was from Nokia but he chickened out and didn't pursue it. Sucks for him and especially for me who spent days finding a personal contact information to someone at Nokia.

Too bad, he's one of those guys who just likes to invents to see if it works. Not much of a 'start a company' guy...I think he just wants to sit back and enjoy the rest of his life as opposed to dealing with the politics of a company. 9 years on working on something and the fear of someone stealing your idea keeps you from sharing it to the world. It's a shame but oh well. It's his 'baby'

I have my own 'baby' project to work on.

I'm presenting the point that you shouldn't lump everyone into one category. If you notice the anti-MBA feeling on the forum that they are useless on a team.

Well, how would hackers feel to be lumped into the category of a "beast constrained by his class than a twelfth level paladin."

The point is: Don't lump people based on their degree

1. Technical yes but you will need someone who can find out every single competitor out there and find a way to make your product better.

2.In addition, you need to be able to find and talk to users who are using your competitor's product to find out what they're complaining about so that you can make it better.

You're probably thinking "a hacker" can do that. Ummmm..hackers have no problem talking to other hackers but how about talking to non-hackers? In addition, you need to make sure that your user interface is idiot proof to someone who isn't a programmer.

Another example of why you need people who understand the industry or your users -

Example: Awhile back there was a debate I had with somoene, can't remember his name so I will call him Mr.Citrus. Anyways, I stopped responding because he was too stubborn. Mr. C and his team are building a site that is a women-related site. Mr.C says that he is going to take on Monopoly X by building site Y. However, after looking at site Y, I noticed that it offers nothing better than Monopoly X. In addition, if Mr.C had people on his team who understood this industry or knew where to look or who to ask, he would have known some juicy gossip related to his competitor that would have assisted him to get acquired quicker or beat out his competitor. What kind of gossip can a non-hacker give him? Well things like:

1. Monopoly X has a partnership with several women magazines in which the editor of that magazine would never do an article who is a competitor of Monopoly X. So that cuts out an avenue of obtaining users.

2. The recent acquisitions Monopoly X had acquired as well as the new venture Monopoly X had recently branched out too would provide a glimpse of where the competitor is heading and who/what he just bought. It would have helped Mr. Citrus predict his competitor's next move

3. Understanding what Monopoly x is missing, and fill in that gap or void because currently, there is a HUGE chunk monopoly X is missing but because Mr. Citrus and his team compose of only hackers who are attempting to penetrate a women related industry, he doesn't see it. And unfortunately, asking your sister or wife for their opinion isn't always helpful b/c if they're not into the whole web 2.0, kill your competitor attitude, they won't offer much opinion.

And that is why you would need a non-hacker...on your team...

Disclaimer: This does not apply to dimwitted, moronic non-hackers who have an idea but don't know the competitors or offer programmers suggestions, opinions, or even know how they can make it better or why something is better

What do you have to offer to the team of hackers?

Are you somewhat technical savvy? Do you know every single competitor out there and now how to make your product better to slaughter them?

I've heard a lot of entrepreneurs say "I can help with marketing"...um well at the beginning there's no marketing because there's no product. So you need to think of a way to help your team out before the "marketing" phase.

What a great forum. I'm deciding b/w a Mac or a the Z. Looks like everyone really loves their MAC.

My T40 is dying.

Guy Kawaski just invested in something similar to this didn't he?

Business 2.0 Page 25 May 2007 Edition

Has an article mentioning Y Combinator, TechStars, HitForge, Curious Office Partners, and Obvious. Focus is upon bringing together engineers, sharing resources, and cranking out a bunch of web companies for quick acquisitions.

The article should have really focused more on Y combinator than HitForge as the Y did come out with this concept first.

Digg and Elance seemed to turned out okay despite being founded by non-hackers

I like the idea of IRC. You don't have to continuously chat there, you could just sit IDLE in there and chime in whenever.

I'm a huge Gamer and because of IRC, I got to know a lot of good gamers. So lets do a Y Comb IRC. It's a good way to get to know people, especially if you're not in the Boston Area. You really have nothing to lose as you will always have the Y Comb threads to read. For those who aren't interested, you don't need to join IRC..purely optional.

So lets pick a channel..jey's channel?

This is just really all very ugly. Justin should get one of the 'business' more suave guys on his team to talk to the landlord about it and point out all the great publicity the building's getting from the Y teams...if indeed they still want to stay there. The landlord's a business guy. In the tech industry, hackers rule but in the 'real' world, it's all business.

Also, while it's very sweet that his loyal fans have put up a site to not evict Justin, I have a feeling Justin and the gang is about to get slapped with a defamation court order if the landlord finds out about it. Ah, the things you can sue people over

Maybe the owners are disgruntled Y Rejects?

I don't quite understand why anyone would not want "free" press. The only thing I could think of is perhaps 'doing business' from the property might break a 'zoning' law of a sort.

Launch immediately. It's your idea so you have a better understanding and the ability to innovate much faster than she ever could.

Who cares if she was 'first' to do it...just make one that is better.

Someone mentioned partnering up with her - don't do it. "Fool me once, shame on you, Fool me twice, shame on me"

What a shame, a friend messing up another friend. This industry is definitely more cutt-throat than I thought.

That's great! Well, at least for those of us on here who have a medical background.

At least you got to meet the Y team and the other cool Y applicants.

Keep working on your startup and best wishes!

"MySpace by FaceBook" -- that's kind of arguable because MySpace was acquired and I really don't know who's making more money than whom. What about Digg? As for Google eating those companies you listed up..heck Google eats everyone up.

Having a hacker as a co-founder is always better than hiring which I stated. The point is, having a team of just solely hackers is not always better than having a team of a non-hacker and hacker.

You could just put up a simple forum and people can just enter their "Idea" as a topic on the forum.

Good luck to you. I'm nervous for your guys! The Y team seems to be people you can talk to, I guess that's why they're so attractive to entrepreneurs.

Either way, very exciting

I've thought about this for a bit and I really don't know who needs who more so I like to think a non-hacker needs a hacker both equally. For example, if a non-hacker can't find a hacker, he'll go hire one. Hiring one might not be the best approach but if you have the money to spend, why not? Of course it's always better to have a hacker as as cofounder. Now, a hacker - can be business savvy so he wouldn't need a non-hacker.

But lets think about this, you have a hacker who thinks he doesn't need a non-hacker. Well, most of the applications that hackers most likely build is for other hackers. When you speak to VCs, how many of them are hackers? Or a bunch of hacker guys building a 'fashion site'...uh what do guys know about fashion. In this case, I would go find a non-hacker chick to join the team b/c she'll know all the avenues and forum girls go to - marketing power.

You can build, but what you build won't always get users. I know there seems to be a view in Silicon Valley that MBAs are morons but it's wrong to lump them all into one group. I could easily say that a lot of hackers, while brilliant, may build something really 'cool' but so entirely 'useless.'

A hacker and non-hacker team is the best combination. You both need each other equally. There's no "I" in "Team."

I think that it's great there's something like Y in Europe for startups. Anything that helps to promote entrepreneurs are great. The 'issue' here is that YEurope, the "Y" implies that you're associated with YCombinator...which is kind of misleading. Secondly, the questions are exactly the same as the Y right down to the period. The program could have reworded it, took out irrelevant questions or add some more like TechStars did. Thirdly, the design of the site looks relatively similar to that of Y's with the huge sliding picture in the front.

If you want to use the questions right down to the period, might have been better if you emailed and asked the Y team if you could do that.

I know its weird and you're probably thinking, who cares if they copy right down to the period? Its giving entrepreneurs a chance. Yes, but at least give credit where credit is due.

1. Would I have fun working on it? 2. Would people use it? 3. What's been done and how do I make it better?

The book was very well put together. I learned the most from the HotMail guy.

YC news is really the best thing that has happened. You know when I got rejected from Y, I was upset. But learning from the rejection, I finally found a 'hacker' to add to the team and now we're brainstorming away.

So yes, the Y, its news and 'rejection' was a very good thing. Not to mention reading some really great comments from the community itself.

Good luck guys! Imagine in your head nailing the interview and you'll be fine

Remember to be flexible with changing your ideas

Cheerios

Hrm

I don't know how they're going to compete with theknot.com. I've thought of this idea before and searched out the competitors. Every women and girl out there knows theknot is where you go to plan weddings. theknot is featured in every women magazine available. Heck, I don't plan on getting married anytime soon and I even know you go to theknot.

But hey, it's cool they're trying new things out but they seriously need talk to women before diving into a woman industry related area.

Justin.tv is amusing to watch from time to time but I feel bad for Justin sometimes. Just because he's in his early 20's, finding a lady you really like and exposing her to that kind of stuff...must tear a guy apart.

I'm glad he turned his camera off - he respects the girl enough to do so. Very cool.

There are plenty of ways to catch a viewer's attention, their team just needs to think more outside of the box.

Current team: 2 graduating doctors, 1 programmer (xml protocol web development, statistical programming)

Need: Programmer who wants to take a risk for the summer and apply with us to the Boston summer VC program for students and graduating 2007 students; need to be quirky, fun, passionate about programming; strength (.php)

What: Creating medical related application that is internet related

Applying for: Boston Summer VC Program for 3 months

Contact: email me (email in profile) and lets talk :)

Deadline is April 19th so you need to respond by April 15th