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>There are hundreds of other “accelerators” worldwide that have replicated YC’s ... Nonsense. The article authors are so very wrong. There will be literally ze

by vdaniuk 11y ago

>There are hundreds of other “accelerators” worldwide that have replicated YC’s ... Nonsense. The article authors are so very wrong. There will be literally zero replicators of YC until someone replicates the most influential open tech community/media that is HN. A competitive advantage that is truly hard to copy. That's like a basic fact from real world startups 101.

robotresearcher 11y ago
How does HN significantly advantage YC's startups over others?
- smt88 11y ago
  Only YC companies are allowed to post jobs on HN. You could imagine that HN is a direct solution to what many people consider that hardest problem startups have to solve: hiring good engineers.
  - jacquesm 11y ago
    > Only YC companies are allowed to post jobs on HN. That's factually incorrect. Only YC companies are allowed to post job ads at any time and as separate threads. But once per month any company can post job ads on HN, the 'who is hiring' threads on the first of the month.
    - smt88 11y ago
      Ok, let me rephrase that. Only YC companies are available on the "jobs" tab at the top of this, and every, HN page. Only YC companies can be the original post, instead of a comment. YC job postings are the only links that are not subject to comments/criticism. The original point is that HN serves a very useful purpose for YC companies that it doesn't serve for non-YC companies.
- eloff 11y ago
  It's a hiring advantage for YC startups, as well it's publicity for YC in general, putting the YC brand in front of people who apply to accelerators. Why do I know a lot about YC? Because I read hacker news and there's a lot of stories here about YC and YC companies. What do I know about their competitors? Almost nothing. So it's a huge advantage.
- wuschel 11y ago
  It is possibly one of the most diversified tech communities on the planet. As such it attracts talent. At the end, talent is your most valuable raw material as an accelerator/startup. HN pulls techies/hackers like a magnet. In a way, it was the internet exposure to YC/HN/pg's essays that brought me into the startup world. And in a way, it was always my aspiration to go to Mountain View and talk to those people that gave me that exposure. :)
  - Frondo 11y ago
    Not snark, not sarcasm, not nitpicking, actual genuine curiosity (because that'd be really encouraging if it were true!).....How do you know how diverse this community is?
    - smt88 11y ago
      It may not be demographically diverse, but it definitely is intellectually diverse. I've seen threads where people hard-core nerded out to the following topics: - any/all programming languages - processors (anything on silicon, really) - tractors - genetics - Chinese law - meteorology - geology The list goes on...
      - wuschel 11y ago
        This. Of course I would love to see HN data, but I believe that there is a fair amount of users that are not located anywhere near Silicon Valley. An indicator of this would be the fact that many people I know from the EU startup scene have an HN account. Different age group, background, and profession. Of course, the sample size is not that large here.
      - spdionis 11y ago
        And don't forget hard boiled eggs!! I was amazed at the popularity of that one...
mgalka 11y ago
HN is awesome, and I imagine very hard to copy (Union Square Ventures tried). But I don't see how it gives the accelerator such a big advantage.
- smt88 11y ago
  See my comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10517209 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10517209 I'm not sure if it creates "such a big advantage", but it's absolutely an advantage. I never see job postings by non-YC companies because I'm not looking for them. I do see YC job postings at least 5 times per week. It's all because of HN.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
denniskane 11y ago
HN is like a realtime electronic marketplace -- or information exchange -- for young tech companies in that an issue can arise and be resolved, for better or worse, all in the space of 24 hours. I think the recent case of LiveCoding.tv is a perfect example of this, because a user was having problems getting her account deleted and posted a thread about it here. A whirlwind of activity started up, within which a cofounder responded, as well as the president of YC. They both were actively looking for the CEO so that he could resolve the issue, and when he eventually popped up into the thread, a clusterfuck of absolutely biblical proportions ensued. What people saw was the obvious mudslinging between parties, but what they didn't necessarily see was all of the cold, numeric computation going on behind the scenes whenever posts were being up- and down-voted, and karma points were being won and lost. Say whatever you want about the validity of these kinds of emotionally/psychologically derived numbers, but the point is that they are realtime data points concerning large numbers of highly speculative investments, and they could not reasonably be ascertained in any other way. When I was watching that whole thing play out just like a live sporting event, I was refreshing the profile page of the CEO in question, and his karma points seemed to be dropping like some kind of flash crash in the NASDAQ. Some may say that it isn't in the best interest of YC to have so much publicity when these kinds of things happen, but I think the point is that it is always ultimately in everyone's best interest for the truth, no matter what it is, to be uncovered as quickly as possible, and framed within a language that is as objective as possible. I can only imagine what kind of machine learning might be going on behind the scenes at YC, involving all of these data points that are so intimately connected to known human beings, many of whom are so intimately involved with the insanely dynamic economic activity that is starting up a tech company in Silicon Valley.
- Zephyr314 11y ago
  For those who missed it the first time around this is the post referenced: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10486476 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10486476
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- brianchu 11y ago
chasb 11y ago
When you're actually in YC, Hacker News is regarded as a hype machine and something to be ignored, for the most part. You're basically told: Focus on the real stuff, not the hype machine. Hunker down, ignore HN and the press, and focus on making something people want.

by vdaniuk 11y ago

robotresearcher 11y ago

How does HN significantly advantage YC's startups over others?

smt88 11y ago
Only YC companies are allowed to post jobs on HN. You could imagine that HN is a direct solution to what many people consider that hardest problem startups have to solve: hiring good engineers.
- jacquesm 11y ago
  > Only YC companies are allowed to post jobs on HN. That's factually incorrect. Only YC companies are allowed to post job ads at any time and as separate threads. But once per month any company can post job ads on HN, the 'who is hiring' threads on the first of the month.
  - smt88 11y ago
    Ok, let me rephrase that. Only YC companies are available on the "jobs" tab at the top of this, and every, HN page. Only YC companies can be the original post, instead of a comment. YC job postings are the only links that are not subject to comments/criticism. The original point is that HN serves a very useful purpose for YC companies that it doesn't serve for non-YC companies.
eloff 11y ago
It's a hiring advantage for YC startups, as well it's publicity for YC in general, putting the YC brand in front of people who apply to accelerators. Why do I know a lot about YC? Because I read hacker news and there's a lot of stories here about YC and YC companies. What do I know about their competitors? Almost nothing. So it's a huge advantage.
wuschel 11y ago
It is possibly one of the most diversified tech communities on the planet. As such it attracts talent. At the end, talent is your most valuable raw material as an accelerator/startup. HN pulls techies/hackers like a magnet. In a way, it was the internet exposure to YC/HN/pg's essays that brought me into the startup world. And in a way, it was always my aspiration to go to Mountain View and talk to those people that gave me that exposure. :)
- Frondo 11y ago
  Not snark, not sarcasm, not nitpicking, actual genuine curiosity (because that'd be really encouraging if it were true!).....How do you know how diverse this community is?
  - smt88 11y ago
    It may not be demographically diverse, but it definitely is intellectually diverse. I've seen threads where people hard-core nerded out to the following topics: - any/all programming languages - processors (anything on silicon, really) - tractors - genetics - Chinese law - meteorology - geology The list goes on...
    - wuschel 11y ago
      This. Of course I would love to see HN data, but I believe that there is a fair amount of users that are not located anywhere near Silicon Valley. An indicator of this would be the fact that many people I know from the EU startup scene have an HN account. Different age group, background, and profession. Of course, the sample size is not that large here.
    - spdionis 11y ago
      And don't forget hard boiled eggs!! I was amazed at the popularity of that one...

mgalka 11y ago

HN is awesome, and I imagine very hard to copy (Union Square Ventures tried). But I don't see how it gives the accelerator such a big advantage.

smt88 11y ago
See my comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10517209 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10517209 I'm not sure if it creates "such a big advantage", but it's absolutely an advantage. I never see job postings by non-YC companies because I'm not looking for them. I do see YC job postings at least 5 times per week. It's all because of HN.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]

denniskane 11y ago

HN is like a realtime electronic marketplace -- or information exchange -- for young tech companies in that an issue can arise and be resolved, for better or worse, all in the space of 24 hours. I think the recent case of LiveCoding.tv is a perfect example of this, because a user was having problems getting her account deleted and posted a thread about it here. A whirlwind of activity started up, within which a cofounder responded, as well as the president of YC. They both were actively looking for the CEO so that he could resolve the issue, and when he eventually popped up into the thread, a clusterfuck of absolutely biblical proportions ensued. What people saw was the obvious mudslinging between parties, but what they didn't necessarily see was all of the cold, numeric computation going on behind the scenes whenever posts were being up- and down-voted, and karma points were being won and lost. Say whatever you want about the validity of these kinds of emotionally/psychologically derived numbers, but the point is that they are realtime data points concerning large numbers of highly speculative investments, and they could not reasonably be ascertained in any other way. When I was watching that whole thing play out just like a live sporting event, I was refreshing the profile page of the CEO in question, and his karma points seemed to be dropping like some kind of flash crash in the NASDAQ. Some may say that it isn't in the best interest of YC to have so much publicity when these kinds of things happen, but I think the point is that it is always ultimately in everyone's best interest for the truth, no matter what it is, to be uncovered as quickly as possible, and framed within a language that is as objective as possible. I can only imagine what kind of machine learning might be going on behind the scenes at YC, involving all of these data points that are so intimately connected to known human beings, many of whom are so intimately involved with the insanely dynamic economic activity that is starting up a tech company in Silicon Valley.

Zephyr314 11y ago
For those who missed it the first time around this is the post referenced: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10486476 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10486476
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
brianchu 11y ago

chasb 11y ago

When you're actually in YC, Hacker News is regarded as a hype machine and something to be ignored, for the most part. You're basically told: Focus on the real stuff, not the hype machine. Hunker down, ignore HN and the press, and focus on making something people want.