5 ms·

Notes From a Conversation With Y Combinator’s Paul Graham

43 points by aditya 17y ago

ecuzzillo 17y ago
Bing cache (Google didn't have one): http://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=http+gigaom+com+2010+02+01+ycombinator+paul+graham&d=253171925260&mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US&w=46dd1b92,4a07d433 http://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=http+gigaom+com+2010+02+01+...
staunch 17y ago
Is there a video posted anywhere?
wensing 17y ago
Slightly annoyed. seems wrong to me--or at least, needs an explanation, i.e. in what sense does he find it annoying. The JK Rowling analogy doesn't make it clear either. See also: http://twitter.com/msuster/status/8502845427 http://twitter.com/msuster/status/8502845427
- idlewords 17y ago
  It's especially baffling given that YC claims its real value is not the financial investment (which is just a stipend to keep people fed and housed), but rather the chance to rub shoulders with titans of entrepreneurship, receive sage advice from avuncular mentors, and get shopped around to VC. None of these stated benefits are things you can just copy, so it's not clear what the griping is about.
  - byrneseyeview 17y ago
    If they copy the style but not the substance, it makes things worse for YC and for entrepreneurs. And they can coast on YC's good PR.
    - idlewords 17y ago
      How on earth does this make sense? YC operates on a similar model to an American residential college - young people apply and attend to get access to high-quality teachers/mentors and with the expectation that participating in the program will improve their career prospects. This model is based entirely on reputation and there is no way in which opening a competing institution makes things worse for applicants. People will apply to multiple programs and select the one they consider highest value. Institutions will compete with each other to attract the best applicants.
      - byrneseyeview 17y ago
        I'm not sure that's true. I have heard far more about the value of "college" in general than about the value of specific colleges. Companies like the University of Phoenix exist to exploit this assumption. Schools sell education plus connections plus guidance plus a diploma; the diploma is the most tangible thing they sell, so if you just sell the diploma you can cut your costs significantly. YC invests reputation and guidance and connections and money; someone who buys the same stake in exchange for nothing but money is obviously reducing the value--and valuation--of the company they buy into. It's the entrepreneur's decision, and there are some good seed funding programs out there (Techstars has some great portfolio companies). But in many cases, the other programs are using seed companies' generally good reputation (thanks to YC) to make less valuable investments in the same group of companies.
- tptacek 17y ago
  I was amused by the insinuation that you could "plagiarize" a business model.
  - pg 17y ago
    I wasn't implying plagiarism, just that such a novel would be copying JK Rowling's premise. Though as a matter of fact, many of them do copy chunks of our site.
    - Coax 17y ago
      Paul, do you fault every entrepreneur that takes a novel business model/approach and tries to improve upon it or extend it? If not, can you explain what is special about this situation? By way of comparison, do you fault Burger King and Wendy's for taking McDonald's idea?
      - pg 17y ago
        Depends how much they add. Like most people, I think, I don't have a high opinion of things that could be described as knockoffs. E.g. http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/02/technology/kopy_kat_kids.biz2/index.htm http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/02/technology/kopy_kat_kids.biz... Whereas if the idea is significantly transformed, it starts to be a new idea. If someone started a YC-style operation for funding films, I'd think that was cool. In fact I've suggested it to several people.
        Coax 17y ago
        Fair enough, but since there's a geographic element to startup accelerators, can't their addition merely be porting the concept to another geography? If I visit SF and go to a great a great Hawaiian-Italian fusion restaurant (I random example), I don't think the proprietor would blame me of plagiarism if I started a Hawaiian-Italian joint in Boston. Further, I see important differences between YC and competing accelerators. YC doesn't provide office space; TechStars and DreamIt do. I'm not sure which approach is better, but I do think it's a non-trivial difference.
pg 17y ago
If I could emphasize one thing I said in this interview, it would be the importance of cofounders. More of the interview dealt with that topic than it seems from these notes. That's what someone thinking of starting a startup should be thinking most about, not the idea. I talked afterward to a guy who wanted to apply to YC, but didn't have a cofounder. I suggested he just apply 6 months later, and spend the intervening time finding a good cofounder. He didn't want to hear it. For some reason founders seem to think that the set of potential cofounders is a given they can't change. But surely if you made finding a cofounder your main priority and worked at it like a job for 6 months, you could find people.
- follower 17y ago
  This is an issue I'm dealing with in relation to a possible YC application. My assumption has been that the best co-founder is one you have some history with so you know that you're compatible for the long term. Is it realistic to expect that you can find a person and accurately make that assessment in six months? Particularly if it's from a different mindset (e.g. sales/bizdev cf. tech) and/or location. Are there any successful examples from YC? FWIW my concept is embedded hardware-based, in a toy/education market, I have technical experience and am looking for someone with financial, business development, marketing and sales experience & knowledge.
  - pg 17y ago
    More time would be better. I suggested 6 months because there's a new YC cycle that often, but a year would be better. Though in fact 6 months of working together is probably enough to bring most problems to the surface. Just make sure you work together on stuff that's demanding enough to put some strain on your relationship. It's more important to have a good cofounder than to have one with particular skills. So if I were you I'd simply try to find someone you work well with, whether he/she's a business person or not. Two hackers can figure out how to do sales eventually, as long as they don't give up.
    - jayliew 17y ago
      Good tip .. I will keep that in mind in my search

43 points by aditya 17y ago

Bing cache (Google didn't have one): http://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=http+gigaom+com+2010+02+01+ycombinator+paul+graham&d=253171925260&mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US&w=46dd1b92,4a07d433 http://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=http+gigaom+com+2010+02+01+...

staunch 17y ago

Is there a video posted anywhere?

wensing 17y ago

Slightly annoyed. seems wrong to me--or at least, needs an explanation, i.e. in what sense does he find it annoying. The JK Rowling analogy doesn't make it clear either. See also: http://twitter.com/msuster/status/8502845427 http://twitter.com/msuster/status/8502845427

idlewords 17y ago
It's especially baffling given that YC claims its real value is not the financial investment (which is just a stipend to keep people fed and housed), but rather the chance to rub shoulders with titans of entrepreneurship, receive sage advice from avuncular mentors, and get shopped around to VC. None of these stated benefits are things you can just copy, so it's not clear what the griping is about.
- byrneseyeview 17y ago
  If they copy the style but not the substance, it makes things worse for YC and for entrepreneurs. And they can coast on YC's good PR.
  - idlewords 17y ago
    How on earth does this make sense? YC operates on a similar model to an American residential college - young people apply and attend to get access to high-quality teachers/mentors and with the expectation that participating in the program will improve their career prospects. This model is based entirely on reputation and there is no way in which opening a competing institution makes things worse for applicants. People will apply to multiple programs and select the one they consider highest value. Institutions will compete with each other to attract the best applicants.
    - byrneseyeview 17y ago
      I'm not sure that's true. I have heard far more about the value of "college" in general than about the value of specific colleges. Companies like the University of Phoenix exist to exploit this assumption. Schools sell education plus connections plus guidance plus a diploma; the diploma is the most tangible thing they sell, so if you just sell the diploma you can cut your costs significantly. YC invests reputation and guidance and connections and money; someone who buys the same stake in exchange for nothing but money is obviously reducing the value--and valuation--of the company they buy into. It's the entrepreneur's decision, and there are some good seed funding programs out there (Techstars has some great portfolio companies). But in many cases, the other programs are using seed companies' generally good reputation (thanks to YC) to make less valuable investments in the same group of companies.
tptacek 17y ago
I was amused by the insinuation that you could "plagiarize" a business model.
- pg 17y ago
  I wasn't implying plagiarism, just that such a novel would be copying JK Rowling's premise. Though as a matter of fact, many of them do copy chunks of our site.
  - Coax 17y ago
    Paul, do you fault every entrepreneur that takes a novel business model/approach and tries to improve upon it or extend it? If not, can you explain what is special about this situation? By way of comparison, do you fault Burger King and Wendy's for taking McDonald's idea?
    - pg 17y ago
      Depends how much they add. Like most people, I think, I don't have a high opinion of things that could be described as knockoffs. E.g. http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/02/technology/kopy_kat_kids.biz2/index.htm http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/02/technology/kopy_kat_kids.biz... Whereas if the idea is significantly transformed, it starts to be a new idea. If someone started a YC-style operation for funding films, I'd think that was cool. In fact I've suggested it to several people.
      - Coax 17y ago
        Fair enough, but since there's a geographic element to startup accelerators, can't their addition merely be porting the concept to another geography? If I visit SF and go to a great a great Hawaiian-Italian fusion restaurant (I random example), I don't think the proprietor would blame me of plagiarism if I started a Hawaiian-Italian joint in Boston. Further, I see important differences between YC and competing accelerators. YC doesn't provide office space; TechStars and DreamIt do. I'm not sure which approach is better, but I do think it's a non-trivial difference.

pg 17y ago

If I could emphasize one thing I said in this interview, it would be the importance of cofounders. More of the interview dealt with that topic than it seems from these notes. That's what someone thinking of starting a startup should be thinking most about, not the idea. I talked afterward to a guy who wanted to apply to YC, but didn't have a cofounder. I suggested he just apply 6 months later, and spend the intervening time finding a good cofounder. He didn't want to hear it. For some reason founders seem to think that the set of potential cofounders is a given they can't change. But surely if you made finding a cofounder your main priority and worked at it like a job for 6 months, you could find people.

follower 17y ago
This is an issue I'm dealing with in relation to a possible YC application. My assumption has been that the best co-founder is one you have some history with so you know that you're compatible for the long term. Is it realistic to expect that you can find a person and accurately make that assessment in six months? Particularly if it's from a different mindset (e.g. sales/bizdev cf. tech) and/or location. Are there any successful examples from YC? FWIW my concept is embedded hardware-based, in a toy/education market, I have technical experience and am looking for someone with financial, business development, marketing and sales experience & knowledge.
- pg 17y ago
  More time would be better. I suggested 6 months because there's a new YC cycle that often, but a year would be better. Though in fact 6 months of working together is probably enough to bring most problems to the surface. Just make sure you work together on stuff that's demanding enough to put some strain on your relationship. It's more important to have a good cofounder than to have one with particular skills. So if I were you I'd simply try to find someone you work well with, whether he/she's a business person or not. Two hackers can figure out how to do sales eventually, as long as they don't give up.
  - jayliew 17y ago
    Good tip .. I will keep that in mind in my search