13 ms·

Daniel Gross of Apple leaves to become Y Combinator’s newest partner

333 points by dwynings 10y ago

_1 10y ago
How much talent is Apple losing today?
- enraged_camel 10y ago
  They have 115,000 employees. Losing two won't make a big difference (yes, I know those two are important, but still).
  - baldfat 10y ago
    I think it is disingenuous to say that the lead programmer of Swift and Director of Machine Learning won't make a difference. I know if my company lost two important people in one week would be very significant.
    - Gargoyle 10y ago
      I have faith a company like Apple can replace them with people every bit as talented and competent.
      - nugget 10y ago
        It's not always that simple. Execs like this take entire teams of talented subordinates with them. The headline focuses on one person but the real brain drain occurs when that person turns around and starts to poach the absolute best talent from their previous orgs. I've found recruiting and hiring at the very top to be as much (or more) about the individual exec/manager than the company itself.
        Gargoyle 10y ago
        No one said anything about it being simple, just that it can be done when you have the resources and reputation of a company like Apple.
        rwc 10y ago
        For what it's worth, Chris Lattner specifically said in his farewell email [1] that "we don’t expect it to impact day-to-day operations in the Swift Core Team in any significant way." If you take him at his word, presumably that would mean the brain drain will be a nonevent. [1] https://lists.swift.org/pipermail/swift-evolution/Week-of-Mon-20170109/030063.html https://lists.swift.org/pipermail/swift-evolution/Week-of-Mo...
        fpgeek 10y ago
        Or it may just mean that the brain drain won't have a direct day-to-day impact, just an indirect, growing decay in capacity and capability as people leave and the team struggles to replace them.
        bfstein 10y ago
        FWIW, a lot of companies have non-solications in place to try and prevent this kind of behavior. They're far from fool-proof, and there is nothing stopping an employee from leaving of their own volition, but I would guess both of them have some sort of agreement in place not to poach talent directly.
        rhizome 10y ago
        What you're describing is not only illegal, but also something for which Apple recently contributed to a half-billion dollar settlement: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_Litigation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_L... a lot of companies have non-solications in place to try and prevent this kind of behavior If you know of other companies engaging in backroom nonsolicitation agreements with each other, the responsible thing to do for your fellow STEM workers is to call the Department of Justice Antitrust Division and let them know that the Apple/Google/etc. settlement didn't achieve its intended effect.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - devy 10y ago
      Not entirely sure about the back story of Chris Lattner joining Tesla. But according to Techcrunch, Gross first found his way to Apple after Cue, formally called Greplin, was acquired by the company for $40 million back in 2013 for its predictive search capabilities. After spending the last three years in Cupertino, Gross was ready to get back to his entrepreneurial roots. It's possible that agreement during that acquisition Gross has a 3 year vesting period and it's not very surprising that some founders leave after certain stock vesting events. This is purely my speculation but it's possible. And the timing of it might just be a coincidence.
    - bunchspoiler 10y ago
      Lattner was indeed THE lead programmer of Swift, but Gross was A Director working on Machine Learning not THE guy in charge of company wide machine learning efforts ("Director" at Apple basically means second level manager).
      - deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
    - haberman 10y ago
      Sorry this is off-topic, but I really dislike the overuse of the word "disingenuous" in tech discussions. It means you think the person is being insincere or duplicitous in what they are saying. It's much more likely that they just have a different opinion than you. Questioning a person's sincerity is unproductive and usually unnecessary. It makes discussions needlessly personal and unpleasant.
      - elastic_church 10y ago
        yeah but it was used correctly though I sometimes say 'cognitively negligent' as a synonym, but for retarded.
      - deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
      - baldfat 10y ago
        > It means you think the person is being insincere or duplicitous in what they are saying. That was exactly what I meant to say. I felt that he was making presenting a positive spin on a tech company he likes. Anyone that spins a story that they know they are spinning are being "disingenuous" to themselves.
        haberman 10y ago
        Someone could just as easily say you are presenting a negative spin on a tech company you dislike. It doesn't make for very interesting or productive discussion.
        baldfat 10y ago
        > It doesn't make for very interesting or productive discussion. So what your saying is Hacker News isn't interesting when two biggish names leave a company for other companies? Some of us think it is significant. The reply was someone talking about my disuse of an english word. I replied that was exactly what I intended to use. I can't seem to figure out if your defending another person or attacking me or both/neither.
    - gigatexal 10y ago
      I agree. When is this exodus at Apple going to end? Maybe they saw the next set of products and said "meh".
    - to3m 10y ago
      "Naive" might be the word you're looking for. And indeed, whenever important people leave, it is always significant. In fact, it can be significant even when they're not important at all. But you do need to wait a year to find out whether it makes a difference! You might be surprised at who can leave without ultimately causing a problem.
    - KKKKkkkk1 10y ago
      Based on Apple's performance in machine learning, I would say some change in management has long been warranted.
  - ianai 10y ago
    You really can't say losing top engineers is like losing a file clerk. Granted, engineers aren't EVERYTHING and there is more talent than a handful of people. I wouldn't call losing these people company emergencies, but they're different dimensions from losing an employee in a commodity position.
    - enraged_camel 10y ago
      So? Let's say Apple has 500 "top engineers". What will losing two mean? Probably nothing.
      - ianai 10y ago
        True true, but I'll spout off this: I hope it works out to some key decision makers realizing they need to rethink somethings - purely as a thing I wish would happen.
      - josh2600 10y ago
        Losing two publicly is signaling. The very fact people are talking loudly about leaving apple is a sign of apple's weakness.
        mikeash 10y ago
        Lattner isn't talking loudly. He's barely talking about it at all. His only announcement about it was a brief aside in an email about a change in the Swift open source leadership.
      - onion2k 10y ago
        Engineers are not simply interchangeable. Their expertise and experience are a very important part of who they are. A lead engineer can have a significant impact on the direction of a company, even one the size of Apple.
      - JSDave 10y ago
        When a important engineer leaves, sometimes a lot more end up following. Or at least their team members more open to looking at other offers.
  - bthornbury 10y ago
    It makes a difference. Probably a big one. Individuals with experience in specialized areas and in leading in those areas can make a large impact in any company (their own or otherwise). How can you assume that losing individuals making a large impact wouldn't have an impact itself?
  - frandroid 10y ago
    Considering that he's becoming a partner at YC, you'd think he was a high-value employee, or could have become one should have they retained him. Seems like a big loss to me.
  - tsunamifury 10y ago
    Quotes a number that is 87% retail employees: Calls parent post "Disingenuous"
- tptacek 10y ago
  Greplin was neat, but Gross had only been an employee for a couple years, and he arrived at Apple after a low-dollar acquisition. This is probably just the end of his earn-out. I'd be surprised to learn that this was a strategic blow to Apple.
- nodesocket 10y ago
  As an Apple shareholder, there have been multiple red flags in the last 6 months, this is yet just another. - Missing deadlines of product realeases. - Seriously getting product design wrong and missing what users want. See Apple Watch, See iPhone 7, See MacBook Pro. - Tim Cook being passive and an operations guy with no founder vision or drive. - Failure to acquire new and innovate companies, instead doubling down on "strange" investments such as Didi Chuxing, and Softbank (both 1 billion). I've been a huge Apple supporter and "fanboy", but the signs are starting to really add up. Soon enough the finance guys will start to see the patterns as well and there may be a significant correction.
  - mathattack 10y ago
    Most good points. One I'd object to: "Failure to acquire new and innovate companies" Acquiring innovative companies can be a good sign for innovative buyers. (Cisco was a machine at adding to it's product lines) For non-innovative companies, it's a death knell.
    - nodesocket 10y ago
      I'd rather see them acquire small and scrapy 10-100 people companies, though those people and founders would probably leave once their options fully vest after acquisition.
  - spike021 10y ago
    Missing what Apple Watch users want? It seems for the most part that these are the most common issues: it isn't a phone replacement (no cellular connectivity) and the battery life is terrible. For me as a Watch owner the battery life could be better but I don't want or have a need for it to have a cellular connection. Just curious about how the product design of the watch is seriously wrong (same with the iPhone 7 other than it lacking a headphone jack).
  - snowwrestler 10y ago
    As an Apple shareholder, this seems like a bunch of vague gripes. - Apple has missed plenty of ship dates in the past; I refer you to the Saga Of The White iPhone. - The Watch is selling well (dominating its category), iPhone 7 selling well (same), new MacBook is too early to tell. - No drive? I wonder how well-informed you are if you think Tim Cook has no drive. He's not a product guy but contrary to popular belief, a CEO does not necessarily need to be. - FoundationDB? Tuplejump? Turi?
- skittleson 10y ago
  Based on fanboys complaining, a lot.
CptJamesCook 10y ago
edit: I'm deleting this thread. I don't want to hijack Daniel Gross's hiring thread with negativity. Sorry.
- harigov 10y ago
  Don't you think such people would be interested in investing on their own rather than part of YC as their partner? I don't know the revenue sharing approach that YC uses with their partners but I don't believe that it is good enough to make successful entrepreneurs who built a company with >500 employees to join them. Someone with more insider knowledge can comment.
- gogopuppygogo 10y ago
  Why would someone that accomplished join this group? Peter Thiel started the Thiel Fellowship to do his own program.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - eelliott 10y ago
    Peter Thiel is also a YC Partner
- nowarninglabel 10y ago
  Why does it have to be someone who both created a business and scaled it to > 500? The skill-sets on founding vs. scaling are different and very few leaders possess both and had the drive to scale the company they founded to be that big.
- emmett 10y ago
  You don't need partners great at scaling profitable companies from 100 to 500 employees. You need partners who know how to help a company go from two to ten employees and raise a first round of funding. I'm a part-time partner, and I run a company with >500 employees, but I basically draw entirely on my first 2-3 years of experience when giving advice.
CPLX 10y ago
I really liked Greplin a lot, it was super useful for its time. I kind of lost track of it after the Cue transition. Does it still exist? Does that product category still exist even?
- jaredsohn 10y ago
  When they were acquired there was talk in the press of integrating some of the technology into Siri and/or the iWatch but I don't know what actually happened.
dbg31415 10y ago
Top two stories right now are about people leaving Apple... I don't think that bodes well for Apple.
wineisfine 10y ago
Just big shots changing chairs.
asdfjaflswjafs 10y ago
Given his age, how did Daniel Gross break into machine learning? i.e. where did he learn the theory ? Is he purely self taught?
- ryandrake 10y ago
  What's with the "given his age" part? Is he too young or too old to learn something?
  - AndrewUnmuted 10y ago
    Most accomplished individuals in machine learning have obtained PhDs at one of the leading academic research institutions. I think the OP was wondering if Gross took a different route, since he seems on the younger side.
    - andreyf 10y ago
      What has he done with machine learning? He sounds like a good coder, but not really an ML heavy-weight...
- allenz 10y ago
  He's self-taught. See http://www.inc.com/articles/2011/03/how-19-year-old-daniel-gross-is-taking-on-google-with-greplin.html http://www.inc.com/articles/2011/03/how-19-year-old-daniel-g... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cue_(search_engine) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cue_(search_engine).
jasonwilk 10y ago
Congrats Daniel! All the best.
gargarplex 10y ago
With all due to respect to the prestige, draw, presumed, current, or pending wild profitability, power and influence of YCombinator, why isn't anyone here talking about Eddy Cue? Don't people leave managers, not employers? Is he too much of an institution at Apple? I am seriously disappointed by Apple's lack of effort into excellence at this point. Personal example, I turned my iPhone settings into Swedish to help me and there are clearly some problems with translation. Another example, not listening to the needs of the developer community and failing to evolve its Macbooks into computational powerhouses (maybe they are just hiding a next generation of élite hardware – going to spin off a not-Macbook, smartly staunch in the face of fear of cannibalizing their market. Yeah, maybe that's coming... Where is the guy who proved a phone could be smaller by tossing it into an aquarium and drawing attention to the bubbles Maybe I'm giving too much credit to the ghost of Steve Jobs. I feel like the problem comes top-down. Without a leader to install the culture of excellence, the culture degrades into memes of the culture, eventually signifying nothing. We saw this through the return of Ray Dalio. Maybe Michael Dell will "Make Dell Great Again" too? I think there's a small opportunity in a line of hats that say "Make Apple Great Again" No, but seriously: what's the deal with Eddy Cue?
- astrange 10y ago
  If you don't like your iPhone translation, then file some bugs: http://bugreport.apple.com http://bugreport.apple.com
  - andreyf 10y ago
    I imagine most developers do, but his point stands. Here's the summary from my latest: > My two new MacBook Pros came with SIP disabled. And the one before it: > I reported a related bug (#19495560) where the FileVault on a brand new MacBook does not finish encrypting. I think this is a related bug, where, when switching between the tabs on the Security & Privacy pane of the System Preferences freezes the screen. The majority of bugs I've filed are with brand new machines, and that's not even counting all the UI sloppiness that isn't worth reporting. The machines are usable, a heck of alot more so than I remember Windows or Linux being, but the attention to having details right and having things always-work is absolutely gone. Just this week, I tried the new AirBuds in the store: connects magically, but music app stops being able to do audio and needs restarting. Guy trying them next to me can't get his to pair with his phone at all until he toggles airplane mode off and on. Earlier this weekend, needed to restart my phone for live photos to work (photos was playing the first preview animation, but not the whole one, even after restarting the app). A few weeks back, a friend asks me to get the wifi password she typed into her phone onto her laptop. Easy, right? Just walk her through setting up iCloud keychain. Nope! Sync simply doesn't happen (yet? who knows!), and there's no way to force it. Wasn't surprised, but still disappointed.
saycheese 10y ago
Unclear why the official YC press release is not the primary post for this event: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13368446 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13368446
mandelbulb 10y ago
> Daniel Gross of Apple Is this a modern nobility title? xD
pw 10y ago
There does seem to be something interesting about how less successful* YC alumni now seem to be becoming partners. And, of course, Sam Altman himself is the ultimate case of this. And, on the one hand, it certainly makes sense. All of these people have been through the YC process and used it to achieve a measure of success. Also, the Drew Houston's of the world are generally available to be partners precisely because of their success (they have companies to run, after all). On the other hand, it can seem a little incestuous, and that's certainly something to guard against given the nature of tech in general. Too often it seems like organizations become victims of their own success precisely through this sort of "inbreeding". *: "less successful" meant very charitably as they're only less successful when compared to i.e. Dropbox and are certainly more successful than most YC founders, let alone all founders.
- jjtheblunt 10y ago
  e.g., not i.e., you meant. but, yes!
  - pw 10y ago
    Yes, thank you :-)
- Alex3917 10y ago
  > Too often it seems like organizations become victims of their own success precisely through this sort of "inbreeding". This is definitely a concern with organizations like Teach for America, where they are selecting the students with the best grades to teach at schools and eventually be responsible for creating school policy. This sort of selection has the potential to have a huge negative impact on students that are already being poorly served by the system. With YC it's less of an issue, since it would be hurting YC itself more than the entrepreneurs. E.g. if YC is funding bad startups then it's going to hurt their returns, but if YC doesn't fund your specific startup then it's not going to prevent you from going out and being successful. I have no doubt that Daniel is going to do an awesome job as partner. But regardless, let's not forget that it's at least 10x if not 100x harder to be a good VC than a good entrepreneur, so don't go too hard on YC. :-)
grandalf 10y ago
I've met Daniel and Robby and was particularly impressed by Daniel. It's not a surprise to me that YC chose him for this role.
simonsarris 10y ago
Lately Apple stories on HN all seem to have comment chains that are isomorphic to this exchange: Guy 1: Jesus Christ what a red flag at Apple, should we be worried? Guy 2: Apple makes a superbillion dollars therefore concern is impossible. It's very weird to see over and over. It's like the way pro-life and pro-choice people talk past each other in their reasoning.
- audemars 10y ago
  I'm not sure how isomorphic the comments are. Perhaps I'm just not understanding your meaning correctly. Do you mean to say that the opinion of Guy 1 and Guy 2 are the same in essence?
tasoeur 10y ago
Good for him. I personally got to work with Daniel in the past (Apple) and I must say that it was not a great experience. I know it's never easy for acqui-hires to get into the company culture and try to make the transition happen smoothly... but in his case it was more of an attitude and personality clash. He did get promoted though so I'm sure despite his attitude, he had the good habit to get stuff done!

333 points by dwynings 10y ago

_1 10y ago

How much talent is Apple losing today?

enraged_camel 10y ago
They have 115,000 employees. Losing two won't make a big difference (yes, I know those two are important, but still).
- baldfat 10y ago
  I think it is disingenuous to say that the lead programmer of Swift and Director of Machine Learning won't make a difference. I know if my company lost two important people in one week would be very significant.
  - Gargoyle 10y ago
    I have faith a company like Apple can replace them with people every bit as talented and competent.
    - nugget 10y ago
      It's not always that simple. Execs like this take entire teams of talented subordinates with them. The headline focuses on one person but the real brain drain occurs when that person turns around and starts to poach the absolute best talent from their previous orgs. I've found recruiting and hiring at the very top to be as much (or more) about the individual exec/manager than the company itself.
      - Gargoyle 10y ago
        No one said anything about it being simple, just that it can be done when you have the resources and reputation of a company like Apple.
      - rwc 10y ago
        For what it's worth, Chris Lattner specifically said in his farewell email [1] that "we don’t expect it to impact day-to-day operations in the Swift Core Team in any significant way." If you take him at his word, presumably that would mean the brain drain will be a nonevent. [1] https://lists.swift.org/pipermail/swift-evolution/Week-of-Mon-20170109/030063.html https://lists.swift.org/pipermail/swift-evolution/Week-of-Mo...
        fpgeek 10y ago
        Or it may just mean that the brain drain won't have a direct day-to-day impact, just an indirect, growing decay in capacity and capability as people leave and the team struggles to replace them.
      - bfstein 10y ago
        FWIW, a lot of companies have non-solications in place to try and prevent this kind of behavior. They're far from fool-proof, and there is nothing stopping an employee from leaving of their own volition, but I would guess both of them have some sort of agreement in place not to poach talent directly.
        rhizome 10y ago
        What you're describing is not only illegal, but also something for which Apple recently contributed to a half-billion dollar settlement: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_Litigation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_L... a lot of companies have non-solications in place to try and prevent this kind of behavior If you know of other companies engaging in backroom nonsolicitation agreements with each other, the responsible thing to do for your fellow STEM workers is to call the Department of Justice Antitrust Division and let them know that the Apple/Google/etc. settlement didn't achieve its intended effect.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - devy 10y ago
    Not entirely sure about the back story of Chris Lattner joining Tesla. But according to Techcrunch, Gross first found his way to Apple after Cue, formally called Greplin, was acquired by the company for $40 million back in 2013 for its predictive search capabilities. After spending the last three years in Cupertino, Gross was ready to get back to his entrepreneurial roots. It's possible that agreement during that acquisition Gross has a 3 year vesting period and it's not very surprising that some founders leave after certain stock vesting events. This is purely my speculation but it's possible. And the timing of it might just be a coincidence.
  - bunchspoiler 10y ago
    Lattner was indeed THE lead programmer of Swift, but Gross was A Director working on Machine Learning not THE guy in charge of company wide machine learning efforts ("Director" at Apple basically means second level manager).
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
  - haberman 10y ago
    Sorry this is off-topic, but I really dislike the overuse of the word "disingenuous" in tech discussions. It means you think the person is being insincere or duplicitous in what they are saying. It's much more likely that they just have a different opinion than you. Questioning a person's sincerity is unproductive and usually unnecessary. It makes discussions needlessly personal and unpleasant.
    - elastic_church 10y ago
      yeah but it was used correctly though I sometimes say 'cognitively negligent' as a synonym, but for retarded.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - baldfat 10y ago
      > It means you think the person is being insincere or duplicitous in what they are saying. That was exactly what I meant to say. I felt that he was making presenting a positive spin on a tech company he likes. Anyone that spins a story that they know they are spinning are being "disingenuous" to themselves.
      - haberman 10y ago
        Someone could just as easily say you are presenting a negative spin on a tech company you dislike. It doesn't make for very interesting or productive discussion.
        baldfat 10y ago
        > It doesn't make for very interesting or productive discussion. So what your saying is Hacker News isn't interesting when two biggish names leave a company for other companies? Some of us think it is significant. The reply was someone talking about my disuse of an english word. I replied that was exactly what I intended to use. I can't seem to figure out if your defending another person or attacking me or both/neither.
  - gigatexal 10y ago
    I agree. When is this exodus at Apple going to end? Maybe they saw the next set of products and said "meh".
  - to3m 10y ago
    "Naive" might be the word you're looking for. And indeed, whenever important people leave, it is always significant. In fact, it can be significant even when they're not important at all. But you do need to wait a year to find out whether it makes a difference! You might be surprised at who can leave without ultimately causing a problem.
  - KKKKkkkk1 10y ago
    Based on Apple's performance in machine learning, I would say some change in management has long been warranted.
- ianai 10y ago
  You really can't say losing top engineers is like losing a file clerk. Granted, engineers aren't EVERYTHING and there is more talent than a handful of people. I wouldn't call losing these people company emergencies, but they're different dimensions from losing an employee in a commodity position.
  - enraged_camel 10y ago
    So? Let's say Apple has 500 "top engineers". What will losing two mean? Probably nothing.
    - ianai 10y ago
      True true, but I'll spout off this: I hope it works out to some key decision makers realizing they need to rethink somethings - purely as a thing I wish would happen.
    - josh2600 10y ago
      Losing two publicly is signaling. The very fact people are talking loudly about leaving apple is a sign of apple's weakness.
      - mikeash 10y ago
        Lattner isn't talking loudly. He's barely talking about it at all. His only announcement about it was a brief aside in an email about a change in the Swift open source leadership.
    - onion2k 10y ago
      Engineers are not simply interchangeable. Their expertise and experience are a very important part of who they are. A lead engineer can have a significant impact on the direction of a company, even one the size of Apple.
    - JSDave 10y ago
      When a important engineer leaves, sometimes a lot more end up following. Or at least their team members more open to looking at other offers.
- bthornbury 10y ago
  It makes a difference. Probably a big one. Individuals with experience in specialized areas and in leading in those areas can make a large impact in any company (their own or otherwise). How can you assume that losing individuals making a large impact wouldn't have an impact itself?
- frandroid 10y ago
  Considering that he's becoming a partner at YC, you'd think he was a high-value employee, or could have become one should have they retained him. Seems like a big loss to me.
- tsunamifury 10y ago
  Quotes a number that is 87% retail employees: Calls parent post "Disingenuous"
tptacek 10y ago
Greplin was neat, but Gross had only been an employee for a couple years, and he arrived at Apple after a low-dollar acquisition. This is probably just the end of his earn-out. I'd be surprised to learn that this was a strategic blow to Apple.
nodesocket 10y ago
As an Apple shareholder, there have been multiple red flags in the last 6 months, this is yet just another. - Missing deadlines of product realeases. - Seriously getting product design wrong and missing what users want. See Apple Watch, See iPhone 7, See MacBook Pro. - Tim Cook being passive and an operations guy with no founder vision or drive. - Failure to acquire new and innovate companies, instead doubling down on "strange" investments such as Didi Chuxing, and Softbank (both 1 billion). I've been a huge Apple supporter and "fanboy", but the signs are starting to really add up. Soon enough the finance guys will start to see the patterns as well and there may be a significant correction.
- mathattack 10y ago
  Most good points. One I'd object to: "Failure to acquire new and innovate companies" Acquiring innovative companies can be a good sign for innovative buyers. (Cisco was a machine at adding to it's product lines) For non-innovative companies, it's a death knell.
  - nodesocket 10y ago
    I'd rather see them acquire small and scrapy 10-100 people companies, though those people and founders would probably leave once their options fully vest after acquisition.
- spike021 10y ago
  Missing what Apple Watch users want? It seems for the most part that these are the most common issues: it isn't a phone replacement (no cellular connectivity) and the battery life is terrible. For me as a Watch owner the battery life could be better but I don't want or have a need for it to have a cellular connection. Just curious about how the product design of the watch is seriously wrong (same with the iPhone 7 other than it lacking a headphone jack).
- snowwrestler 10y ago
  As an Apple shareholder, this seems like a bunch of vague gripes. - Apple has missed plenty of ship dates in the past; I refer you to the Saga Of The White iPhone. - The Watch is selling well (dominating its category), iPhone 7 selling well (same), new MacBook is too early to tell. - No drive? I wonder how well-informed you are if you think Tim Cook has no drive. He's not a product guy but contrary to popular belief, a CEO does not necessarily need to be. - FoundationDB? Tuplejump? Turi?
skittleson 10y ago
Based on fanboys complaining, a lot.

CptJamesCook 10y ago

edit: I'm deleting this thread. I don't want to hijack Daniel Gross's hiring thread with negativity. Sorry.

harigov 10y ago
Don't you think such people would be interested in investing on their own rather than part of YC as their partner? I don't know the revenue sharing approach that YC uses with their partners but I don't believe that it is good enough to make successful entrepreneurs who built a company with >500 employees to join them. Someone with more insider knowledge can comment.
gogopuppygogo 10y ago
Why would someone that accomplished join this group? Peter Thiel started the Thiel Fellowship to do his own program.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- eelliott 10y ago
  Peter Thiel is also a YC Partner
nowarninglabel 10y ago
Why does it have to be someone who both created a business and scaled it to > 500? The skill-sets on founding vs. scaling are different and very few leaders possess both and had the drive to scale the company they founded to be that big.
emmett 10y ago
You don't need partners great at scaling profitable companies from 100 to 500 employees. You need partners who know how to help a company go from two to ten employees and raise a first round of funding. I'm a part-time partner, and I run a company with >500 employees, but I basically draw entirely on my first 2-3 years of experience when giving advice.

CPLX 10y ago

I really liked Greplin a lot, it was super useful for its time. I kind of lost track of it after the Cue transition. Does it still exist? Does that product category still exist even?

jaredsohn 10y ago
When they were acquired there was talk in the press of integrating some of the technology into Siri and/or the iWatch but I don't know what actually happened.

dbg31415 10y ago

Top two stories right now are about people leaving Apple... I don't think that bodes well for Apple.

wineisfine 10y ago

Just big shots changing chairs.

asdfjaflswjafs 10y ago

Given his age, how did Daniel Gross break into machine learning? i.e. where did he learn the theory ? Is he purely self taught?

ryandrake 10y ago
What's with the "given his age" part? Is he too young or too old to learn something?
- AndrewUnmuted 10y ago
  Most accomplished individuals in machine learning have obtained PhDs at one of the leading academic research institutions. I think the OP was wondering if Gross took a different route, since he seems on the younger side.
  - andreyf 10y ago
    What has he done with machine learning? He sounds like a good coder, but not really an ML heavy-weight...
allenz 10y ago
He's self-taught. See http://www.inc.com/articles/2011/03/how-19-year-old-daniel-gross-is-taking-on-google-with-greplin.html http://www.inc.com/articles/2011/03/how-19-year-old-daniel-g... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cue_(search_engine) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cue_(search_engine).

jasonwilk 10y ago

Congrats Daniel! All the best.

gargarplex 10y ago

With all due to respect to the prestige, draw, presumed, current, or pending wild profitability, power and influence of YCombinator, why isn't anyone here talking about Eddy Cue? Don't people leave managers, not employers? Is he too much of an institution at Apple? I am seriously disappointed by Apple's lack of effort into excellence at this point. Personal example, I turned my iPhone settings into Swedish to help me and there are clearly some problems with translation. Another example, not listening to the needs of the developer community and failing to evolve its Macbooks into computational powerhouses (maybe they are just hiding a next generation of élite hardware – going to spin off a not-Macbook, smartly staunch in the face of fear of cannibalizing their market. Yeah, maybe that's coming... Where is the guy who proved a phone could be smaller by tossing it into an aquarium and drawing attention to the bubbles Maybe I'm giving too much credit to the ghost of Steve Jobs. I feel like the problem comes top-down. Without a leader to install the culture of excellence, the culture degrades into memes of the culture, eventually signifying nothing. We saw this through the return of Ray Dalio. Maybe Michael Dell will "Make Dell Great Again" too? I think there's a small opportunity in a line of hats that say "Make Apple Great Again" No, but seriously: what's the deal with Eddy Cue?

astrange 10y ago
If you don't like your iPhone translation, then file some bugs: http://bugreport.apple.com http://bugreport.apple.com
- andreyf 10y ago
  I imagine most developers do, but his point stands. Here's the summary from my latest: > My two new MacBook Pros came with SIP disabled. And the one before it: > I reported a related bug (#19495560) where the FileVault on a brand new MacBook does not finish encrypting. I think this is a related bug, where, when switching between the tabs on the Security & Privacy pane of the System Preferences freezes the screen. The majority of bugs I've filed are with brand new machines, and that's not even counting all the UI sloppiness that isn't worth reporting. The machines are usable, a heck of alot more so than I remember Windows or Linux being, but the attention to having details right and having things always-work is absolutely gone. Just this week, I tried the new AirBuds in the store: connects magically, but music app stops being able to do audio and needs restarting. Guy trying them next to me can't get his to pair with his phone at all until he toggles airplane mode off and on. Earlier this weekend, needed to restart my phone for live photos to work (photos was playing the first preview animation, but not the whole one, even after restarting the app). A few weeks back, a friend asks me to get the wifi password she typed into her phone onto her laptop. Easy, right? Just walk her through setting up iCloud keychain. Nope! Sync simply doesn't happen (yet? who knows!), and there's no way to force it. Wasn't surprised, but still disappointed.

saycheese 10y ago

Unclear why the official YC press release is not the primary post for this event: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13368446 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13368446

mandelbulb 10y ago

> Daniel Gross of Apple Is this a modern nobility title? xD

pw 10y ago

There does seem to be something interesting about how less successful* YC alumni now seem to be becoming partners. And, of course, Sam Altman himself is the ultimate case of this. And, on the one hand, it certainly makes sense. All of these people have been through the YC process and used it to achieve a measure of success. Also, the Drew Houston's of the world are generally available to be partners precisely because of their success (they have companies to run, after all). On the other hand, it can seem a little incestuous, and that's certainly something to guard against given the nature of tech in general. Too often it seems like organizations become victims of their own success precisely through this sort of "inbreeding". *: "less successful" meant very charitably as they're only less successful when compared to i.e. Dropbox and are certainly more successful than most YC founders, let alone all founders.

jjtheblunt 10y ago
e.g., not i.e., you meant. but, yes!
- pw 10y ago
  Yes, thank you :-)
Alex3917 10y ago
> Too often it seems like organizations become victims of their own success precisely through this sort of "inbreeding". This is definitely a concern with organizations like Teach for America, where they are selecting the students with the best grades to teach at schools and eventually be responsible for creating school policy. This sort of selection has the potential to have a huge negative impact on students that are already being poorly served by the system. With YC it's less of an issue, since it would be hurting YC itself more than the entrepreneurs. E.g. if YC is funding bad startups then it's going to hurt their returns, but if YC doesn't fund your specific startup then it's not going to prevent you from going out and being successful. I have no doubt that Daniel is going to do an awesome job as partner. But regardless, let's not forget that it's at least 10x if not 100x harder to be a good VC than a good entrepreneur, so don't go too hard on YC. :-)

grandalf 10y ago

I've met Daniel and Robby and was particularly impressed by Daniel. It's not a surprise to me that YC chose him for this role.

simonsarris 10y ago

Lately Apple stories on HN all seem to have comment chains that are isomorphic to this exchange: Guy 1: Jesus Christ what a red flag at Apple, should we be worried? Guy 2: Apple makes a superbillion dollars therefore concern is impossible. It's very weird to see over and over. It's like the way pro-life and pro-choice people talk past each other in their reasoning.

audemars 10y ago
I'm not sure how isomorphic the comments are. Perhaps I'm just not understanding your meaning correctly. Do you mean to say that the opinion of Guy 1 and Guy 2 are the same in essence?

tasoeur 10y ago

Good for him. I personally got to work with Daniel in the past (Apple) and I must say that it was not a great experience. I know it's never easy for acqui-hires to get into the company culture and try to make the transition happen smoothly... but in his case it was more of an attitude and personality clash. He did get promoted though so I'm sure despite his attitude, he had the good habit to get stuff done!