10 ms·

Why Y Combinator Made All the Difference

256 points by bootload 10y ago

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
chx 10y ago
Did you just doxx Jessica Livingston?
parenthesis 10y ago
A very interesting read. But why do I need to turn javascript on to read a load of text?
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
koolba 10y ago
> We convinced our friends in the current Y Combinator batch to let us stay in a closet at their East Palo Alto home office for $600 per month. If we spent $1,000 a month we would have 25 months of runway, which seems infinite. I'm all for frugality and cost controls, but this is ridiculous. It's things like this that brainwash a generation of fools into throwing their lives away at nonsensical ideas. I'm not saying it's never right to put it all on the line and bet on your idea. I'm saying the vast majority of the time it's a terrible idea and doing something like this serially would make for a terrible existence. > As we walked out we remembered the National Geographic magazines. We handed each of the partners their National Geographic Magazine from their birth month and year. I remember Denny handing PG his. >> "PG, This is what science looked like when you were born." > Jessica ran after us and asked, "How did you find my birthday?" It turns out we got her birthday month wrong and gave her the January issue. Luckily we came with the backup. She is a February baby. If I were in their shoes (YC interviewers) I'd be seriously weirded out by this. Knowing the approximate age of someone and getting an issue from that year wouldn't be that bad. But this is just creepy.
- sillysaurus3 10y ago
  > We convinced our friends in the current Y Combinator batch to let us stay in a closet at their East Palo Alto home office for $600 per month. If we spent $1,000 a month we would have 25 months of runway, which seems infinite. I'm all for frugality and cost controls, but this is ridiculous. It's things like this that brainwash a generation of fools into throwing their lives away at nonsensical ideas. I'm not saying it's never right to put it all on the line and bet on your idea. I'm saying the vast majority of the time it's a terrible idea and doing something like this serially would make for a terrible existence. Are you kidding? I would do it in a heartbeat. I'm not joking. Who wouldn't want to work on something awesome with all their heart with their friends in East Palo Alto for a couple years? Why not? What an incredible, amazing experience. Ok, I can think of a bunch of people who wouldn't want to work like that. But for a certain type of person, that experience is more amazing than the cushiest "normal" job could ever be. It was my dream since 17. It never came, because I never found anyone else in the midwest who was interested in starting anything. Everybody wants to work for someone else, or hates the VC ecosystem instead of playing the game. And what can you do alone? I should've moved to SF, even if it was into someone's closet.
  - DanBC 10y ago
    To me it just sounds like actors in Hollywood, not doing the acting they want to do, but doing a lot of waiter work.
    - garry 10y ago
      People do this because they want to earn equity and build a business from scratch. That's how wealth is built from nothing in a capitalist society. The situation is that YC helps engineers and designers and product people build something from scratch and own it, instead of working for other people. The correct analogy would be actors who own the studio who are trying to make the next Disney. They get to act and own the means of production at the same time.
  - koolba 10y ago
    > Are you kidding? I would do it in a heartbeat. I'm not joking. Who wouldn't want to work on something awesome with all their heart with their friends in East Palo Alto for a couple years? Working on something awesome with friends should not, and in most cases does not, require living in a closet. In most cases it doesn't require being in the same room, city, state, or even country. > Why not? What an incredible, amazing experience. Haha. Looks like the punch bowl is empty. Somebody make another round of kool-aid! > It was my dream since 17. It never came, because I never found anyone else in the midwest who was interested in starting anything. Everybody wants to work for someone else, or hates the VC ecosystem instead of playing the game. And what can you do alone? I should've moved to SF. You can do plenty alone. Only way you'll know how much is if you start. You'll also see how much easier it is for others to join you if you're already doing something. Sitting at home feeling sorry for yourself won't find you a co-founder, building something will.
known 10y ago
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." --George Bernard Shaw
shitfacts 10y ago
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losteverything 10y ago
I first read only to find out what experiment is (still don't really know) but instead quickly got trapped wanting to read more. Like I was reading something that was not supposed to be public. Especially the funding process. The description was chilling for me. I am greatful to have chosen to read this.
- cindywu123 10y ago
  This might help: https://experiment.com/birthday https://experiment.com/birthday
sillysaurus3 10y ago
There aren't many positive toplevel comments, and I don't think that's a reasonable situation for such a fine piece of writing. So: Your story is wonderfully illustrative, in-depth, and inspirational. Thank you for taking the time to share it. For what it's worth, I really like your writing style. I hope to see much more of it!
- good_vibes 10y ago
  I second this. This article just steered me more towards SF instead of Seattle because it answered a lot of my questions.
  - cindywu123 10y ago
    If you're curious about why I left Seattle. I wrote about it here: https://bold.co/public/why-i-left-seattle-egcdih?t=j9i3e37 https://bold.co/public/why-i-left-seattle-egcdih?t=j9i3e37
    - good_vibes 10y ago
      You had me at Pixar. I think Bay Area is where the best of hippie and techie cultures mesh together. I know it's changed a lot in the last decade but there is always life left in that little group of rebels that keeps humanity moving forward.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- skilled 10y ago
  I agree. I couldn't help but feel sorry for the author, many of the comments here are focusing on nitpicking a single remark/context. It feels so odd to read lousy comments for an article that goes into great depth of a personal experience. While I'm not a very educated in startups, this was a pleasant read and I loved the 'straight to the point' approach for discussing individual experiences.
tantanel 10y ago
It was a wonderful read, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing! This bold.co site is a bit confusing though - I can't find a place where I can subscribe to the author's posts. Does it even have such a feature?
- cindywu123 10y ago
  the feature doesn't exist, but i cross post everything i write on medium
good_vibes 10y ago
This is a life-changing read for me. I was debating if I should move to Seattle or Bay area to pursue my 'science project' or not. My current job is going to give me 7 weeks of severance starting in late April and I think it will be enough to at least make the leap and cross my fingers. What I am working on will change the course of history if I even get close to succeeding. I was wondering if YC or TechStars would be more ideal for me to start, I do not want to go to a major investment firm that will see $$$ instead of the value my invention has for science and human progress. I know it is possible to build a company and advance science but I have to be VERY careful about who is involved at the early stages. I think the only place for something as 'crazy' as my project and as 'crazy' as myself to be taken seriously is SF.
- bhalperin 10y ago
  Best of luck :)
  - good_vibes 10y ago
    Thanks :)
- kayhi 10y ago
  Awesome, drop us a line when you are looking to set up your lab (https://labspend.com https://labspend.com). If you haven't come across it already, lab supplies and chemicals is a quote/sales rep model that could use some disruption.
  - good_vibes 10y ago
    will do! I love your work and will gladly support it.
- satysin 10y ago
  Best of luck! Do you blog? If not you should start, I love reading about people making big changes like you are about to do.
levthedev 10y ago
Great read. I'm dissappointing that this thread has devolved to HN cliches (arguing about Kool Aid and pg's essays) and isn't focussing on the very well written and inter sting content of this piece. Also, I wish there was a way to subscribe to a writer on Bold - it seems that I can't, unlike Medium.
- cindywu123 10y ago
  for this very reason i am cross posting everything i write on medium https://medium.com/@cindywu/why-y-combinator-made-all-the-difference-c75ca38920b3#.3c5g04v2r https://medium.com/@cindywu/why-y-combinator-made-all-the-di...
stephancoral 10y ago
> What I am working on will change the course of history if I even get close to succeeding. Don't tell me...an app that lets you pay for people to stand in line at Whole Foods for you?
- good_vibes 10y ago
  Nope. It's rooted in computational biology.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - themantalope 10y ago
    Do you have a website or anything that discusses your general idea? I'm a medical student, and my background is in math/cs and my research is in comp bio. Just curious about what you're thinking of.
    - good_vibes 10y ago
      I bought the domain and have been creating a site locally. I'll upload it prior to applying. I don't want to show anyone what I have yet, as it's half-baked. I know first impressions mean a lot in this community and with science/tech in general. Trust me, I've made that mistake before and got laughed/ridiculed to the point of almost never trying again. I'll be smarter this time and remember this is not reddit, this is where supergeeks hang out.
- dang 10y ago
  Please don't do this here. You've repeatedly posted uncivil and/or unsubstantive comments and we've asked you before not to do this. We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13901277 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13901277 and marked it off-topic.
tylermenezes 10y ago
A few things she doesn't mention which also helped: Cindy and Denny are probably the hardest-working and most persistent people I know. Experiment's early history is the epitome of pg's advice in "How Not to Die." They're also just genuinely nice and fun people. I don't think I've ever heard them gossip about other founders, and think I've maybe heard them say a total of one or two bad things about others (which were justified). One time they turned their office into an after-hours coffee shop so people could hang out while working. (https://www.yelp.com/biz/microryza-coffee-roasters-san-francisco https://www.yelp.com/biz/microryza-coffee-roasters-san-franc...) As you might have noticed in the post, Cindy is also very strategic in solving problems.
johan_larson 10y ago
Desperately hopeful young founders, willing to work crazy hard and live in pitiful squalor to make their ideas happen. Is there a similar story on the VC side? Young venture fund operators who have secured an itty bitty bit of LP money, working crazy hard to find worthy investments, couch-surfing and living on KD to stretch the money as far as it will go. That would be a story worth reading.
- dluan 10y ago
  I was making $30k a year doing university research before starting a company. what you call pitiful, most fields outside of tech call normal.
mltoolb 10y ago
I didn't read the post, but if the poster is going to live in a closet I wonder where is going to live the next guy with a very big changing world idea
mybrid 10y ago
Well met! Reading all the rigor applied to new ideas in this article brought a tear to my eye. If only such rigor, even just a smidgen, were applied to internal projects within corporations... Best of success!
aswanson 10y ago
"Being surrounded by dreamers inspired me to dream bigger and set an example that hard work can make your dreams come true."
personjerry 10y ago
How can one get connected to this network outside of applying to YC? I'm a noob engineer and I'm trying to learn more about startups. I live in SF and I'm looking on meetup.com and the startup events listed there mostly just seem like a lot of "founders" wasting time "networking" instead of building their products. It seems there is this network of people who want to look like they're building a startup, which is quite separate from the network mentioned in the article of people actually building a startup (or involved otherwise). I don't know a lot of people here, and I'm not sure how to get started either. Does HN have any insight here? Or I guess if anyone here is interested, I'd love to get a quick coffee with anyone who is building a startup.
- sillysaurus3 10y ago
  You might have some luck if you put an email in your profile. (You have to put it in the profile section since the email section is private.)
  - personjerry 10y ago
    Thanks! Done :)
- cindywu123 10y ago
  The best way to start is to start. One way we got around this in Seattle is we threw rooftop parties at our apartment. I went to all the networking events in Seattle, I found the good people. Then, I invited all the people I thought were good over for drinks and bbq. If you have a good filter for good people, the good people will appreciate it. When first getting into engineering I went to a rails meetup group twice a week. You're right that there are a lot of founders trying to recruit at these types of meetups, which is annoying. Try to go to the meetup with a specific thing you're working on and then see if someone wants to pair with you. When you're pairing it will be hard for someone who is recruiting "technical founders" to bother you. If you don't like the current meetups, start your own.
spack 10y ago
Thank you, Cindy, for the good read. Tangential, but may I ask who were the big names/VCs/Investors you met in Seattle (even if they said no)? I'm also a Seattleite I'm interested to know who the 'players' (and magnitude) are around these parts?
- cindywu123 10y ago
  I met with everyone. You name the investor, I met with them. If you have specific questions send me some electronic mail.

256 points by bootload 10y ago

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

chx 10y ago

Did you just doxx Jessica Livingston?

parenthesis 10y ago

A very interesting read. But why do I need to turn javascript on to read a load of text?

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

koolba 10y ago

> We convinced our friends in the current Y Combinator batch to let us stay in a closet at their East Palo Alto home office for $600 per month. If we spent $1,000 a month we would have 25 months of runway, which seems infinite. I'm all for frugality and cost controls, but this is ridiculous. It's things like this that brainwash a generation of fools into throwing their lives away at nonsensical ideas. I'm not saying it's never right to put it all on the line and bet on your idea. I'm saying the vast majority of the time it's a terrible idea and doing something like this serially would make for a terrible existence. > As we walked out we remembered the National Geographic magazines. We handed each of the partners their National Geographic Magazine from their birth month and year. I remember Denny handing PG his. >> "PG, This is what science looked like when you were born." > Jessica ran after us and asked, "How did you find my birthday?" It turns out we got her birthday month wrong and gave her the January issue. Luckily we came with the backup. She is a February baby. If I were in their shoes (YC interviewers) I'd be seriously weirded out by this. Knowing the approximate age of someone and getting an issue from that year wouldn't be that bad. But this is just creepy.

sillysaurus3 10y ago
> We convinced our friends in the current Y Combinator batch to let us stay in a closet at their East Palo Alto home office for $600 per month. If we spent $1,000 a month we would have 25 months of runway, which seems infinite. I'm all for frugality and cost controls, but this is ridiculous. It's things like this that brainwash a generation of fools into throwing their lives away at nonsensical ideas. I'm not saying it's never right to put it all on the line and bet on your idea. I'm saying the vast majority of the time it's a terrible idea and doing something like this serially would make for a terrible existence. Are you kidding? I would do it in a heartbeat. I'm not joking. Who wouldn't want to work on something awesome with all their heart with their friends in East Palo Alto for a couple years? Why not? What an incredible, amazing experience. Ok, I can think of a bunch of people who wouldn't want to work like that. But for a certain type of person, that experience is more amazing than the cushiest "normal" job could ever be. It was my dream since 17. It never came, because I never found anyone else in the midwest who was interested in starting anything. Everybody wants to work for someone else, or hates the VC ecosystem instead of playing the game. And what can you do alone? I should've moved to SF, even if it was into someone's closet.
- DanBC 10y ago
  To me it just sounds like actors in Hollywood, not doing the acting they want to do, but doing a lot of waiter work.
  - garry 10y ago
    People do this because they want to earn equity and build a business from scratch. That's how wealth is built from nothing in a capitalist society. The situation is that YC helps engineers and designers and product people build something from scratch and own it, instead of working for other people. The correct analogy would be actors who own the studio who are trying to make the next Disney. They get to act and own the means of production at the same time.
- koolba 10y ago
  > Are you kidding? I would do it in a heartbeat. I'm not joking. Who wouldn't want to work on something awesome with all their heart with their friends in East Palo Alto for a couple years? Working on something awesome with friends should not, and in most cases does not, require living in a closet. In most cases it doesn't require being in the same room, city, state, or even country. > Why not? What an incredible, amazing experience. Haha. Looks like the punch bowl is empty. Somebody make another round of kool-aid! > It was my dream since 17. It never came, because I never found anyone else in the midwest who was interested in starting anything. Everybody wants to work for someone else, or hates the VC ecosystem instead of playing the game. And what can you do alone? I should've moved to SF. You can do plenty alone. Only way you'll know how much is if you start. You'll also see how much easier it is for others to join you if you're already doing something. Sitting at home feeling sorry for yourself won't find you a co-founder, building something will.

known 10y ago

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." --George Bernard Shaw

shitfacts 10y ago

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losteverything 10y ago

I first read only to find out what experiment is (still don't really know) but instead quickly got trapped wanting to read more. Like I was reading something that was not supposed to be public. Especially the funding process. The description was chilling for me. I am greatful to have chosen to read this.

cindywu123 10y ago
This might help: https://experiment.com/birthday https://experiment.com/birthday

sillysaurus3 10y ago

There aren't many positive toplevel comments, and I don't think that's a reasonable situation for such a fine piece of writing. So: Your story is wonderfully illustrative, in-depth, and inspirational. Thank you for taking the time to share it. For what it's worth, I really like your writing style. I hope to see much more of it!

good_vibes 10y ago
I second this. This article just steered me more towards SF instead of Seattle because it answered a lot of my questions.
- cindywu123 10y ago
  If you're curious about why I left Seattle. I wrote about it here: https://bold.co/public/why-i-left-seattle-egcdih?t=j9i3e37 https://bold.co/public/why-i-left-seattle-egcdih?t=j9i3e37
  - good_vibes 10y ago
    You had me at Pixar. I think Bay Area is where the best of hippie and techie cultures mesh together. I know it's changed a lot in the last decade but there is always life left in that little group of rebels that keeps humanity moving forward.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
skilled 10y ago
I agree. I couldn't help but feel sorry for the author, many of the comments here are focusing on nitpicking a single remark/context. It feels so odd to read lousy comments for an article that goes into great depth of a personal experience. While I'm not a very educated in startups, this was a pleasant read and I loved the 'straight to the point' approach for discussing individual experiences.

tantanel 10y ago

It was a wonderful read, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing! This bold.co site is a bit confusing though - I can't find a place where I can subscribe to the author's posts. Does it even have such a feature?

cindywu123 10y ago
the feature doesn't exist, but i cross post everything i write on medium

good_vibes 10y ago

This is a life-changing read for me. I was debating if I should move to Seattle or Bay area to pursue my 'science project' or not. My current job is going to give me 7 weeks of severance starting in late April and I think it will be enough to at least make the leap and cross my fingers. What I am working on will change the course of history if I even get close to succeeding. I was wondering if YC or TechStars would be more ideal for me to start, I do not want to go to a major investment firm that will see $$$ instead of the value my invention has for science and human progress. I know it is possible to build a company and advance science but I have to be VERY careful about who is involved at the early stages. I think the only place for something as 'crazy' as my project and as 'crazy' as myself to be taken seriously is SF.

bhalperin 10y ago
Best of luck :)
- good_vibes 10y ago
  Thanks :)
kayhi 10y ago
Awesome, drop us a line when you are looking to set up your lab (https://labspend.com https://labspend.com). If you haven't come across it already, lab supplies and chemicals is a quote/sales rep model that could use some disruption.
- good_vibes 10y ago
  will do! I love your work and will gladly support it.
satysin 10y ago
Best of luck! Do you blog? If not you should start, I love reading about people making big changes like you are about to do.

levthedev 10y ago

Great read. I'm dissappointing that this thread has devolved to HN cliches (arguing about Kool Aid and pg's essays) and isn't focussing on the very well written and inter sting content of this piece. Also, I wish there was a way to subscribe to a writer on Bold - it seems that I can't, unlike Medium.

cindywu123 10y ago
for this very reason i am cross posting everything i write on medium https://medium.com/@cindywu/why-y-combinator-made-all-the-difference-c75ca38920b3#.3c5g04v2r https://medium.com/@cindywu/why-y-combinator-made-all-the-di...

stephancoral 10y ago

> What I am working on will change the course of history if I even get close to succeeding. Don't tell me...an app that lets you pay for people to stand in line at Whole Foods for you?

good_vibes 10y ago
Nope. It's rooted in computational biology.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- themantalope 10y ago
  Do you have a website or anything that discusses your general idea? I'm a medical student, and my background is in math/cs and my research is in comp bio. Just curious about what you're thinking of.
  - good_vibes 10y ago
    I bought the domain and have been creating a site locally. I'll upload it prior to applying. I don't want to show anyone what I have yet, as it's half-baked. I know first impressions mean a lot in this community and with science/tech in general. Trust me, I've made that mistake before and got laughed/ridiculed to the point of almost never trying again. I'll be smarter this time and remember this is not reddit, this is where supergeeks hang out.
dang 10y ago
Please don't do this here. You've repeatedly posted uncivil and/or unsubstantive comments and we've asked you before not to do this. We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13901277 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13901277 and marked it off-topic.

tylermenezes 10y ago

A few things she doesn't mention which also helped: Cindy and Denny are probably the hardest-working and most persistent people I know. Experiment's early history is the epitome of pg's advice in "How Not to Die." They're also just genuinely nice and fun people. I don't think I've ever heard them gossip about other founders, and think I've maybe heard them say a total of one or two bad things about others (which were justified). One time they turned their office into an after-hours coffee shop so people could hang out while working. (https://www.yelp.com/biz/microryza-coffee-roasters-san-francisco https://www.yelp.com/biz/microryza-coffee-roasters-san-franc...) As you might have noticed in the post, Cindy is also very strategic in solving problems.

johan_larson 10y ago

Desperately hopeful young founders, willing to work crazy hard and live in pitiful squalor to make their ideas happen. Is there a similar story on the VC side? Young venture fund operators who have secured an itty bitty bit of LP money, working crazy hard to find worthy investments, couch-surfing and living on KD to stretch the money as far as it will go. That would be a story worth reading.

dluan 10y ago
I was making $30k a year doing university research before starting a company. what you call pitiful, most fields outside of tech call normal.

mltoolb 10y ago

I didn't read the post, but if the poster is going to live in a closet I wonder where is going to live the next guy with a very big changing world idea

mybrid 10y ago

Well met! Reading all the rigor applied to new ideas in this article brought a tear to my eye. If only such rigor, even just a smidgen, were applied to internal projects within corporations... Best of success!

aswanson 10y ago

"Being surrounded by dreamers inspired me to dream bigger and set an example that hard work can make your dreams come true."

personjerry 10y ago

How can one get connected to this network outside of applying to YC? I'm a noob engineer and I'm trying to learn more about startups. I live in SF and I'm looking on meetup.com and the startup events listed there mostly just seem like a lot of "founders" wasting time "networking" instead of building their products. It seems there is this network of people who want to look like they're building a startup, which is quite separate from the network mentioned in the article of people actually building a startup (or involved otherwise). I don't know a lot of people here, and I'm not sure how to get started either. Does HN have any insight here? Or I guess if anyone here is interested, I'd love to get a quick coffee with anyone who is building a startup.

sillysaurus3 10y ago
You might have some luck if you put an email in your profile. (You have to put it in the profile section since the email section is private.)
- personjerry 10y ago
  Thanks! Done :)
cindywu123 10y ago
The best way to start is to start. One way we got around this in Seattle is we threw rooftop parties at our apartment. I went to all the networking events in Seattle, I found the good people. Then, I invited all the people I thought were good over for drinks and bbq. If you have a good filter for good people, the good people will appreciate it. When first getting into engineering I went to a rails meetup group twice a week. You're right that there are a lot of founders trying to recruit at these types of meetups, which is annoying. Try to go to the meetup with a specific thing you're working on and then see if someone wants to pair with you. When you're pairing it will be hard for someone who is recruiting "technical founders" to bother you. If you don't like the current meetups, start your own.

spack 10y ago

Thank you, Cindy, for the good read. Tangential, but may I ask who were the big names/VCs/Investors you met in Seattle (even if they said no)? I'm also a Seattleite I'm interested to know who the 'players' (and magnitude) are around these parts?

cindywu123 10y ago
I met with everyone. You name the investor, I met with them. If you have specific questions send me some electronic mail.