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> 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 $1,0

> 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.
- sillysaurus3 10y ago
  Haha. Looks like the punch bowl is empty. Somebody make another round of kool-aid! You know, I've heard this type of irritating comment so many times over the years. I've been on HN since day two of its public launch, back when it was called Startup News. It was a magical time, mostly because everyone was universally supportive. This isn't a rose-tinted view of the past, or selective memory. It was the reason I was blown away by this internet community. The cynical comments would pop up on Reddit, mostly from pg's essay posts. I couldn't understand their point of view. Were they jealous? Did they care so much about what other people were doing with their lives that they would choose to mock them publicly? I didn't know, but I felt lucky that HN wasn't one of those places. Then as HN grew, it started here. Mostly people remained supportive, but there was this undercurrent of negativity that kept creeping in, proportional to HN's size. Now I wake up nearly a decade later to see many people who share your ideas, that only fools would dare gamble their youth, that taking anything but the safe and rational route is "drinking kool-aid," that pg's essays are manipulative, and so on. And so I realize that YC founders now have their own community, separate from HN, and the electrifying experience of the early days of Startup News is no longer present. But I was there. I saw it, I flew to SF and met a bunch of YC co's, I saw their optimism and courage, and you could not be more mistaken about the type of people they are. I'm not saying that it's all wonderful, or that they're giants, or that there are "normal" people and "special" people interested in startups. I'm saying that startups are started by regular people, like you and me, and that without a supportive community, it's incredibly difficult to start anything. I didn't even care about getting rich. I just wanted to help somehow. But I'm just happy that their community grows and grows and becomes stronger in spite of your negative voice, and all the negative voices across the internet. It seems like proof that you have to not care what people think to get things done.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
idiot_stick 10y ago
>What an incredible, amazing experience. You realize you can do everything you said, without living in someone's closet, in 99% of the world, right? YC is making billions and their workers are living in closets. That's insane.
- sillysaurus3 10y ago
  Founders are not "workers" for YC. They're trying to do something exceptional with extremely scarce resources.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - user5994461 10y ago
    Founders are workers. They are the ones doing all the work and throwing years of their life away.
    - chii 10y ago
      They are only workers if they do not to reap the benefits of their work 100%.
      - deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
      - user5994461 10y ago
        Indeed, they are not workers. Workers get paid for their work. Founders don't get a paycheck.
        aliakhtar 10y ago
        Actually, they do. All employees of a company have to pay themselves a minimum wage, at least. Founders are employees in their own company. And they (usually) own majority stock in the company - if there is a payout for YC, founders make more money than YC does.
mgkimsal 10y ago
> Who wouldn't want to work on something awesome There's "working on something awesome" and there's "working on something (I think is) awesome". I see a lot more of the latter, and much less of the former, and it's hard to tell the difference. But... when it's easy to tell the difference... it's hard to accept if you're in the latter camp.
cindywu123 10y ago
There is never a better time than now.
- dexterdog 10y ago
  Actually yesterday is often a better time

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.

sillysaurus3 10y ago
Haha. Looks like the punch bowl is empty. Somebody make another round of kool-aid! You know, I've heard this type of irritating comment so many times over the years. I've been on HN since day two of its public launch, back when it was called Startup News. It was a magical time, mostly because everyone was universally supportive. This isn't a rose-tinted view of the past, or selective memory. It was the reason I was blown away by this internet community. The cynical comments would pop up on Reddit, mostly from pg's essay posts. I couldn't understand their point of view. Were they jealous? Did they care so much about what other people were doing with their lives that they would choose to mock them publicly? I didn't know, but I felt lucky that HN wasn't one of those places. Then as HN grew, it started here. Mostly people remained supportive, but there was this undercurrent of negativity that kept creeping in, proportional to HN's size. Now I wake up nearly a decade later to see many people who share your ideas, that only fools would dare gamble their youth, that taking anything but the safe and rational route is "drinking kool-aid," that pg's essays are manipulative, and so on. And so I realize that YC founders now have their own community, separate from HN, and the electrifying experience of the early days of Startup News is no longer present. But I was there. I saw it, I flew to SF and met a bunch of YC co's, I saw their optimism and courage, and you could not be more mistaken about the type of people they are. I'm not saying that it's all wonderful, or that they're giants, or that there are "normal" people and "special" people interested in startups. I'm saying that startups are started by regular people, like you and me, and that without a supportive community, it's incredibly difficult to start anything. I didn't even care about getting rich. I just wanted to help somehow. But I'm just happy that their community grows and grows and becomes stronger in spite of your negative voice, and all the negative voices across the internet. It seems like proof that you have to not care what people think to get things done.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

idiot_stick 10y ago

>What an incredible, amazing experience. You realize you can do everything you said, without living in someone's closet, in 99% of the world, right? YC is making billions and their workers are living in closets. That's insane.

sillysaurus3 10y ago
Founders are not "workers" for YC. They're trying to do something exceptional with extremely scarce resources.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- user5994461 10y ago
  Founders are workers. They are the ones doing all the work and throwing years of their life away.
  - chii 10y ago
    They are only workers if they do not to reap the benefits of their work 100%.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - user5994461 10y ago
      Indeed, they are not workers. Workers get paid for their work. Founders don't get a paycheck.
      - aliakhtar 10y ago
        Actually, they do. All employees of a company have to pay themselves a minimum wage, at least. Founders are employees in their own company. And they (usually) own majority stock in the company - if there is a payout for YC, founders make more money than YC does.

mgkimsal 10y ago

> Who wouldn't want to work on something awesome There's "working on something awesome" and there's "working on something (I think is) awesome". I see a lot more of the latter, and much less of the former, and it's hard to tell the difference. But... when it's easy to tell the difference... it's hard to accept if you're in the latter camp.

cindywu123 10y ago

There is never a better time than now.

dexterdog 10y ago
Actually yesterday is often a better time