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Come stay at the hacker house in San Jose, Free
My partner and I will be launching our startup in a week or two. We will subsequently be moving to San Jose, CA on June 8th to pursue our venture full time. We will be staying at a great 4 bedroom single home in a fantastic area.
Our startup is small, just the two of us. So that means we will have two rooms to spare, rather than renting the rooms to some total (useless) strangers i would rather have two (useful) hackers stay.
I came up with an interesting solution. Why not let hackers stay for free as long as they provided some contribution to the house and our project. It would make for great environment, an environment of education,networking and most of all, fun. So if you think you would be interested in staying in the "hacker house" submit a short application to us via our e-mail. Include your Name,background,projects/demos,and what you would add to the house.
We would like for the interested YCers to be from the east coast or Midwest, people that normally wouldn't have the opportunity to move to bay area. A younger crown is preferred, i'm 22 and my partner is 23. For many reason, men only. You don't have to be a hacker, but it's strong recommended.
Please understand that there will no compensation besides room and board and possibly a community car(i'm not sure yet, i have to check with insurance company).food?ramen?. You will be responsible for all travel expenses. We will also have a crash couch for any hackers that are passing through. We simply ask that the guest write a blog post on our blog about themselves/company. I'm sure i'm forgetting a lot of info, but i'll be setting up a simple dedicated site just for the house soon.
Feel free to subscribe to my twitter feed for more info.http://twitter.com/cbomb
- forsaken 19y agoCool idea. I'm still in school, but I love the sense of trust in the community. Best of luck.
- Payton 19y agoFun idea and an interesting way to get some smart people on your radar!
- tlrobinson 19y agoInteresting idea. Just make sure you're clean in terms of intellectual property contributed by people outside your startup...
- martythemaniak 19y agoThis is an excellent idea - and I don't think you'll have trouble finding the kinda housemates you need. Personally, I'd be all over this if I didn't have a job over here, so good luck.
- nazgulnarsil 19y agohopefully we'll see more of this type of thing. wouldn't it be great if hacker news wound up getting some co-founders together that went on to be successful? PG mentions in several essays that college is the best place to find co-founders. Why not a social network that is exclusively for startup minded people?
- aneesh 19y agoStudentBusinesses.com YouNoodle.com
- mattmaroon 19y agoToo bad you won't have it in time for SuS, I'd definitely crash.
- tonyvt2005 19y agoSounds like fun. Best of luck to you guys.
- brentr 19y agoIf it weren't for my lack of confidence in being able to contribute in the hacker-sense (I've never been part of a huge project), I would say that I'd be glad to help. There's not much start-up wise going on in Sandusky, OH. I would be all over this idea if the post had stated: Looking for someone with some knowledge of programming and a strong background in finance.
- vikas5678 19y agohey i stay in San Jose downtown, right next to San Jose State University, I dont plan to stay with you guys, but i dont mind helping out with stuff, code and so on, get in touch when you move here!
- raghus 19y agohttp://superhappydevhouse.org http://superhappydevhouse.org (not the same thing of course, but still useful for anyone that's interested)
- lee 19y agoWhy guys only? I've had roommate situations with both genders and mixing has never hurt.
- deleted 19y ago[deleted]
- petercooper 19y agoWhen you're a young, unsettled man, you don't necessarily want to "waste" time extending the courtesies that are generally required when you live with women. All that nonsense with toilet seats, over the top levels of cleanliness, not calling people douchebags or bitches for fun, etc. Now, there are quite a few women out there who can operate just like men and would be just as good as a man in the anticipated role, but the odds are significantly lower.. whereas a man would most likely just "fit in." Besides, these guys might have personal reasons. Sexual discrimination is something to eradicate at a societal level, not a personal one. If you simply don't get along with women, you shouldn't be forced to work with them (and vice versa!) This means there shouldn't be sexual discrimination in a general workplace, but in your own home you can discriminate all you like!
- mixmax 19y agoNo women? - this is a true nerd speaking. :-)
- Xichekolas 19y agoWow... just... wow. Something tells me that the women applying to be live-in-hackers are not going to be the same ones that bitch about toilet seats. I'm sure he has his reasons for only wanting guys... and it's his house, but seriously man, you sound like a walking stereotype when you say that stuff.
- run4yourlives 19y agoI think all he's saying is that for him, he's not particularity comfortable around women and would prefer to be around men to ensure that comfort. At least he's aware of his discomfort, I guess.
- CRASCH 19y agoThat is a very cool idea. Unfortunately I can't apply. I thought about another idea that would work for me though and might be fun and helpful for you. I think you guys should also have a virtual guest hacker stay at the house. Setup some sort of video chat and the virtual guest hacker would hang out virtually and you could trade ideas and do the same type of hanging out except the shared pizza/ramen. I'd do the same type of selection process and maybe limit it to a day or a week. You might even get some famous hackers to hang out. You might consider targeting the profile of the guest hacker too. There are specific steps that need to be done along the path to success. Why not try to get the hacker of the week that has experience doing what your working on. It could also generate some buzz if you do it right.
- iamdave 19y agoProps for opening your home like that. Great way to network and help out other folks.
- CRASCH 19y agoThat is a very cool idea. Unfortunately I can't apply. I thought about another idea that would work for me though and might be fun and helpful for you. I think you guys should also have a virtual guest hacker stay at the house. Setup some sort of video chat and the virtual guest hacker would hang out virtually and you could trade ideas and do the same type of hanging out except the shared pizza/ramen. I'd do the same type of selection process and maybe limit it to a day or a week. You might even get some famous hackers to hang out. You might consider targeting the profile of the guest hacker too. There are specific steps that need to be done along the path to success. Why not try to get the hacker of the week that has experience doing what your working on. It could also generate some buzz if you do it right.
- abossy 19y agoThis is interesting. I plan to move out to San Jose in mid-July to do FT at IBM. Would you mind sending me more info., namely where in San Jose you're located and what your project is all about? adambossy [at] gmail [dot] com
- kingnothing 19y agoThat's awesome. I might just have to take you up on your offer for a couple of weeks between semesters if the offer is still open before or after summer.
- Neoryder 19y agoGreat Idea, Hope Something good results so that more people emulate your example!
- davidw 19y agoJust to be a bit contrarian, while it sounds like a good idea, the dynamic of having "some people more equal" than others might be tricky. Having people pay their part, or at least a part, might actually make sense from that point of view.
- BrandonM 19y agoI agree. When I lived with my girlfriend, I had a bit more money and she had a bit more time, so I paid the utilities while she did the stuff I wasn't as good at (read: didn't like), like laundry. That worked out pretty well, I thought. If it had instead been the case that I just paid extra while she did nothing to make up for it, it would have been awkward, like she owed me something. I think it's important to make sure that everyone feels they are contributing their fair share to the cost and upkeep of the house.
- wallflower 19y ago> while she did the stuff I wasn't as good at Ever heard Click 'n Clack's (CarTalk show) theory of planned incompetence for husbands? The first time your wife asks you to do something you really don't want to do - do it so badly (e.g. laundry - turn everything pink) that she would be remiss to ask you again... Brilliant
- BrandonM 19y agoOr, you could just tell her you don't like it and negotiate a different arrangement. I think honesty with your wife is probably the way to go. If you can't be honest with her, why did you marry her in the first place?
- wallflower 19y agoI'm not married. But I think you could tell.
- amohr 19y agoNow I'm just imagining what is essentially a hacker frat house. That would be sweet for some sort of incubator or whatnot to set up a 10-20 bedroom house in SJ or SV or somewhere and get like 5-7 startups to all work out of there. You could pay their living expenses +stipend and such in exchange for equity and they could get the benefit of living with a bunch of hackers. Eta Alpha Kappa!!
- blinks 19y agoI don't think you could have a legitimate hacker frat without π.
- Xichekolas 19y agoOr Lambda Edit: To show my unicode credentials... λ
- PStamatiou 19y agoThis is pretty neat - love the concept. I'd take you up on the "just passing through" crash couch if you had the place in May.
- jdavid 19y agothis brings up a point.. do we need a YC hacker housing feed? We are moving from the Midwest and are interested in meeting as many people out there as possible. I have been trying Roommates.com now for a while, but many people there are not as crazy into the start up experience as we are. We are planing on renting a uHaul in the middle of May.
- Prrometheus 19y agoOn my great big idea whiteboard, I have "Hacker Classifieds" listed for just this reason. Why not build it in your spare time? I'll be trying to launch my site at the end of May.
- pierrebombay 19y agoThis is a fantastic idea. I'm going to be in Seattle this Summer and am hoping to drive down to the Bay Area for a weekend. I'll send out an email if it all pans out.
- ALee 19y agothanks for opening your home to everyone, but no ownership in code at all? It will be exactly like working on a really early stage startup for no equity, but instead of being paid with money, one just gets room and board. I think you should openly say you're hiring, give some equity and say you won't get paid, but have room and board.
- amohr 19y agoIf they just said they were hiring, they would get the same lookover as everyone else who's hiring. If you're going to take the time to do something different, why not highlight that and use it to draw people in - there wouldn't be nearly this much discussion if they had just said "Hey, we're hiring and we can't pay you except in room and board."
- hsuresh 19y agoanyone doing something like this in Bangalore/India?
- thenotself 19y agoHey, I'm up in Toronto working on my startup and looking to launch in a week or two. I wanted to head down to San Jose to work on the launch, so the timing would be great for me. Look for my email.
- samwise 19y agoI just want to thank everyone for their positive feedback and all the great applicants. There's a lot of great talent and i'm sure we'll have no problem finding the right people. My only wish is that we have more room. I also wanted to take this time to respond to a couple comments. why only girls you ask. I think this is a non-issue since most girls wouldn't want to live in a house full of "geeks", but in either case i believe it would cause for huge distraction and ultimately take away from what we are there to do, and that's build great companies. Don't get me wrong, the last thing i want is a sausage fest. Members/tenants are welcome to have guests of any sex. You don't have to work on our startup solely. we actually would encourage you to have your own job and just moonlight with everyone else in the house on their respective projects. You can stay as long as you want or until the money runs out, which ever happens first. We have enough cash for a little less than a year. Many of the applicants are relatively close to us (Philadelphia Area) so i will attempt to meet as many of you guys as possible in the coming months prior to the move. I'll have a house blog up soon. I would like anyone that's currently working on a project and would like some coverage to send me a write up of their startup so that i can post it on the house blog. I find the idea of a community of hackers working to help each other really exciting, and i hope that more startups use similar methods. Can anyone come up with name for the house. I need a domain name idea. Don't forget to subscribe to my twitter feed for updates http://twitter.com/cbomb http://twitter.com/cbomb
- jlam 19y agoInstead of merely having a home, why not incorporate it as a non-profit cooperative. The paperwork isn't very hard. We've done it from scratch here at the http://Ant-Hill.org http://Ant-Hill.org in Rochester. The effort to found a developer/start-up co-op then goes on to sustain yet more start-ups. A co-op/social venture would grow independently and foster others, and even help sustain your venture in a positive feedback cycle too.
- DavidSJ 19y agoIf you're worried about distractions, just make them wear a burka.