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Ask Jessica Livingston: If Founders at Work were written today, who'd be in it?
First of all, sorry for the medium, but I think it is fair enough for YC community to take part in this conversation.
I've just packed the book to my upcoming 24 hours flights (2 connection stops) and looked at the list...
As we observed so many successful startups in the last 12 years or so, let alone YC companies, I wonder who are the founders you would have find inspiring to interview for the book.
Being at there, I wonder, is there a chance we will get a "second edition" in the foreseeable future?
And you guys and gals, HN readers, do you have your own list?
(The title was rephrased many times to fit into the 80 char. limit)
- smt88 10y agoWhich YC companies are successful? I'm asking because, in order for the new data to be useful, it must include both successes and failures, which would allow Jessica to test her hypotheses.
- nickpsecurity 10y agoThat's a good point. We also need data on how successful they were: IPO, big acquisition, growth flatlining into steady business (does this happen for YC?), failed but acquired, or failed with total loss.
- tzury 10y agoHere is a list - http://yclist.com/ http://yclist.com/ You can filter for "Show Exited" and "Show Active"
- smt88 10y agoCool! Thanks. It'd be interesting add a column for "total raised so far" to that list. For example, a $20M acquisition of a company that raised $40M would be a failure.
- etrain 10y agoCrunchbase has a good deal of data here - it is incomplete particularly for smaller companies, but is pretty good for larger investment rounds.
- Kurtz79 10y agoNice list. I didn't know Justin TV was funded by YC, it should be classified as exited (as Twitch) or dead, I think.
- startupdiscuss 10y agoThat was a good class ('07). 5 listed exits, and in addition: Dropbox, JustinTV, Disqus and Cloudant.
- immad 10y agoJustinTV was winter 07. Dropbox and Disqus were summer 07 The cloundant you are thinking of was much later. The S07 cloudant sold their domain (I was in S07)
- startupdiscuss 10y agoI stand corrected.
- jedc 10y agoLots of stats on Seed-DB here: http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/view?acceleratorid=1011 http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/view?acceleratorid=1011
- yeldarb 10y agoI'd love a second edition of Founders at Work. It's one of my favorite books and I recommend it to other founders regularly.
- brilliantcode 10y ago> Which YC companies are successful? I dont know the founders but the idea that you could start the apts section of craigslist that out values real established businesses itself is a huge motivator. Of course with close examination, nothing more than a repeat of near zero interest rate capital flooding a crowding market. Some will strike the lotto, most will not. Hindsight bias is not at all being discussed here.
- eegilbert 10y agoI loved Founders at Work. However, it suffers from (somewhat severe) survivorship bias [1]. The next time around, it would be great to hear from more companies/founders that were "supposed to make it" but didn't for one reason or another. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias
- echan00 10y agoI think the problem with your request is that there are way too many failed startup stories.
- eegilbert 10y agoPerhaps. Although you could apply something like matching techniques [1] to find startups comparable to the big successes. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matching_(statistics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matching_(statistics)
- 100k 10y agoShe could take a look at the most hyped startups of 2008 (when the book was published) and see where they are now. Most will probably have failed by now, and there will be some interesting stories there!
- weston 10y agoShe could also focus specifically on YC companies and their success and/or failure stories.
- 27182818284 10y agoAs I sit here wearing a Pebble watch, I'd certainly like to know more about that collapse.
- weston 10y agoI thought the best chapter was on Phillip Greenspun of ArsDigita. Phillip was forced out of his own startup by his board and he eventually maneuvered behind the scenes to regain control. If there's a "Founders At Work 2.0", more stories about failures, mistakes, and how people learned from those failures+mistakes would be super helpful. Most startups aren't an overnight success or a unicorn with "rocketship" style growth. Learning more about the non-sexy, non-linear successes can be just as useful than reading about the unicorns.
- tixocloud 10y agoThe one thing I felt was slightly lacking was interviews with founders of enterprise/B2B startups. For the most part, the stories were great but all revolved around folks who growing consumer/developer-focused companies. I'd buy the 2nd edition in a heartbeat.
- contingencies 10y agoB2C focus is arguably an established trend in incubators/kickstarter/hardware startups in general as well.
- tixocloud 10y agoAgreed - I just felt that that there's not much I can find about how long enterprise/B2B startups take before they find their first customer and how different the sales process could be, etc.
- stevenj 10y agoI'd love to read another edition of Founders at Work -- it's one of my favorite books. Some of the companies I'd be thrilled to see included: Airbnb Stripe Uber Lyft Slack Robinhood Palantir Snap Instacart SpaceX GitHub DraftKings Warby Parker OfferUp
- ohjeez 10y agoRelevant, too: Programmers who defined the technology industry: Where are they now? (2010) http://www.itworld.com/article/2826737/development/programmers-who-defined-the-technology-industry--where-are-they-now-.html http://www.itworld.com/article/2826737/development/programme....
- jjtheblunt 10y agoIf Founders at Work were written today, would they please research the opening paragraphs about sprinters, because they accrue speed the further they get from the blocks. [ Former sprinter here, who couldn't read any further, amazed at the book opening incorrectly. ]
- JSeymourATL 10y agoMore profiles beyond the SV Bubble. Ben Chestnut Co-founder and CEO of @mailchimp (aka mailkimp aka mailshrimp), seems a worthy subject. > https://twitter.com/benchestnut?lang=en https://twitter.com/benchestnut?lang=en
- taiwoayanleye 10y agoMy list: Min-Liang Tan Paul Eremenko Travis Kalanick Ben Chestnut Daniel Stewart