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I do find it rather hilarious that he dropped interest in yale for being too academic, but during my (failed) interview as a web developer at Twitch about 5 yea

I do find it rather hilarious that he dropped interest in yale for being too academic, but during my (failed) interview as a web developer at Twitch about 5 years ago, the questioning had to do with only academic subjects like graph traversal algorithms - they proudly stated when I applied that 90% of their employees come from an Ivy league background. Here's who I think should start a startup: - People with the backing of their families and resources to get into Yale and every other college other than Harvard (thank god!), and have the means that failure is not so much of a risk. - People who really need to do this thing, and can maintain their passion and drive and make it the largest part of their lives. And if that thing requires a lot of money to do, the ability to raise money, or already have money. Both of the above need to be able to physically and mentally handle the 90% failure chance. The author clearly could.

aaron-lebo 9y ago
You don't need money to start a startup. It is only startup culture which emphasizes it. When you've got nothing, you don't have anything to risk, so those people without resources but with drive are as good a place as any. My friends and I are working on something in the garage. It might not turn into anything, but when you only make 40k a year, it doesn't take much to be really successful. The thought of making an extra 20k a year is life changing for me and my friends. For a lot of people with great jobs or who are used to wealth, making less than 120k a year is a sacrifice. That's a huge disadvantage, and it becomes even more so when your entire company is filled with people like that.
- albertgoeswoof 9y ago
  What are you making in a garage?
- imhoguy 9y ago
  You don't spend money but you spend your other precious resource which is your private time. With money you can leverage a project by buying somebody else time (employee, partner). Such may be not 1:1 comparison of your own dedication but with fair equity and good match you may get similar drive.
- anth1988 9y ago
  When you've actually got nothing you spend your days fighting to survive. See every homeless person ever.
vabmit 9y ago
I think there's some truth to the family support part of this. I was just racking my brain trying to think of any founder I knew (and I know a ton of them) that was in the position of "success or potentially homeless". But, I can't. I think there's some variable confounding going on when YC and others talk about people in their early 20's being better positioned to do startups because they're less risk averse due to youth. I think they're less risk averse because it's not such a big deal for them to move back in with their parents if they fail. And, their parents are usually still working and therefor able to handle the strain of that. Nearly every successful founder I know of had either very wealthy parents, very supportive family and friends, or both. I don't see any shame in admitting that it's not about some romanticized risk taker ideal alpha geek, but rather about upper class kids lucky enough to have a bunch of built in risk arbitrage supports that they lucked out on being born with.
- harryh 9y ago
  I don't really know his story but I think Jan Koum grew up poor. Apparently he signed his FB acquisition papers on the door of a welfare office where he (or his family?) once collected checks. https://twitter.com/khanoisseur/status/606285374068039682?lang=en https://twitter.com/khanoisseur/status/606285374068039682?la...
- aaron-lebo 9y ago
  Why is it like that, though? If you are single you can live pretty damn well on 40 to 50k (depending on where you are). If you are in a committed relationship with no kids, things get cheaper with scale (food, living expenses, etc). To make 40k a year isn't that difficult when the going rate is a lot higher for a full time job. You scrap together some part time work and then you are able to support yourself and have lots of free time to work on your side project. Granted, that's not possible for all startups or for all individuals, but it doesn't have to be homeless or success.
  - vabmit 9y ago
    Well, side projects are different. I wouldn't really call them start-ups. I'm talking about a VC funded start-up or a start-up whose goal is to eventually be VC funded. You have to be all-in on that kind of thing or you will not be successful. That is so much the case that it is actually written into the Terms Sheet (funding contract). Usually, it says something like "100% of professional/employment activities". It's not as important to be in SFBA as it used to be. But, it is still a major factor in success. I consulted for a start-up that had to move there despite not wanting to just because the potential employment pool was so poor in my area (Boston). In SFBA, $40K/yr to $50K/yr is probably not enough to cover just rent, taxes, and utilities. You still need to worry about food, transportation, health insurance, etc. And, you'd have to convince other people to join your "start-up" that was only a part time hobby for you. Attracting the first employees is one of the hardest parts because that is when your ability to cover their paychecks is most uncertain. I imagine it would be very hard to do if they see you're not all-in and absolutely convinced the company was going to be successful. And, who the first employees wind up being is one of the most risky parts... hire the wrong people and you're done. I know a lot more people that founded a start-up and did not do well than I know people that did. The stories about the failures are usually not that bad (but some are terrible). A joke among that circle of friends and I is that a start-up is basically a really really expensive job application to a more successful start-up that someone else pays for. I encourage people to apply to YC. Because, I believe entrepreneurship is good and the people I know that did well did very well. But, be honest with yourself - Do you have wealthy parents/a wealthy spouse/close friend? Will they support you while you get back on your feet? If so, for how long? That's a discussion you can have with them and get a verbal commitment before you just go for it. I had a good long-time friend, that I was supportive of, start a start-up and fail. He wound up sleeping on my couch for an extended period of time. We're around the same age... I have health insurance, a pretty fat 401K and IRA, a vested pension, an emergency fund, and a lot of seniority at my job. He does not have those things. As you get older, the choices you make now will look like they were very very different choices. Don't romanticize them- really think them through.
mwseibel 9y ago
Sorry you didn't have a better interview experience at Twitch. Also, 90% of our employees didn't come from Ivy League backgrounds. Maybe there was a miscommunication there.
- timr 9y ago
  Certainly not 90% of the early employees.
  - justin 9y ago
    fukk we should have hired more ivy leaguers
    - timr 9y ago
      Sucks to be you man.
- koolkatkool 9y ago
  What kind of bias do you need to get 10% Ivy Leaguers, given that they make up like 0.01% of the population? Not a defense so much as an admission that the parent comment is correct.
  - mwseibel 9y ago
    Sorry was I should have said is the vast majority (over 90%) of our employees didn't come from Ivy's.
- taurath 9y ago
  As said above, there absolutely was as I had conflated an edtech startup that I had interviewed with in the exact same timeframe. I verified on wayback!
avn2109 9y ago
[0] is still funny and still true. "Employing Type A personalities to shuffle around amorphous blobs of questionable value is not called a “startup accelerator”; it’s called Investment Banking." [0] http://www.leveragedsellout.com/2014/02/the-book-of-graham/ http://www.leveragedsellout.com/2014/02/the-book-of-graham/
emmett 9y ago
FWIW Michael wasn't at Twitch. He was at Justin.tv, our precursor. By the time you applied, if you applied to Twitch, you were 6 years post-founding and Michael had left. I do believe you were asked graph traversal algorithms in the interview. I might have asked the question myself, though by the time we had pivoted to Twitch we had mostly stopped asking those questions. It was very early on and we were still pretty bad at interviewing though, so I wouldn't be surprised. Additionally, if someone told you 90% of our employees came from an Ivy league background, they were lying to you. I'm actually very proud of the fact that we've hired broadly across the educational backgrounds. That's simply untrue, and I have no idea who would have said it.
- dlor 9y ago
  I (successfully) interviewed with 'emmett at some point at twitch in 2011 or 2012. I didn't end up taking the offer and I don't remember the exact question, but I have a positive memory of the overall experience. I don't remember anything overly academic or anyone bragging about ivy league percentages.
- taurath 9y ago
  You know, after checking wayback, I absolutely conflated Twitch's "about us" site with an edtech startup that I had interviewed with at the same time. My most sincere apologies! Congratulations on your success :)
hkmurakami 9y ago
Frankly one of the main responsibilities of CEO is money. Have it, and/or Raise it, and/or sell for it.

aaron-lebo 9y ago

You don't need money to start a startup. It is only startup culture which emphasizes it. When you've got nothing, you don't have anything to risk, so those people without resources but with drive are as good a place as any. My friends and I are working on something in the garage. It might not turn into anything, but when you only make 40k a year, it doesn't take much to be really successful. The thought of making an extra 20k a year is life changing for me and my friends. For a lot of people with great jobs or who are used to wealth, making less than 120k a year is a sacrifice. That's a huge disadvantage, and it becomes even more so when your entire company is filled with people like that.

albertgoeswoof 9y ago
What are you making in a garage?
imhoguy 9y ago
You don't spend money but you spend your other precious resource which is your private time. With money you can leverage a project by buying somebody else time (employee, partner). Such may be not 1:1 comparison of your own dedication but with fair equity and good match you may get similar drive.
anth1988 9y ago
When you've actually got nothing you spend your days fighting to survive. See every homeless person ever.

vabmit 9y ago

I think there's some truth to the family support part of this. I was just racking my brain trying to think of any founder I knew (and I know a ton of them) that was in the position of "success or potentially homeless". But, I can't. I think there's some variable confounding going on when YC and others talk about people in their early 20's being better positioned to do startups because they're less risk averse due to youth. I think they're less risk averse because it's not such a big deal for them to move back in with their parents if they fail. And, their parents are usually still working and therefor able to handle the strain of that. Nearly every successful founder I know of had either very wealthy parents, very supportive family and friends, or both. I don't see any shame in admitting that it's not about some romanticized risk taker ideal alpha geek, but rather about upper class kids lucky enough to have a bunch of built in risk arbitrage supports that they lucked out on being born with.

harryh 9y ago
I don't really know his story but I think Jan Koum grew up poor. Apparently he signed his FB acquisition papers on the door of a welfare office where he (or his family?) once collected checks. https://twitter.com/khanoisseur/status/606285374068039682?lang=en https://twitter.com/khanoisseur/status/606285374068039682?la...
aaron-lebo 9y ago
Why is it like that, though? If you are single you can live pretty damn well on 40 to 50k (depending on where you are). If you are in a committed relationship with no kids, things get cheaper with scale (food, living expenses, etc). To make 40k a year isn't that difficult when the going rate is a lot higher for a full time job. You scrap together some part time work and then you are able to support yourself and have lots of free time to work on your side project. Granted, that's not possible for all startups or for all individuals, but it doesn't have to be homeless or success.
- vabmit 9y ago
  Well, side projects are different. I wouldn't really call them start-ups. I'm talking about a VC funded start-up or a start-up whose goal is to eventually be VC funded. You have to be all-in on that kind of thing or you will not be successful. That is so much the case that it is actually written into the Terms Sheet (funding contract). Usually, it says something like "100% of professional/employment activities". It's not as important to be in SFBA as it used to be. But, it is still a major factor in success. I consulted for a start-up that had to move there despite not wanting to just because the potential employment pool was so poor in my area (Boston). In SFBA, $40K/yr to $50K/yr is probably not enough to cover just rent, taxes, and utilities. You still need to worry about food, transportation, health insurance, etc. And, you'd have to convince other people to join your "start-up" that was only a part time hobby for you. Attracting the first employees is one of the hardest parts because that is when your ability to cover their paychecks is most uncertain. I imagine it would be very hard to do if they see you're not all-in and absolutely convinced the company was going to be successful. And, who the first employees wind up being is one of the most risky parts... hire the wrong people and you're done. I know a lot more people that founded a start-up and did not do well than I know people that did. The stories about the failures are usually not that bad (but some are terrible). A joke among that circle of friends and I is that a start-up is basically a really really expensive job application to a more successful start-up that someone else pays for. I encourage people to apply to YC. Because, I believe entrepreneurship is good and the people I know that did well did very well. But, be honest with yourself - Do you have wealthy parents/a wealthy spouse/close friend? Will they support you while you get back on your feet? If so, for how long? That's a discussion you can have with them and get a verbal commitment before you just go for it. I had a good long-time friend, that I was supportive of, start a start-up and fail. He wound up sleeping on my couch for an extended period of time. We're around the same age... I have health insurance, a pretty fat 401K and IRA, a vested pension, an emergency fund, and a lot of seniority at my job. He does not have those things. As you get older, the choices you make now will look like they were very very different choices. Don't romanticize them- really think them through.

mwseibel 9y ago

Sorry you didn't have a better interview experience at Twitch. Also, 90% of our employees didn't come from Ivy League backgrounds. Maybe there was a miscommunication there.

timr 9y ago
Certainly not 90% of the early employees.
- justin 9y ago
  fukk we should have hired more ivy leaguers
  - timr 9y ago
    Sucks to be you man.
koolkatkool 9y ago
What kind of bias do you need to get 10% Ivy Leaguers, given that they make up like 0.01% of the population? Not a defense so much as an admission that the parent comment is correct.
- mwseibel 9y ago
  Sorry was I should have said is the vast majority (over 90%) of our employees didn't come from Ivy's.
taurath 9y ago
As said above, there absolutely was as I had conflated an edtech startup that I had interviewed with in the exact same timeframe. I verified on wayback!

avn2109 9y ago

[0] is still funny and still true. "Employing Type A personalities to shuffle around amorphous blobs of questionable value is not called a “startup accelerator”; it’s called Investment Banking." [0] http://www.leveragedsellout.com/2014/02/the-book-of-graham/ http://www.leveragedsellout.com/2014/02/the-book-of-graham/

emmett 9y ago

FWIW Michael wasn't at Twitch. He was at Justin.tv, our precursor. By the time you applied, if you applied to Twitch, you were 6 years post-founding and Michael had left. I do believe you were asked graph traversal algorithms in the interview. I might have asked the question myself, though by the time we had pivoted to Twitch we had mostly stopped asking those questions. It was very early on and we were still pretty bad at interviewing though, so I wouldn't be surprised. Additionally, if someone told you 90% of our employees came from an Ivy league background, they were lying to you. I'm actually very proud of the fact that we've hired broadly across the educational backgrounds. That's simply untrue, and I have no idea who would have said it.

dlor 9y ago
I (successfully) interviewed with 'emmett at some point at twitch in 2011 or 2012. I didn't end up taking the offer and I don't remember the exact question, but I have a positive memory of the overall experience. I don't remember anything overly academic or anyone bragging about ivy league percentages.
taurath 9y ago
You know, after checking wayback, I absolutely conflated Twitch's "about us" site with an edtech startup that I had interviewed with at the same time. My most sincere apologies! Congratulations on your success :)

hkmurakami 9y ago

Frankly one of the main responsibilities of CEO is money. Have it, and/or Raise it, and/or sell for it.