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Tell HN: We're bringing back the “Work at a Startup” event on Saturday July 28

125 points by snowmaker 8y ago

Back in 2010 and in 2012, YC organized a "Work at a Startup" event, for founders of YC companies and prospective hires to meet each other in person. It got great feedback and we wanted to keep doing it, but we got stretched too thin for a while. This year, a bunch of us revived the project. Our goal is to fundamentally improve the experience both of joining a YC startup and of being an early employee in general. You may have seen some of the recent discussions about this, including a big discussion last week about concrete ways to improve things for early startup employees (see links below). As part of this, we've decided to bring back an expanded version of the original "Work at a Startup" event. That's what we're announcing today. On Saturday July 28, we'll host our third Work at a Startup Expo: https://workatastartup.com/expo https://workatastartup.com/expo. We'll begin with a talk answering the most common questions about working at a startup. Then we'll have a series of rapid-fire presentations by 35 YC companies currently hiring engineers. After the event, we'll have an open house where you can talk one-on-one with the founders of any company that interested you. New this time: we'll have a hardware demo area where companies building physical products can show them off. YC has more hardware companies than ever now, building everything from satellites to industrial robots. For those not in the Bay Area, we will live stream all the videos, and if people are interested we can have an ongoing HN thread to discuss them as well. If you're interested in attending, please apply at https://workatastartup.com/expo https://workatastartup.com/expo. Any questions or ideas, please comment below! Links to previous discussions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17286939 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17286939 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15916350 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15916350 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3676578 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3676578 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1346103 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1346103 p.s. That recent thread about the pros and cons of working at a startup was one of the best discussions I've ever seen on Hacker News. I went through it carefully, tried to make sure that every comment got attention, and compiled a list of the main points, which got a thorough discussion at the last YC partner meeting. We're going to develop some substantive programs in response. It will take some time to responsibly make changes that affect the whole ecosystem, but we're going to work hard on it; it's an opportunity to make things better for everyone. Please stay tuned!

nanna 8y ago
Equivalent in London: https://www.siliconmilkroundabout.com/ https://www.siliconmilkroundabout.com/ Looks like they've dropped their emphasis on working at a startup, which was SMR's mission last time I checked. But I imagine there'll be some there?
mlthoughts2018 8y ago
I would be so highly interested to know the internal YC discussion and analysis about two main points mentioned in that previous thread you discussed, specifically: - moving away from open-plan offices to something that allows most works hours on most days to have a high degree of quiet & privacy - addressing the many points about how start-up compensation, even when discounting equity risks for unsuccessful outcomes or low exits, is just not competitive, even though offsetting factors like working on interesting projects, flexible work/life policies, etc., are generally no worse in traditional corps than start-ups, and quite often much better. Any concrete feedback about the analysis that came from these points would be fantastic. I think it’s very exciting to hear that YC is directly discussing these things!
- snowmaker 8y ago
  Yes, that is what we're working on. While it doesn't address the larger point about compensation (we're working on that), one thought about compensation specific to this event, is that the companies coming to the Expo are at a wide range of funding levels and sizes. Some of them would probably not even be considered "startups" by most people, like Instacart and Doordash, which are both hundreds of people. Many of them do already offer highly competitive compensation; so I would not let this be a deal-breaker for considering coming to the event.
localcdn 8y ago
In general, what type/stage of startups would fresh grads (with internship experience) fit in best?
- sidlls 8y ago
  Based on the typical technical skills needed: almost nowhere. Based on the typical compensation and culture: you describe the kind of employee they target. And that is in a nutshell exactly what all the comments in the previous thread distill down to.

125 points by snowmaker 8y ago

nanna 8y ago

Equivalent in London: https://www.siliconmilkroundabout.com/ https://www.siliconmilkroundabout.com/ Looks like they've dropped their emphasis on working at a startup, which was SMR's mission last time I checked. But I imagine there'll be some there?

mlthoughts2018 8y ago

I would be so highly interested to know the internal YC discussion and analysis about two main points mentioned in that previous thread you discussed, specifically: - moving away from open-plan offices to something that allows most works hours on most days to have a high degree of quiet & privacy - addressing the many points about how start-up compensation, even when discounting equity risks for unsuccessful outcomes or low exits, is just not competitive, even though offsetting factors like working on interesting projects, flexible work/life policies, etc., are generally no worse in traditional corps than start-ups, and quite often much better. Any concrete feedback about the analysis that came from these points would be fantastic. I think it’s very exciting to hear that YC is directly discussing these things!

snowmaker 8y ago
Yes, that is what we're working on. While it doesn't address the larger point about compensation (we're working on that), one thought about compensation specific to this event, is that the companies coming to the Expo are at a wide range of funding levels and sizes. Some of them would probably not even be considered "startups" by most people, like Instacart and Doordash, which are both hundreds of people. Many of them do already offer highly competitive compensation; so I would not let this be a deal-breaker for considering coming to the event.

localcdn 8y ago

In general, what type/stage of startups would fresh grads (with internship experience) fit in best?

sidlls 8y ago
Based on the typical technical skills needed: almost nowhere. Based on the typical compensation and culture: you describe the kind of employee they target. And that is in a nutshell exactly what all the comments in the previous thread distill down to.