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The F|R Interview: Y Combinator’s Paul Graham

29 points by kungfudoi 19y ago

fleaflicker 19y ago
Can your model be replicated? YC's competitive advantage is their "brand", which existed before they funded their first startup. I'd bet a huge chunk of YC applicants read PG's essays long before they even heard of YC. Applicants completely and wholeheartedly trust YC before they fill out the application. I would not have felt comfortable submitting the most intimate details of my company (including financial) to another company but I revealed them to YC without batting an eye.
- ph0rque 19y ago
  Out of curiosity, how many times did you apply to YC? If more than once, were any applications with something other than fleaflicker?
  - fleaflicker 19y ago
    Once. Fleaflicker is the only startup idea I've ever pursued.
nextmoveone 19y ago
I am just testing out the buxfer iphone interface. hn.buxfer.com
nextmoveone 19y ago
I am just testing out the buxfer iphone interface. hn.buxfer.com
bigtoga 19y ago
Nice - thanks for posting.
pg 19y ago
The questions and answers have been edited so much that I often seem to be saying something different than I actually did. So I posted my original answers: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=180299 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=180299 I used their new questions when possible, but the original ones when they'd changed so much that my answer would otherwise have been mysterious. Edit: Problem fixed. They replaced the interview with the original questions and answers.
dennykmiu 19y ago
"... but it is not our model that distinguishes us. It’s the people that make the difference ..." I don't know much about YC since I am of a very different demographic but I would say the same thing about the people who comes to this discussion site (YC News or Hacker News) which I discovered by accident six months ago. I bet most people who keep coming back to YCN do so because of the quality of the discussion (i.e., people) as well. And my observation is that many are coming from all over the World, with very different startup experience, and obviously of different age group (i.e., very few are YC candadates). And I bet it would be difficult to replicate YCN for the same reason that it would be difficult to replicate YC.
byrneseyeview 19y ago
Perhaps I'm missing something, but: did they link to a page about doing recursion in C++ to explain the concept of a Y Combinator? (http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial/lesson16.html http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial/lesson16.html) . For better explanations, this is sort of from The Little Schemer: http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~sweirich/cse340/04/why_of_y.ps http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~sweirich/cse340/04/why_of_y.ps This is also good: http://www.dreamsongs.com/Files/WhyOfY.pdf http://www.dreamsongs.com/Files/WhyOfY.pdf
ph0rque 19y ago
is zecter (http://www.zecter.com http://www.zecter.com) a misspelling?

29 points by kungfudoi 19y ago

Can your model be replicated? YC's competitive advantage is their "brand", which existed before they funded their first startup. I'd bet a huge chunk of YC applicants read PG's essays long before they even heard of YC. Applicants completely and wholeheartedly trust YC before they fill out the application. I would not have felt comfortable submitting the most intimate details of my company (including financial) to another company but I revealed them to YC without batting an eye.

ph0rque 19y ago
Out of curiosity, how many times did you apply to YC? If more than once, were any applications with something other than fleaflicker?
- fleaflicker 19y ago
  Once. Fleaflicker is the only startup idea I've ever pursued.

nextmoveone 19y ago

I am just testing out the buxfer iphone interface. hn.buxfer.com

nextmoveone 19y ago

I am just testing out the buxfer iphone interface. hn.buxfer.com

bigtoga 19y ago

Nice - thanks for posting.

pg 19y ago

The questions and answers have been edited so much that I often seem to be saying something different than I actually did. So I posted my original answers: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=180299 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=180299 I used their new questions when possible, but the original ones when they'd changed so much that my answer would otherwise have been mysterious. Edit: Problem fixed. They replaced the interview with the original questions and answers.

dennykmiu 19y ago

"... but it is not our model that distinguishes us. It’s the people that make the difference ..." I don't know much about YC since I am of a very different demographic but I would say the same thing about the people who comes to this discussion site (YC News or Hacker News) which I discovered by accident six months ago. I bet most people who keep coming back to YCN do so because of the quality of the discussion (i.e., people) as well. And my observation is that many are coming from all over the World, with very different startup experience, and obviously of different age group (i.e., very few are YC candadates). And I bet it would be difficult to replicate YCN for the same reason that it would be difficult to replicate YC.

byrneseyeview 19y ago

Perhaps I'm missing something, but: did they link to a page about doing recursion in C++ to explain the concept of a Y Combinator? (http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial/lesson16.html http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial/lesson16.html) . For better explanations, this is sort of from The Little Schemer: http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~sweirich/cse340/04/why_of_y.ps http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~sweirich/cse340/04/why_of_y.ps This is also good: http://www.dreamsongs.com/Files/WhyOfY.pdf http://www.dreamsongs.com/Files/WhyOfY.pdf

ph0rque 19y ago

is zecter (http://www.zecter.com http://www.zecter.com) a misspelling?