4 ms·

i think "how will you get users?" is a great question for whittling the field. any startup entrepreneur with experience knows that "viral effect" is not the ans

i think "how will you get users?" is a great question for whittling the field. any startup entrepreneur with experience knows that "viral effect" is not the answer, and a strategy is involved...especially if you don't have the valley resources at your disposal. i'm assuming "why did you pick this project..." is all about the passion...

pg 16y ago
i'm assuming "why did you pick this project..." is all about the passion... Actually the ideal answer would be "We needed this at the last company I worked for."
- zackattack 16y ago
  What if you did some exploratory work on the solution at the last company you worked for ... are there potential IP issues that could crop up?
  - weel 16y ago
    Yes, of course. (And I believe YC already asks a question about that.) Employers regularly claim intellectual property rights to the inventions of their employees. But issues coming up does not equal issues being unsurmountable. First of all, many jurisdictions make it hard for employers to try to control things you invent on your own time without using their facilities -- which doesn't keep employers from trying. Secondly, even if your employer arguably does control the IP you need, that doesn't mean they won't give it up. Woz famously realized that HP had a claim to the Apple I and offered to let them have it; HP thought of it as more of a hobby than a business and the rest is history. Universities and other research institutes routinely let employees spin off companies, usually in exchange for some share (although, anecdotally, it seems that universities that are new to the game often ask for more than universities that already have strong spin-off cultures).
  - pg 16y ago
    In practice the test is where lines of code got written. If all your startup's code was written after you quit your job, you're usually ok.

pg 16y ago

i'm assuming "why did you pick this project..." is all about the passion... Actually the ideal answer would be "We needed this at the last company I worked for."

zackattack 16y ago
What if you did some exploratory work on the solution at the last company you worked for ... are there potential IP issues that could crop up?
- weel 16y ago
  Yes, of course. (And I believe YC already asks a question about that.) Employers regularly claim intellectual property rights to the inventions of their employees. But issues coming up does not equal issues being unsurmountable. First of all, many jurisdictions make it hard for employers to try to control things you invent on your own time without using their facilities -- which doesn't keep employers from trying. Secondly, even if your employer arguably does control the IP you need, that doesn't mean they won't give it up. Woz famously realized that HP had a claim to the Apple I and offered to let them have it; HP thought of it as more of a hobby than a business and the rest is history. Universities and other research institutes routinely let employees spin off companies, usually in exchange for some share (although, anecdotally, it seems that universities that are new to the game often ask for more than universities that already have strong spin-off cultures).
- pg 16y ago
  In practice the test is where lines of code got written. If all your startup's code was written after you quit your job, you're usually ok.