5 ms·

The trend of finding an online stranger as cofounder for the Y Combinator program

2 points by keiretsu 19y ago

keiretsu 19y ago
I'm seeing a trend of hackers looking for fellow hackers online to apply for the Ycombinator program. I was wondering how effective a partnership would such an arrangement yield? 2 dudes. Total oblivion to each other's quirks. Joining force to undertake a significant project. How realistic is that? Also, would Ycombinator have less regards for such hastily put-together teams, irrespective of their skills/ideas?
- gyro_robo 19y ago
  Rolling the dice - it may work, it may not. Your chances of getting YC'd without it, however, are apparently nil. If you do get funded and don't get along, you can always split up, and it'll be like the group projects in school where one person had to do all the work while everyone else flaked. ;)
  - SwellJoe 19y ago
    The companies that split have turned out to be failures (with the exception of reddit). Try to pick a good co-founder. So, while it's true that you'll probably fail if you get choose a poor co-founder, it's also true that you'll probably fail without a co-founder. In the end the result is that you're working alone, which is a bad place to be.
    - gyro_robo 19y ago
      > The companies that split List?
- davidw 19y ago
  Co-founders in the night exchanging glances Wondring in the night What were the chances wed be sharing a C-corporation Before the night was through. With apologies to Frank Sinatra...
ivan 19y ago
Many samples of (working and effective )online partnerships are in world of open source where many hackers around the world are working on much more complex problems than those backed by YC.
- pg 19y ago
  The main difficulty in a startup is not the complexity of the technical problem you're solving.
  - keiretsu 19y ago
    i agree. It is usually people problem. Personality clashes etc.
    - willarson 19y ago
      The great problem with startups isn't a "problem", because it isn't typically the case that startups fail because they have something go wrong. Startups fail because they don't do enough things right. Following that, the problem joining with a stranger is not that you don't know their quirks, its that it is difficult to find someone with complementary strengths. However, since we hackers are typically drawn to others similar to ourselves, many of those going to YCombinator with someone they have known for a long time will be similarly disadvantaged despite being acquaintances (they will still be two individuals with similar strengths and weaknesses). Thus what we really need is for two business types to go to YC together, and two hackers to go to YC together, and form two teams, each with one hacker and one business type. Or, better yet, to forcibly enroll the hackers in business courses and vice versa. :)
    - pg 19y ago
      No, that's not what I meant. What kills most startups is that they build something lame-- something users see and think "meh" and click on Back. It's not ability to solve problems that makes the difference, but what problems the founders choose to solve. Friction between founders is somewhat of a threat to startups, but small in comparison with making something users don't care about.

2 points by keiretsu 19y ago

I'm seeing a trend of hackers looking for fellow hackers online to apply for the Ycombinator program. I was wondering how effective a partnership would such an arrangement yield? 2 dudes. Total oblivion to each other's quirks. Joining force to undertake a significant project. How realistic is that? Also, would Ycombinator have less regards for such hastily put-together teams, irrespective of their skills/ideas?

gyro_robo 19y ago
Rolling the dice - it may work, it may not. Your chances of getting YC'd without it, however, are apparently nil. If you do get funded and don't get along, you can always split up, and it'll be like the group projects in school where one person had to do all the work while everyone else flaked. ;)
- SwellJoe 19y ago
  The companies that split have turned out to be failures (with the exception of reddit). Try to pick a good co-founder. So, while it's true that you'll probably fail if you get choose a poor co-founder, it's also true that you'll probably fail without a co-founder. In the end the result is that you're working alone, which is a bad place to be.
  - gyro_robo 19y ago
    > The companies that split List?
davidw 19y ago
Co-founders in the night exchanging glances Wondring in the night What were the chances wed be sharing a C-corporation Before the night was through. With apologies to Frank Sinatra...

ivan 19y ago

Many samples of (working and effective )online partnerships are in world of open source where many hackers around the world are working on much more complex problems than those backed by YC.

pg 19y ago
The main difficulty in a startup is not the complexity of the technical problem you're solving.
- keiretsu 19y ago
  i agree. It is usually people problem. Personality clashes etc.
  - willarson 19y ago
    The great problem with startups isn't a "problem", because it isn't typically the case that startups fail because they have something go wrong. Startups fail because they don't do enough things right. Following that, the problem joining with a stranger is not that you don't know their quirks, its that it is difficult to find someone with complementary strengths. However, since we hackers are typically drawn to others similar to ourselves, many of those going to YCombinator with someone they have known for a long time will be similarly disadvantaged despite being acquaintances (they will still be two individuals with similar strengths and weaknesses). Thus what we really need is for two business types to go to YC together, and two hackers to go to YC together, and form two teams, each with one hacker and one business type. Or, better yet, to forcibly enroll the hackers in business courses and vice versa. :)
  - pg 19y ago
    No, that's not what I meant. What kills most startups is that they build something lame-- something users see and think "meh" and click on Back. It's not ability to solve problems that makes the difference, but what problems the founders choose to solve. Friction between founders is somewhat of a threat to startups, but small in comparison with making something users don't care about.