8 ms·

YC Office Hours at TC Disrupt [Live]

73 points by tilt 15y ago

tilt 15y ago
Paul Graham and Harj Taggar on stage right now
suking 15y ago
This omni places guy is absolutely brutal.
- suking 15y ago
  I like how the cardflick guy instantly criticizes a YC company as sucking. Nice.
- mkeblx 15y ago
  And that should be a softball question: why are you doing this startup over a multitude of others you could be doing?
chaud 15y ago
I could watch this all day. These people are presenting with such fundamental problems and it is fun to see them try to downplay them when questioned.
- sahillavingia 15y ago
  You often don't notice problems when you're so heads-down on your product.
  - chaud 15y ago
    Agreed, and I am sure if I was presenting I would have problems of my own. That doesn't take away from the value (or amusement) you get from seeing other people's problems.
- zach 15y ago
  This is uniquely entertaining. I would love to see this more often. What this really highlights is that entrepreneurs aren't put face to face with someone as incisive and BS-resistant as PG or Harj nearly often enough. Maybe there's an opportunity for an Ask Your Target Market like service which specializes in reality checks for entrepreneurs.
  - dreamdu5t 15y ago
    People at the top of the pyramid almost always suffer from groupthink more than anyone else, because they have the fewest people both able and willing to say no to them.
  - nl 15y ago
    I see this all the time, and it happens on HN a lot too. Someone will post a link to their startup, and everyone will be supportive and at most suggest a few wording corrections. I'm often tempted to post "this is shit, and here is why", but I think the supportive environment of HN is valuable. I don't know what the solution is.
covercash 15y ago
http://cardflick.io http://cardflick.io http://testranking.com http://testranking.com http://omniplaces.com http://omniplaces.com http://slides.io http://slides.io I think there were 2 others but the stream was on in the background while I was working. I must have zoned out and missed them.
- timerickson 15y ago
  cardflick.co, actually. The .io extension is not registered.
- durga 15y ago
  just tried out omniplaces.com. works pretty fast, i kinda like it. though when I looked for burgers near palo alto, i mostly got burger king and in and out, though that's fixable. One could potentially build a yelp like website with this search experience - especially if you don't manipulate reviews :)
bignoggins 15y ago
Darn, just missed it. Is it available recorded yet?
- revorad 15y ago
  http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/17234044 http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/17234044
revorad 15y ago
The first guy had a business with millions of users, a partnership with Apple, and 20% monthly growth rate. He seems to have gone on stage just to show off!
emanuer 15y ago
I was on stage (testranking.com) I completely froze when PG started to fire questions at me. It is amazing how fast he got to the core points. It was my first time on stage, it is really hard to prepare for this kind of experience.
- MatthewB 15y ago
  I can imagine how nervous you must have been in front of PG and especially in front of an audience. I applaud you for even getting up there to take criticism so publicly.
- chaud 15y ago
  I looked at your site after it finally started working again during your segment. Why is the Macbook Pro ranked #1 for gaming laptops? It has superior build quality, but gaming performance leaves plenty to be desired compared to many of the laptops below it. It also costs much more, which doesn't seem to be factored in to the price. The ASUS G73SW-A1 listing says this in the Display summary: "Looking at the screen both indoors and outdoors is a generally enjoyable experience" Then this in the Display details: "The reflections on this screen cause its usability to be close to minimal. Users will only be able to comfortably view the display in either dark environment or with the least possible amount of lighting. Outdoor use will prove to be absurd; patience and continuous focus will be required for any actual and efficient use of this laptop under medium lighting conditions." These seem contradictory, and there were little inconsistencies everywhere I looked. It is a fun idea/project though!
  - Aga 15y ago
    To be fair, the category topped by the MacBook Pro is not "gaming" but "performance and gaming". The MBP is known to be a good match for many "performance"-tasks such as video editing and graphical work.
  - emanuer 15y ago
    Thank you for your feedback, it is very appreciated. The current problem with our website is: We didn't put the newest data up. We have other plans with it and kind of starved the consumer version of new laptops. Nevertheless your points are very valid, the categorizing of products needs improvement, very much. We have many better gaming laptops in our complete database, I hope we will manage to make them available to everyone in the next few weeks. About the wording, we are no native speakers, so our English is definitely a week point.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
wavephorm 15y ago
Did pg say "I worry..." on purpose?
- fbuilesv 15y ago
  He likes to do that a lot, see http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/25/absolute-must-watch-office-hours-with-paul-graham-at-tc-disrupt/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/25/absolute-must-watch-office-...
toot 15y ago
Can anyone comment as to the quality of these interviewees in relation to the proper YC applicants? It seems that some of the guys wouldn't know their arse from their elbow. I appreciate how stressful it would be on stage, however a lot of them just didn't grasp the fundamentals of business or communicate a clear value prop. Were past YC companies more polished during their first elevator pitches, or is it something that comes with practice?
shawndrost 15y ago
"Allow me to give some backgrou..." "NOOO we don't have time! Just tell me who is the user."
chenli 15y ago
I am the person talking about OmniPlaces.com. It's an amazing experience and Paul was right-on with his questions. Given the time limit, I was not able to answer all the questions. Our site provides powerful search features (instant, error tolerant and local), which are important for location-based apps and mobile apps. In addition, we provide aggregated links to other important sites such as Yelp, Foursquare, and Gowalla. Our core value is the backend technology and product developed by Bimaple, which are also ready to be used by other companies. Chen Li
- joshmlewis 15y ago
  I check it out. It worked nice but still needs something to set it apart I think. Even if you have something that's a little better than Google I might be willing to still choose Google over OmniPlaces just because I'm already familiar with Google and probably already have it open. Just a thought.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
- spdy 15y ago
  Did not work for me at all. Tried to search for Starbucks near Hamburg and compared it to Google Maps. Got nothing on Omniplaces and everything i needed on Google Maps and as pg pointed out on stage you fight against Google in search and there is no compelling feature im even interested in on your site. Overall it looks like a clone of Google Maps with less features and information sorry to say that. Maybe adding some social layers (friend recommendations etc.) would help.
  - chenli 15y ago
    So far the backend is using more than 17 million business listings in the US, licensed from Factual.com. Chen Li
- benmccann 15y ago
  Hi Dr. Li, I saw your presentation on BiMaple at the Irvine Incubation Center, so it's nice to see the technology out in the wild. My initial reaction to omniplaces was that it was slightly harder to use than Google Maps because it does not guess at your location based on your IP address. I think if you implement that it will be easier to use than Google Maps due to the instant fuzzy search (though as Paul Graham said, just being slightly better might not be enough.) Good luck!
qF 15y ago
I would've loved to hear some more from Harj, he got some good questions in but it seemed to me he had a hard time actually hearing the interviewees (and vica versa). Plus Paul's enthusiasm probably didn't make it easier to get a question in (not meant as critique towards Paul). -- It's really interesting and it has to potential to transfer a lot of startup/business related knowledge in a short amount of time. But it could definitely be optimized (better seating arrangement/better sound). Perhaps it takes away some of the spontaneity, but picking more suitable startups beforehand and perhaps a 5min briefing for the interviewers so you can get to the point more quickly would go a long way. I've done a bit of research on how to transfer expertise and I feel that this (public office hours) really is an effective way to do just that, you can learn a lot from this, even if you're not the interviewee.
joshmlewis 15y ago
If you guys watch a little bit later after the talk with Peter Thiel and his partner they did a little segment with PG and Harj. It was very interesting. They talked about the difference of what that was and what interviews and office hours are like. Not sure if it was recorded are not.
orky56 15y ago
Key takeaways or at least the main ideas behind PG and Harj's questions & comments- What pain point are you solving? Is it something you dealt with (or the market deals with)? How do you go about using the product? What is the killer feature of your product that will allow a user to switch from their current method? Essentially, do you have product-market fit and an intuitive user experience.

73 points by tilt 15y ago

tilt 15y ago

Paul Graham and Harj Taggar on stage right now

suking 15y ago

This omni places guy is absolutely brutal.

suking 15y ago
I like how the cardflick guy instantly criticizes a YC company as sucking. Nice.
mkeblx 15y ago
And that should be a softball question: why are you doing this startup over a multitude of others you could be doing?

chaud 15y ago

I could watch this all day. These people are presenting with such fundamental problems and it is fun to see them try to downplay them when questioned.

sahillavingia 15y ago
You often don't notice problems when you're so heads-down on your product.
- chaud 15y ago
  Agreed, and I am sure if I was presenting I would have problems of my own. That doesn't take away from the value (or amusement) you get from seeing other people's problems.
zach 15y ago
This is uniquely entertaining. I would love to see this more often. What this really highlights is that entrepreneurs aren't put face to face with someone as incisive and BS-resistant as PG or Harj nearly often enough. Maybe there's an opportunity for an Ask Your Target Market like service which specializes in reality checks for entrepreneurs.
- dreamdu5t 15y ago
  People at the top of the pyramid almost always suffer from groupthink more than anyone else, because they have the fewest people both able and willing to say no to them.
- nl 15y ago
  I see this all the time, and it happens on HN a lot too. Someone will post a link to their startup, and everyone will be supportive and at most suggest a few wording corrections. I'm often tempted to post "this is shit, and here is why", but I think the supportive environment of HN is valuable. I don't know what the solution is.

covercash 15y ago

http://cardflick.io http://cardflick.io http://testranking.com http://testranking.com http://omniplaces.com http://omniplaces.com http://slides.io http://slides.io I think there were 2 others but the stream was on in the background while I was working. I must have zoned out and missed them.

timerickson 15y ago
cardflick.co, actually. The .io extension is not registered.
durga 15y ago
just tried out omniplaces.com. works pretty fast, i kinda like it. though when I looked for burgers near palo alto, i mostly got burger king and in and out, though that's fixable. One could potentially build a yelp like website with this search experience - especially if you don't manipulate reviews :)

bignoggins 15y ago

Darn, just missed it. Is it available recorded yet?

revorad 15y ago
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/17234044 http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/17234044

revorad 15y ago

The first guy had a business with millions of users, a partnership with Apple, and 20% monthly growth rate. He seems to have gone on stage just to show off!

emanuer 15y ago

I was on stage (testranking.com) I completely froze when PG started to fire questions at me. It is amazing how fast he got to the core points. It was my first time on stage, it is really hard to prepare for this kind of experience.

MatthewB 15y ago
I can imagine how nervous you must have been in front of PG and especially in front of an audience. I applaud you for even getting up there to take criticism so publicly.
chaud 15y ago
I looked at your site after it finally started working again during your segment. Why is the Macbook Pro ranked #1 for gaming laptops? It has superior build quality, but gaming performance leaves plenty to be desired compared to many of the laptops below it. It also costs much more, which doesn't seem to be factored in to the price. The ASUS G73SW-A1 listing says this in the Display summary: "Looking at the screen both indoors and outdoors is a generally enjoyable experience" Then this in the Display details: "The reflections on this screen cause its usability to be close to minimal. Users will only be able to comfortably view the display in either dark environment or with the least possible amount of lighting. Outdoor use will prove to be absurd; patience and continuous focus will be required for any actual and efficient use of this laptop under medium lighting conditions." These seem contradictory, and there were little inconsistencies everywhere I looked. It is a fun idea/project though!
- Aga 15y ago
  To be fair, the category topped by the MacBook Pro is not "gaming" but "performance and gaming". The MBP is known to be a good match for many "performance"-tasks such as video editing and graphical work.
- emanuer 15y ago
  Thank you for your feedback, it is very appreciated. The current problem with our website is: We didn't put the newest data up. We have other plans with it and kind of starved the consumer version of new laptops. Nevertheless your points are very valid, the categorizing of products needs improvement, very much. We have many better gaming laptops in our complete database, I hope we will manage to make them available to everyone in the next few weeks. About the wording, we are no native speakers, so our English is definitely a week point.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

wavephorm 15y ago

Did pg say "I worry..." on purpose?

fbuilesv 15y ago
He likes to do that a lot, see http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/25/absolute-must-watch-office-hours-with-paul-graham-at-tc-disrupt/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/25/absolute-must-watch-office-...

toot 15y ago

Can anyone comment as to the quality of these interviewees in relation to the proper YC applicants? It seems that some of the guys wouldn't know their arse from their elbow. I appreciate how stressful it would be on stage, however a lot of them just didn't grasp the fundamentals of business or communicate a clear value prop. Were past YC companies more polished during their first elevator pitches, or is it something that comes with practice?

shawndrost 15y ago

"Allow me to give some backgrou..." "NOOO we don't have time! Just tell me who is the user."

chenli 15y ago

I am the person talking about OmniPlaces.com. It's an amazing experience and Paul was right-on with his questions. Given the time limit, I was not able to answer all the questions. Our site provides powerful search features (instant, error tolerant and local), which are important for location-based apps and mobile apps. In addition, we provide aggregated links to other important sites such as Yelp, Foursquare, and Gowalla. Our core value is the backend technology and product developed by Bimaple, which are also ready to be used by other companies. Chen Li

joshmlewis 15y ago
I check it out. It worked nice but still needs something to set it apart I think. Even if you have something that's a little better than Google I might be willing to still choose Google over OmniPlaces just because I'm already familiar with Google and probably already have it open. Just a thought.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
spdy 15y ago
Did not work for me at all. Tried to search for Starbucks near Hamburg and compared it to Google Maps. Got nothing on Omniplaces and everything i needed on Google Maps and as pg pointed out on stage you fight against Google in search and there is no compelling feature im even interested in on your site. Overall it looks like a clone of Google Maps with less features and information sorry to say that. Maybe adding some social layers (friend recommendations etc.) would help.
- chenli 15y ago
  So far the backend is using more than 17 million business listings in the US, licensed from Factual.com. Chen Li
benmccann 15y ago
Hi Dr. Li, I saw your presentation on BiMaple at the Irvine Incubation Center, so it's nice to see the technology out in the wild. My initial reaction to omniplaces was that it was slightly harder to use than Google Maps because it does not guess at your location based on your IP address. I think if you implement that it will be easier to use than Google Maps due to the instant fuzzy search (though as Paul Graham said, just being slightly better might not be enough.) Good luck!

qF 15y ago

I would've loved to hear some more from Harj, he got some good questions in but it seemed to me he had a hard time actually hearing the interviewees (and vica versa). Plus Paul's enthusiasm probably didn't make it easier to get a question in (not meant as critique towards Paul). -- It's really interesting and it has to potential to transfer a lot of startup/business related knowledge in a short amount of time. But it could definitely be optimized (better seating arrangement/better sound). Perhaps it takes away some of the spontaneity, but picking more suitable startups beforehand and perhaps a 5min briefing for the interviewers so you can get to the point more quickly would go a long way. I've done a bit of research on how to transfer expertise and I feel that this (public office hours) really is an effective way to do just that, you can learn a lot from this, even if you're not the interviewee.

joshmlewis 15y ago

If you guys watch a little bit later after the talk with Peter Thiel and his partner they did a little segment with PG and Harj. It was very interesting. They talked about the difference of what that was and what interviews and office hours are like. Not sure if it was recorded are not.

orky56 15y ago

Key takeaways or at least the main ideas behind PG and Harj's questions & comments- What pain point are you solving? Is it something you dealt with (or the market deals with)? How do you go about using the product? What is the killer feature of your product that will allow a user to switch from their current method? Essentially, do you have product-market fit and an intuitive user experience.