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> everyone who has a CS background should just start something on the side if a deal like this is possible Chris Dixon is a veteran investor and entrepreneur,

> everyone who has a CS background should just start something on the side if a deal like this is possible Chris Dixon is a veteran investor and entrepreneur, with enormous visibility in the tech world. Contacts with potential acquirers are a non-issue for him. A poor CS fellow could have created a version of Hunch that was 100x better and they still would have 1,000x less of an exit opportunity as compared to any startup Dixon founded. Get real.

arctangent 15y ago
If this really is true then it's a sad indictment of the state of the startup scene. Perhaps your hypothetical fellow should focus on building a "lifestyle business" instead of trying to get big and then get acquired...
- dmix 15y ago
  Technically he should be a software developer with a $120-200k salary working at Google, saving money with compound interest and getting company stock. Thats the easiest way as a CS grad to become wealthy - if thats your goal.
  - alphamale3000 15y ago
    That's when you don't factor in 'skills'. If you're 'any' CS grad, you're right. Be if your skills are above average (CS and business sense), this skews the return of investment of the startup.
    - dmix 15y ago
      Well, not any developer can get $200k at Google. So skill is important in both respects.
- dylangs1030 15y ago
  C'est la vie. It's not the startup scene - it's a basic principle of society, unfortunately. Who you know is just as important as what you know or can do. The best thing to do is find people to know by showing them what you can do.
achompas 15y ago
Agreed, this is completely absurd. Say what you will about Chris Dixon (zomg he doesn't code, wtf!!!!!111), but the engineering team at Hunch is second-to-none. Grandparent makes it sound like Dixon pulled this off in his spare time. He assembled a team of A-level engineers, then secured millions in funding so they could develop an awesome recommendation engine with almost no clear revenue stream. I challenge anyone to find a CS grad who can match that in his or her spare time. EDIT: restructured on second read.
- hello_moto 15y ago
  I think we need to move away from all the nonsense of "A-level engineers" or superstar developers and so and so and so. Carl Henderson of Flickr fame looked like an A-level engineer back then (especially with his O'reilly book) yet some of the Flickr engineers baffled when they saw the Flickr codebase. Sometime it's all smoke and marketing hype.
  - AznHisoka 15y ago
    agreed. ooh.. a recommendation engine backed by semantic cloud-based peer to peer infrastructure... for all we know, it could just be aggregating data from twitter and seeing whether the word "good" or bad appeared more often to decide whether to aggregate it.
    - achompas 15y ago
      Have you used Hunch? Have you ever written a recommender system? Have you even read the source of one?? This isn't some naive Bayes spam filter from 1992. Hunch is really, really accurate.
      - AznHisoka 15y ago
        Actually yes, I have written a recommender system.But if there's 1 thing I've learned over the years is that you don't go overestimating the complexity/intelligence of any system unless you take a peak underneath. For all you know, Hutch could be just hiring curators with good taste rather than write some complex system that would need to be constantly changed and updated. But people have all the incentive in the world to "over fluff" and overcomplicate their work to make it sound valuable. It's smart, but you gotta be skeptical.
drumdance 15y ago
100x "better" in what sense? Traffic? If so, I suspect suitors would line up. While Dixon's reputation is a great asset, I wouldn't say it's a multiple-orders-of-magnitude difference.

arctangent 15y ago

If this really is true then it's a sad indictment of the state of the startup scene. Perhaps your hypothetical fellow should focus on building a "lifestyle business" instead of trying to get big and then get acquired...

dmix 15y ago
Technically he should be a software developer with a $120-200k salary working at Google, saving money with compound interest and getting company stock. Thats the easiest way as a CS grad to become wealthy - if thats your goal.
- alphamale3000 15y ago
  That's when you don't factor in 'skills'. If you're 'any' CS grad, you're right. Be if your skills are above average (CS and business sense), this skews the return of investment of the startup.
  - dmix 15y ago
    Well, not any developer can get $200k at Google. So skill is important in both respects.
dylangs1030 15y ago
C'est la vie. It's not the startup scene - it's a basic principle of society, unfortunately. Who you know is just as important as what you know or can do. The best thing to do is find people to know by showing them what you can do.

achompas 15y ago

Agreed, this is completely absurd. Say what you will about Chris Dixon (zomg he doesn't code, wtf!!!!!111), but the engineering team at Hunch is second-to-none. Grandparent makes it sound like Dixon pulled this off in his spare time. He assembled a team of A-level engineers, then secured millions in funding so they could develop an awesome recommendation engine with almost no clear revenue stream. I challenge anyone to find a CS grad who can match that in his or her spare time. EDIT: restructured on second read.

hello_moto 15y ago
I think we need to move away from all the nonsense of "A-level engineers" or superstar developers and so and so and so. Carl Henderson of Flickr fame looked like an A-level engineer back then (especially with his O'reilly book) yet some of the Flickr engineers baffled when they saw the Flickr codebase. Sometime it's all smoke and marketing hype.
- AznHisoka 15y ago
  agreed. ooh.. a recommendation engine backed by semantic cloud-based peer to peer infrastructure... for all we know, it could just be aggregating data from twitter and seeing whether the word "good" or bad appeared more often to decide whether to aggregate it.
  - achompas 15y ago
    Have you used Hunch? Have you ever written a recommender system? Have you even read the source of one?? This isn't some naive Bayes spam filter from 1992. Hunch is really, really accurate.
    - AznHisoka 15y ago
      Actually yes, I have written a recommender system.But if there's 1 thing I've learned over the years is that you don't go overestimating the complexity/intelligence of any system unless you take a peak underneath. For all you know, Hutch could be just hiring curators with good taste rather than write some complex system that would need to be constantly changed and updated. But people have all the incentive in the world to "over fluff" and overcomplicate their work to make it sound valuable. It's smart, but you gotta be skeptical.

drumdance 15y ago

100x "better" in what sense? Traffic? If so, I suspect suitors would line up. While Dixon's reputation is a great asset, I wouldn't say it's a multiple-orders-of-magnitude difference.