7 ms·

Or maybe the reason we don't have enough entrepreneurs is that we've convinced everyone that they need to have some type of eureka moment where they come up wit

Or maybe the reason we don't have enough entrepreneurs is that we've convinced everyone that they need to have some type of eureka moment where they come up with the next greatest idea. I think YC is making a statement here: talk is cheap and ideas are cheap, but people are really expensive. If you want a solid company, the people matter more than the idea, because the idea will change over time anyway. I know a lot of people who think that they have to have a "stroke of genius" where they think of something innovative before they can be a successful entrepreneur, when a lot of the most successful companies really did reinvent the wheel (they just did it better!). The idea for a company is an artificial barrier to becoming an entrepreneur, because the idea isn't nearly as relevant as the execution (It's simple: what makes Apple or Google special, or more specifically, what made them special when they were starting out?). It almost always boils down to their approach to a problem instead of just the problem they were trying to solve.

rguzman 14y ago
> talk is cheap and ideas are cheap, but people are really expensive [...] because the idea will change over time anyway. I largely agree with this sentiment in general. However, all ideas are not created equal. Most successful companies seem to make 2nd order corrections and refinements to their ideas, but not change them all that much. Case in point, facebook hasn't changed that much in terms of vision and what it provides for its users since it started. Same for google, apple, airbnb, heroku, dropbox, reddit, mint, basecamp, ... [i don't mean to say that those are the same type of success, just illustrating that what i said applies to a lot of very different types of successes]
- rhizome 14y ago
  I think the utility of this approach is unproven, so we'll see how successful it is. I view it completely as an code-factory type experiment.
- drumdance 14y ago
  Those examples are huge, beyond-your-wildest-dream successes, For every one of these there are a tons of made-me-rich pivots.
- grey-area 14y ago
  Facebook started as hot or not for college students Google started as a search company (now an advertising company, which offers search, phones etc) Apple started as a computer company (now a consumer electronics company) Airnb started as air beds on occupied flat floors, not renting empty flats Of course some companies have a great idea, execute, and stay true to it (perhaps like some of the others on your list like dropbox for example), and for those above you can trace their origins in the preoccupations of many of these companies today (Apple still tries to bring computing to the masses, Google still has search as its focus, and arguably makes advertising money because of good search), but often they have moved quite far from their original inspiration, and they have often made their money in unrelated areas (e.g. Apple is now making far far more from iPhones than it ever did from computers). I do think ideas and plans matter less than execution, because ideas tend to change so much when they come into contact with the real world and real users, and you can come across plenty of great ideas (or even get them for free from your users) as you create solutions and learn about a particular area.
  - Tomis02 14y ago
    > I do think ideas and plans matter less than execution, because ideas tend to change so much when they come into contact with the real world and real users I smell a logical fallacy. The fact the ideas tend change shows that they actually matter, otherwise they would not change. If ideas didn't matter Nokia would still be selling rubber boots.
    - grey-area 14y ago
      matter less != does not matter
waterlesscloud 14y ago
"The idea for a company is an artificial barrier to becoming an entrepreneur" This is when I decided this must be a parody.
- shantanubala 14y ago
  Quick question: if I want to start a company, why do I necessarily need an idea first? There are tons of real-world problems that can be solved through startups, and I'm very sure that just because the founder of a company doesn't come up with the idea by his or her self, the company can still be very successful if they execute well. Why does the idea for my company have to be my own idea? We could potentially have really talented founders who simply haven't had enough exposure in the right ecosystem (let's face it: not every place in the world is like the Bay Area) to have an idea for a startup yet.
jsprinkles 14y ago
> (It's simple: what makes Apple or Google special, or more specifically, what made them special when they were starting out?). A couple guys had an idea for a cheap computer and a great search engine, respectively. And they executed it well. You're kidding yourself if you think the Steves sat around and said, "what is it we should do with our lives? We need an idea." They knew what they wanted to do, and did it, and continued to believe in it (in Steve Jobs's case, for his entire life). It was their passion for the ideas that determined how successful their respective companies were, perhaps combined with traits about themselves. Do you think Apple will ever be as successful without Jobs's dedication? Maybe successful, but not innovative, and doomed to eventually run out of steam. Google is already failing because they are losing focus on the idea that made them great. I don't think a company can be truly successful unless the people founding it truly believe that the idea will change the world (and how can you truly believe in an idea that you haven't discovered yet, and that you have to go to an incubator to work on?). Of course, this is meaningless in today's perceived-value bubble, which might be why Y Combinator is trying it. In the end, and I hope I'm wrong, I suspect this will draw out people who are just looking for a cash-out vehicle. "I heard there was money to be made in Silicon Valley, but I don't know what company to start. Help me find an idea!"
- nostromo 14y ago
  Jeff Bezos is a counter example to your representation of Steve Jobs. Bezos knew that the internet was going to be big and knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur -- and that was about it! From the way he tells it, there was no "Aha! I must sell books on the internet because books are my passion!" moment. Instead, he went methodologically looking for something to sell online, and books had widespread appeal, were easy to ship, and lent themselves to being searched on a website.
  - jsprinkles 14y ago
    Your telling is overly simplistic. > One day that spring, Jeffrey Bezos observed that Internet usage was increasing by 2,300 percent a year. He saw an opportunity for a new sphere of business, and immediately began considering the possibilities. > In typically methodical fashion, Bezos reviewed the top 20 mail order businesses, and asked himself which could be conducted more efficiently over the Internet than by traditional means.[1] Idea: Build a better mail-order business using the Internet. He saw the potential for the efficiency of the Internet and automation to make mail-order businesses obsolete. He didn't look at the Internet and say, "gee, I want to be an entrepreneur, what company can I start here?" [1]: http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/bez0bio-1 http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/bez0bio-1
guynamedloren 14y ago
> The idea for a company is an artificial barrier to becoming an entrepreneur Oh really? How many successful entrepreneurs have you heard of without ideas, just totally empty heads and whole bunch of hustle? Do they just hack away at nothing? Do they hustle without any purpose at all? And how many companies have you heard of without any ideas behind them? Don't be silly.. of course ideas matter. YC recognizes that individuals that work hard can come up with great ideas. Of course an entrepreneur must have an idea before they start working on something. Can that idea fail miserably? Sure, but great entrepreneurs will keep going. The failed idea/company will be ripped into bits, and the good parts will be funneled into a new idea. Over and over and over again. YC is banking on their ability to identify people who can come up with ideas and execute them. > It's simple: what makes Apple or Google special, or more specifically, what made them special when they were starting out? It almost always boils down to their approach to a problem instead of just the problem they were trying to solve. An "approach to a problem"? Oh, you mean an... idea for a solution to a problem? Yeah. Ideas matter.
- nhebb 14y ago
  > How many successful entrepreneurs have you heard of without ideas, just totally empty heads and whole bunch of hustle? We'll find out after this next YC round. Besides, I think the point is that pg is looking for people that are the antithesis of empty heads. Startup ideas mutate, and if you can find driven people with fertile minds and place them in a setting where product ideas can be brainstormed and hashed out with the guidance of the YC team, then they stand a much better chance of success then the typical entrepreneur who might try this on their own.
  - guynamedloren 14y ago
    Don't get me wrong - I love the 'no idea' concept and hope it works out, and I love the fact that YC is ballsy enough to experiment and innovate. They key here, though, is that ideas still matter. YC will simply help generate and execute those ideas.
    - nhebb 14y ago
tlb 14y ago
This misleading idea is perpetuated by PR departments, who like to make up bogus creation myths. Example: *A former bakery owner and professional bicyclist, he was choking down PowerBars for energy in the middle of a daylong 175-mile ride. "I couldn't make the last one go down, and that's when I had an epiphany -- make a product that actually tasted good."* -- Gary Erickson, founder and CEO of Clif Bar. Quoted in Fortune Small Business, October 2003.
- wensing 14y ago
  I've read (at least) that section of Raising the Bar -- which part of that story is false? That he wasn't actually a bakery owner and professional bicyclist but just an amateur baker and bicycle junkie?
  - ams6110 14y ago
    which part of that story is false The part about making a product that tastes good?
atirip 14y ago
"If you want a solid company, the people matter more than the idea, because the idea will change over time anyway." So how exactly does that idea change? In itself? Like magically? Or is it perhaps so that somebody needs to come up with that idea? So if there's nobody in your company who can come up with an idea then what? Because in the beginning Uncle Paul gave to you an idea. Because you where so dumb brick that you couldn't come up with anything while applying to the YC. So now you are implementing it at it does not work out, ideas change, you know. So you pick up the phone and call Uncle Paul in need of a new idea? To pivot in the billion dollar business. Really? But hey, first, to come up with and idea to call Uncle Paul for a new bllion dollar idea you need an idea that the current idea does not work and you need an idea to call Uncle Paul. Now what?
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
skerrit_bwoy 14y ago
lol "we don't have enough entreprenuers?" What does "enough" mean? Looks to me like we've got thousands of kids trying to make the FaceTube.ly+ 3.0, which is more than enough for me, personally. Meanwhile, cancer is uncured, the moon is lonely, etc.
- TDL 14y ago
  Cancer & populating the moon are monumentally difficult problems. Comparing curing cancer w/ 'kids' trying to build 'FaceTube.ly+ 3.0' is beyond silly. By the bye, there are thousands of researchers & doctors around the world trying to cure cancer. As for the moon, it's not exactly the most compelling place to live.
  - skerrit_bwoy 14y ago
    There might be systemic issues in the approach to medical research that slow our progress on that front. And if humanity wants to avoid eventual extinction, a well developed space program is a must. Solving these problems takes effort, and if we direct our effort at FaceTube.ly+ 3.0, we don't solve these problems. But who knows, maybe your average wantrapreneur is too dumb to do anything meaningful and I'm overly optimistic about their ability to contribute to civilization in a useful fashion.
_pius 14y ago
Or maybe the reason we don't have enough entrepreneurs ... We don't have enough entrepreneurs?
- shantanubala 14y ago
  Of course we don't have enough entrepreneurs. People talk about the "tech bubble" all the time, and that's a debate you can have, but that's always related to social web sites. We really don't have enough entrepreneurs, because entire industries (healthcare and education are two good examples) are lagging and not taking full advantage of today's technology. So yes, perhaps Instagram could have been overvalued (or any other big acquisition for that matter), but that only emphasizes how much progress we need to make in other industries.

rguzman 14y ago

> talk is cheap and ideas are cheap, but people are really expensive [...] because the idea will change over time anyway. I largely agree with this sentiment in general. However, all ideas are not created equal. Most successful companies seem to make 2nd order corrections and refinements to their ideas, but not change them all that much. Case in point, facebook hasn't changed that much in terms of vision and what it provides for its users since it started. Same for google, apple, airbnb, heroku, dropbox, reddit, mint, basecamp, ... [i don't mean to say that those are the same type of success, just illustrating that what i said applies to a lot of very different types of successes]

rhizome 14y ago
I think the utility of this approach is unproven, so we'll see how successful it is. I view it completely as an code-factory type experiment.
drumdance 14y ago
Those examples are huge, beyond-your-wildest-dream successes, For every one of these there are a tons of made-me-rich pivots.
grey-area 14y ago
Facebook started as hot or not for college students Google started as a search company (now an advertising company, which offers search, phones etc) Apple started as a computer company (now a consumer electronics company) Airnb started as air beds on occupied flat floors, not renting empty flats Of course some companies have a great idea, execute, and stay true to it (perhaps like some of the others on your list like dropbox for example), and for those above you can trace their origins in the preoccupations of many of these companies today (Apple still tries to bring computing to the masses, Google still has search as its focus, and arguably makes advertising money because of good search), but often they have moved quite far from their original inspiration, and they have often made their money in unrelated areas (e.g. Apple is now making far far more from iPhones than it ever did from computers). I do think ideas and plans matter less than execution, because ideas tend to change so much when they come into contact with the real world and real users, and you can come across plenty of great ideas (or even get them for free from your users) as you create solutions and learn about a particular area.
- Tomis02 14y ago
  > I do think ideas and plans matter less than execution, because ideas tend to change so much when they come into contact with the real world and real users I smell a logical fallacy. The fact the ideas tend change shows that they actually matter, otherwise they would not change. If ideas didn't matter Nokia would still be selling rubber boots.
  - grey-area 14y ago
    matter less != does not matter

waterlesscloud 14y ago

"The idea for a company is an artificial barrier to becoming an entrepreneur" This is when I decided this must be a parody.

shantanubala 14y ago
Quick question: if I want to start a company, why do I necessarily need an idea first? There are tons of real-world problems that can be solved through startups, and I'm very sure that just because the founder of a company doesn't come up with the idea by his or her self, the company can still be very successful if they execute well. Why does the idea for my company have to be my own idea? We could potentially have really talented founders who simply haven't had enough exposure in the right ecosystem (let's face it: not every place in the world is like the Bay Area) to have an idea for a startup yet.

jsprinkles 14y ago

> (It's simple: what makes Apple or Google special, or more specifically, what made them special when they were starting out?). A couple guys had an idea for a cheap computer and a great search engine, respectively. And they executed it well. You're kidding yourself if you think the Steves sat around and said, "what is it we should do with our lives? We need an idea." They knew what they wanted to do, and did it, and continued to believe in it (in Steve Jobs's case, for his entire life). It was their passion for the ideas that determined how successful their respective companies were, perhaps combined with traits about themselves. Do you think Apple will ever be as successful without Jobs's dedication? Maybe successful, but not innovative, and doomed to eventually run out of steam. Google is already failing because they are losing focus on the idea that made them great. I don't think a company can be truly successful unless the people founding it truly believe that the idea will change the world (and how can you truly believe in an idea that you haven't discovered yet, and that you have to go to an incubator to work on?). Of course, this is meaningless in today's perceived-value bubble, which might be why Y Combinator is trying it. In the end, and I hope I'm wrong, I suspect this will draw out people who are just looking for a cash-out vehicle. "I heard there was money to be made in Silicon Valley, but I don't know what company to start. Help me find an idea!"

nostromo 14y ago
Jeff Bezos is a counter example to your representation of Steve Jobs. Bezos knew that the internet was going to be big and knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur -- and that was about it! From the way he tells it, there was no "Aha! I must sell books on the internet because books are my passion!" moment. Instead, he went methodologically looking for something to sell online, and books had widespread appeal, were easy to ship, and lent themselves to being searched on a website.
- jsprinkles 14y ago
  Your telling is overly simplistic. > One day that spring, Jeffrey Bezos observed that Internet usage was increasing by 2,300 percent a year. He saw an opportunity for a new sphere of business, and immediately began considering the possibilities. > In typically methodical fashion, Bezos reviewed the top 20 mail order businesses, and asked himself which could be conducted more efficiently over the Internet than by traditional means.[1] Idea: Build a better mail-order business using the Internet. He saw the potential for the efficiency of the Internet and automation to make mail-order businesses obsolete. He didn't look at the Internet and say, "gee, I want to be an entrepreneur, what company can I start here?" [1]: http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/bez0bio-1 http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/bez0bio-1

guynamedloren 14y ago

> The idea for a company is an artificial barrier to becoming an entrepreneur Oh really? How many successful entrepreneurs have you heard of without ideas, just totally empty heads and whole bunch of hustle? Do they just hack away at nothing? Do they hustle without any purpose at all? And how many companies have you heard of without any ideas behind them? Don't be silly.. of course ideas matter. YC recognizes that individuals that work hard can come up with great ideas. Of course an entrepreneur must have an idea before they start working on something. Can that idea fail miserably? Sure, but great entrepreneurs will keep going. The failed idea/company will be ripped into bits, and the good parts will be funneled into a new idea. Over and over and over again. YC is banking on their ability to identify people who can come up with ideas and execute them. > It's simple: what makes Apple or Google special, or more specifically, what made them special when they were starting out? It almost always boils down to their approach to a problem instead of just the problem they were trying to solve. An "approach to a problem"? Oh, you mean an... idea for a solution to a problem? Yeah. Ideas matter.

nhebb 14y ago
> How many successful entrepreneurs have you heard of without ideas, just totally empty heads and whole bunch of hustle? We'll find out after this next YC round. Besides, I think the point is that pg is looking for people that are the antithesis of empty heads. Startup ideas mutate, and if you can find driven people with fertile minds and place them in a setting where product ideas can be brainstormed and hashed out with the guidance of the YC team, then they stand a much better chance of success then the typical entrepreneur who might try this on their own.
- guynamedloren 14y ago
  Don't get me wrong - I love the 'no idea' concept and hope it works out, and I love the fact that YC is ballsy enough to experiment and innovate. They key here, though, is that ideas still matter. YC will simply help generate and execute those ideas.
  - nhebb 14y ago

tlb 14y ago

This misleading idea is perpetuated by PR departments, who like to make up bogus creation myths. Example: *A former bakery owner and professional bicyclist, he was choking down PowerBars for energy in the middle of a daylong 175-mile ride. "I couldn't make the last one go down, and that's when I had an epiphany -- make a product that actually tasted good."* -- Gary Erickson, founder and CEO of Clif Bar. Quoted in Fortune Small Business, October 2003.

wensing 14y ago
I've read (at least) that section of Raising the Bar -- which part of that story is false? That he wasn't actually a bakery owner and professional bicyclist but just an amateur baker and bicycle junkie?
- ams6110 14y ago
  which part of that story is false The part about making a product that tastes good?

atirip 14y ago

"If you want a solid company, the people matter more than the idea, because the idea will change over time anyway." So how exactly does that idea change? In itself? Like magically? Or is it perhaps so that somebody needs to come up with that idea? So if there's nobody in your company who can come up with an idea then what? Because in the beginning Uncle Paul gave to you an idea. Because you where so dumb brick that you couldn't come up with anything while applying to the YC. So now you are implementing it at it does not work out, ideas change, you know. So you pick up the phone and call Uncle Paul in need of a new idea? To pivot in the billion dollar business. Really? But hey, first, to come up with and idea to call Uncle Paul for a new bllion dollar idea you need an idea that the current idea does not work and you need an idea to call Uncle Paul. Now what?

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

skerrit_bwoy 14y ago

lol "we don't have enough entreprenuers?" What does "enough" mean? Looks to me like we've got thousands of kids trying to make the FaceTube.ly+ 3.0, which is more than enough for me, personally. Meanwhile, cancer is uncured, the moon is lonely, etc.

TDL 14y ago
Cancer & populating the moon are monumentally difficult problems. Comparing curing cancer w/ 'kids' trying to build 'FaceTube.ly+ 3.0' is beyond silly. By the bye, there are thousands of researchers & doctors around the world trying to cure cancer. As for the moon, it's not exactly the most compelling place to live.
- skerrit_bwoy 14y ago
  There might be systemic issues in the approach to medical research that slow our progress on that front. And if humanity wants to avoid eventual extinction, a well developed space program is a must. Solving these problems takes effort, and if we direct our effort at FaceTube.ly+ 3.0, we don't solve these problems. But who knows, maybe your average wantrapreneur is too dumb to do anything meaningful and I'm overly optimistic about their ability to contribute to civilization in a useful fashion.

_pius 14y ago

Or maybe the reason we don't have enough entrepreneurs ... We don't have enough entrepreneurs?

shantanubala 14y ago
Of course we don't have enough entrepreneurs. People talk about the "tech bubble" all the time, and that's a debate you can have, but that's always related to social web sites. We really don't have enough entrepreneurs, because entire industries (healthcare and education are two good examples) are lagging and not taking full advantage of today's technology. So yes, perhaps Instagram could have been overvalued (or any other big acquisition for that matter), but that only emphasizes how much progress we need to make in other industries.