7 ms·

My key takeaways from Y Combinator’s Startup School 2012

124 points by DanielRibeiro 14y ago

theycallmemorty 14y ago
"Human is the only animal who dreams about social interactions." How could we possibly know that?
wilfra 14y ago
Good post. "Palantir (I didn’t understand the market)" I'm pretty sure he said he didn't understand the size of the market. Subtle but important difference.
buro9 14y ago
Patrick Collison of Stripe, his quote is a paraphrase of the US Tour de France winner Greg LeMond, "Training doesn't get any easier, you just go faster.". Another of LeMond's that I always felt applicable was, "You don't suffer, kill yourself and take the risks I take just for money. I love bike racing.". You better love what you do.
- wilfra 14y ago
  It wasn't paraphrased, he gave a direct quote and a picture of LeMond was one of his slides.
vukmir 14y ago
I enjoyed reading this. My takeaway from his takeaways would be: 1. Commitment matters. Stop talking, make it happen. - Ben Silberman 2. Don’t worry about competition, just improve yourself. - Hiroshi Mikitani 3. Failure to decide is what kills you. - Joel Spolsky I've shortened the Joel's quote because your inability (unwillingness) to decide whether you'll ‘get big fast’ or have an ‘organic growth’ is not the only place where indecision shows its ugly head.
pbiggar 14y ago
Good photos - did you take them?
- armansu 14y ago
  Yup. Most - on my camera, some - on the phone.
iloveyouocean 14y ago
I was there. And I can say that this would not be my summary of Startup School. This summary makes me question every other summary of events on HN. Not to say that the author didnt provide a good summary for himself, but instead I now realize how radically differently two people can perceive the same event, based on their experience.
- viviantan 14y ago
  I couldn't be there, but I would be very interested to hear your perspective.
  - wilfra 14y ago
    I posted my takeaways on Quora (second one, currently) http://www.quora.com/Startup-School/What-were-the-key-takeaways-from-Startup-School-2012 http://www.quora.com/Startup-School/What-were-the-key-takeaw... I agree that two people can have vastly different takeaways from an event like this, but don't see anything wrong with that. Different people have different backgrounds and different things they wanted to learn going in.
    - plinkplonk 14y ago
      Thank You. Upvoted (both here and on quora) That was a very interesting bunch of takeaways. I found them more interesting than the ones in the OP. I wasn't there so I'm probably imagining things, but I'm getting the vibe that the VC/investor types were giving canned pop psychology 'MBA'/management consulting type advice like advice, where the hacker/founder folks sound more original (and useful).
    - viviantan 14y ago
      Thank you for sharing! Upvoted. That lucky office you mentioned apparently casts it's glow on its surroundings as well. La Boulange opened a new cafe next door, and 1-2 weeks later announced that Starbucks had bought out the entire bakery chain for $100 million. (I'm sure they had already struck the deal, but the lucky locale makes for a better story!)
viviantan 14y ago
Thank you for sharing this! Does anyone know if YC will post the video? I couldn't watch the live stream on Saturday. Too bad about Instagram for Squirrels. I would've been one of their 5 users.
jgrahamc 14y ago
Did Zuck really claim: "Human is the only animal who dreams about social interactions"?
- wilfra 14y ago
  Yes, or something very close to that.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
- msellout 14y ago
  Why the surprise? It's a reasonable guess. Everyone wants to say something is unique about humans. As more of our features are being discovered in other animals, it's good to assert something that's hard to disprove.
- kaolinite 14y ago
  No, he claimed that no other animal dreams about social interaction as much as we do. He mentioned a study into it.
brador 14y ago
Is there video of this event anywhere?
- jeandenis 14y ago
  There are some videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/mshelengelena http://www.youtube.com/user/mshelengelena but it's not complete and doesn't appear to be official.
dinkman 14y ago
Also, Ben Horowitz apparently not a fan of "bitch ass ness"

124 points by DanielRibeiro 14y ago

"Human is the only animal who dreams about social interactions." How could we possibly know that?

Good post. "Palantir (I didn’t understand the market)" I'm pretty sure he said he didn't understand the size of the market. Subtle but important difference.

buro9 14y ago

Patrick Collison of Stripe, his quote is a paraphrase of the US Tour de France winner Greg LeMond, "Training doesn't get any easier, you just go faster.". Another of LeMond's that I always felt applicable was, "You don't suffer, kill yourself and take the risks I take just for money. I love bike racing.". You better love what you do.

wilfra 14y ago
It wasn't paraphrased, he gave a direct quote and a picture of LeMond was one of his slides.

vukmir 14y ago

I enjoyed reading this. My takeaway from his takeaways would be: 1. Commitment matters. Stop talking, make it happen. - Ben Silberman 2. Don’t worry about competition, just improve yourself. - Hiroshi Mikitani 3. Failure to decide is what kills you. - Joel Spolsky I've shortened the Joel's quote because your inability (unwillingness) to decide whether you'll ‘get big fast’ or have an ‘organic growth’ is not the only place where indecision shows its ugly head.

pbiggar 14y ago

Good photos - did you take them?

armansu 14y ago
Yup. Most - on my camera, some - on the phone.

iloveyouocean 14y ago

I was there. And I can say that this would not be my summary of Startup School. This summary makes me question every other summary of events on HN. Not to say that the author didnt provide a good summary for himself, but instead I now realize how radically differently two people can perceive the same event, based on their experience.

viviantan 14y ago
I couldn't be there, but I would be very interested to hear your perspective.
- wilfra 14y ago
  I posted my takeaways on Quora (second one, currently) http://www.quora.com/Startup-School/What-were-the-key-takeaways-from-Startup-School-2012 http://www.quora.com/Startup-School/What-were-the-key-takeaw... I agree that two people can have vastly different takeaways from an event like this, but don't see anything wrong with that. Different people have different backgrounds and different things they wanted to learn going in.
  - plinkplonk 14y ago
    Thank You. Upvoted (both here and on quora) That was a very interesting bunch of takeaways. I found them more interesting than the ones in the OP. I wasn't there so I'm probably imagining things, but I'm getting the vibe that the VC/investor types were giving canned pop psychology 'MBA'/management consulting type advice like advice, where the hacker/founder folks sound more original (and useful).
  - viviantan 14y ago
    Thank you for sharing! Upvoted. That lucky office you mentioned apparently casts it's glow on its surroundings as well. La Boulange opened a new cafe next door, and 1-2 weeks later announced that Starbucks had bought out the entire bakery chain for $100 million. (I'm sure they had already struck the deal, but the lucky locale makes for a better story!)

viviantan 14y ago

Thank you for sharing this! Does anyone know if YC will post the video? I couldn't watch the live stream on Saturday. Too bad about Instagram for Squirrels. I would've been one of their 5 users.

jgrahamc 14y ago

Did Zuck really claim: "Human is the only animal who dreams about social interactions"?

wilfra 14y ago
Yes, or something very close to that.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
msellout 14y ago
Why the surprise? It's a reasonable guess. Everyone wants to say something is unique about humans. As more of our features are being discovered in other animals, it's good to assert something that's hard to disprove.
kaolinite 14y ago
No, he claimed that no other animal dreams about social interaction as much as we do. He mentioned a study into it.

brador 14y ago

Is there video of this event anywhere?

jeandenis 14y ago
There are some videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/mshelengelena http://www.youtube.com/user/mshelengelena but it's not complete and doesn't appear to be official.

dinkman 14y ago

Also, Ben Horowitz apparently not a fan of "bitch ass ness"