7 ms·

Poll: Should we push the YC deadline back by a day because of the storm?

238 points by pg 14y ago

I have no idea what the situation is like on the east coast, but it's no problem to push the deadline back by a day if it's necessary. Let us know.

rdl 14y ago
I'd do until Friday (if not next week!) rather than tomorrow -- some places seemed a lot more disrupted than just a day.
- baconface 14y ago
  How about a day for each day the market remains closed.
- joeguilmette 14y ago
  The entire eastern seaboard from Richmond, VA to Maine is flooding/expecting flooding. Chicago and Michigan are also expecting to have some issues with storm surge. An extra day isn't going to change anything. I'd say push it by a week or don't bother changing the date.
  - rdl 14y ago
    Most importantly, 75 Broad just flooded; pretty soon they'll lose 55 Broad, 25 Broad, 60 Hudson, and potentially 111 8th. The problem is the generators are not on particularly high floors, and people only keep certain amounts of fuel (<24h, often around 8h), and even with "guaranteed refueling contracts", a lot of people won't be getting diesel in time. (EDIT: these are the main carrier hotels and colocation facilities in the Northeast, all in Manhattan.)
    - aviv 14y ago
      Where are you getting this information?
      - rdl 14y ago
        IRC. (with people who lived out of colos in Lower Manhattan after 9/11, since if they left the area they wouldn't have been allowed back in -- living off vending machine food for a week or two reconfiguring equipment for themselves and other networks to account for the missing part of the city) Also, woo, no more 111 8th. Building power is down for most of the building (all of it?) (per floor), although some of the areas have their own generators (Level(3) and the old AboveNet area)
        X-Istence 14y ago
        The biggest problem is that the basements where the fuel is stored are flooding, which is taking out the pumps to get the fuel to the generators! Was just listening in on FDNY radio scanner and they mentioned oil/diesel floating down the street in water.
        haldean 14y ago
        Hearsay says that all of 111 8th was taken down voluntarily to prevent damage from flooding.
      - aviv 14y ago
        rdl, do you know what the water level is at 111 8th? Any other information about that immediate area would be greatly appreciated.
    - airlocksoftware 14y ago
      I was wondering, if you happen to know, why there are so many colos in NYC / Manhattan? In general wouldn't you locate a server farm somewhere with cheap land / electricity / cooling? What advantage do they get from being there?
      - rdl 14y ago
        They're not really server colos (except for some wall street stuff, but even that is in Northern NJ now). The Manhattan facilities are mainly carrier interconnects between carriers and for equipment to provide leased circuits to businesses, a lot of which serve customers in Manhattan or grew up around telephone infrastructure to serve offices in Manhattan. Big scale server colos are usually in WA/OR (cheap power), SFBA (fiber, tech companies), TX (cheap land, sort of cheap power, or at least available power), or DC metro (sort of cheap power, cheap land in some areas, lots of government users).
        shafferj 14y ago
        you're historically right about this, but wrong on a bunch of other levels. there is a few million square feet of real server colo in 111 8th ave, and at least an order of magnitude more than that combined across the other spaces mentioned.
        Tzunamitom 14y ago
        The reason they locate there (as with in London) if to reduce the latency for financial trading programs. It may not sound like a lot, but when you have an automatic trading application processing billions of trades a year it can make a huge difference to receive the information a little earlier, and place your orders that little bit quicker. As a side note, Internap's LGA11 datecentre facility on 75 Broad Street is currently being evacuated, and most of the fuel reserves are submerged below water...
    - cperciva 14y ago
      Most importantly, 75 Broad just flooded The report I heard (at about 11PM EDT) was that the basement was flooded and the building was being evacuated, but servers would keep running for 5-7 hours until the back-up generators ran out of fuel.
    - dspeyer 14y ago
      Last I heard, 111 8th had 4 days of fuel and the generators were safely high up. It's possible I misunderstood.
dylanhassinger 14y ago
offer bonus points for disaster preparedness/public safety startups :)
- jpdoctor 14y ago
  ... and note that making the deadline while being hit by a massive hurricane is a powerful litmus test. Of course, the question is: A litmus test for what? Hope y'all are safe out there.
d0m 14y ago
What is the most impressive hack you've accomplished? We had to hack our way in a storm to submit our YC application. * Note for application reviewers: Email is in my profile, thanks.
- bsims 14y ago
  +1 for this
ChadNYC 14y ago
Before and after pics of FDR @54th St, 1pm and 10pm pic.twitter.com/wqwkTXoK I would say yes.
benguild 14y ago
Sure, whatever. Maybe the "next Dropbox" will apply last minute.
JohnHaugeland 14y ago
A day? I lost ten days of power/connectivity in Isaac. I'm not in this YC run, but to be honest, I don't think a day's really enough.
brendn 14y ago
Most of Manhattan is without power. While some people may think it's badass to hack through the storm oblivious, the situation out here is pretty intense. I would encourage some leniency with the deadline, especially since as far as I know for NYC, things won't be back to normal for quite a few days.
- sharkweek 14y ago
  Not to make light of the situation at hand, but that would be a pretty epic story; I'd definitely read the post on "How I hacked my way into YC by stealing a jetski to get away from the floods, then hitchhiked across the US to hand delivery my application to PG's door within 15 minutes of the deadline"
- carterschonwald 14y ago
  False, just lower manahattan near the financial district. (unless i'm just a lucky manhattanite who's not read the right news sites and has lovely power) that said, subways being closed is going to be a huge hassle for the next few days.
  - brendn 14y ago
    ConEd shut of power to the Financial District at approximately 7PM, but there were a number of explosions at substations including the one at 14th Street. There are over 1 million New Yorkers without power; ConEd reports most places below Midtown are dark. They evacuated NYU Langone Hospital when its backup generator failed, so yes, consider yourself very lucky.
  - frankdenbow 14y ago
    Lots of transformers blew. My power is out and I'm at 10th street and 6th ave.
  - mdda 14y ago
    After walking up Madison this morning, there's no power below 39th Street AFAICT.
Anechoic 14y ago
Trains in NYC are expected to be down through the end of the week, Connecticut has closed highways to non-emergency traffic, chunks of Manhattan have no power and patients at one NYC hospital are being evacuated due to generator failure. Homes in NY and CT are being flooded, some banks are being closed indefinitely. I imagine that a lot of YC folks may be scrambling to check on homes and loved ones and trying to keep generators working, etc. I think a deadline extension would be appropriate. I know there's an argument to be made that folks should be prepared, but this (like many of the weather events I got to experience in Western Mass last year) really is unprecedented. (I have no stake in this, I just think extending the deadline is the right thing to do).
kirillzubovsky 14y ago
My relatives are in NJ and from what I hear, they lost power all around them. Given last year's snow storm, it will take a week to get electricity/internet back to normal. At this point, a day won't make a difference.
petercooper 14y ago
Yes. In my experience with events, at least, most of the proposals come in on the last couple of days of the CFP. In an ideal world, I'd say.. that shows how unprepared they are!.. but I'm pretty much the same and it's just how people work ;-)
richforrester 14y ago
The "Why not"'s don't outweight the "Why"'s, imo, so go for it. No need not to be humane, civil, and all that jazz.
littlegiantcap 14y ago
I'd say yes. I've been in crunch time situations where I haven't had internet/power and it really isn't fun.
buf 14y ago
People really serious about YC have had this done for weeks. Edit: I stand corrected. I'm the kind of person who gets things done early and then reads/refactors it every day making minor edits.
- rdl 14y ago
  A lot of people actively work on their application until the submission deadline. If your product is moving fast, along with adoption, it would be handicapping yourself to submit weeks early, I think.
- ssylee 14y ago
  Re: rdl's comment, I'm not sure. I'm not experienced with YCombinator process or startups, but can't the founders explain their application was sent as of the submission date (weeks or days before), and then explain during the interview about the important changes? I mean, Parkinson's Law is in play with entrepreneurship big time.
- bennyg 14y ago
  A lot of people didn't know about this until recently though, like me. I'm not in any danger from Sandy right now, though and still want them to be able to submit. Obviously a deadline extension would be positive for me, but I was prepared to submit tomorrow regardless of seeing this post. Edit: Maybe you filter by location? But why make it complex?
- tlrobinson 14y ago
  I know lots of YCers who worked on their applications until the last minute, myself included.
- pg 14y ago
  Actually several of the best startups we've funded applied at the last moment.
- jeswin 14y ago
  Some people (like me) might be working on demos to go with the application. I also dwell on details like appearance and usability, and am hesitant to submit something I am not really happy with. I am going to submit right at the end.
dreamzook 14y ago
For those who really want to apply you can do it(I live in the Greater NY area). The "Last minute-rs" will get it done tonight if they are sure tonight it the deadline But then a YES in case there is a dropbox or Airbnb waiting out there
waterlesscloud 14y ago
There will people without power from VA/DC on up the coast for several days, if not a week or more. Given that situation, a delay would be symbolic more than anything. Still worth doing.
eugenejen 14y ago
The water level in Battery Park was 13 feet at its highest and broke previous record 11 feet at 1821. Manhattan south of 39th street lost power since 9:00pm. This is probably the first time in last 100 years for dwellers living in Manhattan downtown see flood in their homes. Especially for people who lives in ground floor or basements. http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/171528/sandy-strikes-city-with-record-flooding--power-outages http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/171528/sandy-strikes-...
timmyd 14y ago
pg - its better to be compassionate than not be. if moving the date isn't that difficult for you and doesn't adversely affect the operation of YC - it only goes to strength the resolve of the community. it would be crazy to allow someone to loose out on their dream of even applying because the mother of all storms decided to hit the east coast of America. surely its http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_of_God http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_of_God exception :) Lets remember Winston "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." Only good things can come from opening it longer given what's happened.
- mdda 14y ago
  Agreed. Look at the situations reversed : Earthquake on the west coast... How tasteless it would be for the New Yorkers to insist that YC keeps to its original deadline.
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hanglihl 14y ago
Yes
wmhtet 14y ago
I am an applicant in SF and ready to submit. As I watch CNN coverage the whole episode, I see that it is really bad. NYSE floor is under 3 feet of water! A day postponement will give the applicant in east coast a breather but don't know how much of help it will be with all the power outage and other hassle with a day. Well, they are going to do the start up anyway. :)
- ximeng 14y ago
  http://www.businessinsider.com/the-new-york-stock-exchange-floor-is-not-flooded-2012-10 http://www.businessinsider.com/the-new-york-stock-exchange-f... NYSE not flooded...
  - wmhtet 14y ago
    ok, thx.
mikeknoop 14y ago
I know of at least one team that would appreciate this.
- bbunix 14y ago
  This is possibly the most important post - now we know there's a real user with a real problem.
michaelhoffman 14y ago
The National Institutes of Health, which is serious about deadlines in grant applications, gives applicants extra days when they are affected by a natural disaster. One day per day their institution was closed. It seems like it would be sensible to pick an institution (like the New York Stock Exchange) and allow extra days via a similar policy. http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-13-006.html http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-13-00...
- bravura 14y ago
  Force majeure is typically a good reason to push back a deadline. [edit: Originally said "deus ex machina". My mistake, thanks Falling3]
  - Falling3 14y ago
    That's not really how that phrase is used. Deus ex machina != act of god.
    - ludicast 14y ago
      "Deus ex Machina" is the ultimate hack!
shreyansj 14y ago
You can extend the deadline by n number of days and perhaps give extra credit to those who still submit by the original deadline.
cperciva 14y ago
I don't think pushing the deadline back by one day is a good idea. The people who are not affected by the storm don't need the extra day; the people who are affected by the storm will probably need considerably more than a day. Given that YC already has a policy of considering late applications, I would opt for keeping the deadline where it is but loudly announcing "if you couldn't get your application in by the deadline because of the hurricane, please submit a late application". And possibly add a "I'm applying late because of the hurricane" checkbox to the form.
- samstave 14y ago
  Add a team location flag - those east of point X will be given extra consideration time.
  - timmyd 14y ago
    yeah thats probably not a bad idea - allowing users to flag if their application is late due to storm and just accept it
  - cperciva 14y ago
    I think it's probably better to ask people if they were affected rather than trying to guess based on their location. It's not something you can get really get away with lying about, since it just takes an interviewer asking "so, tell me how you were affected by the hurricane" to get someone blacklisted.
    - RyanMcGreal 14y ago
      "I was glued to the Weather Network for like two days straight, and didn't get a chance to complete my application form."
  - aaronz8 14y ago
    Also, not all teams are located in one area.
- mikek 14y ago
aviv 14y ago
Ironically, the people who need this extension the most can't actually vote at the moment. So I would consider some multiplier to the number of Yes votes to account for them.
hiddenstage 14y ago
Look at the IPs voting yes and if they aren't on the east coast, discount the votes. If they are on the east coast, discount the votes. They should be completing their application, not voting. :)
GigabyteCoin 14y ago
I live in Ontario and already numerous people have been killed by the high winds, debris is all over the highways, power is out to numerous parts of the GTA, and trees are falling left right and center. All of this already, and wind speeds are expected to DOUBLE by tomorrow morning. I would say postpone it at least a day. If the stock markets aren't running, you can't expect a startup to get much done either. F.Y.I. the GTA (the section of Ontario I am talking about) is a good 500 miles from the eye of the storm.
bbunix 14y ago
The hurricane wasn't a surprise... the effects shouldn't have been a surprise. If you're going to run a startup, this is a good test of being prepared for a (known, impending, likely) shit tsunami, and being agile, and resourceful, and flexible, and, well, you get the idea. If pg wants to appear compassionate about changing the date, that's fine, but this isn't like a tornado (no warning), or Katrina (total destruction of an entire city). If people were going to apply at the very last second, guess what - moving the date forward by N days just means they have N more days before applying at the very last second. If out of compassion pg wants to move the date, or more likely to avoid potential criticism of keeping the original date, then fine. But would this make a real difference, I doubt it. Besides moving the date back might actually prevent some great company from getting in who are right now, demonstrating extraordinary resourcefulness at finishing the application (typing away on an iphone), getting it in on time, and providing a really cool story of how they did it.
- mindslight 14y ago
  'Resourcefulness' in a storm doesn't mean wasting your phone's battery. If one has ample shelter/water/heat/food/electricity, they are sitting pretty and can go about their business without having to be very resourceful. If not, their only thoughts should be on preserving what they do have and using their intellect to improve their immediate situation. I hope that the YC hopefuls in emergency situations are wise enough to focus on taking care of themselves and figure that the application process will work out later.
- SandersAK 14y ago
  i guess you're not the one being evacuated from a flooding or burning building. nor are you someone who has loved ones anywhere in lower manhattan. you make it seem like natural disasters are easy to predict down to the precise movements and effects for eacn individual. i'd love to see that app or service you're making, sounds really powerful. dare i say clairvoyant?
  - bbunix 14y ago
    Take a look at this blogpost... from 10/23 http://fox41blogs.typepad.com/wdrb_weather/2012/10/could-a-superstorm-occur-in-the-nexts-7-day.html http://fox41blogs.typepad.com/wdrb_weather/2012/10/could-a-s... Jeff Master's Blog is excellent as well: http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/article.html http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/article.html And yeah, I was born in NYC. We're tough.
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niggler 14y ago
ConEd is quoting November 5 for restoration in some areas. One day is not enough. Manhattan is dark
readme 14y ago
Surprised at the number of people who said "No". Why does everyone need to have this cut-throat mentality? You realize, we'd all live longer and age slower if you guys would just relax. NYC is a mess right now. Just the perspective of a guy who comes here for the articles.
- rplnt 14y ago
  I didn't vote, but my reasoning would be that a day won't help. Allowing late submissions with explanation (as cperciva mentioned) or have the deadline tied to something (michaelhoffman) would probably be a better idea.
  - ZachPruckowski 14y ago
    If you think that those are good ideas, I think you should (a) vote for extension, and (b) upvote those suggestions so that The Powers That Be see them. If they see those suggestions, but also see significant vote opposition to extending deadlines, they probably won't implement them.
- sontek 14y ago
  I said no because 1 day is not going to help. Its a very kind gesture but if you are affected by the hurricane (This coming from someone living in Florida), one day is not going to make a difference and at this point YC is probably not even on any of their minds.
shimms 14y ago
I voted No - not because I think an extension is a bad idea full stop, but I think one day won't help much. If an extension is a good idea (I'm not sure), then one until such time that people's priorities are back on YC related things would make more sense. This could be a few days, or a couple of weeks depending on how things pan out.
omnisci 14y ago
As an applicant who lives in NYC and has already submitted an application for this round, I think a day (or more) extension would be helpful. One day should be enough for those who lost time preparing for the storm but were not affected enough to drop their whole application(for this round) due to significant loss. I disagree with the suggestions to add a "I'm late because" or special consideration for late applications. This will postpone a decision and create unneeded complications with the selection process. What I can suggest, is that YC creates an "I will be late on my application because..." area and provide a 3 day extension for those groups. At the very least, this gives YC an opportunity to see if anything is coming in and allow for YC to make a decisions with some "wiggle room" for the late applications. I'm not sure how the selection process works at YC, but the bottom 2-3 fundable on-time applications could be on "stand by" until all applications are submitted and a final decision could be made for the last 2-3 groups.
salimmadjd 14y ago
We started our application a few weeks ago and running it through several feedback and rewrites I'm surprised to find myself till the last day and still making adjustment. If I lived in NY and I was hit by the storm I would have been really bummed out about missing the deadline. One reason I'm applying to YC is to be among an awesome ecosystem of founders who are there for each other and seeing a large ratio of yes to no votes is a delight.
Fando 14y ago
Yes, Nothing but opportunity in this decision.
SG-17 14y ago
Do the best you can, That is all anyone can ask of a person or group of people.
chrsstrm 14y ago
Since you should have been saving your answers for storage on the application page, why not auto-submit anyone who hasn't done so by the deadline and then allow edits after? You should be able to see who manually re-submits after the deadline (I would think) and allow them to explain their situation. Drop any auto-submitted apps that are not manually re-submitted after a certain time frame.
the_economist 14y ago
You could push it back by a month and I still wouldn't be able to figure out how to answer the questions in under 120 words each.
dorkrawk 14y ago
If you push the deadline back, everybody gets the extra time. People affected by the storm get a break. I see no harm in it.
jvoorhis 14y ago
The power company told my family in PA that the power will probably be out for a week. They are charging their phones at my father's hospital office (possibly drawing off of the generators.) The news reports that roofs have been torn off of houses in their town. The storm seems to have had much more impact in NYC and NJ. Sure, it's possibile that somebody will claim "the dug ate me hamework", but I think it's rational to keep your eyes open and use your judgement.
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tisme 14y ago
The people most affected by this storm are likely not able to see the poll.
- ryangallen 14y ago
  It really says something then, that 80% of the vote is still Yes.
  - tzs 14y ago
    I'd expect people who are affect to be more likely to vote "no", out of a desire to not use (or appear to use) the disaster to their advantage. They want a level playing field, and that means to them not getting special treatment because of outside circumstances. I'd expect a lot of people not affected to vote "yes" out of a desire to not gain (or appear to gain) at the expense of other's suffering a disaster. They want a level playing field, and that means to them not having the competition disadvantaged because of outside circumstances. It's the same reason Inigo Montoya let the Man in Black rest after the latter's climb up the Cliffs of Insanity, even though the Man in Black was willing to fight as soon as he got to the top.
    - tisme 14y ago
      I gathered he let him rest because that was what was written in the script.
      - tptacek 14y ago
        Ahh, nerd message boards. Not even The Princess Bride is spared.
Snapps 14y ago
Sure. You never know... "The Starfish Story" http://www.ordinarypeoplechangetheworld.com/articles/the-starfish-story.aspx http://www.ordinarypeoplechangetheworld.com/articles/the-sta...
robertha 14y ago
Although I don't think that one day will make a huge difference (it'll take more than a day to get back to normal) I also don't see why the deadline shouldn't be extended. Majority of people submitted their applications and I'm sure many keep editing them (in fact I am right now) but the reality is that the last day editing won't change that much anyways. So if everyone gets an extra day, your chances of getting in will most likely remain nearly unchanged, while the people on the East coast will at least get some kind of a chance to submit the next DropBox or AirBnb.
keeptrying 14y ago
You have to push the deadline back. Right now youtube is readonly - can't change video permissions to "anyone" from "private".
dbecker 14y ago
If someone affected by the disaster gets their application in a couple days late, and you think from their application that they have a good chance of launching a successful startup, why wouldn't you accept them? If I were in your position, I wouldn't miss out on people I think are good applicants because a natural disaster prevented them from meeting an arbitrary deadline.
rshlo 14y ago
Yes. Extend by a week even, but only for those who submitted at least once before the storm started.
binarysolo 14y ago
Personally, we're down one founder for our video due to the storm (he lost power/internet). We've completed our app a couple weeks ago but were taking our time with the video. The storm actually disrupted our Google Hangout-based video mid take (take number 3, but still). If we didn't have an extension, we'd probably just put an addendum to the start of our video noting the lack of polish due to this complication, and just run with it. We'd hope the video wouldn't be a deal killer anyways. But yes, it would be a nice gesture to push the deadline back.
Robby2012 14y ago
I don't need another day, we submitted our application two weeks ago, but if people are having problems because of 'Sandy' it's ok for me if you give them another day or even a week. If I were in their situation I would really appreciate the help.
OoTheNigerian 14y ago
he hurricane wasn't a surprise... the effects shouldn't have been a surprise. If you're going to run a startup, this is a good test of being prepared for a (known, impending, likely) shit tsunami, and being agile, and resourceful, and flexible, and, well, you get the idea. If pg wants to appear compassionate about changing the date, that's fine, but this isn't like a tornado (no warning), or Katrina (total destruction of an entire city). If people were going to apply at the very last second, guess what - moving the date forward by N days just means they have N more days before applying at the very last second. If out of compassion pg wants to move the date, or more likely to avoid potential criticism of keeping the original date, then fine. But would this make a real difference, I doubt it. Besides moving the date back might actually prevent some great company from getting in who are right now, demonstrating extraordinary resourcefulness at finishing the application (typing away on an iphone), getting it in on time, and providing a really cool story of how they did it.
- OoTheNigerian 14y ago
  How do I delete the above. It was a quote I mistakenly posted as a comment. See here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4716779 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4716779
reji 14y ago
Why poll this? Either extend it or dont.
jqueryin 14y ago
The true essence of a hacker and entrepreneur: they'll figure it out one way or another.
bengoism 14y ago
No. Awesomeness is not correlated to bad weather. To all yay-sayers: invent life storm hack. Submit on time.
skbohra123 14y ago
So is it pushed?
edw519 14y ago
So you've had months to prepare this and you're still not ready? You knew about this storm for the past week and didn't scramble to finish before it hit? Hitting a deadline "no matter what" is a great metric for effective entrepreneurship. Your users, customers, prospects, business partners, investors, and regulators are unlikely to cut you a break. Why should YC? (I don't mean to sound harsh on so many who are suffering now. I really wish them the best. I'm just saying that a good business person takes care of business (submits YC application) before the storm and focuses on the really important things like family and safety during and after.)
- ra 14y ago
  Totally. Entrepreneurship isn't fair, and there's never enough time. But if it genuinely has hit the fan, and you're honest, then people will usually cut you a break. EDIT: A day is kind of arbitrary anyway. If you get an outstanding application a couple of days late, from a team who literally spent two days without power or phones, and instead of submitting their application they helped their neighbours clean putrid mud from their homes, would you reject it?
  - deleted 14y ago
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- noashx 14y ago
  You're saying people should focus on family and safety during and after the storm? I should think family comes first, before the storm. When did Noah build the ark? Before the flood. A good business person can balance work and home life, and especially the safety of one's family. I'd rather delay an important project and take care of mine than rush a crappy job.
  - hnriot 14y ago
    Noah didn't have much if a choice from what I remember of that particular fairy tale, he was under direct instructions from god that was about to destroy the earth (what a great guy!) Not exactly a helpful comment to bring Noah into this... But there's always one that has to bring up Revelations or some other end of days nonsense wherever there's a storm.
robodale 14y ago
Read the book "Masters of Doom". There's a part where John Romero wades across a flooded river during a huge thunderstorm to get to their secluded house where they are building what will become the game Castle Wolfenstein. He makes it across the river and into the house, and finds John Carmack already there, coding, who and had done the same thing to get to the house. Push a deadline back because of a storm? Really?
- scott_s 14y ago
  Go check nytimes.com. This is several order of magnitudes more than "a huge thunderstorm."
vinayan3 14y ago
Yes. A side note the NFL office pushed the trading deadline to Thursday. It seems that deadlines across the board are being pushed back. We honestly don't know how the storm could have affected applicants.
rgonzalez 14y ago
I voted yes simply because of the fact that you might miss out on great team. BTW, I am not applying so I am completely unbiassed. Cheers.
RKoutnik 14y ago
Rochester, NY guy here, with parents in central NY and grandparents on Long Island. Like other commenters have said, it's an absolute mess. ConEd is predicting up to 7 days for power to return. I voted "yes" but a day won't be enough. Some people trapped won't even be able to click submit for a week. I think that a deadline extension isn't the best option. The best option would be to give grace to late entries that come from hurricane areas (like others have mentioned, a checkbox would work). However, I'd add an additional box for those ticking the box that asks about their hurricane experiences. After all, isn't YC looking for amazing founders? What better way to see who a person is than hearing about their experiences living through a record-breaking storm? Sure, people would game the system but if they do make it to the interview stage it'll be easy to tell who's faking.
maximilianh 14y ago
An extra day shouldn't make any difference if you are really prepared.
matthewslotkin 14y ago
I'm in the tristate area. My team lost power. Honestly we could really use the day. However that's not how life works, and I think there is value in pushing through to results in the face of adversity. Would I take the gift of an extra day? Sure, no need to make things harder for yourself. But think about this from the perspective of YC's goals: find the best entrepreneurs. My guess is that the best entrepreneurs will get the job done without an extra day.
ludicast 14y ago
In NYC without power, but I voted for the third party candidate here. All I care is that whether or not the deadline is extended we know sooner rather than later so we can work around/with that constraint.
mcu 14y ago
While we were gathering supplies I joked: "I'm glad that I got the YC app in, I want to enjoy my hurricane." Supplies: https://twitter.com/mikeurbanski/status/263028329483997185 https://twitter.com/mikeurbanski/status/263028329483997185 Best. Hurricane. Ever. https://twitter.com/mikeurbanski/status/263117753995644928 https://twitter.com/mikeurbanski/status/263117753995644928
amerf1 14y ago
Respect Paul, very considerate boss

238 points by pg 14y ago

I have no idea what the situation is like on the east coast, but it's no problem to push the deadline back by a day if it's necessary. Let us know.

rdl 14y ago

I'd do until Friday (if not next week!) rather than tomorrow -- some places seemed a lot more disrupted than just a day.

baconface 14y ago
How about a day for each day the market remains closed.
joeguilmette 14y ago
The entire eastern seaboard from Richmond, VA to Maine is flooding/expecting flooding. Chicago and Michigan are also expecting to have some issues with storm surge. An extra day isn't going to change anything. I'd say push it by a week or don't bother changing the date.
- rdl 14y ago
  Most importantly, 75 Broad just flooded; pretty soon they'll lose 55 Broad, 25 Broad, 60 Hudson, and potentially 111 8th. The problem is the generators are not on particularly high floors, and people only keep certain amounts of fuel (<24h, often around 8h), and even with "guaranteed refueling contracts", a lot of people won't be getting diesel in time. (EDIT: these are the main carrier hotels and colocation facilities in the Northeast, all in Manhattan.)
  - aviv 14y ago
    Where are you getting this information?
    - rdl 14y ago
      IRC. (with people who lived out of colos in Lower Manhattan after 9/11, since if they left the area they wouldn't have been allowed back in -- living off vending machine food for a week or two reconfiguring equipment for themselves and other networks to account for the missing part of the city) Also, woo, no more 111 8th. Building power is down for most of the building (all of it?) (per floor), although some of the areas have their own generators (Level(3) and the old AboveNet area)
      - X-Istence 14y ago
        The biggest problem is that the basements where the fuel is stored are flooding, which is taking out the pumps to get the fuel to the generators! Was just listening in on FDNY radio scanner and they mentioned oil/diesel floating down the street in water.
      - haldean 14y ago
        Hearsay says that all of 111 8th was taken down voluntarily to prevent damage from flooding.
    - aviv 14y ago
      rdl, do you know what the water level is at 111 8th? Any other information about that immediate area would be greatly appreciated.
  - airlocksoftware 14y ago
    I was wondering, if you happen to know, why there are so many colos in NYC / Manhattan? In general wouldn't you locate a server farm somewhere with cheap land / electricity / cooling? What advantage do they get from being there?
    - rdl 14y ago
      They're not really server colos (except for some wall street stuff, but even that is in Northern NJ now). The Manhattan facilities are mainly carrier interconnects between carriers and for equipment to provide leased circuits to businesses, a lot of which serve customers in Manhattan or grew up around telephone infrastructure to serve offices in Manhattan. Big scale server colos are usually in WA/OR (cheap power), SFBA (fiber, tech companies), TX (cheap land, sort of cheap power, or at least available power), or DC metro (sort of cheap power, cheap land in some areas, lots of government users).
      - shafferj 14y ago
        you're historically right about this, but wrong on a bunch of other levels. there is a few million square feet of real server colo in 111 8th ave, and at least an order of magnitude more than that combined across the other spaces mentioned.
        Tzunamitom 14y ago
        The reason they locate there (as with in London) if to reduce the latency for financial trading programs. It may not sound like a lot, but when you have an automatic trading application processing billions of trades a year it can make a huge difference to receive the information a little earlier, and place your orders that little bit quicker. As a side note, Internap's LGA11 datecentre facility on 75 Broad Street is currently being evacuated, and most of the fuel reserves are submerged below water...
  - cperciva 14y ago
    Most importantly, 75 Broad just flooded The report I heard (at about 11PM EDT) was that the basement was flooded and the building was being evacuated, but servers would keep running for 5-7 hours until the back-up generators ran out of fuel.
  - dspeyer 14y ago
    Last I heard, 111 8th had 4 days of fuel and the generators were safely high up. It's possible I misunderstood.

dylanhassinger 14y ago

offer bonus points for disaster preparedness/public safety startups :)

jpdoctor 14y ago
... and note that making the deadline while being hit by a massive hurricane is a powerful litmus test. Of course, the question is: A litmus test for what? Hope y'all are safe out there.

d0m 14y ago

What is the most impressive hack you've accomplished? We had to hack our way in a storm to submit our YC application. * Note for application reviewers: Email is in my profile, thanks.

bsims 14y ago
+1 for this

ChadNYC 14y ago

Before and after pics of FDR @54th St, 1pm and 10pm pic.twitter.com/wqwkTXoK I would say yes.

benguild 14y ago

Sure, whatever. Maybe the "next Dropbox" will apply last minute.

JohnHaugeland 14y ago

A day? I lost ten days of power/connectivity in Isaac. I'm not in this YC run, but to be honest, I don't think a day's really enough.

brendn 14y ago

Most of Manhattan is without power. While some people may think it's badass to hack through the storm oblivious, the situation out here is pretty intense. I would encourage some leniency with the deadline, especially since as far as I know for NYC, things won't be back to normal for quite a few days.

sharkweek 14y ago
Not to make light of the situation at hand, but that would be a pretty epic story; I'd definitely read the post on "How I hacked my way into YC by stealing a jetski to get away from the floods, then hitchhiked across the US to hand delivery my application to PG's door within 15 minutes of the deadline"
carterschonwald 14y ago
False, just lower manahattan near the financial district. (unless i'm just a lucky manhattanite who's not read the right news sites and has lovely power) that said, subways being closed is going to be a huge hassle for the next few days.
- brendn 14y ago
  ConEd shut of power to the Financial District at approximately 7PM, but there were a number of explosions at substations including the one at 14th Street. There are over 1 million New Yorkers without power; ConEd reports most places below Midtown are dark. They evacuated NYU Langone Hospital when its backup generator failed, so yes, consider yourself very lucky.
- frankdenbow 14y ago
  Lots of transformers blew. My power is out and I'm at 10th street and 6th ave.
- mdda 14y ago
  After walking up Madison this morning, there's no power below 39th Street AFAICT.

Anechoic 14y ago

Trains in NYC are expected to be down through the end of the week, Connecticut has closed highways to non-emergency traffic, chunks of Manhattan have no power and patients at one NYC hospital are being evacuated due to generator failure. Homes in NY and CT are being flooded, some banks are being closed indefinitely. I imagine that a lot of YC folks may be scrambling to check on homes and loved ones and trying to keep generators working, etc. I think a deadline extension would be appropriate. I know there's an argument to be made that folks should be prepared, but this (like many of the weather events I got to experience in Western Mass last year) really is unprecedented. (I have no stake in this, I just think extending the deadline is the right thing to do).

kirillzubovsky 14y ago

My relatives are in NJ and from what I hear, they lost power all around them. Given last year's snow storm, it will take a week to get electricity/internet back to normal. At this point, a day won't make a difference.

petercooper 14y ago

Yes. In my experience with events, at least, most of the proposals come in on the last couple of days of the CFP. In an ideal world, I'd say.. that shows how unprepared they are!.. but I'm pretty much the same and it's just how people work ;-)

richforrester 14y ago

The "Why not"'s don't outweight the "Why"'s, imo, so go for it. No need not to be humane, civil, and all that jazz.

littlegiantcap 14y ago

I'd say yes. I've been in crunch time situations where I haven't had internet/power and it really isn't fun.

buf 14y ago

People really serious about YC have had this done for weeks. Edit: I stand corrected. I'm the kind of person who gets things done early and then reads/refactors it every day making minor edits.

rdl 14y ago
A lot of people actively work on their application until the submission deadline. If your product is moving fast, along with adoption, it would be handicapping yourself to submit weeks early, I think.
ssylee 14y ago
Re: rdl's comment, I'm not sure. I'm not experienced with YCombinator process or startups, but can't the founders explain their application was sent as of the submission date (weeks or days before), and then explain during the interview about the important changes? I mean, Parkinson's Law is in play with entrepreneurship big time.
bennyg 14y ago
A lot of people didn't know about this until recently though, like me. I'm not in any danger from Sandy right now, though and still want them to be able to submit. Obviously a deadline extension would be positive for me, but I was prepared to submit tomorrow regardless of seeing this post. Edit: Maybe you filter by location? But why make it complex?
tlrobinson 14y ago
I know lots of YCers who worked on their applications until the last minute, myself included.
pg 14y ago
Actually several of the best startups we've funded applied at the last moment.
jeswin 14y ago
Some people (like me) might be working on demos to go with the application. I also dwell on details like appearance and usability, and am hesitant to submit something I am not really happy with. I am going to submit right at the end.

dreamzook 14y ago

For those who really want to apply you can do it(I live in the Greater NY area). The "Last minute-rs" will get it done tonight if they are sure tonight it the deadline But then a YES in case there is a dropbox or Airbnb waiting out there

waterlesscloud 14y ago

There will people without power from VA/DC on up the coast for several days, if not a week or more. Given that situation, a delay would be symbolic more than anything. Still worth doing.

eugenejen 14y ago

The water level in Battery Park was 13 feet at its highest and broke previous record 11 feet at 1821. Manhattan south of 39th street lost power since 9:00pm. This is probably the first time in last 100 years for dwellers living in Manhattan downtown see flood in their homes. Especially for people who lives in ground floor or basements. http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/171528/sandy-strikes-city-with-record-flooding--power-outages http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/171528/sandy-strikes-...

timmyd 14y ago

pg - its better to be compassionate than not be. if moving the date isn't that difficult for you and doesn't adversely affect the operation of YC - it only goes to strength the resolve of the community. it would be crazy to allow someone to loose out on their dream of even applying because the mother of all storms decided to hit the east coast of America. surely its http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_of_God http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_of_God exception :) Lets remember Winston "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." Only good things can come from opening it longer given what's happened.

mdda 14y ago
Agreed. Look at the situations reversed : Earthquake on the west coast... How tasteless it would be for the New Yorkers to insist that YC keeps to its original deadline.

deleted 14y ago

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hanglihl 14y ago

Yes

wmhtet 14y ago

I am an applicant in SF and ready to submit. As I watch CNN coverage the whole episode, I see that it is really bad. NYSE floor is under 3 feet of water! A day postponement will give the applicant in east coast a breather but don't know how much of help it will be with all the power outage and other hassle with a day. Well, they are going to do the start up anyway. :)

ximeng 14y ago
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-new-york-stock-exchange-floor-is-not-flooded-2012-10 http://www.businessinsider.com/the-new-york-stock-exchange-f... NYSE not flooded...
- wmhtet 14y ago
  ok, thx.

mikeknoop 14y ago

I know of at least one team that would appreciate this.

bbunix 14y ago
This is possibly the most important post - now we know there's a real user with a real problem.

michaelhoffman 14y ago

The National Institutes of Health, which is serious about deadlines in grant applications, gives applicants extra days when they are affected by a natural disaster. One day per day their institution was closed. It seems like it would be sensible to pick an institution (like the New York Stock Exchange) and allow extra days via a similar policy. http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-13-006.html http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-13-00...

bravura 14y ago
Force majeure is typically a good reason to push back a deadline. [edit: Originally said "deus ex machina". My mistake, thanks Falling3]
- Falling3 14y ago
  That's not really how that phrase is used. Deus ex machina != act of god.
  - ludicast 14y ago
    "Deus ex Machina" is the ultimate hack!

shreyansj 14y ago

You can extend the deadline by n number of days and perhaps give extra credit to those who still submit by the original deadline.

cperciva 14y ago

I don't think pushing the deadline back by one day is a good idea. The people who are not affected by the storm don't need the extra day; the people who are affected by the storm will probably need considerably more than a day. Given that YC already has a policy of considering late applications, I would opt for keeping the deadline where it is but loudly announcing "if you couldn't get your application in by the deadline because of the hurricane, please submit a late application". And possibly add a "I'm applying late because of the hurricane" checkbox to the form.

samstave 14y ago
Add a team location flag - those east of point X will be given extra consideration time.
- timmyd 14y ago
  yeah thats probably not a bad idea - allowing users to flag if their application is late due to storm and just accept it
- cperciva 14y ago
  I think it's probably better to ask people if they were affected rather than trying to guess based on their location. It's not something you can get really get away with lying about, since it just takes an interviewer asking "so, tell me how you were affected by the hurricane" to get someone blacklisted.
  - RyanMcGreal 14y ago
    "I was glued to the Weather Network for like two days straight, and didn't get a chance to complete my application form."
- aaronz8 14y ago
  Also, not all teams are located in one area.
mikek 14y ago

aviv 14y ago

Ironically, the people who need this extension the most can't actually vote at the moment. So I would consider some multiplier to the number of Yes votes to account for them.

hiddenstage 14y ago

Look at the IPs voting yes and if they aren't on the east coast, discount the votes. If they are on the east coast, discount the votes. They should be completing their application, not voting. :)

GigabyteCoin 14y ago

I live in Ontario and already numerous people have been killed by the high winds, debris is all over the highways, power is out to numerous parts of the GTA, and trees are falling left right and center. All of this already, and wind speeds are expected to DOUBLE by tomorrow morning. I would say postpone it at least a day. If the stock markets aren't running, you can't expect a startup to get much done either. F.Y.I. the GTA (the section of Ontario I am talking about) is a good 500 miles from the eye of the storm.

bbunix 14y ago

The hurricane wasn't a surprise... the effects shouldn't have been a surprise. If you're going to run a startup, this is a good test of being prepared for a (known, impending, likely) shit tsunami, and being agile, and resourceful, and flexible, and, well, you get the idea. If pg wants to appear compassionate about changing the date, that's fine, but this isn't like a tornado (no warning), or Katrina (total destruction of an entire city). If people were going to apply at the very last second, guess what - moving the date forward by N days just means they have N more days before applying at the very last second. If out of compassion pg wants to move the date, or more likely to avoid potential criticism of keeping the original date, then fine. But would this make a real difference, I doubt it. Besides moving the date back might actually prevent some great company from getting in who are right now, demonstrating extraordinary resourcefulness at finishing the application (typing away on an iphone), getting it in on time, and providing a really cool story of how they did it.

mindslight 14y ago
'Resourcefulness' in a storm doesn't mean wasting your phone's battery. If one has ample shelter/water/heat/food/electricity, they are sitting pretty and can go about their business without having to be very resourceful. If not, their only thoughts should be on preserving what they do have and using their intellect to improve their immediate situation. I hope that the YC hopefuls in emergency situations are wise enough to focus on taking care of themselves and figure that the application process will work out later.
SandersAK 14y ago
i guess you're not the one being evacuated from a flooding or burning building. nor are you someone who has loved ones anywhere in lower manhattan. you make it seem like natural disasters are easy to predict down to the precise movements and effects for eacn individual. i'd love to see that app or service you're making, sounds really powerful. dare i say clairvoyant?
- bbunix 14y ago
  Take a look at this blogpost... from 10/23 http://fox41blogs.typepad.com/wdrb_weather/2012/10/could-a-superstorm-occur-in-the-nexts-7-day.html http://fox41blogs.typepad.com/wdrb_weather/2012/10/could-a-s... Jeff Master's Blog is excellent as well: http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/article.html http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/article.html And yeah, I was born in NYC. We're tough.

deleted 14y ago

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niggler 14y ago

ConEd is quoting November 5 for restoration in some areas. One day is not enough. Manhattan is dark

readme 14y ago

Surprised at the number of people who said "No". Why does everyone need to have this cut-throat mentality? You realize, we'd all live longer and age slower if you guys would just relax. NYC is a mess right now. Just the perspective of a guy who comes here for the articles.

rplnt 14y ago
I didn't vote, but my reasoning would be that a day won't help. Allowing late submissions with explanation (as cperciva mentioned) or have the deadline tied to something (michaelhoffman) would probably be a better idea.
- ZachPruckowski 14y ago
  If you think that those are good ideas, I think you should (a) vote for extension, and (b) upvote those suggestions so that The Powers That Be see them. If they see those suggestions, but also see significant vote opposition to extending deadlines, they probably won't implement them.
sontek 14y ago
I said no because 1 day is not going to help. Its a very kind gesture but if you are affected by the hurricane (This coming from someone living in Florida), one day is not going to make a difference and at this point YC is probably not even on any of their minds.

shimms 14y ago

I voted No - not because I think an extension is a bad idea full stop, but I think one day won't help much. If an extension is a good idea (I'm not sure), then one until such time that people's priorities are back on YC related things would make more sense. This could be a few days, or a couple of weeks depending on how things pan out.

omnisci 14y ago

As an applicant who lives in NYC and has already submitted an application for this round, I think a day (or more) extension would be helpful. One day should be enough for those who lost time preparing for the storm but were not affected enough to drop their whole application(for this round) due to significant loss. I disagree with the suggestions to add a "I'm late because" or special consideration for late applications. This will postpone a decision and create unneeded complications with the selection process. What I can suggest, is that YC creates an "I will be late on my application because..." area and provide a 3 day extension for those groups. At the very least, this gives YC an opportunity to see if anything is coming in and allow for YC to make a decisions with some "wiggle room" for the late applications. I'm not sure how the selection process works at YC, but the bottom 2-3 fundable on-time applications could be on "stand by" until all applications are submitted and a final decision could be made for the last 2-3 groups.

salimmadjd 14y ago

We started our application a few weeks ago and running it through several feedback and rewrites I'm surprised to find myself till the last day and still making adjustment. If I lived in NY and I was hit by the storm I would have been really bummed out about missing the deadline. One reason I'm applying to YC is to be among an awesome ecosystem of founders who are there for each other and seeing a large ratio of yes to no votes is a delight.

Fando 14y ago

Yes, Nothing but opportunity in this decision.

SG-17 14y ago

Do the best you can, That is all anyone can ask of a person or group of people.

chrsstrm 14y ago

Since you should have been saving your answers for storage on the application page, why not auto-submit anyone who hasn't done so by the deadline and then allow edits after? You should be able to see who manually re-submits after the deadline (I would think) and allow them to explain their situation. Drop any auto-submitted apps that are not manually re-submitted after a certain time frame.

the_economist 14y ago

You could push it back by a month and I still wouldn't be able to figure out how to answer the questions in under 120 words each.

dorkrawk 14y ago

If you push the deadline back, everybody gets the extra time. People affected by the storm get a break. I see no harm in it.

jvoorhis 14y ago

The power company told my family in PA that the power will probably be out for a week. They are charging their phones at my father's hospital office (possibly drawing off of the generators.) The news reports that roofs have been torn off of houses in their town. The storm seems to have had much more impact in NYC and NJ. Sure, it's possibile that somebody will claim "the dug ate me hamework", but I think it's rational to keep your eyes open and use your judgement.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

tisme 14y ago

The people most affected by this storm are likely not able to see the poll.

ryangallen 14y ago
It really says something then, that 80% of the vote is still Yes.
- tzs 14y ago
  I'd expect people who are affect to be more likely to vote "no", out of a desire to not use (or appear to use) the disaster to their advantage. They want a level playing field, and that means to them not getting special treatment because of outside circumstances. I'd expect a lot of people not affected to vote "yes" out of a desire to not gain (or appear to gain) at the expense of other's suffering a disaster. They want a level playing field, and that means to them not having the competition disadvantaged because of outside circumstances. It's the same reason Inigo Montoya let the Man in Black rest after the latter's climb up the Cliffs of Insanity, even though the Man in Black was willing to fight as soon as he got to the top.
  - tisme 14y ago
    I gathered he let him rest because that was what was written in the script.
    - tptacek 14y ago
      Ahh, nerd message boards. Not even The Princess Bride is spared.

Snapps 14y ago

Sure. You never know... "The Starfish Story" http://www.ordinarypeoplechangetheworld.com/articles/the-starfish-story.aspx http://www.ordinarypeoplechangetheworld.com/articles/the-sta...

robertha 14y ago

Although I don't think that one day will make a huge difference (it'll take more than a day to get back to normal) I also don't see why the deadline shouldn't be extended. Majority of people submitted their applications and I'm sure many keep editing them (in fact I am right now) but the reality is that the last day editing won't change that much anyways. So if everyone gets an extra day, your chances of getting in will most likely remain nearly unchanged, while the people on the East coast will at least get some kind of a chance to submit the next DropBox or AirBnb.

keeptrying 14y ago

You have to push the deadline back. Right now youtube is readonly - can't change video permissions to "anyone" from "private".

dbecker 14y ago

If someone affected by the disaster gets their application in a couple days late, and you think from their application that they have a good chance of launching a successful startup, why wouldn't you accept them? If I were in your position, I wouldn't miss out on people I think are good applicants because a natural disaster prevented them from meeting an arbitrary deadline.

rshlo 14y ago

Yes. Extend by a week even, but only for those who submitted at least once before the storm started.

binarysolo 14y ago

Personally, we're down one founder for our video due to the storm (he lost power/internet). We've completed our app a couple weeks ago but were taking our time with the video. The storm actually disrupted our Google Hangout-based video mid take (take number 3, but still). If we didn't have an extension, we'd probably just put an addendum to the start of our video noting the lack of polish due to this complication, and just run with it. We'd hope the video wouldn't be a deal killer anyways. But yes, it would be a nice gesture to push the deadline back.

Robby2012 14y ago

I don't need another day, we submitted our application two weeks ago, but if people are having problems because of 'Sandy' it's ok for me if you give them another day or even a week. If I were in their situation I would really appreciate the help.

OoTheNigerian 14y ago

he hurricane wasn't a surprise... the effects shouldn't have been a surprise. If you're going to run a startup, this is a good test of being prepared for a (known, impending, likely) shit tsunami, and being agile, and resourceful, and flexible, and, well, you get the idea. If pg wants to appear compassionate about changing the date, that's fine, but this isn't like a tornado (no warning), or Katrina (total destruction of an entire city). If people were going to apply at the very last second, guess what - moving the date forward by N days just means they have N more days before applying at the very last second. If out of compassion pg wants to move the date, or more likely to avoid potential criticism of keeping the original date, then fine. But would this make a real difference, I doubt it. Besides moving the date back might actually prevent some great company from getting in who are right now, demonstrating extraordinary resourcefulness at finishing the application (typing away on an iphone), getting it in on time, and providing a really cool story of how they did it.

OoTheNigerian 14y ago
How do I delete the above. It was a quote I mistakenly posted as a comment. See here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4716779 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4716779

reji 14y ago

Why poll this? Either extend it or dont.

jqueryin 14y ago

The true essence of a hacker and entrepreneur: they'll figure it out one way or another.

bengoism 14y ago

No. Awesomeness is not correlated to bad weather. To all yay-sayers: invent life storm hack. Submit on time.

skbohra123 14y ago

So is it pushed?

edw519 14y ago

So you've had months to prepare this and you're still not ready? You knew about this storm for the past week and didn't scramble to finish before it hit? Hitting a deadline "no matter what" is a great metric for effective entrepreneurship. Your users, customers, prospects, business partners, investors, and regulators are unlikely to cut you a break. Why should YC? (I don't mean to sound harsh on so many who are suffering now. I really wish them the best. I'm just saying that a good business person takes care of business (submits YC application) before the storm and focuses on the really important things like family and safety during and after.)

ra 14y ago
Totally. Entrepreneurship isn't fair, and there's never enough time. But if it genuinely has hit the fan, and you're honest, then people will usually cut you a break. EDIT: A day is kind of arbitrary anyway. If you get an outstanding application a couple of days late, from a team who literally spent two days without power or phones, and instead of submitting their application they helped their neighbours clean putrid mud from their homes, would you reject it?
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
noashx 14y ago
You're saying people should focus on family and safety during and after the storm? I should think family comes first, before the storm. When did Noah build the ark? Before the flood. A good business person can balance work and home life, and especially the safety of one's family. I'd rather delay an important project and take care of mine than rush a crappy job.
- hnriot 14y ago
  Noah didn't have much if a choice from what I remember of that particular fairy tale, he was under direct instructions from god that was about to destroy the earth (what a great guy!) Not exactly a helpful comment to bring Noah into this... But there's always one that has to bring up Revelations or some other end of days nonsense wherever there's a storm.

robodale 14y ago

Read the book "Masters of Doom". There's a part where John Romero wades across a flooded river during a huge thunderstorm to get to their secluded house where they are building what will become the game Castle Wolfenstein. He makes it across the river and into the house, and finds John Carmack already there, coding, who and had done the same thing to get to the house. Push a deadline back because of a storm? Really?

scott_s 14y ago
Go check nytimes.com. This is several order of magnitudes more than "a huge thunderstorm."

vinayan3 14y ago

Yes. A side note the NFL office pushed the trading deadline to Thursday. It seems that deadlines across the board are being pushed back. We honestly don't know how the storm could have affected applicants.

rgonzalez 14y ago

I voted yes simply because of the fact that you might miss out on great team. BTW, I am not applying so I am completely unbiassed. Cheers.

RKoutnik 14y ago

Rochester, NY guy here, with parents in central NY and grandparents on Long Island. Like other commenters have said, it's an absolute mess. ConEd is predicting up to 7 days for power to return. I voted "yes" but a day won't be enough. Some people trapped won't even be able to click submit for a week. I think that a deadline extension isn't the best option. The best option would be to give grace to late entries that come from hurricane areas (like others have mentioned, a checkbox would work). However, I'd add an additional box for those ticking the box that asks about their hurricane experiences. After all, isn't YC looking for amazing founders? What better way to see who a person is than hearing about their experiences living through a record-breaking storm? Sure, people would game the system but if they do make it to the interview stage it'll be easy to tell who's faking.

maximilianh 14y ago

An extra day shouldn't make any difference if you are really prepared.

matthewslotkin 14y ago

I'm in the tristate area. My team lost power. Honestly we could really use the day. However that's not how life works, and I think there is value in pushing through to results in the face of adversity. Would I take the gift of an extra day? Sure, no need to make things harder for yourself. But think about this from the perspective of YC's goals: find the best entrepreneurs. My guess is that the best entrepreneurs will get the job done without an extra day.

ludicast 14y ago

In NYC without power, but I voted for the third party candidate here. All I care is that whether or not the deadline is extended we know sooner rather than later so we can work around/with that constraint.

mcu 14y ago

While we were gathering supplies I joked: "I'm glad that I got the YC app in, I want to enjoy my hurricane." Supplies: https://twitter.com/mikeurbanski/status/263028329483997185 https://twitter.com/mikeurbanski/status/263028329483997185 Best. Hurricane. Ever. https://twitter.com/mikeurbanski/status/263117753995644928 https://twitter.com/mikeurbanski/status/263117753995644928

amerf1 14y ago

Respect Paul, very considerate boss