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Secret weapon is the perfect phrase to describe Kirsty. She handles everything to do with money and investors at YC, and the situations she has to unravel, dea
by pg 14y ago
Secret weapon is the perfect phrase to describe Kirsty. She handles everything to do with money and investors at YC, and the situations she has to unravel, dealing with early stage startups, are often appallingly complicated. Considering the number of startups we fund, I bet there is no one in the world who understands more about the intricacies of early stage startup finances.
- sillysaurus 14y agoI bet there is no one in the world who understands more about the intricacies of early stage startup finances. She should write a book.
- windsurfer 14y agoWhy?
- alan_cx 14y agoI thought people valued information sharing?
- djt 14y agoProbably not as much as Y Combinator enjoys making millions off of her knowledge. It's a competitive edge so i doubt that it will come out until after everyone else figures it out.
- pg 14y agoDo you really think we are so ruthlessly mercenary? Actually I thought it was a good idea.
- diziet 14y agoI don't think YC is in only to 'make millions'. I also don't think pg would be writing essays or fostering a community like HN just for commercial interest, startups are a way to make the world better.
- clicks 14y agoWhile I don't disagree with the point that pg is not out to just make loads of money -- he's obviously a really smart guy who has richer pleasures to enjoy than what money can provide, I do disagree with the stated premise that pg does not have a commercial interest in fostering a community like HN. Whether intended or not, it's probably a profoundly important component to yc's branding. Not to mention, it is an absolute goldmine for attracting developers for the startups yc funds (it's not a stretch to see jobs posts as ads of sorts -- the higher the quality of HN's userbase, the higher the quality of potential candidates). It is also an avenue for the startups it funds to gain recognition (e.g., Priceonomics recently started a blog that arguably caters to a very HN-minded audience, indeed starting a blog is an extraordinarily compelling method of advertising the existence of something). Not that I have a problem with any of that of course -- so long as there's interesting content for me to read I'll stick around. :)
- diziet 14y agoI agree that HN is important to YC's branding - I just don't think it is the primary reason for HN's existence.
- kmthompson 14y agoShe sounds phenomenal. Doesn't YC have 3 female partners? They are not all listed on the about pages (http://ycombinator.com/people.html http://ycombinator.com/people.html).
- rdl 14y agoJessica, obviously. Kirsty. And Carolynn Levy (legal), who is the most recent addition.
- kmthompson 14y agoThank you!
- cwilson 14y agoWhile not partners, Renee Robinson and Audrey Kim are also a big part of what keeps YC running. The two of them still help us out quite often and kick-ass at what they do.
- pg 14y agoArgh, yes. Updating that page is near the top of my todo list.
- nealmydataorg 14y agoWe provide online data organizer software to organize, manage and share data for team collaboration. I will contact Kirsty to find out more about how we can help. Thanks, Neal (MyDataOrganizer.com)
- dmix 14y agoThe key to self-promotion of your startups on HN is by providing useful content... not just pure self-promotion.
- nealmydataorg 14y agoAgreed Will not happen again ! Thanks, Neal