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ASK PG: What were your first thoughts knowing for sure Viaweb would be acquired?
Just finished reading Founders At Work. Amazing book!
I am curious, Paul, what were the first feelings you had when you knew for sure the Yahoo acquisition was for real? What did it feel like? Was it a big relief? Becoming rich? What were you first immediate thoughts?
Thank you for sharing with us.
- critic 18y agoHamburger... I hate Ramen.
- kwamenum86 18y agoIs this an allusion to the Ramen-profitable thread or just non-sense? I want to be in on the joke :)
- anatoli 18y agoAs in, "No more Ramen, I can now afford a Hamburger." (Which totally makes it not funny... oh well.)
- pg 18y agoOur ramen was rice and beans. In fact the rice and beans I used to make during Viaweb became the basis of the dishes we make for founders at YC dinners. (I say we because we now have a cook make the dinners, but I made them for the first 7 cycles.) Rice & Beans For 2n olive oil or butter n yellow onions 3n cloves garlic n 12-oz cans Goya white beans n cubes Knorr beef bouillon n teaspoons freshly ground black pepper 3n teaspoons cumin n cups rice, preferably sushi rice Put rice in rice cooker. Add water as specified on rice package. (Default: 2 cups water per cup of rice.) Turn on rice cooker and forget about it. Chop onions and fry in oil, over fairly low heat, till glassy. Put in chopped garlic, pepper, cumin, and a little more fat, and stir. Keep heat low. Cook another 2 or 3 minutes, then add beans (don't drain the beans), and stir. Throw in the bouillon cube(s), cover, and cook on lowish heat for at least 10 minutes more. Stir vigilantly to avoid sticking.
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- aaronblohowiak 18y agoWhile not only delicious, one reason Rice & beans is preferable to Ramen is that it is a complete protein[1], "a source of protein that contains an adequate proportion of all of the essential amino acids for the dietary needs of humans" [2]. [1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complete_protein http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complete_protein [2] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_and_beans http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_and_beans
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- dfranke 18y ago24 ounces of beans for one person? Do you mean for 2n, not for n/2?
- pg 18y agoOops! Fixed; thanks.
- gord 18y agofor n/2 weeks, right? If you happen to be in Thailand, try the street food - satay skewers, spicy soup, deep fried fish cakes... [ The crispy grasshopper beer snacks are mainly there to shock ] geek culinary bliss on a budget
- critic 18y agoalso LOLcats and Homer Simpson. I usually go for 3 allusions per joke.
- wheels 18y agoAt first when cutting over to The Cheap Founder Life I found that I ate worse -- cheap frozen stuff, canned stuff and so on. Now I'm pretty sure that I eat better than before since I've gotten even cheaper and started cooking everything. Fried rice (with veggies and egg), vegetarian jambalaya, pasta with a bunch of stuff added to generic sauce (beans, carrots, peppers), chicken noodle soup or gumbo (you can make enough to eat for 3 days in one go). It's seriously pretty easy to get your food costs south of $3 a day and to eat actual good food. You get fast at it too -- I can do most of the kitchen time on those things in about 20-ish minutes.
- gcheong 18y agoWhen both I and my wife were working full-time, we routinely ate frozen dinners not wanting to spend our precious free time cooking. Since I've been laid-off, I started cooking dinners for us soon afterward and haven't looked back. I don't know how much money we are saving, if any, but the quality is just so much better (at least I think so). This just feels closer to the way life ought to be.
- pg 18y agoThe main thing I felt at first was relief. For the whole three years we'd endured one disaster after another. There was literally some new mortal threat every few months. When the deal finally closed, the feeling of finally being able to relax was so strong (and so unfamiliar) that I was practically high for several months on it. When I was in grad school I once had a kidney stone so bad that I ended up in an emergency room on Thanksgiving Day. They gave me some fairly strong opiate intravenously. If you've ever had something like this, you understand the appeal of heroin. Especially coming after a week of being curled up into a ball with pain. The feeling when we sold was a less intense but longer lasting version of this. In retrospect, we could have made Viaweb a lot less painful by spending/raising less money. That was what made it so stressful. But startups were more expensive then. Or at least, everyone thought they had to be.
- eprogrrrr11 18y agoThank you. I am wondering that it must have been such a magical moment - suddenly knowing that the "stress" is gone forever... I am sure it must change everybody. Also, I really liked a lot your essay about stuff - this is probably one of my favorites. Also explains why you used to keep using your old powerbook :-)
- 9oliYQjP 18y agoOne day I would love to hear about these disasters. In my own experience I have literally faced utter failure in the face only to somehow manage to bounce back stronger than before. I've told people that running your own business is a lot like playing one of those racing games where you get 30 seconds to get to the next checkpoint at which point you'll earn yourself more time. On several occasions it has felt like I have literally ran out of time only to coast through a checkpoint and be gifted more time.
- aaronblohowiak 18y ago"One day I would love to hear about these disasters." - Have you read F@W?
- 18y ago