4 ms·

Gittip's YC application

36 points by GuiA 13y ago

Eduardo3rd 13y ago
I think that I've heard YC partners say that the private, off the books conversations that happen at YC between visiting entrepreneurs and the people in the batch are some of the most valuable parts of the experience. Aren't some of the the off the record things done at YC (speakers at weekly dinners, some meetings with the partners, etc) kind of at odds with the Gittip philosophy?
- whit537 13y ago
  You might be right. It's somewhat vexing for how I want to run Gittip that any face-to-face communication is harder to make public than communication that happens on the Internet first. I have to record and publish later ... or wear Google Glass, I suppose. :-( But what I hear you saying is that there are parts of YC that I wouldn't be welcome to publish at all. Yes?
  - Eduardo3rd 13y ago
    Yeah, that's basically what I was saying. From what I understand (and I could be mistaken here) your company is completely transparent about everything that pertains to the business. I'd be willing to bet that makes some things (like getting into accelerator programs or meeting with some investors) extremely difficult, but it is a commendable experiment nonetheless. Best of luck with your application and business as a whole!
    - whit537 13y ago
      Thanks! Should be interesting to see how this plays out one way or another. :-)
rdl 13y ago
Comments as an alum: probably wouldn't make the app public pre-submission; after is fine. this is a minor point though. video: try to boost the audio level. maybe edit it to be a little tighter (if you can). the first part was good, point 2 didn't seem as strong (I don't believe "not paying our employees" is a long-term sustainable thing, but you could say the same thing as "employees believe in it so much they're working for free right now..."). Also, on point one, be clear how exactly gittip helps open source companies -- i.e. what it lets them do which they couldn't otherwise do. I don't actually care about "helps maxcdn" as much as I care about "helps maxcdn do x, y" or helps their customers ... an amazing 1 minute video is the ideal. it is mainly to communicate about you/your team, vs. the idea, but having one or two things which anyone who watches the video takes away from it would be good. ("gittip lets people work on open source projects without having to be purely after-hours or go the VC route" would be my view of gittip) "I helped launch an organic produce growers cooperative." -- maybe another sentence about what you specifically did. As it is, it could be just coming up with a sign for it, or setting up a mailing list... the hack was cool. I'd downplay the wife/kids/mortgage (because they're not unique to you). It should be "able to spend the 3 months at YC, I work on gittip full time". That your wife might spend 3 months with you is a plus. Live near Pittsburgh and expect to come back is good BECAUSE it helps your business -- great developers and less competition for them. Same result, but phrased in a more productive way. In general I'd try to make the "big picture" more clear on how vs. why. "care for one another, inclusion, etc" are more like goals vs. methods, I think. Talk about how gittip will move the world toward those goals more.
- whit537 13y ago
  Thanks rdl! :D > probably wouldn't make the app public pre-submission; after is fine. this is a minor point though. I submitted the application at the same time as I posted it to GitHub. > video: [...] The audio seems to have gotten muddier in transcoding, but maybe I'm making that up. Like a dork I deleted the original (can you believe it?). :-/ As far as points two and three go, do you really think there's time in the video to go very deep with those? The video is already twice as long as called for. I've spoken and written a lot about these themes over the past year. The links, especially under "What's new?" lead further down the rabbit hole. But what you're saying is that those points need to be punchier, not longer. I'll stew on it, maybe record another take in a few days. > "I helped launch an organic produce growers cooperative." -- maybe another sentence about what you specifically did. As it is, it could be just coming up with a sign for it, or setting up a mailing list... Fair enough. I've added: "I did everything from writing bylaws to pricing and sales to driving truck." > I'd downplay the wife/kids/mortgage. I took out the sentence (from the concurrent commitments question), "My wife is open to discussing the possibility of my being in Mountain View for three months if it makes sense for Gittip." > Live near Pittsburgh and expect to come back is good BECAUSE it helps your business -- great developers and less competition for them. Same result, but phrased in a more productive way. Hmmm ... I've got a lot of connections and friends in the tech scene here, but I'm not depending on Pittsburgh for talent. Gittip today is a global distributed team. I'm in Pittsburgh because my family and friends are here. You think I need to explain Pittsburgh in my answer? > In general I'd try to make the "big picture" more clear on how vs. why. "care for one another, inclusion, etc" are more like goals vs. methods, I think. Talk about how gittip will move the world toward those goals more. In the video or in the application somewhere or in blog posts or what?

36 points by GuiA 13y ago

I think that I've heard YC partners say that the private, off the books conversations that happen at YC between visiting entrepreneurs and the people in the batch are some of the most valuable parts of the experience. Aren't some of the the off the record things done at YC (speakers at weekly dinners, some meetings with the partners, etc) kind of at odds with the Gittip philosophy?

whit537 13y ago
You might be right. It's somewhat vexing for how I want to run Gittip that any face-to-face communication is harder to make public than communication that happens on the Internet first. I have to record and publish later ... or wear Google Glass, I suppose. :-( But what I hear you saying is that there are parts of YC that I wouldn't be welcome to publish at all. Yes?
- Eduardo3rd 13y ago
  Yeah, that's basically what I was saying. From what I understand (and I could be mistaken here) your company is completely transparent about everything that pertains to the business. I'd be willing to bet that makes some things (like getting into accelerator programs or meeting with some investors) extremely difficult, but it is a commendable experiment nonetheless. Best of luck with your application and business as a whole!
  - whit537 13y ago
    Thanks! Should be interesting to see how this plays out one way or another. :-)

rdl 13y ago

Comments as an alum: probably wouldn't make the app public pre-submission; after is fine. this is a minor point though. video: try to boost the audio level. maybe edit it to be a little tighter (if you can). the first part was good, point 2 didn't seem as strong (I don't believe "not paying our employees" is a long-term sustainable thing, but you could say the same thing as "employees believe in it so much they're working for free right now..."). Also, on point one, be clear how exactly gittip helps open source companies -- i.e. what it lets them do which they couldn't otherwise do. I don't actually care about "helps maxcdn" as much as I care about "helps maxcdn do x, y" or helps their customers ... an amazing 1 minute video is the ideal. it is mainly to communicate about you/your team, vs. the idea, but having one or two things which anyone who watches the video takes away from it would be good. ("gittip lets people work on open source projects without having to be purely after-hours or go the VC route" would be my view of gittip) "I helped launch an organic produce growers cooperative." -- maybe another sentence about what you specifically did. As it is, it could be just coming up with a sign for it, or setting up a mailing list... the hack was cool. I'd downplay the wife/kids/mortgage (because they're not unique to you). It should be "able to spend the 3 months at YC, I work on gittip full time". That your wife might spend 3 months with you is a plus. Live near Pittsburgh and expect to come back is good BECAUSE it helps your business -- great developers and less competition for them. Same result, but phrased in a more productive way. In general I'd try to make the "big picture" more clear on how vs. why. "care for one another, inclusion, etc" are more like goals vs. methods, I think. Talk about how gittip will move the world toward those goals more.

whit537 13y ago
Thanks rdl! :D > probably wouldn't make the app public pre-submission; after is fine. this is a minor point though. I submitted the application at the same time as I posted it to GitHub. > video: [...] The audio seems to have gotten muddier in transcoding, but maybe I'm making that up. Like a dork I deleted the original (can you believe it?). :-/ As far as points two and three go, do you really think there's time in the video to go very deep with those? The video is already twice as long as called for. I've spoken and written a lot about these themes over the past year. The links, especially under "What's new?" lead further down the rabbit hole. But what you're saying is that those points need to be punchier, not longer. I'll stew on it, maybe record another take in a few days. > "I helped launch an organic produce growers cooperative." -- maybe another sentence about what you specifically did. As it is, it could be just coming up with a sign for it, or setting up a mailing list... Fair enough. I've added: "I did everything from writing bylaws to pricing and sales to driving truck." > I'd downplay the wife/kids/mortgage. I took out the sentence (from the concurrent commitments question), "My wife is open to discussing the possibility of my being in Mountain View for three months if it makes sense for Gittip." > Live near Pittsburgh and expect to come back is good BECAUSE it helps your business -- great developers and less competition for them. Same result, but phrased in a more productive way. Hmmm ... I've got a lot of connections and friends in the tech scene here, but I'm not depending on Pittsburgh for talent. Gittip today is a global distributed team. I'm in Pittsburgh because my family and friends are here. You think I need to explain Pittsburgh in my answer? > In general I'd try to make the "big picture" more clear on how vs. why. "care for one another, inclusion, etc" are more like goals vs. methods, I think. Talk about how gittip will move the world toward those goals more. In the video or in the application somewhere or in blog posts or what?