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Two New YC Partners: Justin Kan and Aaron Harris
- TheMakeA 13y agoI think that puts YC at around 19 full time and part time partners. I'd bet S14 is going to be the largest yet.
- joshdance 13y agoWondered what Justin would do after Exec. Congrats to both.
- mathattack 13y agoCongrats to both, and the execs that work with these guys. Some VCs come with banking backgrounds. I like the ones that come as entrepreneurs first. Their advice is hard earned.
- paulbaumgart 13y agoFortunately, the market has the same preference as you, and the entrepreneur-VCs are taking over.
- mathattack 13y agoIn the VC world it seems to be happening. Less so when you move up to PE.
- paulbaumgart 13y agoTrue, though I think that has a lot to do with the personal preferences of successful entrepreneurs.
- Finbarr 13y agoCongrats Justin and Aaron!
- jpeg_hero 13y agoI was an exec customer for house cleaning. they would come every two weeks. i relied on them. exec was sold/acqui-hired to a company called Handybook. so Handybook kept the regular scheduled appointment. they came once and it was terrible. they came a second time and it was terrible again. so i cancelled the service. that was a few weeks ago, i have yet to replace them. so right about now, my toilet is starting to become disgusting. i get a disgusting toilet, and Justin gets a partnership.
- dsugarman 13y agotry homejoy
- colmvp 13y ago> i get a disgusting toilet, and Justin gets a partnership. The difference is that most people, including Justin, would likely clean their toilet instead of griping about it on an internet forum. And if you're physically disabled, there are plenty of maid services aside from Exec.
- joelrunyon 13y agoHomejoy is pretty solid - and they're away cheaper.
- pgt 13y agoWhile not a great post by HN standards or necessarily on-topic, this strikes me as the type of tough feedback I would want to hear as a startup founder, or acquirer.
- theorique 13y agoi have yet to replace them. I think I see the solution to your problem...
- jessaustin 13y agoFor a disgusting toilet, the cleaning liquid you want is sold under the brand name "The Works". It's more acidic than other brands, so it removes deposits better.
- apples1010 13y agoAaron is a great and smart guy but why does having a failed tutoring service make him an ideal partner?
- jabrams2003 13y agoGet to know him and you'll immediately realize why.
- grinich 13y agoUnfortunately that's not an option for most people reading this.
- middus 13y agoFortunately his qualifications are largely irrelevant for most people reading this. ;)
- benched 13y agoNor is it really important that people reading this understand.
- nhangen 13y agoThe two comments below (and the others that will follow) aside, I was thinking the same thing. The article doesn't really paint his qualifications well.
- cwilson 13y agoMaybe trust YC with who they make partners? They seem to be doing just fine so far...
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- nicoles 13y agoCongrats to Justin and Aaron!
- salimmadjd 13y agoFrom outside it feels like YC is becoming a frat house. I think it will help if YC steps out and brings in some unusual partners. Of course it's easier said than done. If you're busy running YC it's hard to have the occasion to meet and find people who are not part of the same frat house.
- salimmadjd 13y agoThe down-vote just proved my point. Thank you!
- argonaut 13y agoFrom the HN guidelines: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html > Resist complaining about being downmodded. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.
- the_watcher 13y agoPaul Buchheit and Geoff Ralston never had YC companies and first became well known creating major advancements in email. Trevor Blackwell is a hardware engineer who spends his time building segways. Carolynn Levy is a lawyer. Robert Morris is an academic. Kirsty Nathoo is an accountant with an engineering degree who went to school in the UK. Jessica Livingston has an English degree and is best known as an author who wrote about primarily non-YC founders. Garry Tan is well known for his design expertise. PG has a philosophy degree, spent time in painting school, and has a PhD in CS. That's a pretty diverse group. The fact that the last 3 full time partners they brought on are young YC founders is pretty much meaningless - why would they not bring on the people they have worked with before? It just so happens that recently, most of their work has been done with YC founders. Honestly curious - after reading the bios of all the partners, how would you suggest they bring on more "unusual" partners? Any examples?
- justin 13y agoWhat would an unusual partner be?
- ChuckFrank 13y agoI have never seen as many pivots as Mr. Kan. Regardless of what you think about his products/services, he sure knows how to stay in the game. And I respect that. I'm still amazed that socialcam got schooled by vine. I thought he was on time and on the money on that pivot. I never saw vine coming. I imagine he didn't either. He's like the Steve Nash of SV. A play maker. So this is probably a good step for YC. Congrats.
- teacup50 13y ago> And I respect that. I'm not sure I respect the ability to convince people to keep trusting you after repeated failures, eventually culminating in a position of oversight over other people's start-ups. Between this, Loopt, and "tutorspree", it's starting to seem a bit like "Those who can't do ... have a privileged position from which it really doesn't matter anyway" Upon reflection, these resumes might actually be perfect for YC -- these are founders that convinced people to invest in their high-risk ventures, repeatedly, without actually ever having to deliver the goods. In this world of over-inflated valuations and empty bubble companies, that's a very valuable skill-set to have.
- justin 13y agoI guess I'll defend myself... None of the companies I've started has lost the investors' money (yet). Some of them weren't that successful (Kiko) but still sold for a small profit. Twitch / Justin.tv is a 120+ employee company that makes money and supports over 100 full time broadcasters who make their living on our platform (and has hundreds of thousands of casual broadcasters). Over 45 million people look at Twitch videos every month. While there are many more successful companies, I don't think you could call that a failure. Socialcam was a spinoff of Justin.tv that was acquired for $60m on less than $2m raised capital. The jury is still out on the Exec / Handybook acquisition, but I think the online-to-offline home services space is a growth space. I think I've earned a few investors' trust and I think I have some experience with founding early stage tech companies.
- justwndring 13y ago