5 ms·
What Kate saw in Silicon Valley
- sielskr 17y agoPaul Graham: I'd like to encourage you to write up any insight you may have had not about startups. Your essay about high school (the one that compares the assiduousness of high school students to Navy Seals) was one the most helpful and insight-dense things I have ever read.
- albertcardona 17y agoI was thunderstruck by the following: "By inverting this list, we can get a portrait of the 'normal' world. It's populated by people who talk a lot with one another as they work slowly but harmoniously on conservative, expensive projects whose destinations are decided in advance, and who carefully adjust their manner to reflect their position in the hierarchy." And: "Interestingly, while Kate said that she could never pick out successful founders, she could recognize VCs, both by the way they dressed and the way they carried themselves."
- arfrank 17y agoWith regards to being able to pick out founders and VCs, I wonder if the inability to pick out successful founders is due to the fact that they look just like everyone else who is trying to create something and do something cool, and after they have become successful they see no need to change themselves because thats what got them their in the first place. As for VCs this could be due to the fact that they in order to maintain their position need to have a certain composure.
- replicatorblog 17y agoI wonder if the issue of carriage has more to do with the Avg. age of founders being ~25yrs. vs. VC's ~45yrs. Beyond the obvious appearance issues you tend to develop more confidence, present better, etc. as you age. That said a fundamental difference in the Funder vs. Founder personality makes sense as well.
- wheels 17y agoI can't answer for Kate, but the last speaker of the summer was a founder in his 40s -- and former VC at that -- and he still definitely gave off the founder vibe. I think the biggest difference between younger and older founders seemed to be the relative levels of confidence at various points in the game.
- Gibbon 17y agoThe average age of founders is not 25.. I suggest you revisit your assumptions.
- replicatorblog 17y agoYes it is.. I suggest you check your facts. From PG: http://ycombinator.com/faq.html http://ycombinator.com/faq.html What's the average age of people you fund? About 25. A lot of people think it's younger because the press especially like to write about young founders.
- ryanwaggoner 17y agoYCs founders are hardly representative of founders as a whole...not many people over the age of 30 are willing or able to put themselves in a position where they can start a company with $20k. http://www.kauffman.org/Details.aspx?id=1784 http://www.kauffman.org/Details.aspx?id=1784
- replicatorblog 17y agoOf course, but this thread is in relation to the founders at YC and the VC's who speak to them. There are a great many founders of all ages, but they aren't the focus on this article.
- TriinT 17y agoGordon Moore was 39 years old when he co-founded Intel, for example. Script kiddies these days.... they think all it takes is knowing how to write code. Oh, the arrogance of youth...
- jedc 17y agoI was recently looking back at the Startup School 08 videos, and the difference between the startup founders (even Bezos) and Greg McAdoo (of Sequoia) was striking. I've since heard that Greg is one of the most "hacker-like" of VC's out there... which would go to further proving that point.
- yannis 17y ago>Kate Courteau is the architect who designed Y Combinator's office. Recently we managed to recruit her to help us run YC when she's not busy with architectural projects. I was scratching my head on this one - thinking why a person with architectural skills would be chosen to help run YC - and then it struck me that originality and creativity is perhaps the hallmarks of YC or am I missing something?
- ujjwalg 17y agoOn a side note, can someone from YC post pictures of YC office? Just curious. :)
- arfrank 17y agoI believe this a group of pictures from the DemoDay that just happened at YC: http://demoday.fanchatter.com/ http://demoday.fanchatter.com/
- ujjwalg 17y agoI was more curious about how the office setup is designed. How startups are allocated space, what is the interaction model between different startups, is there a white board to post story/question/idea of the day?
- lsb 17y ago"How startups are allocated space" is answered every time by pg when people call YC an incubator.
- emmett 17y agoYour question is wrong. Startups aren't allocated space, they are independent companies. On a modal day, I see 0 people from other startups.
- apu 17y agoWow, I had no idea you could transform the [statistical] 'mode' to the word 'modal.' Although, honestly, it took me a moment to parse it that way, as opposed to "on a [pop-up window that you can't background] day, I see 0 people..."
- jl 17y agoOur frontpage has some good photos.
- 17y ago
- edw519 17y ago9. What a solitary task startups are. This is the hardest thing for me to explain to others. And still one of the hardest for me to get used to myself. It takes a lot of time working alone to get anything done. It may also be one of the many reasons Hacker News is so popular. I don't know about you guys, but if I didn't have this place to break up the loneliness, I'd probably go nuts.
- kyro 17y agoI am in no way trying to be disrespectful here, but if you rely on an online forum to keep you from going crazy, you might want to consider restructuring your priorities and workflow to give you a little more time to breathe and enjoy life. An online community is great and all, but there are millions of other, more tangible and real world, things that can be as, if not and most likely more, rewarding than participating on HN.
- randallsquared 17y agothere are millions of other, more tangible and real world, things that can be as, if not and most likely more, rewarding than participating on HN. Well, that depends strongly on the person, doesn't it? :)
- kyro 17y agoThe point of that comment was to what? Refute that there aren't other things more rewarding than HN and dependent on the type of person, having HN be the only thing keeping you from insanity is perfectly fine and healthy? Apologies for sounding trollish, but I'm somewhat shocked at the reactions here. We have someone telling us that they work themselves into such a lonely place that the only thing keeping them sane is HN, and yet no one is suggesting he reorder his life and find a better balance so that he can find more enjoyment.
- randallsquared 17y agoWell, I don't actually think that edw519 is, in actual fact, in danger of going insane due to loneliness, since I assumed, as I would guess most did, that he was using "go nuts" casually, in the way that people say things like, "Wow, if the Cubs don't win the Series after that streak, I'll just die" without meaning that they will actually cease living should their team fail. I don't think you're sounding trollish, but I do think you may not be treating this forum as a casual social setting in which people sometimes make statements to convey a feeling, rather than because they are literally true. Edit: I forgot to say: I also think that for a lot of people who hang out here, and to a lesser extent on proggit, etc, this online community really is one of the most fun, engaging things they have available to do. Conversation online with those who are interested in similar topics could easily trump conversation in person with those whose interests bore you. Even if we grant that being in the real world is an important attribute of "fun things to do", it's unlikely to be the most important.
- tsestrich 17y agoVery interesting to get a "third-party" perspective on things, having never gotten to work out in that environment myself.
- ivankirigin 17y agoI'm not sure most people could tolerate the risk of failure. I think the change for the future is that large organizations will be collections of small groups run like startups, but without the large update and downside.
- billswift 17y agoI doubt that could successfully be done more than rare occasions, for some of the problems see Christensen's "The Innovator's Dilemma" http://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Dilemma-Revolutionary-Business-Essentials/dp/0060521996/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251752578&sr=8-1 http://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Dilemma-Revolutionary-Busin...
- apu 17y agopg/jl/tlb/rtm: as you're primarily advisors and investors now, do you feel like you've started adopting any habits of VCs (either positive or negative)?
- pg 17y agoInteresting question. Not all investors are VCs. There are also angel investors, and we are much more like angels, both in our backgrounds and the part of the startup world we occupy. Angels don't have a lot of habits, either good or bad. They're mostly just individuals who got rich from their own startups; their personalities are not much affected by being investors. The one thing that makes us different from angels is that we invest on such a large scale. We have a brand name and an office and a web site and all that. Would that engender any habits, though? I can't think of any. I definitely don't think we have any of the habits of VCs that are mentioned in this list. The fact that VCs dress up and try to project an aura of power comes from being finance guys, not VCs per se; investment bankers are the same (and in fact are indistinguishable to me). And we don't have the luxury of being sheep, because we have to decide whether or not to invest in a company the same day we meet them.
- ivankirigin 17y agoHas managing your own fund affected how you think about the upside of startups?
- nuweborder 17y agoGreat insight. Launch fast and iterate. Learn from mistakes, edit, and continue to build something that people want. The "Founder" next door is like "The Millionaire Nextdoor".Keeping it simple, frugal, and staying cash-flow positive wins the game. This is why your millionaire next door and your founder next door are probably one in the same. Similar philosophies.
- stumm 17y ago"I always worry the speakers will put us in an embarrassing position by contradicting what we tell the startups, but it happens surprisingly rarely." Why would someone with a different opinion be embarrassing?
- pg 17y agoBecause it would imply that we'd given people the wrong advice. The speakers are generally pretty eminent. We'd look bad if we told people to do x and some famous startup founder then told them not to.
- blasdel 17y agoI think that any public exposition / debate following such a disagreement would be far more valuable to all present than anything either party could convey as intentional advice.
- jjs 17y ago"Starting a startup is like science in that you have to follow the truth wherever it leads. In the rest of the world, people don't start things till they're sure what they want to do, and once started they tend continue on their initial path even if it's mistaken."
- mkyc 17y agoModesty. When someone who you respect or look up to inadvertantly contradicts what you have been teaching, this can be embarrassing.
- hristov 17y agoAnd the perfect start-up founder is .... http://croutonboy.typepad.com/photos/people_i_hate/scrappy.jpg http://croutonboy.typepad.com/photos/people_i_hate/scrappy.j...
- indiejade 17y ago4. How scrappy founders are. That was her actual word. I agree with her, but till she mentioned this it never occurred to me how little this quality is appreciated in most of the rest of the world. It wouldn't be a compliment in most organizations to call someone scrappy. Scrappy is getting by on the most minimal of necessities, does not ever involve a company doing one's laundry, and from everything I've been able to gather, requires actual bean counting.
- databus 17y agoWeird, I asked and to my wife "scrappy" meant someone who gets into physical altercations. References were made to a family member who has a volatile personality. To me, a "scrappy person" has always been someone who, when life or a situation knocks them down, they get back up and try again. I was not aware that this was a derogatory term.
- LogicHoleFlaw 17y agoHuh, I always thought of "scrappy" as a willingness to get into a fight, despite the odds being against you.
- gojomo 17y agoI think that's the traditional definition -- but its meaning is drifting, because the word also makes people think of 'scrounging' or 'getting by on scraps'. So it's not just a fighter, but one who fights on in a resourceful/thrifty way. Though PG cites the 'belligerent' meaning, I suspect Kate and others are likely to mean/hear the 'thrifty/tenacious' connotations.
- dschobel 17y ago2. How much startups' ideas change. As usual, by Demo Day about half the startups were doing something significantly different than they started with. If this is really true (and I fully believe that it is), why not just interview individuals like a job interview rather than have them pitch ideas? If you know the resulting product is almost certainly not going to look anything like what they're proposing, I would just try to swing some on-campus interviews at Stanford and UC Berkeley, hire the kids based on smarts & personality and then put them in a room and only then start talking about ideas. Why bother reviewing their initial ideas at all (other than as an indicator of the aforementioned smarts & personality)?
- snprbob86 17y agoHaving an idea gives you something to talk about. It grants candidates many opportunities to prove (or disprove) their ability to operate within a problem domain. If they just dropped the idea-specialized interviews, it would be paradoxically harder to find "stem cell" founders who can take on any task.
- billswift 17y agoHaving someone that's actually working on a problem also helps weed out those who are competent but unable to self-motivate and focus (like me, unfortunately) both of which are needed for startups.
- lacker 17y agoIf you know the resulting product is almost certainly not going to look anything like what they're proposing Big difference between "about half" and "almost certainly not".
- dschobel 17y agoSemantics notwithstanding, 50% is still a significant rate of death for a process which is focussed heavily on the incipient idea.
- aberman 17y ago
- dgabriel 17y agoI've always thought of "scrappy," as more like an indomitable underdog, not someone belligerent (which has negative connotations) or necessarily undignified.
- jwecker 17y agoIt comes from old-school boxing. "Inclined to fight" was the original meaning. Bellicose is closer than belligerent. Certainly undignified, traditionally at least. In the last few decades it has been used for underdogs, as in "he's small but scrappy-" giving it that positive implication you mention- small but always ready to fight. Think scrappy-doo
- geebee 17y ago"Scrappy" is a half-compliment. That's different from an underhanded compliment, which is an insult in the guise of a compliment. A half-compliment is a statement that is earnestly complimentary, but with some negative connotations. Think of it this way: nobody would refer to Roger Federer as "scrappy". You could say that the opposite of "scrappy" is dignified, but you could also say the opposite of scrappy is "elegant." Dignity may be deadly, but I'm not sure that's the only thing you lose when you exude "scrappiness".
- tyn 17y agoNumber 4 was a surprise to me. And I'm not sure I really get the meaning of "If you're not threatening, you're probably not doing anything new, and dignity is merely a sort of plaque".
- wwkeyboard 17y agoAbout point #1, does anyone have data on how many startups really fail? I have found answers from 70-90% on google, but those numbers come from blog posts and not from 100 times the number of failed businesses divided by the number of successful businesses formed in some reasonable grouping of time and space.
- replicatorblog 17y agoAlong those lines I'm curious how many of the YC companies make it to a next round of funding? Or make it to profitability and don't seek funding vs. those that formally wind down. I went to a TechStars meetup and something like 10 of 16 from the inaugural class got funded, 4 didn't because they were profitable, acquired, or otherwise all set, and 2 formally closed. Is that kind of data available for YC?
- pg 17y agoFrom the winter cycle of 16 startups, there are 3 that have neither raised money nor are ramen profitable. Of those 3, 1 is already dead, because of disputes between the founders. Another hasn't started trying to raise money yet, because there's stuff they want to get built first. So only 1 of the 16 is currently trying to raise money.
- apsurd 17y agoI don't always understand why everyone is so extremely hung up on PG. I respect the guy, but he's human after all. Anyway, this might have something to do with it: "By inverting this list, we can get a portrait of the "normal" world. It's populated by people who talk a lot with one another as they work slowly but harmoniously on conservative, expensive projects whose destinations are decided in advance, and who carefully adjust their manner to reflect their position in the hierarchy." That made me smile for about 30 mins. Awesome.
- yef 17y agoGood observations, but the last two paragraphs fail to convince me. "Normal people" span the gamut of solitary, advice-seeking, etc. I also wouldn't describe the past as "slow and harmonious".
- DanielBMarkham 17y agoBy inverting this list, we can get a portrait of the "normal" world. It's populated by people who talk a lot with one another as they work slowly but harmoniously on conservative, expensive projects whose destinations are decided in advance, and who carefully adjust their manner to reflect their position in the hierarchy. Don't stop there, Paul. This "inversion" idea still has a lot more mileage in it. Just off the top of my head I'd add that the "normal" world is also full of large teams, scheduled meetings, integrated hierarchical social environments, and teams that never die.
- tjmc 17y agoMade me smile, but I don't agree that "dignity is merely a sort of plaque". That may be right if you're just talking about presentation/grooming, but "dignity" (to me) includes self assurance, courage and perhaps a bit of defiance. All good things to see in a founder I'd say.
- netsp 17y agoBy inverting this list, we can get a portrait of the "normal" world. I suspect that this observation has something to do with the last PG essay to hit HN about putting yourself in the centre. If you take any list of characteristics that you apply to a group, it will tend to contrast them with the 'norm.' Invert it and you get their perspective on the rest of the world, especially if the list is self authored. Imagine a group of Uzbeki expats in Rotterdam commenting on themselves. They'll come up with a list of traits that make them stand out from the crowd. Invert it and you have their perspective on the Dutch. The problem/advantage of this trick is that you might end up with a list of fairly marginal (in the eyes of a non-Uzbeki) or unremarkable traits.
- torpor 17y agoWTF, is it normal practice for tech startups to hire their /architects/ to help run the company? I mean, is this really such a great thing?
- messel 17y agoSurprised Kate didn't mention that founders were not only scrappy, but a little crazy. The combination of willpower, imagination, confidence, and the ability to listen to users/customers is like dancing with a Tasmanian devil. It always sets my neurons spinning when I try and grok an entrepreneurs rationale.
- ngs 17y ago'Scrappy' is a great description. I also like the imagery 'Scrappy smart' brings to mind.