5 ms·

YC Startup School Live Notes

63 points by ryanSrich 12y ago

odajay 12y ago
Thank you for doing that, I (and probably others) really appreciate.
dmix 12y ago
Nice, I also came across a great collection of quotes from startup school collected on this blog: https://medium.com/how-to-start-a-startup https://medium.com/how-to-start-a-startup PG: https://medium.com/how-to-start-a-startup/50-quotes-from-paul-graham-on-counterintuitive-parts-of-startups-and-how-to-have-ideas-4209154ff319 https://medium.com/how-to-start-a-startup/50-quotes-from-pau... Sam Altman: https://medium.com/how-to-start-a-startup/47-quotes-from-sam-altman-on-startup-execution-4fa62de31e8d https://medium.com/how-to-start-a-startup/47-quotes-from-sam... Peter Thiel: https://medium.com/how-to-start-a-startup/32-quotes-from-peter-thiel-on-business-strategy-and-monopoly-theory-6025a479f1a7 https://medium.com/how-to-start-a-startup/32-quotes-from-pet...
syswarren 12y ago
Thanks for sharing this! Really appreciate. (Feels like I'm in college and forgot to take notes during the class ;) )
hkmurakami 12y ago
This is great -- thanks for sharing :). But of you find these notes informational, I urge you to watch the videos themselves later when they're made available, since what will strike each of us as the greatest takeaways will differ pretty wildly depending on what stage of life we're in, which space we're interested in, etc. (Also, things like "they want to hire really smart 20 year olds) can be interpreted in a variety of ways since it's taken largely out of context of the greater discussion) It obviously takes a much larger time commitment, but worth it IMO.
Jun8 12y ago
No notes on the office hours? Those were great not only in covering many important points but also showing what to expect in a possible YC interview.
- ryanSrich 12y ago
  Sorry about that. My laptop ran out of juice. I was able to grab a bit of charge during the break but I doubt I'll have enough to finish out the day. I'll be sure to type up my hand written notes and post sometime tomorrow or Monday.
  - cvander 12y ago
    Wan to borrow my laptop for a while to post the written notes? ;) I'm in the back.
- diafygi 12y ago
  Howdy, I'm the CTO of UtilityAPI (one of the on-stage office hours companies). Before we went on, they made it clear that these office hours were not similar to or substitutes for the YC interview. These were intended to be more examples of typical office hour interactions in the program.
increment_i 12y ago
"I'm an age bigot." - Ron Conway A horrible attitude - one I thought was receding. To actively promote it is quite disturbing to me.
- kyro 12y ago
  I'll preface by saying that I'm usually a fan of what Ron has to say. I've seen him speak at several Startup Schools, but this chat kind of rubbed me the wrong way. He came off as a man who's finally settled into more extreme, absolutist, and comfortable views. Very binary platitudes that have no regard for context. This idea that you're either born with it or not is an opinion of his with which I take particular issue. A lot of people have their growth spurts later in life. Many are born in environments that often stifle self-derived drive, flounder, and take off. To reduce it to two main camps of haves and have-nots is not a healthy attitude, and will lead to a lot of folks doubting themselves, or viewing others who're successful as those who were just born with it, as if people cannot change and qualities develop. In fact, Ron, during SS13, mentioned Ben Silbermann's (Pinterest founder) soft-spoken and unaggressive nature, and how Ron was trying to get him to speak up. Ben certainly doesn't seem to fit the image of the prototypical founder that Ron is painting. And as to the "age bigot," I think that's fine if you're focused on social -- that demographic is by nature closer to the pulse of what's hot and trendy. But I think it is highly unlikely that a person in their 20s could have feasibly founded a SpaceX or Tesla, or really any seriously industry-toppling startup without having either the connections, the wealth, and/or the industry experience to pull it off. I say all this as a 27yo who hopes to found his own startup in the near future.
- ryanSrich 12y ago
  For a bit of context. Ron was specifically speaking about VC partners that find and pick companies to invest in. He notes that the folks actually using these new products should be the ones deciding if they are worthwhile investments.
  - declan 12y ago
    I was there as well this morning, and this is correct. Ron C. added: "People in their 20s are the good pickers," and said he wants his investment team at SV Angel to recruit younger folks to join them by the time they hit 30 years old. He said that older and more experienced investors are better at giving advice to the companies they fund. In other words, the "age bigot" quip refers to the people picking the investments, not the people receiving investments. I don't know what Ron C's views are about younger vs. older founders, and as far as I recall he didn't make them apparent today.
exo_duz 12y ago
Great work! Thanks.
samshih 12y ago
Thank's for doing this! Great to recap what happened after the event
ryanSrich 12y ago
Update: my computer died shortly after Andrew's talk with Jessica. I finished off the day with some old fashioned hand written notes. I'll transcribe those this evening and get them posted.
- dang 12y ago
  On behalf of HN and YC, thanks for doing this today! Your live stream filled in for our live stream, and a lot of people—including us—appreciated it.
  - ryanSrich 12y ago
    That's awesome! Glad you all enjoyed it.
kamilszybalski 12y ago
What did you all think of Andrew Mason's talk?
ashishb 12y ago
Mine: https://github.com/ashishb/startup_school_2014 https://github.com/ashishb/startup_school_2014
diminish 12y ago
Anybody has links to videos for playback?
- eatitraw 12y ago
  I guess YC will put them online on their youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcefcZRL2oaA_uBNeo5UOWg https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcefcZRL2oaA_uBNeo5UOWg For previous startup schools they released videos after a few weeks.
- tim333 12y ago
  pasted from the other thread: "... we'll put them on YouTube like the other Startup Schools. It does take awhile for us to transcribe the talks for closed captions, so that might take a week. but the videos will hopefully be up by Monday."

63 points by ryanSrich 12y ago

Thank you for doing that, I (and probably others) really appreciate.

dmix 12y ago

Nice, I also came across a great collection of quotes from startup school collected on this blog: https://medium.com/how-to-start-a-startup https://medium.com/how-to-start-a-startup PG: https://medium.com/how-to-start-a-startup/50-quotes-from-paul-graham-on-counterintuitive-parts-of-startups-and-how-to-have-ideas-4209154ff319 https://medium.com/how-to-start-a-startup/50-quotes-from-pau... Sam Altman: https://medium.com/how-to-start-a-startup/47-quotes-from-sam-altman-on-startup-execution-4fa62de31e8d https://medium.com/how-to-start-a-startup/47-quotes-from-sam... Peter Thiel: https://medium.com/how-to-start-a-startup/32-quotes-from-peter-thiel-on-business-strategy-and-monopoly-theory-6025a479f1a7 https://medium.com/how-to-start-a-startup/32-quotes-from-pet...

syswarren 12y ago

Thanks for sharing this! Really appreciate. (Feels like I'm in college and forgot to take notes during the class ;) )

hkmurakami 12y ago

This is great -- thanks for sharing :). But of you find these notes informational, I urge you to watch the videos themselves later when they're made available, since what will strike each of us as the greatest takeaways will differ pretty wildly depending on what stage of life we're in, which space we're interested in, etc. (Also, things like "they want to hire really smart 20 year olds) can be interpreted in a variety of ways since it's taken largely out of context of the greater discussion) It obviously takes a much larger time commitment, but worth it IMO.

Jun8 12y ago

No notes on the office hours? Those were great not only in covering many important points but also showing what to expect in a possible YC interview.

ryanSrich 12y ago
Sorry about that. My laptop ran out of juice. I was able to grab a bit of charge during the break but I doubt I'll have enough to finish out the day. I'll be sure to type up my hand written notes and post sometime tomorrow or Monday.
- cvander 12y ago
  Wan to borrow my laptop for a while to post the written notes? ;) I'm in the back.
diafygi 12y ago
Howdy, I'm the CTO of UtilityAPI (one of the on-stage office hours companies). Before we went on, they made it clear that these office hours were not similar to or substitutes for the YC interview. These were intended to be more examples of typical office hour interactions in the program.

increment_i 12y ago

"I'm an age bigot." - Ron Conway A horrible attitude - one I thought was receding. To actively promote it is quite disturbing to me.

kyro 12y ago
I'll preface by saying that I'm usually a fan of what Ron has to say. I've seen him speak at several Startup Schools, but this chat kind of rubbed me the wrong way. He came off as a man who's finally settled into more extreme, absolutist, and comfortable views. Very binary platitudes that have no regard for context. This idea that you're either born with it or not is an opinion of his with which I take particular issue. A lot of people have their growth spurts later in life. Many are born in environments that often stifle self-derived drive, flounder, and take off. To reduce it to two main camps of haves and have-nots is not a healthy attitude, and will lead to a lot of folks doubting themselves, or viewing others who're successful as those who were just born with it, as if people cannot change and qualities develop. In fact, Ron, during SS13, mentioned Ben Silbermann's (Pinterest founder) soft-spoken and unaggressive nature, and how Ron was trying to get him to speak up. Ben certainly doesn't seem to fit the image of the prototypical founder that Ron is painting. And as to the "age bigot," I think that's fine if you're focused on social -- that demographic is by nature closer to the pulse of what's hot and trendy. But I think it is highly unlikely that a person in their 20s could have feasibly founded a SpaceX or Tesla, or really any seriously industry-toppling startup without having either the connections, the wealth, and/or the industry experience to pull it off. I say all this as a 27yo who hopes to found his own startup in the near future.
ryanSrich 12y ago
For a bit of context. Ron was specifically speaking about VC partners that find and pick companies to invest in. He notes that the folks actually using these new products should be the ones deciding if they are worthwhile investments.
- declan 12y ago
  I was there as well this morning, and this is correct. Ron C. added: "People in their 20s are the good pickers," and said he wants his investment team at SV Angel to recruit younger folks to join them by the time they hit 30 years old. He said that older and more experienced investors are better at giving advice to the companies they fund. In other words, the "age bigot" quip refers to the people picking the investments, not the people receiving investments. I don't know what Ron C's views are about younger vs. older founders, and as far as I recall he didn't make them apparent today.

exo_duz 12y ago

Great work! Thanks.

samshih 12y ago

Thank's for doing this! Great to recap what happened after the event

ryanSrich 12y ago

Update: my computer died shortly after Andrew's talk with Jessica. I finished off the day with some old fashioned hand written notes. I'll transcribe those this evening and get them posted.

dang 12y ago
On behalf of HN and YC, thanks for doing this today! Your live stream filled in for our live stream, and a lot of people—including us—appreciated it.
- ryanSrich 12y ago
  That's awesome! Glad you all enjoyed it.

kamilszybalski 12y ago

What did you all think of Andrew Mason's talk?

ashishb 12y ago

Mine: https://github.com/ashishb/startup_school_2014 https://github.com/ashishb/startup_school_2014

diminish 12y ago

Anybody has links to videos for playback?

eatitraw 12y ago
I guess YC will put them online on their youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcefcZRL2oaA_uBNeo5UOWg https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcefcZRL2oaA_uBNeo5UOWg For previous startup schools they released videos after a few weeks.
tim333 12y ago
pasted from the other thread: "... we'll put them on YouTube like the other Startup Schools. It does take awhile for us to transcribe the talks for closed captions, so that might take a week. but the videos will hopefully be up by Monday."