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Welcome Peter
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- karangoeluw 12y agoCongrats YC!
- dlu 12y agoAnd so the YC behemoth grows. Congrats, I look forward to being lectured many times about needing secrets and monopolies. And focusing not on being the first product to market, but the last. Did I miss any Thiel-isms?
- dogecoinbase 12y agoDon't go to college.
- higherpurpose 12y agoNot bad. As long as you don't also bring Andreessen. I can't forgive him for what he did to Oculus. Could you bring Mark Cuban on board, too? That would be great.
- bgilroy26 12y agoHere I am, thinking Thiel and Andreesen were already affiliated with YCombinator. I have been a bad fan.
- X-combinator 12y agoOmigosh! Congratulations.
- kkhire 12y agoThere's no way any accelerator can be competitive against YC if Peter Thiel is going to be doing office hours
- plainOldText 12y agoI think Peter Thiel would disagree.
- logicallee 12y agothis is not true. an accelerator can do earlier (before team or product or idea); wider (fund literally anyone who can write five pages in English in a timed setting about their idea); lower (take 0.075% for $2k); faster (an SaaS app that wires you a check within 24 hours, after a human lawyer verifies your details and contract); riskier (billion dollar ideas that don't even have the research paper worked out - like a thesis proposal to a professor, only you're a company); insaner (fund things that are literally insane and would make any investor blush to mention it to another investor), and so forth. It's not hard to be competitive with YC. The thing is, nobody is even trying to be.
- api 12y agoAll those are valid. One you forgot: YC, like nearly all other accelerators, is implicitly age-ist. Note that I said implicitly. There is no explicit age discrimination that I am aware of, but the entire program is structured in a way that makes it horribly impractical for anyone who isn't a bachelor/bachelorette and childless. You must move to the Bay Area, put in family-unfriendly hours, and live on a quantity of money that would make it impossible to live in the Bay Area with a family (assuming you don't have a lot of savings, a trust, or a high-earning spouse). It just won't work for a huge majority of older people or people with families. The implicit assumption is that all the best talent and ideas can be found among those who pass this implicit filter function. Anyone over 25-30 or who has children is "washed up." ... which creates room for an accelerator to test that assumption. What if -- gasp -- people who have been doing this stuff for a long time are actually better at it? But as you say, nobody is even really trying to compete with YC within their own segment let alone exploring alternative modalities. Edit: another one would be to question the assumption that sole founders are intrinsically doomed. They are certainly at a disadvantage, but that'd create an interesting niche for an accelerator that helped them to compensate for their disadvantages if they otherwise had really great skills and ideas.
- mappum 12y agoAs time goes on, YC will continue to attract the best people in the valley (both founders and investors). It's a talent singularity.
- hamhamed 12y agoIt's becoming a powerhouse and that usually causes problem in the long run if the chemistry isn't present. Or say the need to be hungry enough to attain goals (just like a strong sports team losing against a lower tier team, aka the underdog). Yes, surrounding yourself with smart people is great, but surrounding yourself with hungry people is another. Otherwise, good luck and more success to YC!
- mrdrozdov 12y agoGreat advice. A well fed person can't understand a hungry one.
- nightski 12y agoAttract the best people for building YC companies, yes. Although that is sort of a self fulfilling prophecy. There is so much amazing talent outside of YC or even SV it is incredible. Just have to know where to look.
- freese 12y agoThis is great news!
- forloop 12y agoI hope Peter encourages start-ups in longevity and nootropics. Or just nootropics. If there's more smart people then additional anti-ageing tech will follow—since all arguments against said tech are fallacious; even if they seem reasonable prima facie!
- pekk 12y agoThat depends on what actual results you can deliver. If it's not very much, that's not a fallacy, it's a demonstration.
- forloop 12y ago> That depends on what actual results you can deliver. Nothing to do with me. I plan on purchasing the results. > If it's not very much, that's not a fallacy, it's a demonstration. Rats' lifespans have been doubled[0]. And there are medications which are used for other conditions being looked at: like rapamycin (or the development of a variant), and metformin. There are also supplements like the newly released nicotinamide riboside. Plus, people such as Google (via Calico) are developing treatments targeting the longevity gene FOXO3. The area is vast. And you've just demonstrated my point. What you've said sounds reasonable, but is actually bullshit. [0] http://www.kurzweilai.net/fullerene-c60-administration-doubles-rat-lifespan-with-no-toxicity http://www.kurzweilai.net/fullerene-c60-administration-doubl... Edit: Grammar.
- pekk 12y agoIt is never bullshit to say that something not actually proven is not proven until it is proven.
- forloop 12y agoThought you may say that. How is something in medicine proven? It's not with deduction, it's with induction! So nothing in medicine is proven with 100% certainty. What's left is probability! Even as an anonymous nobody, I'm able to point to hints of life extension in humans today, or 100% increase in lifespan of mammals! Or the work being done on various vectors; ranging from the slowing of ageing, via metabolism, to the reversal of ageing! Then there's something like SENS which has enumerated seven types of ageing. If those seven types of ageing are reversed, then ageing will be reversed. I believe those seven categories are yet to be disproved. So your statement hints at the science of philosophy, and what constitutes proof. As I've said above, I say probability!
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- adoming3 12y agoThiel joining makes YC look like the 1992 Olympics "Dream Team" compared to all of the other accelerators.
- mrdrozdov 12y agoFunny that you make a sports analogy here. I wonder if the partners see themselves as players or coaches. After listening to Scott Kupor from a16z talk, I know that they see themselves as a talent agency rather than being directly involved in the "sport".
- StartupLSatoshi 12y agoAndreessen Horowitz should shake things up and launch an accelerator of their own. 99% joking, but they have a big enough brand that it would be interesting, at least. Not that they'd necessarily want to - they get to pick the best YC graduates and take bigger stakes in them, anyway.
- ub 12y agoTaking a contrarian viewpoint. Does the convergence of all talent into one team actually reduce the innovation in the startup ecosystem. Similar to your sports analogy, the best games result when multiple talented teams fight it out. If all startups that become big are YC-funded, then we might see just the YC-influenced style of running a company whereas other models may not see the light of the day.
- unclesaamm 12y ago"Peter won’t invest in any companies while they’re in YC or for 3 months after they present at Demo Day (this will apply to Peter’s investment entities as well), which should eliminate any unfair advantage." I wonder if having Peter as an investor is a strong enough incentive that if they knew he liked them, a company would change their behavior for the 3 months after demo day.
- tabtabtab 12y agoI would change a lot of my behaviors for an investment from Peter
- dreadpiraterob 12y agoIf you can't beat them, join them.
- pitchups 12y agoJust finished reading Zero to One for a second-time, and it was interesting to see that Peter Thiel's contrarian approach to investing in startups ("What valuable company is nobody building") is very similar to PG's thesis that "all good ideas look like bad ideas to begin with (black swan investing) [0] It will be even more interesting to see if their combined insights and approach can increase their chances of identifying these rare black swans. Regardless, this has to be among the most formidable grouping of startup talent and brains in the valley. [0] http://www.paulgraham.com/swan.html http://www.paulgraham.com/swan.html
- mfisher87 12y ago>Regardless, this has to be among the most formidable grouping of startup talent and brains in the valley. Awfully broad statement. I might agree if you added "cash" to the list. ;)
- mlchild 12y agoI'd still love to hear Peter Thiel and PG duke it out/reconcile the "choose an idea that avoids competition at all costs" vs. "don't worry about competition at all" messages.
- stingraycharles 12y agoI think they are not necessarily mutually exclusive, just different ways to look at things. A good marketer can "invent" a new area of competition where you are the leader. Thus, one aproach is to tackle this problem at the start, the other is to tackle this problem later on.
- aswanson 12y agoYou could look at them as two sides of the same perspective: Paul is saying basically that competition doesn't exist because if you focus on the customer need enough it ensures uniqueness, and Peter is saying don't copy what someone else has done, be unique.
- hueving 12y ago
- KhalilK 12y ago> (now 10!) Read that as a factorial and giggled.
- 6thSigma 12y agoThis is awesome for YC. Will he be reviewing applications?
- waxman 12y agoThe idea that a startup's end game should be to "build a monopoly" is one of the most profound insights in Thiel's excellent book, Zero to One. This move just deepens YC's monopoly in its domain, as sama would say, "in the Peter Thiel sense."
- foobarqux 12y agoThere's nothing profound about it, it's common sense in business though people use different words like "moats", "barriers to entry" and "pricing power".
- UmDieWelt 12y agoFor some reason every generation seems to rediscover the same things and think they've invented something new
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- ianlevesque 12y agoPoor history education
- krschultz 12y agoWell it doesn't help that the startup world thumbs their nose at MBAs and seems to really want 26 year old founders. Inexperience + disdain for the very education that teaches that kind of thinking leads to a pretty obvious conclusion.
- jacques_chester 12y ago> one of the most profound insights in Thiel's excellent book, Zero to One. Which was an insight in Blue Ocean Strategy (Kim & Mauborgne, 2005). And before that, if you squint, in Competitive Strategy (Porter, 1980) and Competitive Advantage (Porter, 1980). And the B-school theorists basically got their ideas by peeking over the fence of the Economics dept at how monopolies are formed and abuse their power and saying "hey, let's teach that to our students".
- hkailahi 12y agoWhile I found Thiel's recent work (Zero to One) to be extremely interesting, I am skeptical about a fair portion of it. I am much more inclined to agree with the claims in PG's startup essays, which seem to have been the cornerstone principles of YC. Am I to that assume all of YC is adopting Thiel's beliefs as well? To be clear, I'm not saying both views are mutually exclusive.
- onion2k 12y agoIf everyone agreed with Thiel's approach then it could only be described as obvious. The fact that people disagree with him is a good thing. The rational thing to do is test it. If YC adopts his approach then that will be a significant sample..
- lorenzop 12y agoTHEY HAVE 10! EMPLOYEES???? THAT'S THE POPULATION OF IRELAND
- TomGullen 12y agoPeter Thiel is a political extremist, and I don't like a lot of his views at all. My point of view is that this is bad for YCombinator, and that this is a bit of a shame.
- agorabinary 12y ago"Political extremist" is an empty ad-hominem --- please point out specifically what views of his are so distasteful.
- adamnemecek 12y agoProbably his libertarian views.
- danmaz74 12y ago“Most importantly, I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.” "Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women — two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians — have rendered the notion of “capitalist democracy” into an oxymoron."
- zajd 12y agoThose sound pretty damning to me. Especially coming from a billionaire.
- hindsightbias 12y ago> Especially I've only been around a few billionaires, but most of the multi-millionaires I've known pretty much toe the same schtick w/o the veneer of Ideology.
- baddox 12y agoWhich part of his statement is inaccurate?
- courtf 12y ago"the founders of those companies will generally tell you he has been their best source" Honest question: if a company receives investment from Peter Thiel, do the founders have any choice but to express the opinion above?
- kenrikm 12y agoYes, especially if it's in candid conversation instead of a TechCrunch article.
- coffeemug 12y ago> if a company receives investment from Peter Thiel, do the founders have any choice but to express the opinion above? They could choose to say nothing (and often do about lesser investors).
- ethnomusicolog 12y agoYC is fast becoming a tumor on the whole startup scene.
- brudgers 12y agoI can't help but think how this reflects on YC's previous words in regard to diversity in the tech industry. The obvious snark involves the word "myth" or expanding YC's diversity to include people on record as opposing it, but my intent is not to express snark. No surprise when money trumps the need for explanation. I guess being a billionaire means never having to say you're sorry. Good luck.
- staunch 12y agoThe world would benefit much more from him starting a worthy alternative to YC. Few others are in a position to do so. He probably thinks there would be no profit in competing against what he sees as YC's monopoly.
- ethnomusicolog 12y agoI agree with you and I made a provocative comment I knew was going to be downvoted. But at least I expected some people to voice a contratrian opinion. Thank you for you straightness
- drawkbox 12y agoWell, as above, he did say "choose an idea that avoids competition at all costs" and joined YC thus avoiding competition by joining. PG's "don't worry about competition at all" rings true by bringing Thiel in and allowing a competitor in a way see how a top performing product runs on the inside. Who says Thiel isn't just gaining more knowledge to start another one later, then YC and Thiel can have a federation.
- r0naa 12y ago> Well, as above, he did say "choose an idea that avoids competition at all costs" and joined YC thus avoiding competition by joining. Following your reasoning there should be no tech startups and everyone should join Google, Facebook regardless of the particularly of each business/industry. Not all incubators/accelerators are targeting the same demographics. Thiel could create one that is completely orthogonal to what YC is doing as of today.
- davidw 12y agoTechstars seems to be quietly doing well by doing their own thing, which includes a surprising amount of geographic diversity. And of course, for some kinds of businesses, one of the real competitors to seed funding is bootstrapping.
- puranjay 12y ago
- vonsydov 12y agothis yc thing is just a big party
- mathattack 12y agoWow Wow Wow!!!! To take the basketball analogy further, is like the NBA champions getting a hold of the first pick in the draft lottery.
- StartupLSatoshi 12y agoThis addition iconifies the way the Valley's power structure has been changing over the last few years. Substantially more (reputation wise) powerful now than 5 years ago: - Peter Thiel (and Founders Fund) - Y Combinator - Joe Lonsdale - Keith Rabois And that whole crew. The PayPal mafia (and @sama) are the new tier one.
- bostonpete 12y agoI found a top post called "Welcome Peter" to be jarring and eerie... :-)
- petercooper 12y agoYeah, I thought I had good news or at least a new personalized welcome system on HN ;-)
- foobarqux 12y agoWhat is a part-time partner and how does it differ from a full-time one? Do they get carry?
- raymondgh 12y agoWolf in the hen house? I'm not sure how accurate this is, but I perceive a significant contrast in cultures and philosophies between PT and YC.
- StartupLSatoshi 12y agoNot really. Sam Altman and Thiel have been friends for a while, and share a significant amount of startup philosophy. And YC is roughly a representation of Sam Altman's philosophy.
- joeyspn 12y agoThiel joining forces with YC, and Musk with Google Ventures... Clash of the titans!
- StartupLSatoshi 12y agoI wouldn't say that Musk is joining forces with Google Ventures. Musk has no involvement with GV and SpaceX raised from Google Inc., not Google Ventures.
- joeyspn 12y agoYeah well, I should have said "Google". Also, don't forget about the SolarCity thing... https://gigaom.com/2015/02/26/google-solarcity-partner-on-750m-fund-for-rooftop-solar/ https://gigaom.com/2015/02/26/google-solarcity-partner-on-75...
- cpks 12y agoPeter: Are you reading this thread?
- petercooper 12y agoYep.
- jonsterling 12y agoI always thought what YC needed more of was techno-fascism…
- salimmadjd 12y agoThiel's addition makes YC into a monopoly of sorts. Which is inline with Thiel's philosophy. I wonder how much of that thinking was involved in the decision making on both sides.
- jameshk 12y agoAwesome.
- mastef 12y agoOh, Hi Peter! So how would you solve mortality? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9149186 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9149186
- ing33k 12y agoApplications are still open :)
- thielyc 12y agoWhy did Mr. Thiel join YC?
- wavefunction 12y agowell palantir, I guess someone's gotta con the Taxpayers out of their freedom AND money
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- r0naa 12y agoTo be fair, PT has never said that dropping out of college was for everyone. If you take a closer look at the past and current Thiel Fellow, you will notice that they often come from the same top schools (i.e Stanford, Harvard, MIT, CMU, Waterloo). The one that are given the opportunity to receive funding + support from the Thiel Foundation are incredibly smart and will (probably) succeed in whatever endeavour they end up choosing whether or not they get a full college education. As a freshman in college, it is incredibly exciting to know that there is such structure existing.
- synner 12y agoHello Peter!
- ToJans 12y agoDiversity is good. When people start flocking together confirmation bias changes, so I'd assume this is not such a good thing TBH.
- tauslu 12y agoI guess the next addition will be Nassim Nicholas Taleb!