3 ms·

I think there is a sweet spot that you have to hit where you have the focus to start on a solution to a small part of a big problem, but still show investors th

by byoung2 12y ago

I think there is a sweet spot that you have to hit where you have the focus to start on a solution to a small part of a big problem, but still show investors that there is a clear path to eventually tackle more and more of the bigger problem. Reid Hoffman talks about "boil the ocean" startups that are just too big to tackle, but if you approach it as boiling a cup or a pot first, and convince investors that there is still an ocean to be boiled down the line, you have a good shot.

mej10 12y ago
PG has several themes in his essays around this idea. Others have talked it about it as well. It isn't a hidden secret or unknown. Most people just choose to ignore it.
empressplay 12y ago
That said, YC could be missing out on opportunities if they fail to have the foresight to see the cups that could eventually become oceans -- ie the ability of sniply to (hypothetically) bring their users over to other products in the future. Just because a particular seed from a startup isn't going to sprout into a forest overnight doesn't mean that particular startup doesn't have the potential to find other seeds that do. I guess what I'm saying is YC would do well to consider funding people with good ideas as much as the ideas themselves.
- byoung2 12y ago
  I guess what I'm saying is YC would do well to consider funding people with good ideas as much as the ideas themselves. That's a good point. YC does claim to look at people first and then ideas, and really the idea is just evidence that you can have good ideas. But I guess they are also looking for pattern recognition, as in, can you spot the pattern that YC is looking for. That seems to be (in my opinion) smart teams who can tackle a small chunk of a big problem before and during YC, and sell investors the dream of the whole chunk after YC. Think couch surfing app now, disrupting the hotel industry later. Cloud based USB stick now, revolutionize the cloud storage industry later.

by byoung2 12y ago

mej10 12y ago

PG has several themes in his essays around this idea. Others have talked it about it as well. It isn't a hidden secret or unknown. Most people just choose to ignore it.

empressplay 12y ago

That said, YC could be missing out on opportunities if they fail to have the foresight to see the cups that could eventually become oceans -- ie the ability of sniply to (hypothetically) bring their users over to other products in the future. Just because a particular seed from a startup isn't going to sprout into a forest overnight doesn't mean that particular startup doesn't have the potential to find other seeds that do. I guess what I'm saying is YC would do well to consider funding people with good ideas as much as the ideas themselves.

byoung2 12y ago
I guess what I'm saying is YC would do well to consider funding people with good ideas as much as the ideas themselves. That's a good point. YC does claim to look at people first and then ideas, and really the idea is just evidence that you can have good ideas. But I guess they are also looking for pattern recognition, as in, can you spot the pattern that YC is looking for. That seems to be (in my opinion) smart teams who can tackle a small chunk of a big problem before and during YC, and sell investors the dream of the whole chunk after YC. Think couch surfing app now, disrupting the hotel industry later. Cloud based USB stick now, revolutionize the cloud storage industry later.