paul

44 ms·

391.
by paul 15y ago
Are you suggesting that Sequoia and other top VCs are making investments where the expected return is less than 1? AirBnb could end up being worth $0, but it could also be worth $10 billion. A $1 billion valuation would be a bet that it's e
392.
by paul 15y ago
That would be the wrong metric. A sandwich shop could become profitable much faster than a Google, but I'd much rather invest in the next Google.
393.
by paul 15y ago
VRBO is awful.
394.
by paul 15y ago
Did you honestly understand my comment as implying that rule breaking automatically makes you a good person? (regardless of which rules are broken)
395.
by paul 15y ago
Following all the rules does not make you a good person. In fact, rule following and obedience to authority is what enables large scale evil. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment for a famous demonstration.
396.
by paul 15y ago
Sending and receiving email is easy, unless you want it to work reliably, do intelligent processing, etc.
397.
by paul 16y ago
Actually, no. The first version of GWS was based on boa and written in strict C.
398.
by paul 16y ago
They should fix the speed.
399.
by paul 16y ago
Yeah, SpaceX is super-cool. I was just curious how it compared with the most powerful rocket ever built.
400.
by paul 16y ago
Apparently the Saturn V could lift 119 metric tons to LEO.
401.
by paul 16y ago
How weird. Their position here seems to be that proprietary software running on Google's servers generating html is ok, but proprietary javascript embedded in those pages is not ok. (because it runs in your browser?)
402.
by paul 16y ago
For the most part, money doesn't create problems, but it can certainly enable and magnify them.
403.
by paul 16y ago
BTW, in case my "many companies are raising at lower valuations" statement isn't clear enough, the supposed $10M median valuation is not accurate.
404.
by paul 16y ago
Has anyone ever said that startup investing is appropriate for conservative investors who can only make one investment? In fact, the only bold text on my blog post about startup investing says exactly the opposite of that: http://paulbuc
405.
by paul 16y ago
Valuation is based on expected value. How much time they spent on the startup is irrelevant. For example, if a startup has a 1% chance of being worth $1B, then it's worth about $10M (very rough math since actual outcomes aren't quite that b
406.
by paul 16y ago
Your guess is wrong.
407.
by paul 16y ago
False history. The Applied Semantics software was not needed to "generate 99% of its revenues at IPO time". They owned the trademark "AdSense", but the actual software used by Google was written by Google. Also, the product known as AdSense
408.
by paul 16y ago
Where you went to school is only a problem if you are determined to make it a problem for yourself.
409.
by paul 16y ago
That's not how human brains work. If he wasn't writing about Etherpad, he shouldn't have used the name "Etherpad".
410.
by paul 16y ago
I don't want to speak for the appjet/etherpad founders, but this story is very wrong about them. They certainly did not consider etherpad to be a "toy" -- it was their main focus for quite some time.
411.
Should You Sell Your Company?(bhorowitz.com)
47 points by paul 16y ago|4 comments
412.
by paul 16y ago
It was released post-buyout, so that makes no sense.
413.
by paul 16y ago
They can find a different passion. Basketball didn't even exist a few hundred years ago. People have the potential to enjoy more than one thing. Having the mindset of finding ways to enjoy things is the key, not mindlessly pursing the first
414.
by paul 16y ago
You incorrectly assume those are the only activities that those people could possibly enjoy doing. Part of the trick is finding the overlap between enjoyable and productive.
415.
Paul Buchheit: The two paths to success(paulbuchheit.blogspot.com)
294 points by paul 16y ago|87 comments
416.
by paul 16y ago
If you're looking to stand out, you could also stab yourself in the eye with a fork.
417.
by paul 16y ago
Clearly someone who "once handrolled his own html code and then uploaded it using UNIX commands" is simply too Awesome for Facebook.
418.
How much damage could be caused by a peer reviewer having a bad day?(vf.utwente.nl)
5 points by paul 16y ago|0 comments
419.
by paul 16y ago
YC. Of course I'm biased, but on the other hand I'm betting on it :) Even companies that don't make it often lead their founders to other great opportunities (e.g. at other yc companies). I also believe there's something surprisingly powerf
420.
by paul 16y ago
We were all in the right place at the right time. There is something to be said for making an effort to put yourself in the "right" place though.

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