pb

9 ms·

31.
by pb 10y ago
You are watching a two year old youtube video and then confidently extrapolating to conclude that Cruise has no tech and that GM got duped out of a billion dollars.
32.
by pb 10y ago
This is a great quote: "Startups with no demanding customers can lose their urgency, with development cycles dragging on for years, says Rust, who worked at Google’s experimental research factory before joining Cruise. “We tried to acc
33.
by pb 10y ago
This is a really great summary of the yc program for everyone, international or not! The main things I want everyone going through yc to achieve are clarity (lesson 1), focus (lesson 2), and boundless potential (lesson 4).
34.
by pb 10y ago
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/12/technology/12google.html
35.
by pb 10y ago
If a start up fails then the equity is worthless. That's how equity is _supposed_ to work. As for Facebook and Google, you heard wrong. I worked at both companies and know quite a bit about how much equity employees got.
36.
by pb 10y ago
Most startups aren't successful period. If you're the 100th employee at a startup that sells for $30M, then no, you're not going to make a lot from that exit. The economics of startups are such that the vast majority of the r
37.
by pb 10y ago
I know that "employees get screwed" is the hn conventional wisdom, but it's generally false. If a startup is huge success, there will be many wealthy employees. Companies like Google and Facebook created thousands of milliona
38.
by pb 10y ago
Many of the most successful founders are introverts. Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Bill Gates, none of them are very extroverted, but they've started some of the most valuable companies in the world. Of course if you are so introverted
39.
by pb 10y ago
It's very difficult to truly evaluate a business without talking to the founders. Sometimes a bad sounding business (such as air mattress rentals) will turn out to be a really great business (such as AirBnb). That said, I'm sorry
40.
by pb 10y ago
I agree it would be good to have more blog posts with that message -- I worry that good founders won't apply due to the mistaken impression that alumni connections are required. Here's one for you: https://twitter.com&#
41.
by pb 10y ago
Thanks. I'm definitely still involved, and if anything should have more time to spend with the startups :)
42.
by pb 10y ago
Yes, many fellowship companies have gone on to raise money or join the core YC program. Our hope is that the same will be true of the MOOC.
43.
by pb 10y ago
The handful of blog posts you see here on HN are not representative of the whole batch. The majority of companies that we fund have zero alumni connections. To me, this is actually one of the most important features of YC: the application p
44.
by pb 10y ago
Fellowship worked really well for the most part, but our real goal is to 10x or 100x the number of startups that we help, and Fellowship in it's current form couldn't easily do that. The MOOC is essentially Fellowship 2.0 -- we&#x
45.
by pb 10y ago
Yes, that's the goal :) I like working with startups and advancing our program, but do not generally enjoy administrative work. This change enables me to do more of what I like and less of what I don't.
46.
by pb 10y ago
It's not like they are going to suddenly lose their ability to manufacture products. The key is that their differentiation and survival will depend more on software and soft systems (such as bus lines) than it does on manufacturing pro
47.
by pb 10y ago
In ten years, all auto makers will either be tech companies, or they will be out of business. I'm impressed that GM and Ford have the foresight to understand this.
48.
by pb 10y ago
Obviously the rest of the team is likely to be very talented as well. Also, he's the founder, which includes a responsibility to act in the best interest of the company (plus $20M/yr would be much less money).
49.
by pb 10y ago
The right person is. How much was Steve Jobs worth to Apple? Bret is one of the most outrageously talented and productive people I've ever worked with. In a high-leverage position, such a person can be extremely valuable.
50.
by pb 10y ago
That's actually true of almost every good business -- there is always a worse version already available, even if only through the "abuse" of an existing system.