

YC Startup School Radio, Episode 1: Alexis Ohanian and Kaz Nejatian - loyalelectron
https://blog.ycombinator.com/announcing-the-yc-startup-school-radio-podcast

======
hayksaakian
This podcast is very consumer-oriented

Things I wish they covered but didn't

\- How did Reddit get acquired, and why?

\- Why did Alexis leave Reddit originally, and why did he come back?

\- What is the exit strategy for Kash? Are they planning on literally taking
over Visa, or is an XXX million dollar exit to PayPal good enough?

\- how will Kash beat its closest competitors? There are "pay with an app"
companies. Why are you better than stripe behind an app frontend.

I don't plan on listening to this podcast again unless I hear it's become less
"consumery".

~~~
sida
If you are interested in more in-depth stories on Reddit. You might be
interested in the podcast Alexis Ohanian did with Steve Huffman when Reddit
turned 10

[https://www.reddit.com/r/Upvoted/comments/3b2ypq/episode_24_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Upvoted/comments/3b2ypq/episode_24_reddit_turns_ten/)

~~~
alexis
Thanks! Gonna get Steve to sit down again soon for us to talk about the next
10 years...

------
kumarm
Thanks for doing this.

Sometime back I tried to develop habit of listening to podcasts about startups
while working out. I gave up finally when I realized most podcasts I find on
web on related topic are with people who are trying to sell something (mostly
book).

Any other good sources on podcasts with founders that are not trying to sell
their book?

~~~
tdaltonc
This week in startups --
[http://thisweekinstartups.com/](http://thisweekinstartups.com/)

All of the guests are there to promote something (themselves/their-startup) so
everyone is a bit manicured, but it's still a good look at some of what goes
on inside of startups.

~~~
j_s
I only avoided this recommendation specifically because each of the hosts has
their own book to promote on the show - even though neither one seems to do so
too much (Rob not so much at all anymore, but Mike's book was released
recently).

I do think it is a great podcast with tons of practical, actionable advice
focused at lifestyle SaaS developers.

~~~
peterjancelis
Rob and Mike have
[http://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/](http://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/)

Twist in from Jason Calacanis.

~~~
j_s
Oops; you're right - thanks!

------
nantes
FWIW, not easy to decipher, but it appears you can access a feed for akharris
at [1].

[1]
[http://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:150759713...](http://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:150759713/sounds.rss)

~~~
j_s
Thanks; an RSS feed is super-convenient!

Was this podcast already posted on HN and I just missed it? The 10 episodes
released over the past 2 months don't seem to be trying to hide too hard:
[https://soundcloud.com/akharris](https://soundcloud.com/akharris)

 _Originally broadcast on Sirius XM 's Business Radio powered by the Wharton
school on Sirius 111._

It's the top-ranked item on the 'Shows' tab there
([https://www.siriusxm.com/businessradio](https://www.siriusxm.com/businessradio))
- maybe this is just evidence of how unimportant satellite radio is?
Production quality is top-notch.

------
singold
Transcript link [http://genius.com/Aaron-harris-startup-school-radio-
ep-1-ale...](http://genius.com/Aaron-harris-startup-school-radio-ep-1-alexis-
ohanian-and-kaz-nejatian-annotated)

------
snake117
I think this is a great medium for educating potential future founders around
the web, so thank you for taking the time to make this. I'm sure most HN
user's out there have heard of Jessica Livingston's book "Founders at Work". I
just got it in the mail today and its a great read. If you enjoy this kind of
interview format you will definitely enjoy this book.

~~~
giarc
She does a pseudo follow up using video interviews with founders. For example,
[https://vimeo.com/10119028](https://vimeo.com/10119028) with AirBNB founders.

I think there was a site dedicated to these, but I can only find the Vimeo
page.

------
jcr
Is there any chance these Startup School Radio recording files will be made
available in a typical audio encoding format (mp3, ogg, m4a, ...) over http or
ftp?

Neither Soundcloud nor iTunes provides simple download links.

~~~
Impossible
The embedded Soundcloud player on that page has a download button in the upper
right corner (arrow pointing downward) that will download the audio in mp3
format.

~~~
jcr
Thank you, but the problem is the "player" from soundcloud; it requires
running thousands of lines of javascript and it's completely unnecessary for
delivering audio. It would be simple to use a HTML5 <audio> element with the
src attribute set to a media file for playback in HTML5 enabled browsers, and
for the non-HTML5 browsers, you can easily provide a link to the audio file.

------
vishalzone2002
also interesting to see Colleen Taylor is at YC now.. :)

------
asurty
As an old high school friend of Kaz I can say his last name is not spelled
"netajian" \- is that on purpose?

~~~
outericky
I'm sure it's a typo.

~~~
CanadaKaz
Aaron is right. It's Nejatian. Hi Aaron!

~~~
akharris
Hey Kaz - fixed!

~~~
CanadaKaz
Thanks! Not the worse though! I go by Kaz because when I was in Junior High,
the basketball coach spelled my name as Kazday Nejootsian. So you know.
Improvement over time!

------
GeneralTspoon
Off-topic, but isn't Alexis the guy behind firing Victoria and setting Ellen
Pao up for taking the wrap? Not once did he come forward and say it was him.

I've heard he's an intelligent guy, but I have a particular disgust for sly
people. Just bear that in mind when listening to advice from him.

(Didn't actually listen to the Podcast, maybe this was mentioned?)

~~~
davej
All this is speculation.

For good reason, it is not public information who fired Victoria or why. I
doubt it was a one-person decision though.

~~~
GeneralTspoon
Uh, unless you consider Yishan Wong (former reddit CEO) publicly stating
it[1], and Alexis himself admitting it[2] 'speculation', then I think the
evidence is solid enough.

[1]:
[https://np.reddit.com/r/TheoryOfReddit/comments/3d2hv3/kn0th...](https://np.reddit.com/r/TheoryOfReddit/comments/3d2hv3/kn0thing_says_he_was_responsible_for_the_change/ct1ecxv?context=3)

[2]:[https://np.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/3cucye/an_old...](https://np.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/3cucye/an_old_team_at_reddit/csz2p3i?context=3)

~~~
davej
You're contradicting yourself, you say that "Not once did he come forward and
say it was him" and then you say Alexis publicly admitted it himself.

My point is that we don't really know why she was fired (and why should we?).
If Victoria wants to come forward and explain what happened then we can
discuss the merits, until then it's speculation.

~~~
GeneralTspoon
What I should have said was, "not once did he come forward and say it was him,
_while Ellen Pao was taking the heat_ ". Of course, once Ellen stepped down
and Yishan already exposed Alexis, he admitted it.

For the sake of this discussion, I personally don't care why Victoria was
fired - that's not the point. The point is that Alexis purposefully let
someone else take the blame for a decision he made. Either it was a shifty
business strategy, or he's a shitty person. In both cases, it doesn't reflect
well on him.

~~~
davej
I'm not here to defend the guy but it seems we know nothing (spot the pun)
about why Victoria was fired. It may have been completely reasonable, it may
not. It may have been a unilateral decision by Alexis but I honestly doubt it,
these things still have to be okayed by the CEO.

Pao was in the Reddit community's firing line long before Victoria was fired,
they were looking for a reason to pounce.

