
The Disruptor In The Valley - andujo
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/1108/best-small-companies-10-y-combinator-paul-graham-disruptor.html
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edanm
"Graham met Morris, an authority on the _Unix computer language_ "

Sigh...

Great article though. And a wonderful portrait of pg!

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dlo
Another one: "Y Combinator--a computer term for a program that runs other
programs."

Heh, sure.

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Matt_Cutts
On the other hand, the explanation of convertible notes and valuation caps was
clear and helpful.

Great article overall.

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dshankar
A bit off topic, but where can I learn more about convertibles, valuation
caps, FF stock, and all the legal stuff we don't learn in our engineering
classes?

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rms
<http://venturehacks.com/archives>

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ilovecomputers
I did not know that Naval had a site like this. Thanks!

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rms
And it functions as more or less everything you need to know about this stuff.
I was able to read it as it was posted but if I was just starting the now the
ebook for $20 is well worth it over clicking "previous" a whole bunch of times
in the blog layout.

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sachinag
"Graham concedes that individual YC partners have invested in a few startups
that hadn't been able to attract much outside funding."

Interesting that Paul, Trevor, Robert, and Jessica (maybe Harj and Alexis
now?) will backstop companies that can't raise outside money after YC. It's
like the exact opposite of the signaling problem.

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pg
The first couple years I used to participate in a lot of the startups' angel
rounds. Now I hardly ever do. I didn't invest in any of the startups from the
most recent batch, for example.

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edanm
Why the change?

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pg
Partly because I don't have as much spare money (because I bought an expensive
house in Palo Alto and haven't sold my Cambridge house yet) and partly because
I don't need to as much.

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hacker101
He is not only the Valley Disruptor, he will change how smart kids pursue
their education, career ,,,,

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omfut
Hacker news is part of my daily diet and i have to admit that PG is Rock star.
Though the amount of money he funds to YC startups is minuscule, the end
result is unbelievable. I have been in the startup industry for more than a
decade and to me it seems like the YC funding is more like paid mentoring.

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gridspy
I imagine that a great number of people who hang out on HN feel the same way,
myself included.

It is great to see PG giving back to the community in such a sustainable,
profitable way. He has created a product that entrepreneurs want.

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meltzerj
Never knew Paul Graham began as an artist. I'm not that surprised though. Art
and programming are both forms of creative expression.

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danilocampos
Paul mentions these origins in his essay on Taste:

<http://paulgraham.com/taste.html>

After "Why Nerds Are Unpopular", it's one of my favorite things he's written.

 _"At an art school where I once studied, the students wanted most of all to
develop a personal style. But if you just try to make good things, you'll
inevitably do it in a distinctive way, just as each person walks in a
distinctive way. Michelangelo was not trying to paint like Michelangelo. He
was just trying to paint well; he couldn't help painting like Michelangelo."_

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jmtame
'why nerds are unpopular' was the first paul graham essay i read in high
school (as a sophomore who moved to a new high school). got me hooked =]

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danilocampos
I read it as a senior, when the bulk of my school related angst was behind me.
It was still awesome, though. I felt less alone – less like I was nuts or
something for seeing school the way I had.

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trefn
of course the birkenstocks would be featured prominently...

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jedberg
I'm surprised they got Paul in pants -- must have been a cold day to get him
to not wear shorts.

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pg
They said I had to. They also supplied the shirt.

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netcan
It's a nice shirt. Did you get to keep it?

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redwoods
Great article tho I worry that it makes raising seed $$ sound easy.

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tlb
It is easy. Y Combinator's application process is designed to take only an
hour or two, though it can take much longer if you have to figure out what
your company is going to make at the same time. But you have to figure that
out anyway -- it's not really a difficulty of raising seed money.

Y Combinator is very selective, but there are many other incubator / tech
accelerator programs where the bar is not so high.

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projectileboy
But even failing the YC application would be a valuable learning experience -
if YC won't invest in you, you'd do well to consider why.

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edanm
Then again, as pg himself says, the better you are, the less of a "real"
reason that you didn't get in. If you're one of the top 100 startups in this
cycle, all of which have potential, you might not make it just cause there are
another 35 great companies they decide to go with.

~~~
redwoods
How many YC companies failed to get in first time but got in on later
applications - any knowledge on this?

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serverdude
see this thread <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1745802>

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redwoods
Thank you

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Keyframe
_Justin.tv, now the Web's biggest portal for live video_

umm, what? Is Justin.tv bigger than Ustream and Livestream? I seriously doubt
that.

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jwecker
Ustream is often higher in unique views (but not always, and not currently),
but Justin.tv has people stay on site almost twice as long, and has almost
half the bounce rate. It certainly pumps far more video in and out (at one
point at least more than even youtube, but I don't think we've measured that
in a while). Livestream is a distant third. Ustream spends a lot of money
projecting their image, while we just keep making sure that our product is
several times better.

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Keyframe
Thanks for info, I really had no idea. Ustream just, well, seemed like they
are BIG (good marketing then). I have posted this ~17 days ago, but I had no
response: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1755458>

I even emailed you guys, but got no response whatsoever. Ustream and
Livestream both responded.

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jwecker
Just posted a comment to it (: Email may have fallen into a black hole or
something. Good luck!

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harscoat
Wondering if the painting behind PG on the picture could have been one he
painted himself?

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Towle_
PG looks very Roger Sterling in that photo there.

