
NCombinator - railsjedi
http://ncombinator.com
======
jgmmo
I love the website, and specifically the changing backgrounds. Felt like a
one-on-one presentation more than a website.

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bprater
I agree, it's cool. The only drawback I noticed is that my browser seemed
labored in scrolling. Anybody know why?

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michael_fine
Probably because the javascript require to change the background would pause
the scrolling or slow down the browser.

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jQueryIsAwesome
One way to fix it (at least a little) is to do the background change
asynchronously (setTimeOut)

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snowwrestler
Sometimes I think I am too cynical. My first reaction is that it's an overly
clever and self-consciously hip site, with a blatant rip-off name...just a few
more people trying to ride a bubble before it pops.

But I am probably just too cynical. Why step on positive energy? Go get 'em.

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railsjedi
Agreed on the name. What bubble are we riding? We're trying to bring something
that works (a small but passionate community of startups) to a larger
audience.

It also takes no equity and benefits no one except the participants.

Cheer up man! Enjoy the good times while they last :)

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xenophanes
Benefits no one except the participants?

Also their customers, future business partners, spouses, etc... Don't sell
yourself short.

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railsjedi
oops, sorry. my comment was poorly worded. I just meant that our goal is to
benefit the community and not just a few particular individuals. In other
words Ncombinator is nonprofit.

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yurylifshits
I run similar program in Russia for the last 6 months, called "The
Accelerator" <http://zonaspace.ru/accelerator/>

Yes, it definitely works for our members. Membership is public though. The
most useful part is solving startup problems case by case. Also, the whole
thing is built around a few key coordinators and their "office hours".

We have 30+ projects. Some are Russia-focused, others are international. Two
most interesting ones are <http://UploadCare.com> (launched few months before
YC's Chute) and Android app Drawing Cartoons
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ru.jecklandin....](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ru.jecklandin.stickman)

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socceruci
I do like how this post is bringing out some me toos. There are a lot of great
ideas that are not coming out of the valley.

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jot
Excellently articulated! I ran something like this in Brighton, UK in 2009:
<http://www.bootcycle.com>

I'm thinking of running it again this summer.

Also related: <http://thinkstrapped.com/>

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ericax
How did it go?

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jot
We learned loads and formed some great relationships that lead to good things.

IIRC 7 out of the 8 teams made it to a Demo Day that was loads of fun but
didn't result in anything tangible.

Ultimately we failed to ship regularly and we let the work we were doing to
bootstrap the projects get in the way of continuing them. None of the projects
are still active.

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j45
I like the design.

I really like the idea, questions I'm walking away with:

Who is behind this?

Are they experienced in giving the advice from first hand success or talking
the talk?

How can I get advice from someone who's already done this?

Is this trying to start a marketplace of sorts connecting people with no real
bar of quality?

I signed up to find out more..

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veyron
at times i wonder if people forget that "Y-Combinator" has a real meaning ...

Maybe I'm getting old, but I definitely don't remember an N-combinator.

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heretohelp
I liked the bird hierarchy of combinators, myself.

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no_more_death
In case you're wondering, I believe the reference is to this page:

<http://dkeenan.com/Lambda/index.htm>

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lobotryas
A bit dissapointed that all the live events and checkins are scheduled for San
Francisco. (I read about the online thing, but that's not the same) Would be
nice if we could alternate between San Jose and San Francisco, or at least
meet somewhere on the Peninsula.

As others have mentioned: very cool and slick site pitch. That earned my
signup alone.

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snewman
I understand that to start something new you need to focus -- but, I'd also
love to see Peninsula meetings. Maybe if there's enough interest it can
happen.

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te_chris
I'm involved in something similar, but slightly less formal here in New
Zealand called The Distiller: <http://thedistiller.org>. We provide an office
space and power/internet and run a fortnightly sprint program, but that's it.
NZ's an interesting place to start a startup, it's hard to get good funding so
you have to bootstrap. It makes things go slower (mostly because to eat one
has to contract), which can be intensely frustrating, but it's just a reality
here so we have to deal with it. We're really focused on creating a good
community of startups, keeping people accountable for their progress to the
group, but without any hierarchy etc etc.

It's working out pretty well thus far, and we've been learning a lot within
the group about how to run something like this since it was founded (not by
me, but I've been involved for a little while now).

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lifeisstillgood
I signed up but ...

>> Totally agree. Thats why every week the teams that don't ship will get
filtered out. At the end only the best will remain.

Ouch! That might take everyone out over 12 weeks. Some weeks, everything rolls
over.

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railsjedi
It's ok we won't be dicks about it :) it's just there to keep people
motivated. Teams that are dysfunctional / aren't producing should know it and
bow out voluntarily.

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lifeisstillgood
Fairy nuff.

See you online June 5.

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mhartl
This looks promising. There are two big questions I didn't see answered in the
FAQ:

    
    
      (1) Who are you? 
      (2) What do you get out of the program?
    

P.S. The design of the site is awesome.

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nostromo
Needs a news.ncombinator.com :)

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Roritharr
with news from the local community, sounds good!

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jarek
Yes, however would we hear about what goes on SF and the Valley otherwise?

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Roritharr
i'm talking about communities of different cities ~~

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hansy
Quick feedback on the website:

If your forms have placeholders, I can't see them.

When I type into the fields, I can't see my text.

I'm using the latest Firefox on a Macbook Pro.

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danneu
Same. Firefox on Debian. Could only sign up (if it even worked) because I
could access my browser's dropdown list of emails.

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dmvaldman
The timing of this is impeccable. I'm getting my PhD early this Summer and my
plan for the following few months was to work on an array of small projects
and deliver every week.

I'm at the perfect place in my life where I have both the time to work on
whatever I want (for at least a few months) and the ability to.

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feralmoan
Just some feedback on the schedule, a 4pm kick off isn't that great. I have a
9-5 paying for crazy self-funded startup adventures and I'm sure others do as
well, can I suggest pushing it back a little for working types?

Great idea though and I'm definitely on board with this one. Beautiful site
too btw! :)

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zeteo
Someone needs to write better copy...

"Aren't you just a bunch of YC rejects?

No, not really. Most of our companies haven't even applied to YC."

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sequoia
The ninja trope is a put off for me but it's common so I just ignored it, but
then Japan's rising sun motif appears full-page, just to make clear we're
talking about Asians... Can't we come up with some other cultural stereotype
to exploit, like the American fat ass or something? :)

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jack-r-abbit
I would love to see a job post for a company looking for "American fat asses"
instead of Ninjas. LOL

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jermaink
I like the idea somehow, especially when it channels those non-YC accepted
groups and distracts them from writing "Why I will reapply", "YC here I come"
or "YC application tips" article no. 1244

However, I think it would be better to choose a more unique name ;)

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dustingetz
um, who are you? your site gives me no idea who you are and why you think you
can pull this off. not trying to circle jerk for a summer. the selection
criteria at YC is what makes it valuable.

edit: slightly less harsh tone

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sparknlaunch12
I really like these initiatives. It creates a support network to help early
startups get to market.

However there seems to be lots of these popping up and you start to question
the longevity of these groups. I am sure these are started with good
intentions however what are the motivations of the organizers?

Is it simply the buzz of being involved and sharing ideas/stories/support?

I am not trying to criticize the groups, but interested in the risks of
getting involved in these events/communities?

Do you need to be cautious of anything? How do you select the right group or
groups to join?

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girlvinyl
There are lots of people who would like some of the benefit of the Ycombinator
experience but aren't a good fit and don't even apply. For me, I have no
interest in getting into the VC sharktank and the projects I work on are so
far out there that a lot of people can't even comprehend their value. This
might be a great alternative for those who are thinking way, way outside the
box.

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fredguth
Great idea! People forget that even if there is no place like Silicon Valley,
there are many other places... with no YC.

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ThariqS
I love the presentation! Is that all custom or is there a JavaScript library
out there that was used?

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eagsalazar
jquery waypoints!

(the more people who know, the faster it will become cliche then go away)

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Roritharr
That's exactly what i want to build in my city(Frankfurt/Germany)!

Can I copy your idea or cooperate with you somehow?

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yakshaving
Definitely. Let's talk/skype.

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Roritharr
i just sent you a mail

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frankdenbow
Cool! A friend and I were working on something like this in nyc. Maybe we can
join forces as a few of us have had some similar idea. I'd organize a NYC
chapter if thats possible. Not sure who to contact but i'm frank @
startupthreads . com

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thetrumanshow
Signed up. Very interested in sharing what we've been trying in our tiny
(profitable) venture and hoping to learn a few things from others. Here's to
hoping that a real community forms out of this.

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roc
I honestly couldn't tell if this was tongue-in-cheek or genuine.

Between the name and 'ninja coders' and the changing backgrounds, it was very
hard to take seriously.

On the flip side, it's a solid idea.

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cfontes
Is it possible to join if you are not physically there ?

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thetrumanshow
They encourage groups outside of the US to participate, so can't imagine
they'd exclude a stateside group. I plan to participate remotely myself.

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indrax
Does anyone think that CSS scrolling effects will be seen as good design in 5
years? I think it will be seen as a horrendous fashion.</blink>

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jkent
A great idea - though this may be confusing, potentially vs. YCombinator?

Perhaps consider a different name - socialisingStartups.com ?

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railsjedi
Yep, we'll change the name (our first batch of startups will get to pick the
real one) . NCombinator is just a working title.

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WiseWeasel
Seems interesting. Wish it were in the valley. City is so far!

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brlewis
I got the impression from the "check in online" option that you don't need to
be a part of the physical community to be in the batch.

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WiseWeasel
Where's the fun in that?

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kno
Sign up is not working for me. I'm using Firefox on windows.

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angryasian
the biggest issue with something like this is quality control. I would quickly
lose interest if theres a lot of low quality or junk coming through.

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railsjedi
Totally agree. Thats why every week the teams that don't ship will get
filtered out. At the end only the best will remain.

Low barrier to entry, but high barriers for completion is our theory. We'll
see how it works in practice and adjust.

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hammerbrostime
Hello, needed in NYC where there is NoCombinator.

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Ironchefpython
Wouldn't that be NYCombinator?

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andyakb
what are the plans for demo day? how will it be marketed to investors?

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justinkelly
any Melbourne/AU people applying?

i've applied, sounds good even it done remotely

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cwp
Hmm. I guess the N stands for "ninja". Probably full of brogrammers. No
thanks.

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yakshaving
Definitely pretty far from brogrammers :). Just want to build a support
community to foster startups. Ideas, and startups are fragile. Might as well
do anything that'll give us a fair shot. No reason to hate :)

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cwp
No hate intended. I wanted to express the disconnect between the stated goal
of the project and the unstated positioning that the design and terminology
conveys.

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eagsalazar
Web site is irritating. I can't tell you how sick I am of waypoints abuse.

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eagsalazar
Random: Why is HN so insanely, painfully slow to load lately?

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Lockyy
Potentially because you got down-voted a tonne and are on the verge of being
hell-banned.

Test this by logging out and see if it loads quickly again. If so, then yeah,
you're being artificially slowed down.

Edit: I actually just noticed it was slow for me too, logged out and it was
still slow. No idea then.

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eagsalazar
lol. Well good theory otherwise!

Edit: Actually I just realized your theory never really made any sense. What
site throttles bandwidth just to you when you get downvoted? Nutty theory
actually.

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Lockyy
It's not nutty, it's what hacker news does.

After getting down-voted a certain amount you get hell-banned. Your posts are
still posted, except only people with "show dead" enabled see them.

Before that however you just get throttled and the site loads more slowly.

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mattjaynes
Note to anyone considering using ninjas in their marketing:

It will make you seem out of touch and dated. It was clever for a brief moment
a few years ago. But now it just smacks of laziness.

It's like hippies still thinking bellbottoms are hip. Yes, at one point that
was true, but now bellbottoms just make you look like a hippie.

If you want to appear creative and edgy, please come up with a unique meme,
not a dated played out one.

A great example is Hipmunk - a fresh meme that's _actually_ hip.

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railsjedi
We were going for the "so bad it's good" thing ;)

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xenophanes
Better to be actually good.

