

Ask HN: Your favorite Startup School moments? - projectileboy

Here are mine:<p>- Just about anything out of the mouth of Paul Buchheit. I'm convinced he's actually Bob Newhart. If I <i>had</i> to pick only one quote: "If I work for a long time without releasing, I get bored and I go home and watch 'Dukes of Hazzard'."<p>- Lots of little gems from Jason Fried: "Planning is guessing", "Funding is like crack", etc.<p>- Chris Anderson: "I recommend not having crappy products, even free ones."<p>- Evan Williams: "Trust your instincts - except when they're wrong."<p>- Scoble asks Mark Zuckerberg: "What management skills are you learning?" Zuckerberg: "...management skills?"<p>- Tony Hsieh: "We don't think about work/life balance; we think about all of it as life."<p>It was a fantastic experience. Thanks to YC, UC Berkeley, and everyone else who hosted.
======
Xichekolas
Most surprisingly good speaker: Chris Anderson

I have to admit, I wasn't particularly excited about hearing him speak. I read
his Long Tail book, so I knew he wasn't just any journalist, but I couldn't
help thinking "what does Wired know about startups"? By the end I was
enthralled, and rather sad he couldn't speak for longer.

Best repeat performance: Paul Buchheit

I was fortunate enough to see him last year, so I kind of knew what to expect.
One of the most honest and amusing talks of the day. It seems like he'd be fun
to work with/for.

Amusing scheduling decision: Jason Fried after Greg McAdoo

For second year in a row, someone from 37signals comes on directly after Greg
McAdoo from Sequoia. The contrast is kind of stark. The 37signals guys like to
poo-poo on what they see as the pompous funding scene, and advocate
bootstrapping, so hope Greg doesn't take it personally. ;) I thought Greg had
some great points regarding how a 'bad economy' (for whatever value of 'bad'
you choose) makes you focus on the important stuff. Jason's angle was that
charging money forces you to make something people are willing to pay for (ie
- something useful). I think in the end they were both kind of saying the same
thing... focus on making something people want... just through their own
lenses of experience.

Best stories: Mark Pincus

I had no idea what to expect from this guy, and he was a lot of fun. Before he
started I was kind of ready to get out of there (because the room was becoming
a sauna) but by the end of his talk, I was actually sad we ran out of time.
Jessica was right: he made an excellent closer.

Other random amusements/thoughts:

PG: "You have to have a liquidity event before you can have a liquidity
event."

A lot of the talks this year seemed to be about company culture. I wonder if
that was a coincidence, or if it had to do with 'the economy' and some soul
searching on the part of founders that is going around. Last year the common
topic seemed to be 'raising money'. I wasn't at the 2007 one, so I'd be
curious if there was also a theme that year.

Berkeley was a far superior venue as far as lunch and other travel logistics
were concerned, although their mic system seemed haphazard.

Also, it was a blast to meet up with some of my fellow HN'ers... both those I
was meeting for the first time and those I knew from last year. PG, JL, TLB,
and the rest of the YC companies that hosted pre/post parties... thanks! Best
of luck to everyone on their endeavours once we all head home!

~~~
neilc
_Most surprisingly good speaker: Chris Anderson_

Really? I'd be curious to hear what you got out of his talk. I thought most of
the discussion of Freemium business models was pretty rudimentary.

~~~
Xichekolas
Well I meant that he was an entertaining speaker, and kept me interested. The
only thing that stands out in my mind that I hadn't really distilled out
before was the slide about the half dozen things people will pay for, and how
your freemium model has to work around one of those things. But then again, I
haven't spent much time thinking about Freemium, so I suppose this wasn't
exactly mind-blowing for those that have.

The format doesn't really allow anyone time to go very deep on a topic, so I
wasn't expecting anything too rigorous... although Peter Norvig came kind of
close last year with his word segmentation problem.

------
blasdel
Robert Scoble making an ass out of himself repeatedly.

He actually interrupted Tony Hsieh in mid-sentence in the middle of his talk,
and with an obviously stupid question that Tony shot down without really
missing a beat: _"What specifically do you ask people in interviews to see if
they're egotistical?"_

A few minutes into Zuckerberg's talk he started raising his hand, and then
spent the remainder bouncing up and down in his chair. From all that buildup I
expected him to ask a confrontational drama-queen non-question about
Friendfeed, but instead he nervously asked a nonsense question about how he's
managing his employees as he wanders their offices. It seemed to me that it
was some veiled drama, or something only a company-tour addict would give a
shit about.

In one of the later talks someone thankfully took the microphone back from him
before he could try to ask another question after the final one (he was
standing and approaching the stage!)

At first I was thinking that he should be actively disinvited from future
events, but I had a long productive conversation with him afterwards (though
not about his recent asshattery, his face is pink enough as it is). I've come
to the conclusion that his presence is useful, but that he should never be
allowed to ask questions — the best that could happen is irrelevant softball
non-questions that waste everyone's time.

~~~
jlees
To be honest he wasn't the only one asking stupid/long-winded/time-wasting
questions. Some people kinda need to learn how to prepare and succinctly make
a point.

~~~
icey
a) The people asking questions weren't public speakers. Speaking in front of
800+ strangers with a mic in your hand is nerve wracking for a lot of people;
cut them some slack.

b) Nobody else had such a huge ego to interrupt a speaker on stage in the
middle of his talk. Let alone in the first 5 minutes of it. It was humorous
that he interrupted the CEO of Zappos to ask a question about how to figure
out who the ego-centric people were.

------
rms
I accidentally insulted Mark Zuckerberg. I asked my question about PR lessons
and he kind of put it back to me.

If I had had Zuckerberg's PR lessons, I would have more deftly answered his
yes or no question with an explanation, but I was kind of uncomfortable since
I wasn't expecting to have a dialog.

I do think that going through the process of PR training makes one less
interesting. It's not that he and other high-profile CEOs aren't honest, it's
that they are hyper-aware of their words and are most comfortable sharing
thoughts they have already had, the particular talking points that they know
are ok to repeat in public. To me, candor is always more interesting than old
thoughts.

Anyways, that's what I was thinking; I'm aware I kind of looked like an
asshole. Sorry about that; didn't want to create any question drama. I
apologized afterwards and he said he didn't care and thought it was funny.

Zuckerberg was probably my favorite talk. In a room full of entrepreneurs,
none of us will probably achieve what he has achieved. Most of us aren't even
trying for something like that.

~~~
projectileboy
Dude, I didn't take it that way - the tone with which you asked the question
seemed more like genuine curiosity, as opposed to trolling. Hopefully Mark
took it that way as well...?

~~~
rms
:) I thought Jessica looked a little horrified. And I had some people mention
it to me later how I "insulted" Mark. Mark himself was definitely not offended
or insulted.

~~~
projectileboy
I agree - he didn't seem offended to me. As evidence, I remembered yesterday
that he actually followed up with a really great comment that I think a lot of
folks missed. I'm paraphrasing, but it was something like: "Everyone likes
controversial questions and controversial answers, but we don't necessarily
learn a lot from them."

------
daydream
For me the best by far was Paul Buchheit, because he was not only honest in a
general sense (all the others seemed so as well), but also intellectually
honest.

There's no one way to do things, what works for one won't work for another.
His talk acknowledged that right off the bat, stayed true to that philosophy,
and still managed to impart lots of wisdom (some implicitly)... while being
very engaging. (Humor is underrated.)

Thanks Paul, and thanks to all the other speakers as well! This was my second
startup school (my first was Fall 2005 in Cambridge - jeez, was it really that
long ago??) and both times I've come away inspired and fired up.

~~~
jlees
Paul's talk was refreshing, but is he always like that? He kinda seemed high.

I'll definitely know I'm successful when I can just stand on stage and ramble
about my life in front of 800 people. How awesome!

------
bdr
Only the first one is a funny moment.

Paul Graham, in the middle of all the AV trouble, says "What Talks Are Really
Like".

Greg McAdoo: To sell to enterprise, offer an ROI so powerful that a person who
turns you down would be scared of getting fired.

Jason Fried: "Cool wears off; useful never does. You will be using Post-It
notes in 20 years."

Paul Buchheit: 1) Was working at Intel, hanging out with some friends, when
they started talking about the company's retirement plan. Got depressed and
the incident encouraged him to move on. 2) Gets bored with something unless
he's constantly releasing, and knows how to work with himself on that
limitation. 3) Every company has corporate superstitions: things you have to
do if you work there because they worked for the company earlier, or appeared
to.

Zuckerberg: 1) "When we got money, what we decided was that the best feature
we could give to people is having their friends on there." (On increasing
capacity vs adding new features) 2) "Values are worthless unless they're
controversial. What are you willing to give up? We give up a lot for speed [of
development]" (e.g., they maintain a single code base)

Tony Hsieh: Core values should be _commitable_ : are you willing to hire+fire
based on them.

~~~
projectileboy
Gee, I think I like your list better than mine! Thank you especially for the
reminder of what Greg McAdoo said; I missed capturing that one in my notes.

------
ksvs
Mark Zuckerberg yelling "yeah" from the audience when Mark Pincus said you
should control your board.

------
metalacorn
I think one gem was overlooked...

Paul Graham: In order to have a liquidity event, you need to have a liquidity
event.

...priceless.

~~~
daniel-cussen
I remember it as, "You need to have a liquidity event to have a 'liquidity
event.'"

------
blasdel
There was an absolutely fantastic question from the audience (rms?) for
Zuckerberg, followed up with a perfectly elucidated back-and-forth reparté
between them (though Jessica was freaking out a bit).

The TechCrunch transcript is just a teaser, the video clip could easily turn
into a meme:

    
    
      Q: Can you talk what it’s like in order to speak publicly so people don’t
         pounce on you? Seems like you’ve changed since 2006.
      A: Have I not said enough offensive stuff? Is this less interesting?
      Q: Yeah… probably less interesting (oooooh from the crowd)
      A: Maybe we need more controversial questions.

------
timtrueman
Early internal feedback on Gmail: "I would like it to search my email, not
just yours" — Paul Buchheit's talk

"It's like we're married, but we're not fucking." — Some startup founder who
went through Y Combinator quoted in PG's talk

------
koko775
Thanks! It was exhausting, but a blast to host

(<\--podium setup guy with black CSUA t-shirt/black open hack hoodie)

EDIT: Major props go to all the speakers, guests, Jessica, Dwight Crow (who
was the main organizer on the Berkeley side), Eli Chait, Corey Reese, and
everyone else from the CSUA and Startups@Berkeley and YC who made this
possible, and of course everyone I forgot to mention.

~~~
Xichekolas
I was sitting right behind you and was trying to figure out your t-shirt. Was
it some kind of MUD joke?

~~~
koko775
In Soda Hall, no-one can hear you scream.

------
paraschopra
When is the _proper_ video from the event being released?

~~~
koko775
When Cal Events encodes it. I believe the place it will be put up is
<http://webcast.berkeley.edu/events.php> but I am not an authority on the
matter as I wasn't the one who arranged for Cal Events to record.

------
derwiki
AirBnB's electronic music rooftop dance party. Don't get me wrong, SUS it self
was a great experience -- but it was reassuring to see that a tech start up
crowd could throw a legitimate party!

~~~
blasdel
It helped that most of the party crashers were girls!

~~~
dangrover
What was with the hats?

~~~
blasdel
All the people in pilot costumes were the hosts from AirBnB

------
jlm382
Big thanks to UC Berkeley. As a current senior, it's incredible to see how the
school has opened up to the idea of pushing entrepreneurship over the past 4
years. The Berkeley CSUA and ST@B worked their butts off to make this an
incredible experience, and they'd do a lot to make sure that Berkeley gets the
exposure that it deserves.

Hope to see Startup School 2010 return to Berkeley. :)

~~~
avk
As a recently graduated senior, this was great to see but we've still got a
long way to go. What else can we do on this side of the bay?

------
jaekwon
I had a fantastic time as well. thanks to everyone!

My favorite moments were outside the hall, just mingling with you guys. I said
I would talk to at least 20 people, and I did. Nice to meet you all, and
thanks for the beer.

~~~
mechanical_fish
Yes, it was great to meet so many fellow HN readers.

Thanks to everyone who tool the time to organize, speak, or throw parties!

------
jmtame
Zappos core value 10: be humble. Egotistic engineers ruin startup cultures.

Control your destiny, control your board. -Zynga

------
dtran
Complete paraphase, but when Jason Fried talked about a company's relationship
with customers: "'We apologize for any inconvenience we may have caused' -
What do you mean may have caused? You f-ing caused it."

Companies need to be more honest, open, and transparent when dealing with
their customers. Make your products easy enough that anyone can use them (sort
of "assume a dumb customer"), but when you deal with your customers, treat
them with the utmost respect and appreciation for their intelligence.

------
mrshoe
"Can anyone here tell me how to sell stuff for free? You can't. You can only
sell stuff for money." - Jason Fried

"So when your friend performs the most intimate human act of love by giving
you a dollar bill..." - Chris Anderson

"Hey, I'd like to be able to search _my_ mail, not just _your_ mail." - Paul
Buchheit

Apparently I went looking for a good laugh.

Those are all paraphrases, by the way.

~~~
jaekwon
+1 on the Paul Bucheit paraphrase.

------
jeremyw
@projectileboy: your analogy (Paul Buchheit channeling Bob Newhart) is
perfect.

~~~
projectileboy
Heh heh... thanks. I of course mean hilarious young hip Bob Newhart from the
60s, not boring old former TV star Bob Newhart of today.

------
avk
Did anyone else think the beginning was much stronger than the end? Paul
Graham, Jason Fried, and Chris Anderson were great but I didn't care for the
Q&A sessions at all. What happened to actually preparing a talk for a big
event you've been invited to? I wanted more on startups and advice, not just
more pandering to twitter and facebook.

~~~
csallen
I completely agree... using an interview format for Twitter and Facebook
proved to be boring. It just wasn't the right forum for asking pointed,
controversial, information-eliciting questions. Jason Fried, both Pauls, Tony
Hsieh -- pretty much all the speakers -- proved that you can deliver much more
valuable insight if you prep your own talk. I really would have loved it if
the Twitter guys and Zuckerberg, especially, had done the same.

~~~
jpwagner
I was surprised, despite the laziness, that the Twitter interview was so good.
Their articulation of the realization that they did NOT want to be the kings
of podcasting was eye-opening to me, maybe it was old news to others.

------
dawie
Mark Zukerberg: "It's ok to make mistakes."

------
knv
_Evan Williams: "Trust your instincts - except when they're wrong."_

It's more like a Zen proverb/koan.

------
scorpion032
Links to uploaded videos?

~~~
projectileboy
Sorry... I would have included a link to justin.tv/startupschool, but there's
not much there (yet?).

------
gehant
Based on the comments, it sounds like Yogi Berra would have been a hit at this
event

------
pricees
"These are my people" -- Zuckerberg.

Fucking stud. Period.

------
davidw
Ok, I wasn't there, but here's a bit from my somewhat silly imagination:

When PG descended on the stage with his jetpack, and the enthralled crowd
prostrated themselves in his direction with one flowing movement while
chanting PEE GEE PEE GEE PEE GEE.

~~~
Xichekolas
...

He landed in a Harrier... jetpacks are for kids.

(Seriously though, why so negative?)

~~~
davidw
It's not negative, it's just kind of a random bit from my head. I wouldn't
have spent so much time on this site if I didn't have a great deal of respect
for pg and what he's done with YC. I thought it was over the top enough to
make other people smile at the image too, rather than think it was in some way
nasty.

~~~
Xichekolas
Hmmm. I think it's tempting to appear jaded in these instances. To poke fun at
the omg-I'm-seeing-famous-people-in-the-flesh mentality. I know I have thought
about what makes social interactions different when one person is known by
reputation or "claim to fame" and the other person is relatively anonymous. I
think about this most acutely because I'm effectively nobody... so when I meet
someone I and others look up to, it's definitely awkward. I second guess
everything I say and every gesture I make... _and I hate myself for it_.

It creates an asymmetrical dynamic. The whole interaction depends on the
magnanimity of the so-called 'famous person' to ignore the awkwardness. It's
interesting and weird and (at least for me) relatively rare and novel.

But they are human beings.

It's almost nice, being anonymous as I am, if you don't know who the hell the
person is. Then you don't have to spend so many brain cycles going "wow WOW
I'm talking to insert-celebrity-here".

It's like Mark Pincus. I could have walked up to him randomly during a break
and had a conversation and thought "wow, that was a cool guy with interesting
perspective". But even the label on his name tag... "Speaker" gave him away as
'someone important'. Suddenly you feel like the emperor with no clothes... you
start trying to justify why the heck you should be wasting this guy's time.
It's funny how you don't have that concern with someone you don't look up to.

So yeah, there is a lot of ooh-ing and ahh-ing in the crowd. You can't get
around that really, but the day wasn't a PG worship-fest. If anything, it
seemed less centered around him than last year's SUS (although I might just be
projecting).

The biggest collective inhale comes with someone like Zuckerberg or Fried
walks in the room... and there is no real avoiding that. They are the current
players that inspire and lead by example.

And that is ok. There is always going to be someone serving that role. We as a
species seem to need celebrity both for motivation and allegiance. People pick
sides because it's natural to back a champion.

But really, I promise you, there was no prostrating. ;) I respect PG and YC
and thank them for putting on the event, but I, for one, come _here_ for the
conversation, just like I came to Startup School to talk to motivated people
trying to make cool stuff. Randomly bumping into 'famous' people is a bonus I
guess.

~~~
davidw
You say a lot of quite intelligent things, but you're still taking what I said
_way_ too seriously.

~~~
Xichekolas
Oh I laughed pretty hard when I read it... it _was_ funny.

I guess I asked whether it was negative because it was kind of hard to tell...
but then you answered that.

Then I mostly used your answer as an excuse to talk about something that had
been on my mind. I wasn't trying to start an argument or anything. ;)

