
Let's Do Lunch - yan
http://paulgraham.com/idealunch.html
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davidw
Seems kind of ... hrm ... odd to propose it as a chat about your startup. I
think it'd be fun to do lunch with PG, but would much rather range over a
wider group of topics - life in Italy, fatherhood, tech trends, languages,
politics (hate seeing it on this site, but like everyone, I'm interested in
it), and this that and the other thing.

~~~
pg
I'd be happy to talk about random topics, but it would seem presumptuous to
offer that as an auction item.

~~~
davidw
On the other hand, if I had a good proposition for a startup and team, you'd
pay _me_ to fly there and talk about it for a few minutes, and then
potentially give me money to work on it!

Also, in terms of startups, I have a suspicion that the most interesting
knowledge in pg's head has to do with the aggregate data from YC: trends, what
works, what doesn't, what makes money, that sort of thing. That's what I'd
focus on in terms of startups.

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prs
Most likely a bargain in comparison to the lunch with Warren Buffett that
recently went for a whopping $2.63 million.

~~~
sahillavingia
Though that $2.63 million sure did include a ton of exposure (including your
comment now!).

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hristov
Paul can you ask the nursery school to try to take bids by phone? I will mail
them a 20 dollar check. And if I win I will not make you go anywhere, I will
fly out to Palo Alto.

I am sure many others would appreciate this option.

~~~
ig1
According to this previous post on the topic (by one of the volunteers at the
school) if you want to bid but can't be there in person then you can contact
them:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1863923>

~~~
jl
Unfortunately, you can't bid unless you attend the event (or have someone
attend in your place).

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jl
I checked with Bing and unfortunately there is no way for someone to bid
unless you attend the auction. If you want to bid, you should designate
someone else to attend for you and get a reservation/bidder number.

~~~
jackowayed
This is a good Offer HN opportunity. (I know, I know, that's so last week.)

You could tell people that they can email you with the max they'll pay, and
you'll go and bid for whoever has the highest max. And I guess you should say
that you'll definitely bid at least the second highest max you heard, so that
we don't end up shorting Bing.

(eg. Someone gives you a max of $5k. Someone else gives you a max of $4k. But
the highest bid from anyone at the auction is $2k. So you bid $2500 on behalf
of the $5k person and win it for them. If the $4k person and the $5k person
had gotten different proxies, Bing would have gotten >$4k, but because there
was a sort of pre-auction, they only got $2500. By saying that you'll
definitely bid as high as the second-highest emailer, you avoid that problem.)

Just make sure you vet the person pretty well so you know they'll actually
pay.

I'd do this myself, but I'll be on a plane back from Rubyconf that evening.

~~~
pig
It is a silent auction.

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jenny8lee
Microtrend?

Our Kickstarter project also arranges coffees with VCs/angels for a donation
to a nonprofit. And you can bid online. Deadline: end of day Saturday, Nov.
Sixth.

<http://pageturnerfest.org/kickstarter/vcs>

Donate $500 to the Asian American Writers' Workshop literary festival and you
can snatch coffees with:

\- Patrick Chung, partner at NEA and co-lead of its consumer investing
practice.

\- Harj Taggar, partner at Y Combinator.

\- Puneet Agarwal, of True Ventures, a $195 million fund that focuses earliest
stages in the highest-growth segments of the technology market.

\- Andrew Chung, principal at Lightspeed Venture Partners, who covers the
cleantech, Internet and software sectors.

\- James Cham, principal at Trinity Ventures, who covers consumer services,
social media and digital media.

\- Richard de Silva, general partner at Highland Capital Partners, who is
focused on digital media investments with specific interest in online
advertising, online media properties, consumer payment systems and internet
infrastructure. [SOLD OUT]

\- David Lee, partner at SV Angel with Ron Conway, who focuses on investments
within the consumer Internet, mobile, video and other IT industries. [SOLD
OUT]

Direct to our Kickstarter project: <http://aaww.org/kickstarter>

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prawn
Site idea: leaders in their field volunteer their time for lunch. People bid
and also pay for said lunch. Winning bid goes to designated charity. Perhaps
have one auction per day. Could be anything from someone like PG to head of
marketing at a major sports team, to notable chefs, writers, etc.

~~~
jclemenson
yup just what i was talking about, see below

~~~
prawn
Could be something in it then.

If it was high profile enough, the restaurants might even cover the lunch in
exchange for the plug on the site.

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callmeed
Can someone in the area be my proxy and bid for me?

~~~
gaustin
I'm wondering this same thing for myself.

I don't want to give the school a fixed number. I want a live body that can
call me. I might go over my "limit" if it's within reason at the last
minute...

~~~
serverdude
I think it is a silent auction. So you go in and put your bid. So it is not
going to be like what I believe you imagine.

I am not sure whether 1\. you know what others have bid(my guess is this would
be the case to raise more money from charity's point of view) 2\. you can bid
again.

~~~
gaustin
The way silent auctions (charity or otherwise) I've participated in usually do
it is to have a list of bids near each item. You can circulate throughout the
evening, changing your bid until bidding closes.

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dawie
I would like to remotely bid on this item too. I would fly in for the lunch.

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quizbiz
Seems to be the type of thing where the higher you bid, the less meaningful
the result would actually be.

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jclemenson
This is a great way to increase the value (or beneficiaries) of altruistic
acts. Maybe that startup Skyara should make this one of their use cases, where
people with specific domain knowledge could offer lunches and donate the
proceeds to charity.

Note: I have no affiliation with Skyara and hadn't even heard about them until
I read this HN thread a couple minutes ago:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1874982>

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serverdude
I plan to be there...And hope to win:) @callmeed, i can bid on ur behalf
assuming it is a straightforward one time bid...i can contact you on email if
you want..though there is a conflict of interest :) edit: edited some portion
once i learned about silent auction

~~~
DeusExMachina
If you are bidding yourself, I think you cannot bid for someone else (morally
speaking). Otherwise you can be sure to beat his bid by bidding just one
dollar more.

~~~
ig1
Surely, he could do that anyway ? - it's a silent auction not a secret one,
all bids are public.

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EGreg
This is well timed, to be honest part of me wants to go there and bid just to
ask Paul Graham why we didn't get into YCombinator. But, we are in NYC :)

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timc
a school at stanford and they lack technology? perhaps someone should quickly
build an ipad app to put on the table at the auction. onsite folks can bid on
the ipad, and folks at home can bid via browser. take twitter id so all bids
are tweeted to drive even more bidders. perhaps the basis for a yc startup...

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mbreese
I know this is about the lunch, but does anyone have any kids that have gone
to Bing? Is it worthwhile?

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bretthellman
lunch + feedback with PG - how amazing. Right now I'm bootstrapping my
business companyline.com so winning this auction isn't likely. However, PG I'd
donate 200+ hours of community service for a similar lunch in Mountain View.

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rogerjin
Its times like these I wish I had cash to spare, haha.

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ammmir
not do downplay the charity aspect, it would be cheaper to spend some time
building a great mvp and apply to yc to get more than lunch with pg and gang.
but then there's the chance of not being selected ;)

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chailatte
pg, are you ready for the possible

"Why didn't you pick me for yc?! (sob)"

awkward lunch?

~~~
bialecki
The thing is, I don't think it'd be that awkward for him. I bet he'd find a
way to say, "you know, I got rejected once..." and you'd walk out ready to
rock and roll.

