

YCNYC: A lost opportunity - justinj
http://justinjmoses.wordpress.com/2011/09/27/ycnyc-a-lost-opportunity/

======
pg
"Perhaps he’s not a great speaker, but I’m not so sure."

I'm not a great speaker. The awkward delivery he describes is unfortunately
pretty much the norm. Believe it or not, I used to be even worse.

~~~
jbooth
I was there, you did a fine job. Inspiring, everyone liked it. Yes, you were
there to drive enthusiasm for your mission, it's not cynical to note that, and
it's naive to be dissapointed by it.

EDIT: removed silly domino's in NYC joke

~~~
danbmil99
YC served Domino's in NYC? I lived there most of my life, swear I never even
knew one existed.

If this was downtown (Tribeca/Soho), John's would have been the choice. Talk
to them a couple days in advance, I'm sure they could handle it. If not, go to
3 or 4 places and get a variety. Just not Domino's.

~~~
llambda
It was Papa Johns and it was due to a matter of scale. What local pizzeria
could handle 300 pies?

~~~
iqster
They had both Papa Johns and Dominos. It was free pizza ... why are we
discussing this?

~~~
danbmil99
It's not a huge deal, but it's a matter of NYC culture. It just would have
made a better impression to do it differently. Little things can matter.

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jhdavids8
Seems like the OP's post stems from just being over-critical (seems like he
really wanted to find issues with the event), as well as expecting a bit too
much from the event...almost too much to really live up to.

While nothing presented was especially groundbreaking, I'm just happy YC
decided to venture to the east coast. That in itself is better than nothing.
It's their first event over here, and a decent one at that. As for next time,
the OP's request of getting MBAs to wear ties and developers to wear black
shirts is a bit opposite of startup atmosphere. Dress codes are kind of
frowned upon. Plus, if you did that, it'd turn into a high school dance with
ties on one side and black shirts on the other.

Oh, and if PG and company would have spent a good amount of time on "YC, the
school, their process" I think there would have been a large amount of
disappointed folk. Why go to a YC event of you don't know what YC is? I'd
speculate most there were quite familiar with YC and its process and were
looking more for startup advice, similar to the stuff given.

~~~
bluesmoon
YC used to spend half the year based out of Cambridge, MA before they decided
to concentrate exclusively on the west coast, so no, it isn't the first time
they're heading east.

~~~
jhdavids8
My bad. I'm new to the east coast (been here a little over a year) and PG said
something like this was YC's first NYC event at YCNYC, so I reached an
incorrect conclusion. Should have said something like this was their first
time back in awhile I suppose.

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johnthedebs
Having gone the other night, I understand what the author is saying and agree
with a lot of it.

That said, one of main points of the keynote was that chance meetings are what
make places like NYC and the valley so conducive to startups. The loose
structure really lent itself well to socializing, and so this was the perfect
event for those chance meetings.

I personally got a lot out of it, and would love seeing more meetups like
this.

~~~
ktrgardiner
Chance meetings are wonderful. But when you have an opportunity as rare as
this one, why fall back upon chance when you can facilitate? When you can do
more, you should.

For instance, what if the color coding was expanded upon and added to the
invite application? Each individual could place themselves in the category
that describes them the best and then know at the time of the event the people
they should be talking to rather than wandering around hoping their next
chance meeting is the one that makes the difference.

~~~
ohashi
I still never figured out what the colors even meant.

------
chedigitz
The original invitation did clearly state it was geared towards jobs seekers
under the premise of a meetup. YC even asked for your resume, and one of the
qualifying questions was related to your interest to apply. Not sure why OP is
surprised.

PG delivered, if you observe his prior interviews you will notice that is his
style. Personally, it feels authentic, and transparent. A trait many speakers
lack.

The serendipitous nature of the event added to the allure, it encouraged folks
to have a conversation.

Video department could of used some help but that's just nitpicking.

This all comming from someone who didn't get invited, yet drove from Philly,
one of the first one there, waited in line, and was magically allowed in.

Well done, YC.

~~~
ohashi
Someone else mentioned resume that I met there, but I don't recall seeing
that. I definitely didn't submit a resume. Was this for all applicants?

~~~
chedigitz
It was in the second page of the invite request form, I believe the qualifying
question was in regard to your interest to applying for a job at YC startup.
Second page requested your resume, at least for me.

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earbitscom
MBA's in ties and hackers in black tees. What is this, YC Presents _Grease_.

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cleverjake
A more accurate title would be " Why I was disappointed with YCNYC". I
personally had a wonderful time and gained several future leads.

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djcapelis
I know I shouldn't say this, but does anyone read this critique as just so
east coast? Someone goes to an event on startups and they are annoyed because
no one handed them action items or facilitated their networking more?

On the west coast it's mostly a matter of things arising from chaos. You do
what you can in terms of nailing the logistics (pizza, beer and fast moving
lines) but the meat is who you get into the room, not what the person at the
microphone is saying.

I'm not saying YC and pg couldn't have made it better, the OP should be lauded
for some of the critique. (Criticism of YC tends to be controversial.) But the
OP seems to have accidentally discovered exactly some of the differences
between east coast and west coast cultures.

~~~
ohashi
That's an interesting point. I shared a bit of the sentiment about networking.
I thought it could have been facilitated better. For example, nametags already
were color coded, but nobody ever said what the colors meant. I figured out YC
orange and that's it. I can't blame the guy for wanting to know why he was
there to begin with. It's a night with YC people and that description alone
probably would fill up the place every time; however, defining it a bit more
wouldn't hurt - is this an event to learn about startups? for founders who are
considering applying to YC? something.

~~~
djcapelis
Why do you think they knew that much better what the event was about? These
things are usually what you make of them. Who are they to tell you why you're
there? Isn't that more your decision?

~~~
ohashi
It's my decision based on the information I am given. Very little was given,
but given that it was a YC event on the east coast, I was happy to travel from
DC to attend without any other knowledge. That doesn't mean that there isn't
room for improvement. It also could change the nature of the event and those
who attend.

The fact that you say 'these things are usually what you make of them' leads
me to think there is tons of room for improvement with the way these events
are run. I've been to quite a few tech meetups and some are definitely more
well run than others and are easier to access (people wise). A lot of that has
to do with how the organizers set up the event and the information they pass
along.

~~~
djcapelis
I think the feedback is helpful and there are always improvements that could
be made. I think what really annoyed me was the underlying assumption was an
entitlement to some sort of definition of an event that was perhaps too new to
be fully defined. Good people jump in and help define the event.

I would not be critiquing a blog post full of specific, useful advice on how
the event could have been made better. There is advice like that in this
entry, but you have to reach through piles of raw "someone should have told me
more about something" thoughts before you can get there. I would have been
much more interested in a blog post that read something along the lines of: "I
attended this event and I thought it was a bit unfocused. Here's what I would
have wanted this to be and here's what I think it should look like."

I hope YC listens to the feedback anyway. It's valuable, but count me
personally disappointed.

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chasing
Good write-up, Justin.

My frustration was this:

I feel like diversity fuels creativity and innovation. I like finding myself
in a room with a variety of different sorts of people, and the YCNYC event
felt like I was in a room with approximately 1000 copies of myself. The most
visible example of this was the number of women present. I _personally_ know
many times more women in technology than I saw in that entire crowd of a
thousand or so.

I know that YC is going to appeal to a certain sort of person, but I would've
been much more impressed with the whole event if it had been apparent that the
organizers had gone just a little bit out of their way to reach out to
different kinds of people who work in technology in the city. There are so
many, doing so many amazing things, coming from so many backgrounds. Get
people together who don't normally talk and see what new ideas start forming.

If NYC has any chance of outranking the Bay Area when it comes to start-ups,
it's going to be because the NYC scene learns how to leverage the extreme
diversity of talent out here. Not because a thousand young, male nerds get in
the same room together to talk about the same stuff they all just read on
Hacker News.

Anyway. That's my rant. I did enjoy PG's talk, even though he has a kind of
odd aspect on stage. Glad I went, but it could've been something more than
what it was.

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tarekayna
I think the post is just too harsh. I understand where you are coming from,
but:

\- “be transparent”. You have to expect that startups are going to be looking
for talent (founders are always recruiting).

\- “tell us what we don’t know”. They don’t know what you don’t know
(nevermind what a 1000 people don’t know). They just tell you their stories
and at best you would be inspired and motivated. They succeeded at that.

\- “engage”. They spent several hours talking to people. I would rather them
engage this way than to engage stage to audience.

Having all these people in one room was the great thing about this event. I
met other founders who are trying to make it, MBAs who are looking to join
startups, cs students and YC alum. Not to mention pitching to many people,
engaging in discussions about my startup and getting feedback. I would not
label that a lost opportunity.

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massarog
I had a nice time and got to meet some great people. The only suggestion for
next time is to somehow label the name tags with either company name,
programmer, designer, etc. Everyone was just a name to me so I didn't know
what they did until I approached them.

~~~
johnthedebs
_I didn't know what they did until I approached them._

After thinking about it for a while that night, I came to the conclusion that
this was the point.

~~~
massarog
I'm not quite sure it was the point. With nearly 800 people in the room, tons
of time could have been wasted trying to find out who was who and trying to
find the types of people you wanted to talk to. Going up to everybody and
asking them what they didn't clearly wasn't an option..so just putting the
company name, or developer, designer, etc. below the name tag would have been
extremely helpful. All they had to do was put an extra field for this on the
YCNYC signup form and it could have been printed on the name tags.

------
tsycho
FWIW, my 2 cents:

1\. I thought PG's informal speaking style was actually quite cool, no issues
with that. However, he did seem a bit distracted. At times, it felt like he
wasn't sure what he wanted to say next.

2\. There were too many people. Maybe I shouldn't complain, since I am not
sure if I would be invited if YC didn't invite so many, but it meant that the
speakers/alumni were crowded-out most of the time. Having booths would make it
easier to find alumni, but it makes it more like a career fair so I am not
sure I like that too much either. Another alternative would be to split up the
area into multiple sub-areas for each of the speakers, and have a separate
parallel Q&A. I have seen this done successfully in other industry
conferences.

3\. I thought the presentations were generally quite good and left me inspired
(and scared as well). Talking about YC's application process would have been a
waste of time since most people seemed quite familiar with YC anyway. The one
thing I would have changed - having some time for on-the-spot Q&A.

4\. The lack of explanation about color coding was a major complaint. I would
have had 2 icons per badge instead of color coding - one indicating if you
were a designer/developer etc., and the other icon indicating whether you were
looking for a job, trying to hire etc. Good, obvious icons are way easier to
understand than color codes.

Overall, I am happy that YC came to NYC, and that I got the opportunity to
meet so many cool people. So thank you YC team for that, and for bringing me a
couple of steps closer to making the leap :)

~~~
pp13
Agreed on all points.

------
daegloe
pg, overall, I did enjoy the event. As did many others, so it appeared. Sure,
it wasn't perfect, but great insight from YC partners and founders. Thank you.

It was a bit difficult to network, however. As other posters have pointed out,
there were so many attendees and since there were no indicative markings on
the badges, it was impossible to distinguish between a potential "match" and a
friendly (but potentially unproductive) conversation. But hey, hindsight is
20/20. Looking forward to next time.

As you mentioned in your talk, you're unlikely to run into Sean Parker while
strolling down 5th Avenue. NYC-area Meetups are enjoyable, as are, at times,
General Assembly and other NYC institutions. But as you joked about on stage,
they are not a substitute for the daily serendipity and access to talent that
Silicon Valley has to offer. This is one of the Valley's greatest strategic
advantages. That being said, there is a tremendous talent pool in NYC and last
night helped reaffirm this fact. Over the course of my two entrepreneurial
decades in this great city, I have never seen a NYC startup event attract such
a targeted, valuable and eager audience. It's very possible that the YC brand-
name was responsible for this feat. Would YC have any interest in sponsoring a
regular NYC networking event? In addition to increasing YC-startup visibility
and access to local talent, this could serve as a great boon for the NYC
startup community.

------
f7u12
I agree it was probably a little bit of a lost opportunity for YC. I was
interested in talking to a couple of the YC companies but it was hard to find
them in the crowd.

Overall I can't complain though. Personally I met some great people at the
event and got to shake hands with some alumni. It was a great experience and
not a missed opportunity for myself. Thanks YC for that. I will take the
sentiments toward the NYC startup scene as a challenge. :)

~~~
pg
Yes, there were too many people. We originally expected the event to be much
smaller, but a lot more people asked for invitations than we expected, and we
then had to choose between increasing the size and turning away most of the
people who wanted to come. With some misgivings, we chose the former. But
unfortunately then it no longer felt like the informal meetup we intended. I'm
not sure what to do about this problem. Maybe we just can't do meetups.

~~~
rglover
Being in attendance, I don't think the size detracted from the quality of the
event. It actually made networking a lot easier (merely because there were so
many different people to talk to). Being that this was the first NYC event
ever, I think things went well. If you decide to do another in the future,
you'll know what works and what doesn't. I hope more than anything, though,
the size and enthusiasm of the crowd helped to show the desire for a strong
startup community on the East Coast.

------
picasso81
Does anyone realize the size of the NYC crowd was larger than Startup School -
which takes places in the heart of Silicon Valley? Last night was standing
room only. I left thinking the NYC scene was thirsty for an event such as
YCNYC. If you left complaining, I think you showed up with the wrong frame of
mind. I met some fantastic people, and really enjoyed presenting. Props to PG
and Co. for bringing a community together.

------
michaelpinto
I have to say that I disagree with the author: Yes the event was a plug for Y
Combinator -- but as someone who is interested in the other coast it was a
great in person taste of the program that I could never have gotten via a
podcast, blog entry or hanging out here. Also in the past I've incorrectly
read the program as being a one way ticket to the valley — and I was very
impressed that Paul was selling it as a college experience and a network to
tap into above all else.

And I got to tell you something: It's the first time in my life that anybody
from THE valley said out loud "I think it's cool to have a startup in NYC".
I've been in the scene here for years before it was cool, and it was music to
my ears to hear that. And of course we'd love it if Paul announced that they
were coming to NYC -- but I came to realize that if they did that part of what
makes Y Combinator so cool wouldn't come along for the ride (sort of like
opening CBGB in Vegas).

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j2labs
I personally liked PG's awkwardness. It felt Jeffersonian.

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arisey
Great event, however would be perfect if more structured networking mechanism
is implemented. In addition to color-code on name tag, I would suggest to set
up a Google doc to allow attendees to freely sharing their project, what they
are looking for (i.e. co-founder or developers) and contact info... before the
event. This facilitates to find like-minded / same-interest people
effectively, more productive meetup in person at the event. Without this pre-
researched info, best luck to find "Sean Parker" in the people sea.

------
neovive
We should consider the first iteration of YCNYC a MVP. Kudos to Renee and the
YC team for taking a chance and pulling off a great event. I really enjoyed
the evening (see my HN post from yesterday --
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3043069>). It was very inspiring, with
lots of energy in the room and was a rare opportunity to speak with YC alums.
The fact that YC provided free pizza and beer was a great gesture.

------
scottkrager
Did anyone get the speech on video?

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dools
I wouldn't count on the "come work for us" being a planned goal of the evening
- it's just that those companies are always on the hunt for new hires and take
any opportunity they can to connect with good people.

The same thing happened at SydStart the other day - lots of great and
inspirational speakers but all of them that were involved with large companies
(BigCommerce, Freelancer.com etc.) had a "we're hiring" at the end of their
talk.

------
robjohnson
From the author's remarks, it seems as if this event suffered from the same
ailments that our education system has - we teach/perform/guide as if everyone
(1) perceives and interacts with information the same way and (2) possesses
the same amount of background knowledge. These assumptions are obviously
fallacious, but coming up with effective alternatives is a challenging
proposition.

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johnx123-up
Any videos, please?

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trocker
on first look, I'm pretty sure Justin has flattered PG. :D

------
athoma
Suits shouldn't be allowed to this type of meetup. I definitely saw at least 5
people in suits. so lame.

~~~
kellysutton
I wore a jacket and tie to the event. I'm a developer and I've sold a company.
I try to not look like a slob. It will get you further than you might think.

Please don't make assumptions.

~~~
chairface
so, I agree with your sentiment. However, you just equated not wearing a
jacket and tie with looking like a slob... and then asked someone else not to
make assumptions. I'd kindly suggest that his "snob" is roughly equivalent to
your "slob".

