
Two New YC Partners: Kirsty Nathoo and Carolynn Levy - pg
http://ycombinator.posterous.com/two-new-yc-partners-kirsty-nathoo-and-carolyn
======
Cushman
Based on this and the biannual stories of how many great teams there wasn't
room for, I wonder: how long until the YC partners aren't advisors so much as
the deans and department heads of YC University?

I realize that's a hugely loaded question, just curious what people's thoughts
are.

~~~
aaronblohowiak
These are SMEs not GMs, so I would suggest quite some time. Further, these are
promotions of existing contributors, not 'true' staff expansions.

~~~
opminion
Agreed, no need to GTTM of IIP, which would diminish the FAB of JUT.

~~~
aaronblohowiak
I couldn't follow your comment, so I tried to google what those acronyms
meant. I couldn't find a reasonable answer, so in case you had a similar
difficulty with my post, here are the expanded forms of SME and GM:

* Subject Matter Experts * General Managers.

~~~
prawn
Thought SME was more often Small and Medium Enterprise? Is that not true where
you are? (AU here.)

~~~
aaronblohowiak
When talking about businesses, not when talking about people.

~~~
prawn
Reading about people advising businesses threw me off when skim-reading.
Sorry!

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guynamedloren
Can somebody please explain what it means to be a YC partner?

~~~
tptacek
Traditionally, the difference between a "partner" and an "employee" is that
partners share a formally-defined portion of the earnings of the business. A
partnership is a business in which all the profits of the business which
aren't simply invested back into the business flow to the partners.

I have no idea if that's exactly what it means at YC; partnership at YC might
have as much to do with how portfolio-company-facing or visible a team member
is.

~~~
larrys
"share a formally-defined portion of the earnings"

Which typically vary according to the particular partner by various items
including seniority, equity invested, as only two factors.

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mattmaroon
Congrats. Carolynn had been our lawyer for almost 5 years and was excellent.

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jermaink
Kirsty is a very nice person who always had an open ear and fast feedback for
yc applicants. Thank you for that and congratulations!

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rdl
I didn't realize Kirsty wasn't a partner before.

~~~
renownedmedia
Ditto; I always saw her around and accidentally assumed the same. She was
always doing a lot to help.

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larrys
I don't know Carolynn but I would assume she has some significant business
skills in addition to legal skills. From my experience it typically wouldn't
make sense to make a partner out of a legal adviser for this type of business
(as opposed to a business where you may be regularly fighting legal battles)
and certainly not in the same percentage as a non-legal skills partner. Once
again I don't know this particular situation. But a mistake I have often seen
entrepreneurs in IRL make is becoming partners with their attorney or teaming
up with an attorney in a business dealings. Attorneys tend to frame everything
in legal risk which can often get in the way of certain risks you inevitably
need to take in business.

One example might be the tendency that I have seen for a company to present a
sales prospect with a multi page legal document to sign for even the smallest
of dealings. This creates friction and isn't always necessary for small
transactions and it gets in the way of closing deals. Every situation is
different of course.

~~~
opminion
<http://paulgraham.com/julian.html>

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lsb
In addition to the 7 on <http://ycombinator.com/people.html> who are the other
two?

~~~
alagu
Garry and Aaron (<http://ycombinator.posterous.com/welcome-garry-and-aaron>)

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ddt
Woo! We would be about three months behind where we are now if it weren't for
Kirsty and Carolynn's help.

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rokhayakebe
More women (qualified) in tech. Kudos.

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Vaismania
Congrats Kirsty - she's a major force behind YCs success.

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leeb
Even with these new additions, Paul Graham is still the only YC partner
without a set of double letters in his name :) Congrats to Kirsty and
Carolynn!

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zbruhnke
Congrats Kirsty! You deserve it for all the hardwork and time you put in
dealing with all of our questions and accounting issues. thanks for all you
do!

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samstokes
Congratulations Kirsty, much deserved!

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asdf333
Congratulations Kirsty!!!

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ericfrenkiel
congrats Kirsty and Carolynn!

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vaksel
is this partners where you just give them the title.

or is this like what you have with law firms, where they have to buy their way
in as well?

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lowglow
Congratulations, Kirsty and Carolynn!

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itsprofitbaron
Congratulations Kirsty & Carolynn

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modarts
Great work you guys, keep it up

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felixchan
Congrats Kirsty and Carolynn!

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anandkulkarni
Congratulations, Kirsty and Carolynn!

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eoghan
Congrats Kirsty. Very cool news. :-)

