
Applications open for Startup School - pg
http://startupschool.org
======
pg
Notice that this year we've expanded the intended audience from hackers to
include designers and engineers as well.

~~~
salimmadjd
Why are you asking for age? As the leader in the space of incubator you're
setting the stage for age discrimination and you're making it acceptable. I'm
very disappointed!

~~~
pg
Because we have higher standards for achievement for a 30 year old than a 20
year old.

~~~
amirmc
The form only asks for education and where you've worked. That's a limited
definition of higher standard (especially for hackers and designers).

You also wrote this [1] back in 2007. Have your views changed since then?

[1]
[http://www.paulgraham.com/colleges.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/colleges.html)

~~~
pg
It asks what's the coolest thing you've built.

~~~
amirmc
Indeed it does. When I posted my comment, the additional questions about tools
and coolest thing you've built, were not appearing.

Edit: As mentioned in a sibling comment, This appears to be an issue with
Safari where items 'below the fold' don't render. Strange.

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ghc
I went to the first (?) one of these back in 2005 at Harvard. I really, really
wish there was one on the east coast to complement the SV one. It was a great
experience and I think there are a ton of up-and-coming entrepreneurs fresh
out of school (or still in it) in Boston and New York who would benefit from
the experience.

~~~
nrivadeneira
I wish there was one in NY too. I'm sure there are some enterprising enough
among us that can make it happen.

~~~
grandalf
I'll help.

~~~
kyro
Me too. Let's get one started.

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akg_67
Application Form is broken on Safari 6.0.5 on OS X 10.8.4. It doesn't display
anything after "What tools do you like?"

Error Console shows "Failed to load resource: the server responded with a
status of 404 (Not Found)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/sus.css"](https://news.ycombinator.com/sus.css")

------
bambax
Pics from last year's

[http://bambax.smugmug.com/Other/2012-10StartupSchool/2708004...](http://bambax.smugmug.com/Other/2012-10StartupSchool/27080040_bVJ942)

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dzink
pg, are you guys taking volunteers for Startup School by any chance?

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unono
PG should think about 'franchising' his operation. By that, I mean creating a
systemic process for accrediting founders, choosing franchisees in big cities
around the world, and a webapp to manage this all. He could scale the YC
startup process to thousands of startups per batch. In fact, it might become a
sign of failure to not be accredited by YC when seeking first round VC.

~~~
argumentum
Speaking as a member of the the "batch that broke YC (s12)", I think YC's
resources are best utilized by continuing to improve the quality of the
program at its current size. Read:
[http://ycombinator.com/w13smaller.html](http://ycombinator.com/w13smaller.html)

Obviously the quality is already very high, but still quite a ways to go for
each batch consist of "50 AirBnBs", which to me is a far more impressive goal
than having 1000s of lower quality startups. It's also better that YC is a
signal of success than "not-YC" being a signal of failure. Franchising would
dilute the brand and more importantly be a distraction from (as YC would
always say) making and improving something people want.

YC is relatively "open-sourced" and there's nothing to stop others from
creating accelerators with similar models around the world (and in the
valley). There are already hundreds of imitators and these catch many of those
that YC misses.

~~~
unono
I'm saying this politely - so don't bite my head off - but

a.) you would say that, wouldn't you, you'd like as much of PG's attention as
possible

b.) it's quite presumptious to state that the 1000s of others would be lower
quality. Are the less than 1000, mid 20s, mostly male, mostly american,
applicants to YC the best candidates on earth?

There are probably 1000x, if not more, capable founders of all age groups,
nationalities, and genders that PG could get a slice of. He's built a brand
and should seek to capitalize on it before someone establishes a superior
brand.

Off course, this all about what PG does for fun, he's already rich enought to
never work again. It might be that he enjoys mentoring a few founders a couple
of times a year and doesn't have global ambitions.

~~~
argumentum
b.) The startups being of "lower quality" has only to do with a watered down
selection process. If you were to go to a YC dinner or demo day it would be
immediately obvious that while there are plenty of mid-20s, male, american
founders there are also plenty that don't fall into those categories.

Harvard "built a brand", but I don't see Harvard establishing franchises
around the world to capitalize and satisfy it's "global ambitions". It's
satisfied with trying to be a better Harvard, which is why it's brand
persists.

In the same sense, YC could scale by getting more of those 1000x capable
founders to apply the regular way and continue to improve on picking the best
of them.

~~~
jacalata
Re: Harvard - what about the Harvard Extension School, specific overseas
programs such as the Harvard Beijing Academy which are open to
anyone([http://www.summer.harvard.edu/programs/study-
abroad](http://www.summer.harvard.edu/programs/study-abroad)), and now online
courses ([http://www.extension.harvard.edu/distance-
education](http://www.extension.harvard.edu/distance-education)) and finally
EdX? That's like a textbook case of extending their brand to get more of the
market.

~~~
argumentum
My argument was against "franchising" in the sense that the franchises would
be top-level equivalents of YC, a demand on the time of YC partners and a
dilution of the network.

I think YC does extend its' brand in a different way: by funding companies
that create new avenues for startup funding/networking such as FundersClub.

------
graeme
I have a couple of questions for those who have gone before.

I'm currently building a smaller business. Decent recurring revenue, very
unlikely to scale to big proportions. Basically aiming for financial freedoms.
Not technical, but learning to make websites for what I'm working on.

Is this worth my while to apply for? My time is flexible, so I'd just be
looking at cost of flight + booking to attend.

------
ChrisCinelli
What about opportunities to network, brainstorm ideas, and start conversations
with interesting people before the event beside Hacker News?

I always met great people at the day of the event but I had the feeling that I
may have missed some important connections with people that may have similar
interests and/or complementary skill set to mine.

------
JesseAldridge
The google maps link to Flint Center seems broken. I just get a zoomed out
view of the Bay Area.

~~~
omarali
[https://maps.google.com/maps?q=37.321766,-122.046626&ll=37.3...](https://maps.google.com/maps?q=37.321766,-122.046626&ll=37.321455,-122.04493&spn=0.00622,0.011759&num=1&t=h&z=17)

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nodesocket
New location from previous years at Stanford.

Flint Center 21250 Stevens Creek Blvd, Cupertino, CA ‎

~~~
jc123
Hopefully that venue will be even larger, so that more successful applicants
can attend for the truly awesome experience.

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staunch
I always look forward to the Startup School talks and interviews that get
streamed and posted on the web. Would love to see DHH and especially Andrew
Mason again.

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goronbjorn
What happened to BASES?

~~~
ajju
Looks like FLINT center has a higher seating capacity. Startup School was
pretty packed last year, so I am glad they are increasing the seating
capacity.

~~~
goronbjorn
Hm, I guess I meant more in terms of their involvement with the event at
large. As far back as 2007
([http://web.archive.org/web/20070105191044/http://startupscho...](http://web.archive.org/web/20070105191044/http://startupschool.org/)),
Startup School was run by YC along with BASES.

My only guess would be since they don't need a venue on Stanford's campus,
they don't need help from BASES anymore, but I was just looking for someone to
confirm.

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prajit
This is not "first come, first serve", right?

~~~
jfoster
Correct.

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holyjeebis
Soon every child will be born with its own "startup".

I've come up with a formula...

<large font><made up word - typically something like boopnik, slurpio,
cloppertrin, etc>Do <something that has been done 5,000 times>, <faster,
better, more, gooder, bestester, more better, simply, less hard, more
easier></large font> blah blah blah blah blah, here's a picture of us sailing
and helping the homeless, because we're unique. Give us money. Thx.

...because in order to really protect your customers' data, you should share
it with more clueless children who think javascript should be used for
everything.

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MysticFear
Having the Startup School in the cradle of startups is preaching to the choir,
no?

------
bishopknight
Wow that is the most beautiful application form I've ever seen /sarcasm

