
Y Combinator announces two new partners, Paul Buchheit and Harj Taggar - pg
http://ycombinator.posterous.com/y-combinator-announces-two-new-partners-paul
======
markbao
Congratulations to Paul, Harj, and YC. Really glad to see important things
like Y Combinator grow, since even a small change at YC results in a huge
effect on the industry given the influence that YC has.

~~~
paul
Thanks!

I believe YC is one of the most innovative places in silicon valley and has
the potential to truly change the world by helping to create hundreds of new
tech companies. It's exciting to be a part of that.

~~~
brlewis
To expand on harscoat's comment, it's exciting to me (and I imagine to many
others) that you'll be part of it, and I expect YC to be even more world-
changing now.

------
maxklein
What does it mean to be a 'partner'? Do they then get some percentage share of
the company?

~~~
pg
Yes: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited_liability_company>

~~~
nivertech
Is YC structured as an LLC? I thought funds are generally LPs.

~~~
adammichaelc
Usually in a VC firm each "raise" from limited partners is structured as a
separate LLC. One VC might have a dozen different LLC's, each one associated
with a different fundraising period.

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redorb
I think it speaks to the character of YC to promote Harj based on the job he
has done; when I think a lot of others companies would have kept him where
they hired him in at.

~~~
davidu
You don't have to promote people to show them they are doing a great job. Now,
I'm sure Harj wanted the promotion, it's a big win for him, but promotions
aren't the answer all the time.

There are lots of people who do NOT want a promotion, and you shouldn't feel
you have to give them one. Often you can give them something more meaningful
to them in the form of more compensation, bonuses, internal/external
recognition, equity, etc.

When it comes to engineers, many prefer to keep writing code, not managing
people, and simply want more recognition, equity or comp.

~~~
BrandonM
Receiving a promotion does not always require a significant shift in roles.
Good tech companies allow engineers to climb the ladder while maintaining
their propensity for writing code.

------
harscoat
Will Paul take part in the interview/selection process? Will he participate
more than the mentors dinner? & Congrats.

~~~
pg
Yes, he's going to do everything we do. Kate Courteau is arranging for us to
get a new, longer table for interviews right now.

~~~
harscoat
Because he is leaving Facebook at the same time!
[http://venturebeat.com/2010/11/12/y-combinator-paul-
graham-h...](http://venturebeat.com/2010/11/12/y-combinator-paul-graham-harj-
taggar/) Talent leave Google to FB. Now "one of the world's best hackers"
leaves FB for YC.

~~~
maxwell
Y Combinator is the next Facebook.

~~~
pg
It's nice of you to say that, but it's impossible. The portfolio effect means
that no investment firm ever ends up as big as the most successful individual
startups. Nothing beats putting all your eggs in one basket, and having that
basket turn out to be an outlier.

~~~
stevenj
What about Berkshire Hathaway? Though, it's a pretty focused portfolio.

Perhaps YC will acquire companies in the future?

~~~
pg
BH is more like a conglomerate than an investment firm. They're just a super-
disciplined conglomerate, unlike the random ones that gave the term such a bad
name in the 1970s.

~~~
dmv
More to the point, Berkshire Hathaway itself had only 19 employees as of the
2006 letter.

------
fearless
Does this mean YC will be able to fund more startups in the future as you add
more partners?

~~~
pg
We should be able to, yes.

~~~
johnrob
At this point, you guys have seen a significant slice of the startup world.
Has YC ever thought about how large your batches could become? You've said
several times that the only real limit is the number of quality teams... but
have you ever thought about how big that number really is?

~~~
pg
We've always approached that question the way hackers approach scaling
software: we don't know where the limits will be; they'll probably turn out to
be higher than we'd expect; the only way to find them will be to repeatedly
expand, and hit and remove bottlenecks.

So while we often hypothesize about what YC would look like if we funded e.g.
10x more startups, we know better than to plan to. It's a question to be
decided empirically.

------
cool-RR
I've been wondering for a long time, and this might be a good opportunity to
ask: How do you pronounce "Buchheit"?

~~~
cynicalkane
Looks German.

Buch = 'b _ookh_ ', similar to 'ach' or 'Bach'. Some Germans will pronounce
this closer to ' _boosh_ '

Heit = 'height', as in 'Gesundheit'

~~~
StavrosK
Boosh-ite, I'd guess. You'd need two aitches for bookh-hite.

~~~
jeroen
There are 2. It's Buchheit.

~~~
StavrosK
Ah, flip my comment around, then. Thanks for the correction, I didn't notice!

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staunch
I just can't believe it took so long. PB has always seemed (from the outside)
like a de facto partner. This can only make YC better. Congrats PB, Harj, and
YC.

------
rokhayakebe
I do not know who HT is but it is nice to see 'promotion' from within (being
that he previously co-founded a YC company and exited).

~~~
mattyb
<http://ycombinator.posterous.com/welcome-harj>

------
PaulJoslin
Congrats to YC, Paul and Harj!

I'd love to sit down with Harj one day and see how much he's changed since our
school days. I'm really inspired by how much he's accomplished. Although, he's
obviously worked very hard for it and it's well deserved!

~~~
Harj
ha i'd seen you on HN and dismissed the possibility you were the same Paul
Joslin from school, that's funny you actually are. hope you've been well!

~~~
PaulJoslin
It definitely is a small world! I work as a software developer for a UK
software consultancy, but dabble in my spare time on personal projects.

Techcrunch / HN / Reddit has been on my daily reading list for years. It's
definitely been interesting seeing your story unfold.

If I'm ever over in Silicon Valley, I'll have to drop you a message as it'd be
great to have a catch up and laugh about the old BGS times.

Congratulations again!

------
mrduncan
Congrats all around!

------
pchaso
Incredible announcement, 3 days before (rumors say) Facebook opening their
"gmail killer". I am reading this like a fat slap on zuckenberg's face(book
hehe) Big thumbs up for PG for messing in facebook vs google brains war.

(edit: seems I wasnt able to explain I was trying to congratulate YC for being
able to play in the big league where such companies are punching each other. I
think this speaks a lot about how YC name is growing.)

~~~
dmoney
> _..."gmail killer". I am reading this like a fat slap on zuckenberg's
> face(book hehe)_

Maybe Paul just didn't want to participate in killing his own brainchild.

~~~
pchaso
Didn't meant (I realise how unfortunate writing the comment I was) it was PG
objective crushing anyone. Its only I can not imagine a worst moment for an
engineer with so huge webmail background like this one, moving out of fb only
3 days from launch (the rest was buggy literature)

------
jnw2
Looks like <http://ycombinator.com/people.html> doesn't list Paul Buchheit
yet.

------
gaborcselle
Does this mean that PB is leaving Facebook?

~~~
rokhayakebe
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1898669>

------
known
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harjeet_Taggar>

------
bretthellman
Congrats - That's great news for everyone

------
danbmil99
I thought it was "do no evil", not "don't be evil". Subtle difference, but not
the same thing.

~~~
tung
No, the submission has it right (AFAIK). My guess as to why so many people use
the former instead of the latter is because they get their wires crossed with
the whole "see no evil, hear no evil, do no evil" saying, which has a
different source.

------
jgervin
Congrates Paul and Harj.

------
SteveMorin
Congratz to YC and Harj another step forward

------
why112
Ok great, but why?

Is there more to hacker news than the frontpage? How many people are needed to
maintain it?

~~~
hrabago
In case you're not trolling...

There is more to YCombinator than Hacker News. HN is just the social news
website intended to serve the YCombinator crowd. Your best bet to learn more
is to go to the YCombinator website; you know, the one without the "news" in
the url: <http://ycombinator.com/>

Reactions like this (when genuine) bring more attention to the fact that HN
has grown waaay beyond the YC participants.

~~~
why112
Thanks, tried actually that but no page loaded, therefore the comment. Page
loaded fine now though.

------
citizenkeys
This, along with other things, feels like we're headed into a new renaissance
period in silicon valley. There's talk everywhere about fundamental changes to
how venture capital is done. There's ycombinator, 500startups, founder
institute, etc.

Paul Graham's goal is obviously to be the valley's biggest patron for starving
artists, err, hackers.

All of this is very fresh and exciting.

------
jdp23
congrats to Y Combinator, Paul, and Harj.

it's an interesting choice to reinforce the demographic biases rather than
trying to counter them. when you decided to add two partners, did you consider
any women?

~~~
YuriNiyazov
I don't think that's how it works. YC didn't decide that 'its time to add two
partners' and then start looking for candidates. What actually happened is
that there were people who were already acting like partners in everything but
title, and this is just a formalization of that.

~~~
jdp23
according to the interview with Paul B in the LA Times, "Paul Graham had
mentioned it several years back but I was looking to start FriendFeed at the
time. It’s hard to do anything else when you are trying to start a start-up.
He mentioned it again this summer and it got me thinking again." So it sounds
like they actually _did_ seek out at least one candidate.

~~~
jdp23
i was surprised to see this downvoted. it seemed to me that i had introduced a
fact that directly contradicted YuriNiyazov's point above. people on HN pride
themselves on being evidence based. what am i missing?

~~~
YuriNiyazov
Actually, what you are missing is the subtext of my original message. I have
to go now and tend to my startup, but if you want to email me directly I'll
respond when I can

~~~
jdp23
i don't really like email ... how about Facebook?

here's some subtext for my question: <http://www.talesfromthe.net/jon/?p=2091>

------
rams
Now these are all fine people.Maybe it's time to add some color and character
to YC.How about a James Bondish cat stroking villain type as partner,who sits
in a dark corner of the room during the interview.Meow - Make stuff people
want.

~~~
zandorg
That's either Elon Musk or Peter Thiel for bond-villainy.

