

Ask HN: how was your startup school experience? - anigbrowl


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rachelbythebay
Crowded, to a scary degree when people started squishing into the lobby
despite no actual forward progress at the head of the line. I learned some
things about herd behavior that day.

The talks were largely uninteresting. I got far more out of the meet & greets
which happened the night before.

Ultimately I voted with my feet and left early.

~~~
anigbrowl
I didn't see you at the meet-n-greet, but agree with you about the crowd size.
I enjoyed the presentations a great deal but didn't even attempt having
conversation on Saturday. I had intended to sit with the person I arrived with
(krithek2, IIRC) but although he was just a few places behind me in the line
for name badges we lost each other in the swirling crowd. I presume it was the
event managers who decided where to put the registration table etc.; I suppose
they know the location and are used to events like this, but I'd have done
that part differently.

PS the crowding is also why I completely failed at meeting anyone from Friday
night - sorry Lynn from Google (whose last name I can't remember :-/), Harry
Yu and Paul Biggar.

~~~
rachelbythebay
The registration setup was miserable, and the scanners didn't work. Who
thought up that traffic flow pattern? We're going to come in, cross through
ourselves to get in line, then cross through again to get out the same door,
when the building clearly has front and side access?

Set up a bunch of stations, have a bank style line, and when a station frees
up, someone goes to it. Or just do what Fry's does and have someone directing
you to the next available station. People come in the front, enter the line,
hit a station, and depart out the side door. This has the added side-effect of
keeping people from coming IN through that door, which is what happened around
11:40 when people all crowded in because we all thought something was
starting.

I definitely did not go to join an impromptu mosh pit, but that's what we had
for a while there.

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ronyeh
I enjoyed the talks (hadn't seen these folks speak before).

I met a couple people, but wish there was more time between talks to chat with
people. Perhaps if there was designated signposts/corners-of-the-courtyard for
random topics, like "Funding" or "Solo Founders" or "Web" or "Mobile", etc...
then it would have been easier to seek out like-minded folks.

I agree with previous posters about poor logistics. I'm not sure why they
didn't just let us into the auditorium before 11:58am. That would have greatly
reduced the congestion in the lobby area. I was worried there'd be a stampede
:-) to see Zuck.

I was too tired (old) to drive up to SF afterward. Too bad Box (or some Palo
Alto company) didn't host the party, so we could stay down near the campus
afterward. :-) I'd have paid to go to the party if it was just on the Stanford
campus (at the student union or whatever).

------
xoail
For me just to see them (the speakers) in person was worth it. It's like being
at a concert of your favorite band x 1000. This was the first time I saw them
all and I felt emotional and wanting to be one of them. Besides that, the
talks themselves were good, inspiring and eye-opening.

------
caphill
I enjoyed it, I thought the talks were very motivating. Everyone was really
friendly wish I could have mingled more but late flight in and early flight
out.

~~~
leeskye
While the crowds were huger than I've ever seen, I agree with you on the
talks. It was refreshing to hearing from Ben Horowitz. Ron Conway, a living
legend IMO, provides fascinating stories of tech giants (the part about Sergey
and Larry feeling doubtful of ever getting to be successful as Sean Fanning
was cool to hear). Finally, I really enjoyed hearing insights from Jessica,
who interfaces with all these YC founders.

