
So, who's going to Startup School? - RyanGWU82

======
iamelgringo
Not me... I got my rejection email yesterday. I thought I'd be more
disappointed at getting turned down, but I'm not. It's actually motivated me
to step out on my own.

One of the big reasons that YC exists is to mentor young entrepreneurs. I
would love to have a mentor, but I think that I"m going to branch out on my
own to find them, instead of drowning in the crowd at Start-up school to
exchange three words with Jessica or Paul. Instead, I've been considering
volunteering at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View to hang out with
some elder geeks. The Computer History Museum has a bunch of volunteer
hardware/software hackers who restore vintage main-frames. These are all
really smart hackers who have spent decades in the tech business, and they are
spending time in retirement doing geek stuff, because they love it. These are
the kind of people that I want to spend time with.

My team and I just moved to Silicon Valley this past year, and we're setting
up out entire lives around the idea of having a series of start-ups. We've
driven a combined total of 12 thousand miles to get here. We're set up
financially so we can afford to iterate through start-up ideas without
breaking the bank. We have a great space to work in, and we're meeting a lot
of cool people. I actually talked with a man a few weeks ago who knew William
Shockley of Shockley Semiconductor fame.

Yeah, It's been a hard road just to get to Silicon Valley. I'm sad that I
didn't get in to the startup school. But, I'm sure that I'm going to get a lot
more rejections throughout my career as an entrepreneur. If I wanted something
easy, I'd choose a different career. I'm doing this because I enjoy the
challenge. I'm doing this because I love technology. I'm doing this because I
love the game, and I'm in it for the long haul.

------
Sam_Odio
Coming from Wash DC...

Just made a wiki so we can all coordinate stuff to do and share rides:
http://startup_weekend.bluwiki.com/

~~~
omarish
also coming in from dc.

------
aran
Would anyone care to toss out an evaluation of how worthwhile it is? I want to
attend, but I would be taking days off from school and traveling from east-
central Canada. (Very Expensive!) Feel free to drop me an email at
aran@arandonohue.com if you don't want to be public with your opinions.
Thanks!

------
sethjohn
I'll be 'attending'...via podcast.

When I first got involved with a proto-startup (redundant?) I came across a
podcast of some previous year and it was by far the best crash course in
startup business I've seen.

Has there only been one previous year? Other online?

------
danielha
I'll be there as well. I'm looking forward to meeting the lot of you. :)

We have a meetup discussion going in here:
http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=2757

It'd be great to meet the startup community "after school," so let's decide on
a place.

------
chiefwhite
Guys I missed the deadline for application. If anyone got approved but can't
attend, please, I'd be very thankful to you for sharing your invite with me, I
can even consider buying it! Thanks! Please drop me a few words to
white@chief.la

~~~
Sam_Odio
chiefwhite,

last time I went (in 2005), there was absolutely no security and plenty of
free chairs. Anyone could've easily shown up without being questioned...

I don't know if it will be the same this year, but if you're in the area maybe
you can try showing up?

Who knows... if they catch you... maybe PG will appreciate your hacker-ish
persistence :)

~~~
pg
Actually this year we're tightening up security a bit.

Please don't just show up. It's very nice of Stanford to lend us the
auditorium, and we don't want to be bad citizens. If we have too many people
for the room, the campus police won't like it.

------
jamiequint
I'll be there, just got my invite, I made a facebook group so we can all chat
& talk about meeting up...

http://up.facebook.com/event.php?eid=2251607090

anyone else coming from out of town? (I'm coming down from Portland, OR)

~~~
Elfan
I'll be coming from PA.

------
aristus
Coming from Miami, looking to see if I still own a coat. :)

http://carlos.bueno.org/2007/03/startup-school-startup-culture.html

------
semigeek
I'll be there (From Cleveland, OH). Staying downtown with a rental car - left
my cell number on the bluwiki site.

------
RMena
I will be going! My name is Robert from Phoenix, Arizona our site is
TallStreet.com, if anyone cares.

------
palish
I'll be there. I'm from St Louis, MO, so it'll be refreshing to get out of the
midwest ;)

------
prashantdesale
I'll be there. I am working on Social Marketplace called Onista.
http://www.onista.com

------
RyanGWU82
I'll be there. :)

\-- Ryan Park, Stanford grad student

------
nandan
I ll be there (from Atlanta,GA)

------
wensing
See you there (from Florida).

~~~
aristus
Where in FL? I'm in Miami. Maybe we can meetup before or after.

~~~
ljlolel
I'm in Miami too. Not sure if I can go, though. When are you flying up?

~~~
aristus
We're going out Friday morning, back on Sunday evening. Ping me, eh? There's a
surprising amount of startup stuff happening in Miami. Carlos at Bueno period
organization-tld

------
veritas
I'll be there from Jersey.

------
jasonyan
Count me in. :)

------
abstractbill
I'll be there.

------
mattculbreth
I'll be there.

