

Come stay at the hacker house in San Jose, Free - samwise

My partner and I will be launching our startup in a week or two. We will subsequently be moving to San Jose, CA on June 8th to pursue our venture full time. We will be staying at a great 4 bedroom single home in a fantastic area.<p>Our startup is small, just the two of us. So that means we will have two rooms to spare, rather than renting the rooms to some total (useless) strangers i would rather have two (useful) hackers stay.<p>I came up with an interesting solution. Why not let hackers stay for free as long as they provided some contribution to the house and our project. It would make for great environment, an environment of education,networking and most of all, fun. So if you think you would be interested in staying in the "hacker house" submit a short application to us via our e-mail. Include your Name,background,projects/demos,and what you would add to the house.<p>We would like for the interested YCers to be from the east coast or Midwest, people that normally wouldn't have the opportunity to move to bay area. A younger crown is preferred, i'm 22 and my partner is 23. For many reason, men only. You don't have to be a hacker, but it's strong recommended.<p>Please understand that there will no compensation besides room and board and possibly a community car(i'm not sure yet, i have to check with insurance company).food?ramen?. You will be responsible for all travel expenses. We will also have a crash couch for any hackers that are passing through. We simply ask that the guest write a blog post on our blog about themselves/company. I'm sure i'm forgetting a lot of info, but i'll be setting up a simple dedicated site just for the house soon.<p>Feel free to subscribe to my twitter feed for more info.http://twitter.com/cbomb
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samwise
I just want to thank everyone for their positive feedback and all the great
applicants. There's a lot of great talent and i'm sure we'll have no problem
finding the right people. My only wish is that we have more room. I also
wanted to take this time to respond to a couple comments.

why only girls you ask. I think this is a non-issue since most girls wouldn't
want to live in a house full of "geeks", but in either case i believe it would
cause for huge distraction and ultimately take away from what we are there to
do, and that's build great companies. Don't get me wrong, the last thing i
want is a sausage fest. Members/tenants are welcome to have guests of any sex.

You don't have to work on our startup solely. we actually would encourage you
to have your own job and just moonlight with everyone else in the house on
their respective projects. You can stay as long as you want or until the money
runs out, which ever happens first. We have enough cash for a little less than
a year.

Many of the applicants are relatively close to us (Philadelphia Area) so i
will attempt to meet as many of you guys as possible in the coming months
prior to the move.

I'll have a house blog up soon. I would like anyone that's currently working
on a project and would like some coverage to send me a write up of their
startup so that i can post it on the house blog. I find the idea of a
community of hackers working to help each other really exciting, and i hope
that more startups use similar methods.

Can anyone come up with name for the house. I need a domain name idea. Don't
forget to subscribe to my twitter feed for updates <http://twitter.com/cbomb>

~~~
jlam
Instead of merely having a home, why not incorporate it as a non-profit
cooperative. The paperwork isn't very hard. We've done it from scratch here at
the <http://Ant-Hill.org> in Rochester. The effort to found a developer/start-
up co-op then goes on to sustain yet more start-ups. A co-op/social venture
would grow independently and foster others, and even help sustain your venture
in a positive feedback cycle too.

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CRASCH
That is a very cool idea. Unfortunately I can't apply.

I thought about another idea that would work for me though and might be fun
and helpful for you.

I think you guys should also have a virtual guest hacker stay at the house.
Setup some sort of video chat and the virtual guest hacker would hang out
virtually and you could trade ideas and do the same type of hanging out except
the shared pizza/ramen. I'd do the same type of selection process and maybe
limit it to a day or a week. You might even get some famous hackers to hang
out. You might consider targeting the profile of the guest hacker too. There
are specific steps that need to be done along the path to success. Why not try
to get the hacker of the week that has experience doing what your working on.
It could also generate some buzz if you do it right.

------
davidw
Just to be a bit contrarian, while it sounds like a good idea, the dynamic of
having "some people more equal" than others might be tricky. Having people pay
their part, or at least a part, might actually make sense from that point of
view.

~~~
BrandonM
I agree. When I lived with my girlfriend, I had a bit more money and she had a
bit more time, so I paid the utilities while she did the stuff I wasn't as
good at (read: didn't like), like laundry. That worked out pretty well, I
thought.

If it had instead been the case that I just paid extra while she did nothing
to make up for it, it would have been awkward, like she owed me something. I
think it's important to make sure that everyone feels they are contributing
their fair share to the cost and upkeep of the house.

~~~
wallflower
> while she did the stuff I wasn't as good at

Ever heard Click 'n Clack's (CarTalk show) theory of planned incompetence for
husbands?

The first time your wife asks you to do something you really don't want to do
- do it so badly (e.g. laundry - turn everything pink) that she would be
remiss to ask you again... Brilliant

~~~
BrandonM
Or, you could just tell her you don't like it and negotiate a different
arrangement. I think honesty with your wife is probably the way to go. If you
can't be honest with her, why did you marry her in the first place?

~~~
wallflower
I'm not married. But I think you could tell.

------
lee
Why guys only? I've had roommate situations with both genders and mixing has
never hurt.

~~~
petercooper
When you're a young, unsettled man, you don't necessarily want to "waste" time
extending the courtesies that are generally required when you live with women.
All that nonsense with toilet seats, over the top levels of cleanliness, not
calling people douchebags or bitches for fun, etc. Now, there are quite a few
women out there who can operate just like men and would be just as good as a
man in the anticipated role, but the odds are significantly lower.. whereas a
man would most likely just "fit in."

Besides, these guys might have personal reasons. Sexual discrimination is
something to eradicate at a societal level, not a personal one. If you simply
don't get along with women, you shouldn't be forced to work with them (and
vice versa!) This means there shouldn't be sexual discrimination in a general
workplace, but in your own home you can discriminate all you like!

~~~
Xichekolas
Wow... just... wow.

Something tells me that the women applying to be live-in-hackers are not going
to be the same ones that bitch about toilet seats.

I'm sure he has his reasons for only wanting guys... and it's his house, but
seriously man, you sound like a walking stereotype when you say that stuff.

~~~
run4yourlives
I think all he's saying is that for him, he's not particularity comfortable
around women and would prefer to be around men to ensure that comfort.

At least he's aware of his discomfort, I guess.

------
nazgulnarsil
hopefully we'll see more of this type of thing. wouldn't it be great if hacker
news wound up getting some co-founders together that went on to be successful?
PG mentions in several essays that college is the best place to find co-
founders. Why not a social network that is exclusively for startup minded
people?

~~~
aneesh
StudentBusinesses.com

YouNoodle.com

------
forsaken
Cool idea. I'm still in school, but I love the sense of trust in the
community. Best of luck.

------
martythemaniak
This is an excellent idea - and I don't think you'll have trouble finding the
kinda housemates you need. Personally, I'd be all over this if I didn't have a
job over here, so good luck.

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tlrobinson
Interesting idea.

Just make sure you're clean in terms of intellectual property contributed by
people outside your startup...

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amohr
Now I'm just imagining what is essentially a hacker frat house. That would be
sweet for some sort of incubator or whatnot to set up a 10-20 bedroom house in
SJ or SV or somewhere and get like 5-7 startups to all work out of there. You
could pay their living expenses +stipend and such in exchange for equity and
they could get the benefit of living with a bunch of hackers. Eta Alpha
Kappa!! 

~~~
blinks
I don't think you could have a legitimate hacker frat without π.

~~~
Xichekolas
Or Lambda

Edit: To show my unicode credentials... λ

~~~
Sam_Odio
<http://EtaLambdaChi.org>

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jdavid
this brings up a point..

do we need a YC hacker housing feed? We are moving from the Midwest and are
interested in meeting as many people out there as possible. I have been trying
Roommates.com now for a while, but many people there are not as crazy into the
start up experience as we are.

We are planing on renting a uHaul in the middle of May.

~~~
Prrometheus
On my great big idea whiteboard, I have "Hacker Classifieds" listed for just
this reason. Why not build it in your spare time? I'll be trying to launch my
site at the end of May.

------
Payton
Fun idea and an interesting way to get some smart people on your radar!

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iamdave
Props for opening your home like that. Great way to network and help out other
folks.

------
raghus
<http://superhappydevhouse.org> (not the same thing of course, but still
useful for anyone that's interested)

------
brentr
If it weren't for my lack of confidence in being able to contribute in the
hacker-sense (I've never been part of a huge project), I would say that I'd be
glad to help. There's not much start-up wise going on in Sandusky, OH. I would
be all over this idea if the post had stated: Looking for someone with some
knowledge of programming and a strong background in finance.

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abossy
This is interesting. I plan to move out to San Jose in mid-July to do FT at
IBM. Would you mind sending me more info., namely where in San Jose you're
located and what your project is all about?

adambossy [at] gmail [dot] com

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thenotself
Hey, I'm up in Toronto working on my startup and looking to launch in a week
or two. I wanted to head down to San Jose to work on the launch, so the timing
would be great for me. Look for my email.

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vikas5678
hey i stay in San Jose downtown, right next to San Jose State University, I
dont plan to stay with you guys, but i dont mind helping out with stuff, code
and so on, get in touch when you move here!

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mattmaroon
Too bad you won't have it in time for SuS, I'd definitely crash.

------
pierrebombay
This is a fantastic idea. I'm going to be in Seattle this Summer and am hoping
to drive down to the Bay Area for a weekend. I'll send out an email if it all
pans out.

------
kingnothing
That's awesome. I might just have to take you up on your offer for a couple of
weeks between semesters if the offer is still open before or after summer.

------
hsuresh
anyone doing something like this in Bangalore/India?

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PStamatiou
This is pretty neat - love the concept. I'd take you up on the "just passing
through" crash couch if you had the place in May.

------
ALee
thanks for opening your home to everyone, but no ownership in code at all? It
will be exactly like working on a really early stage startup for no equity,
but instead of being paid with money, one just gets room and board. I think
you should openly say you're hiring, give some equity and say you won't get
paid, but have room and board.

~~~
amohr
If they just said they were hiring, they would get the same lookover as
everyone else who's hiring. If you're going to take the time to do something
different, why not highlight that and use it to draw people in - there
wouldn't be nearly this much discussion if they had just said "Hey, we're
hiring and we can't pay you except in room and board."

------
tonyvt2005
Sounds like fun. Best of luck to you guys.

------
Neoryder
Great Idea, Hope Something good results so that more people emulate your
example!

------
CRASCH
That is a very cool idea. Unfortunately I can't apply.

I thought about another idea that would work for me though and might be fun
and helpful for you.

I think you guys should also have a virtual guest hacker stay at the house.
Setup some sort of video chat and the virtual guest hacker would hang out
virtually and you could trade ideas and do the same type of hanging out except
the shared pizza/ramen. I'd do the same type of selection process and maybe
limit it to a day or a week. You might even get some famous hackers to hang
out. You might consider targeting the profile of the guest hacker too. There
are specific steps that need to be done along the path to success. Why not try
to get the hacker of the week that has experience doing what your working on.
It could also generate some buzz if you do it right.

~~~
CRASCH
sorry double post.

~~~
andreyf
There's a delete button for those.

