

Warn HN: Lots of Launches Coming - pg

Every cycle we warn startups not to wait
till 2 weeks before Demo Day to launch if they can
avoid it, because there's always a glut of startups
launching then.  Every cycle they do anyway.<p>It's now 2 weeks before Demo Day, so there are 
going to be a lot of new startups launching in the
coming week.<p>Please be nice to them.  For you their launch may be
"yet another YC startup," but for each individual startup
this is their big moment.
======
jcr
pg, can you ask the YC founders to stop announcing their new companies as the
"The This of/for That" for example (from the front page):

"Leaky (YC S11) is Hipmunk for Car Insurance"

I honestly don't care if your new company is "* (YC S11) Is The Facebook for
Unicorns," since it really tells me nothing. I have to figure out what a
Hipmonk is before I can understand what they do. Hold on while I call the
Dalai Lama to ask about the difference between a monk and a hipmonk.

Of the YC S11 batch with announcements up, it seems the Snapjoy folks are
doing it right (from the front page):

"Snapjoy (YC S11) Will Organize Your Photos For You"

Now the Snapjoy announcement above provides concise and useful information
about what they could do for me, the potential customer.

~~~
kristiandupont
It makes perfect sense to me. Obviously, if you don't know what Hipmunk is
it's hard but on the other hand, knowing Hipmunk, that sentence conveys more
information than a generic one ever could.

~~~
div
Leaky (YC S11) takes the pain out of finding the best car insurance.

That would work for those who know about Hipmunk and those who don't.

~~~
kristiandupont
Well yes but at the same time you proved my point. This works but it only
tells me that the site is about finding car insurance. For all I know, I could
end up with yet another sales person on the phone trying to convince me to buy
something.

The Hipmunk line gives me the idea that I will have a simple page where I can
compare options easily which seems to be the case so far as I can tell from
their video.

~~~
ZoFreX
Leaky: Actually compares quotes rather than using estimates

Longer summary: Hits the APIs of every insurance company and fills out their
forms for you to get you an actual price, rather than just purporting to.

------
Animus7
>Please be nice to them. For you their launch may be "yet another YC startup,"
but for each individual startup this is their big moment.

I'm usually quite pleased with what comes out of YC. That said, in this
competitive market, I don't think that being nice (just because) helps anyone
the week after launch.

I personally look forward to the day HN tears apart my project so I can say I
truly learned something.

~~~
InfinityX0
He doesn't mean be nice to them even if they have a shitty project. He means
don't let the onslaught of launches actually partially sour your perception -
use your un-saturated viewpoint that is then cognizant of the bias saturation
imbues - to determine your true opinion of their service.

Which - if still bad then - should be correctly harsh and honest.

~~~
zackattack
No, you're wrong. He means be nice to them because they're WITH HIM.

~~~
felipemnoa
No, he means, if you are going to criticize something, use constructive
criticism. i.e. Don't just say, your product sucks.

~~~
zackattack
I don't think Paul wants anyone to criticize YC companies. A potential
customer asking for changes is different. I am actually not sure there is any
value to criticism. "Constructive criticism" seems like a sneaky way to assert
authority and drain, without providing any real value.

~~~
jokermatt999
I didn't downvote you, but I completely disagree. Criticism is telling someone
there's something wrong with their project. Constructive criticism is telling
someone what specific things should be changed, and in a helpful manner.

"Your home page sucks"

Criticism, not useful.

"You should have a better call to action on your home page. I have no idea
what I'm supposed to do here."

Constructive criticism, very useful. It tells someone what's wrong so that it
can be fixed. If they're very nice, they'll add a suggestion too.

It's foolish to ignore someone's advice just because they're criticizing your
project. Often times, if they're criticizing civilly, it's because they want
the project to succeed. If you brush them off as "haters", you're just doing
yourself a disservice. Honestly examine all criticism you receive. Yes, plenty
of it will be useless criticism from people who want to bring you down, but if
you don't pay attention to the ones that care, you're throwing away valuable
advice and only hurting yourself.

~~~
zackattack
The more critics the better! Let my fans vote with their wallets!

------
dbz
Pg, can you try adding a tab up top for new startups? I personally love to
read about them but sometimes the launches etc. This would make it a lot
easier to find the latest ones.

~~~
pg
I don't think most users would want a tab for it, but you can easily get this
from HNSearch:

[http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/submissions&q=%28...](http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/submissions&q=%28YC+S11%29&sortby=create_ts+desc&start=0)

~~~
paulnelligan
Hi Paul. I would love to see a tab for people launching new products in
general. i.e. a way to submit your startup for review. Since HN is essentially
a startup community, wouldn't it make sense to distinguish a 'review my
startup' entry from a 'NASA discovers oxygen on Pluto' entry ? ... especially
considering that the submitter often has put months and months of time into
it, and would REALLY appreciate and value feedback from others, instead of
quickly dropping off (or not even making) the front page ...

~~~
petervandijck
I would love to see that too.

~~~
paulnelligan
ok, I resubmitted my request as a thread, here's hoping it gets read by enough
people to upvote:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2868110>

------
ig1
I'm bit uncomfortable that Techcrunch's coverage of these launches isn't being
made with a disclaimer that Michael Arrington is an investor in most of them
(via Angel Fund).

------
jswinghammer
It's always exciting to see what's in the works. In every cycle it seems like
there is a YC site that I end up using a lot.

Has the culture around here gotten so hostile that a "be nice" request is
needed?

~~~
Mz
FWIW: I didn't read it as "don't be openly hostile". I read it as "please
remember they have their heart in their mouth and are drenched in a cold sweat
and even yawning indifference can be soul crushing, yet we realize there are
so many it will be hard to get all excited about each and every one of them
(especially with so many of them announcing their launch at essentially the
exact same time)".

------
bakbak
Pg, is there any way you can make your demo day a live event (may be on
justinTV) - and to add the spice you should also make it interactive where
viewers can rate each startup with proper scoring system - and if you and
startups are comfortable then you should let all the VCs and Angels be able to
see scores & ratings coming in live from all over the world (however this may
also have negative impact but nothing wrong to try it).... this way investors
would right away know what is HIT & HOT !!!

~~~
davidw
Some of the startups demoed have not actually launched, and in any event, I
think they like to cultivate something of a feeling of exclusivity around the
event. Not to the point of snobbery or anything like that, just to make it
kind of important.

------
dotBen
Surely such sentiment should be extended to any startup, not just YC startups?

~~~
pg
The point is that the arrival of YC startups is spiky, with 2 big spikes a
year.

------
blackboxxx
Be prepared to defend yourself startups. Put on your armor. Some with malice
in their hearts will thrust daggers at you. Fight with strength and honor and
the crowd will love you.

Win the crowd and you will win your freedom.

To those startups who do not fight with valor? You will be subject to the mob,
as was Airbnb. Even the Emperor will not be able to silence the cries for
blood!

Startups... I salute you.

LET THE LAUNCHES BEGIN!

~~~
biot
Investor: Are you ready to do your duty for the internet?

Founder: Yes, investor.

Investor: You will not be funded.

Founder: Which wiser, older startup is to take my place?

Investor: My funding will pass to others, to hold in trust until a better
startup is ready to launch once more. The internet is to be innovative and
profitable again.

Founder: Investor?

Investor: Yes. My decision disappoints you?

Founder: You wrote to me once, listing the four chief virtues: Novel concept,
challenging problems, technical excellence, and forging new streams of
revenue. As I read the list, I knew my startup had none of them. But I have
other virtues, investor. Group purchasing. That can be a virtue when it
temporarily eases the deal fatigue that everyone's experiencing. Social
sharing, perhaps not in a way that generates revenue, but... there are many
ways to measure value. Mashups copying one site but adding a single tweak from
another site, because it's been done before so must be good. But none of my
virtues were on your list. Even then it was as if you didn't want me for your
investment.

Investor: Oh, Founder. You go too far.

Founder: I search the faces of other apps... for ideas to copy, to make you
proud. One seed investment, one small round... where you wrote out a check for
more than the $150K I've already received. Would have been like feeding a
third world family for a thousand years. What is it in my idea that you hate
so much?

Investor: Shh, Founder.

Founder: All I've ever wanted was to be like all the other apps out there.

Investor: [Gets down on his knees] Founder. Your derivative idea of a startup
is my failure as an advisor. Come [Gives Founder a hug]

Founder: [Founder hugs Investor and cries] Investor. I would have copied all
the apps in the world... if you would only invest in me!

[Founder begins to asphyxiate Investor while they hug, Investor grunts]

~~~
istvanp
For those who don't get the reference: it's from Gladiator
(<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0172495/quotes?qt=qt0404384>).

------
peacemaker
Good luck to all the current YC guys, I'm sure you're all feeling the pain
right now only 2 weeks away from the big day!

As for launching around the same time, I'm of the opinion that if your own
(non-YC) startup is good enough, it will stand alongside, or even above some
of the YC guys and perhaps "cash in" on the startup fervour around at the
time.

------
bfe
I wonder if there's any observed correlation between earliness of launch (per
pg's advice) and likelihood of future success?

------
pama
Congrats to Snapjoy, Leaky, and Kicksend for launching today! Keep'em coming!

------
melling
Should have a special title tag. Show HN YC: ... or something to that effect.

~~~
losvedir
They probably will. Keep your eyes out for "(YC S11)".

------
templaedhel
I'm really hoping to see a YC company launch on the startup foundry or such,
but it may not be wide enough exposure yet. Eventually.

------
smoyer
"Please be nice to them"

With very few exceptions, I enjoy seeing what the YC crowd releases, but isn't
this going a bit to far? Aren't we the perfect audience to provide
constructive criticism? On the other hand, if you're asking us to be
empathetic at the same time, I couldn't agree more.

Go YC!

~~~
brlewis
Niceness and constructive criticism are not mutually exclusive. They can even
coexist in a single comment.

~~~
smoyer
True ... and the Internet as a whole could use a lot more "nice". It's amazing
how much different some people behave when they're not having a face-to-face
conversation.

~~~
Mz
Part of that is not that people behave worse but that communication in
writing, without facial expression and voice tone and the like, is prone to
sounding a lot harsher than it likely would face-to-face. Especially if
someone is prone to hyperbole, sarcasm, irony and so on, the lack of voice
tone and facial expression tends to have a huge negative impact on "tone".

~~~
smoyer
That's also true ... I'm a practitioner of sarcasm myself and have to be very
careful not to use (overuse) it on the Internet. But if you work hard enough,
you can convey tone through your writing.

I think the two other culprits are the de-personification that can so easily
occur in our interactions and the tendency to interpret statements with the
worst possible meanings. This problem never seems to happen when the person is
someone we know in "real life".

Enough with the thread hijacking :) ... and if this gets much deeper I'll have
to consult with my psychologist wife as I'm sure there are proper terms for
most of these behaviors. (And yes ... I am her live-in case study)

------
daviday
When I saw two launching today I automatically thought this had to do with the
economy souring. I had just read Jeff Clavier's tweet:

 _Just maybe? The VC industry is going to wake up and go back to value
investing - not FOMO throwing cash at everything, no matter the price_

But Dave McLure says it's business as usual

[http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2011/08/08/early-
stage-i...](http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2011/08/08/early-stage-
investors-unruffled-by-stock-markets-bad-day/?mod=WSJBlog)

------
dterra
Nice! Its always good to see them. Tip: Dont launch your product if you are
not in YC. Chances of getting coverage are none. They will get it all!

------
nhangen
Thanks for the reminder. It's easy to get jaded about this stuff, but you're
right. Good luck on demo day everyone.

------
int3rnaut
Does anyone know of any blogs from YC founders that cover the personal
struggles and conquest of these final 2 weeks before Demo Day? I think it
would be a great read (even if they were bit sized entries) to find out what
it's like to be under such enormous pressure but on the precipice of your big
moment.

------
ryanglasgow
Good luck guys! Take feedback with a grain of salt and stay focused on your
vision.

------
ashbrahma
It looks like Techcrunch is getting the scoop on every single launch.

------
vaksel
alternative suggestion...if you are about to launch a new startup...hold off
for a month or so.

no sense in wasting the launch PR boost when everyone is getting swarmed with
pitches

------
captaincrunch
Good luck everyone!

------
freddealmeida
@jcr "the facebook for unicorns" FTW

------
keke_ta
Congrats to everyone.

------
helwr
I'd just say it here, once and for all - YC startups suck

~~~
walrus
Yup, every last one of them :)

I doubt you really stand behind that. Maybe you really mean, for example, that
a majority of the YC startups make things that aren't useful to you.

~~~
Mz
I get the impression I am missing some "in" joke. :-/

~~~
walrus
There's no in joke (I don't know helwr). My first sentence was meant to be
sarcastic. I was encouraging helwr to explain his/her opinion, since saying
"YC startups suck" without any further explanation doesn't really contribute
anything.

~~~
Mz
They have quite high karma (as in "they are on the leader board") but their
profile states nothing about them. I was assuming you knew something about
them from their comment history. (I am sort of guessing they either were
funded by YC or applied and got rejected or some such, but I don't really feel
like doing some massive search of the site or combing through all their
comments/posts to confirm my hunch.)

~~~
thaumaturgy
They have 919 submissions, the top 142 of which have between 11 and 252
points. They only have 206 comments by comparison; their second-highest-rated
comment was a direct link to a pdf of Hacker Monthly #2.

~~~
helwr
HN search is a bit out of sync, e.g. see the top result here:
[http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=by%3Ahelwr+...](http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=by%3Ahelwr+predator&start=0)

and the actual link: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2403290>

