
Great Summary of the Highlights of StartupSchool - far33d
http://venturebeat.com/2007/03/26/start-up-advice-for-entrepreneurs-from-y-combinator-startup-school/
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jsjenkins168
I think Mark largely pulled his "two points" out of his ass honestly. Did
anyone else get that impression? Of the entire startup school, the aspect I
was most dissappointed with was the fact that he simply did not give a flip
about preparing a speech for 650 people, many of whom (myself included)
traveled from far to attend the school. I honestly think he walked up on the
stage and started talking about the first two things that came to his head.

Other than that the school was great. And if anything Mark served as an
example of what not to do when giving a presentation.

~~~
mattculbreth
Yeah agreed. Not good for his professional reputation. Other than that (and
hell, it was entertaining at least) it was an awesome day. Thanks again to the
YC folks.

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amichail
From the blog post:

==

"I want to stress the importance of being young and technical," he stated. If
you want to found a successful company, you should only hire young people with
technical expertise.

"Young people are just smarter," he said with a straight face. "Why are most
chess masters under 30?" he asked. "I don't know," he answered. "Young people
just have simpler lives. We may not own a car. We may not have family." In the
absence of those distractions, he says, you can focus on big ideologies. He
added, "I only own a mattress." Later: "Simplicity in life allows you to focus
on what's important."

==

Isn't age discrimination illegal?

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paul
As I've gotten older, one thing I've learned is that some thoughts are best
kept to yourself (or those you trust), even if they are true. :)

Publicly suggesting that you hire based on age isn't especially brilliant.

In Mark's defense, I thought that he might really be trying to say that
younger people are systematically undervalued, and so hiring them is a
bargain. (the market has under-priced their work) Of course I'm sure that
others think that the opposite is true and that older people are under-priced.
Obviously those people should hire the under-priced old people and build a
competing social network. :)

~~~
far33d
I agree. Being a few years older than mark, I actually didn't find myself
offended by his comments.

Just as PG said that adulthood is a stage, not an age, I took mark's comments
(though quite less elegant), to mean that there's a mindset of youth that
helps in starting companies: simple life, willingness to take risks, lack of
corruption of the complacency of the workplace, etc.

Maybe I give him too much credit.

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ericwan
For Mark's comment, I think an entrepreneur over 30 would tend to ask to
"address a market", while those under 20 tend to just build a cool thing and
see if anybody is willing to pay for it. The latter is more likely to build
revolutionary products because they see market needs that haven't emerged yet.
Having said that, older entrepreneurs are more experience and still capable,
but perhaps can only build incrementally better products.

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inklesspen
Ycom-dotted? Anyone have a mirror?

