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Come stay at the hacker house in San Jose, Free

68 points by samwise ↗ HN
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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Feel free to subscribe to my twitter feed for more info.http://twitter.com/cbomb

57 comments

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forsaken
Cool idea. I'm still in school, but I love the sense of trust in the community. Best of luck.
Payton
Fun idea and an interesting way to get some smart people on your radar!
tlrobinson
Interesting idea.

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

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.
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

mattmaroon
Too bad you won't have it in time for SuS, I'd definitely crash.
tonyvt2005
Sounds like fun. Best of luck to you guys.
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.
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!
lee
Why guys only? I've had roommate situations with both genders and mixing has never hurt.
[deleted]
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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!

mixmax
No women? - this is a true nerd speaking.

:-)

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.

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Prrometheus
There are many, many housing ads on Craigslist right now that say "female only". In general, they are perceived as being cleaner and more responsible. For those same reasons someone might not want a female roommate.
BrandonM
My junior year of college I lived with a guy roommate of mine, and we both always put the toilet seat down even though there were no girls living there (and rarely visiting). We also showered and kept the house clean. It's really not that hard and should have nothing to do with gender.

As for the toilet seat, I put both the seat and the lid down. I just think it looks better that way.

bdr
All discrimination is at the personal level. Discrimination in society is the integral.
petercooper
In that case, there must be two levels of discrimination.

I have lots of preferences and discriminate between different products, people, and choices all the time.

I am very much against institutionalized discrimination, however.

Let's say I wouldn't want to personally work with someone who couldn't speak English. That's a personal choice, but I wouldn't want the same person to be discriminated against in terms of politics, job opportunities, and other senses.

Perhaps the difference is passive versus active discrimination. The former being someone operating on their preferences (that is, choosing not to live in a black neighbourhood or choosing not to date blondes) versus active discrimation (attacking people of a certain color or gender, implementing discriminatory policies at a workplace, etc.)

I think passive discrimination is necessary for the world to work, but active discrimination should be avoided and discouraged.

anamax
CA's housing discrimination police think that gender discrimination laws apply to shared housing.
ken
If he's going to be keeping a dirty house and "calling people douchebags or bitches for fun", he should probably mention that. A lot of us men (most, in my experience) are going to be turned off by that, too.
motley_fool
It's still a shock to me to see otherwise egalitarian and meritocracy-minded hackers engage in such blatant and naive sexism.

That's in response to your first paragraph. I can agree with the second.

petercooper
It's not "sexist" to state things that are "generally" true. At least, no more sexist than saying men are "generally" into sports. I'm not into sports, but I would not be offended if a women were to say this since it IS "generally" true.
ichverstehe
I'd actually like to work with female hackers. Never met one, but I'm pretty sure you could learn something. Different approaches to things, yeah.
jlam
Perhaps even more important than diversity in gender, diversity in age and experience contribute even more to a project. So long as people are bright and hard-working, they can contribute lots. In the technology world, age prejudice runs more rampant than gender prejudice.
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.
iamdave
Props for opening your home like that. Great way to network and help out other folks.
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.

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

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.
Neoryder
Great Idea, Hope Something good results so that more people emulate your example!
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.
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!! 
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.
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.
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.
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."
hsuresh
anyone doing something like this in Bangalore/India?
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.