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Ask YC: How do I make the most out of Startup-school?

44 points by curiousyogurt ↗ HN
I was fortunate enough to get accepted to startup-school. I'll be coming on Thursday afternoon, leaving on Monday morning. I've got a couple of desktop product, and I'm seriously working towards my own web-based startup. My questions are:

(1) Besides myself, what should I bring to the conference itself? Will a laptop just be a burden because of lack of space?

(2) Besides a pretty great lineup of speakers, what else should I expect?

(3) Besides pg's essays, is there anything I can do to prep, to make the experience more valuable?

(4) This might seem strange, but I've been dreaming about coming to Silicon Valley ever since I was a kid. I've been to SF once (loved it), but didn't make it to SV. Anything I should not miss in SV while I'm there? I just looked, and it seems most of the Computer History Museum is closed for renovations.

(5) Any other suggestions as to how I can make the most out of the experience?

Thanks.

13 comments

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pg
1. A lot of people seem to bring laptops to take notes. I wouldn't though. I'd rather take just a few important notes on paper.

2. The other people there. You should introduce yourself to people. They also don't know anyone. Also, Airbnb's going to host an afterparty that I recommend to everyone. Those guys know how to throw a party.

3. Learn as much as you can about the backgrounds of the speakers.

4. I should write something about this.

5. If you are a hacker and would possibly consider going to work at a startup instead of starting your own, visit some startups while you're there. Startups are desperately eager to hire right now. They won't consider it an imposition at all if hackers want to visit them.

bkrausz
Strongly agree with #5: hiring sucks for startups, we'd all love to meet some entusiastic candidates.

Shameless plug: GazeHawk is looking for our first hires. http://gazehawk.com/jobs/

photon_off
You should post in the new October who's hiring thread. I browsed a lot of it last night and would have remembered your job posting.
Mystalic
1) Something to take notes. It's like a lecture hall, so you'll have room if you really want a laptop. Don't get distracted though.

2) Many of the speakers hang out after their talks, so be sure to get some quality time and have a few questions for them.

3) Have questions ready.

4) If you can arrange tours of the major company HQs (Google, Facebook, etc.), do it.

5) Come find me at startup school. ;)

sahillavingia
1) Come find me! I'd love to meet people just as much as you do, so feel free to come find me. My name's Sahil - I assume we'll all have name tags, not sure.
modoc
Having been, the big thing I feel I didn't do enough of was networking. I met a few folks, but really could have done much better at introducing myself to new people and maintaining the connection afterward. There are amazing people there, try to meet them all:)
il
If anyone is in the Bay Area a day or two before Startup School, maybe we can do a pre Startup School meetup in San Francisco? That way the more introverted hackers will come to the event and see people they know.
iamelgringo
we're working on setting up a hackers and founders meetup the day before startup school. stay tuned.
dko
Awesome, keep us updated. Is there a mailing list for everyone to keep up to date about Startup School related meetups?
anamax
> (4) This might seem strange, but I've been dreaming about coming to Silicon Valley ever since I was a kid. I've been to SF once (loved it), but didn't make it to SV. Anything I should not miss in SV while I'm there? I just looked, and it seems most of the Computer History Museum is closed for renovations.

Go to Stanford and sit in on an interesting-to-you class. If it's a really small class, introduce yourself before to the instructor.

I recommend EE380, http://ee380.stanford.edu , if you can make it on a wednesday afternoon (because I help run it). There are dozens of comparable lecture series.

[deleted]
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skowmunk
Hi Hackers, if any of you are looking to work in a startup, feel free to send me your resumes. email id in profile.

Looking for those who can hack through and scale the product up using PHP/MySQL/AJAX (Not interested in fancy stuff right now, focused more on getting the product out through a stable platform).

We can even meet at Startup School. (But sending resumes before itself would be great)