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PG Essay Suggestion: an essay about each YC startup

3 points by xenoterracide ↗ HN
"This is a bit tangential: Every start-up that YC funds is potentially worth an essay. Isn't that why they are funded? They solve a problem that nags many." --ChaitanyaSai http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=192730

I think it would be interesting to see what PG thinks about the startups they fund.

Why pg and the others at YC picked those of the groups they interviewed; what about the product was it they liked; what wasn't right; how did they see the people and product grow; etc, etc.

I of course understand this would be a lot of work. But it would be quite interesting. It might be easiest to start with the current group and keep a journal on them, and refine it after the current period is done and then publish.

10 comments

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SwellJoe
"I of course understand this would be a lot of work."

Understatement of the year.

aneesh
PG Essay Suggestion: Can you tell me what I should wear today? And tell me what to eat for lunch?

On a more serious note, if I were a newly accepted YC company, I don't think I'd want people reading about my interview before I've actually built the product. Now it might be interesting to see what PG thought of, say, Reddit, during the interview, given their successful exit.

xenoterracide
the journal suggestion was more of... keep track of what's going on while it's going on and report to us after it's a good time to do so. Writing on say reddit may or may not be as easy because he may not have notes to do so.
rms
If not an essay about each YC startup, how about a blog about Y Combinator?
bigtoga
Why? So he can re-post the answers to questions people asked him on here?
xenoterracide
it would be interesting to see how startups progress as they go on. And not just from what the startups themselves want to say. I'd like to know what PG/YC (actual people involved) think.
bigtoga
As a fan of pg, let me be the yang here and say, "Please don't do this, Paul." I like Paul's articles and ideas because I think he brings something unique and different many times. Wasting valuable neurons on something we all know (They got funded b/c they solved a problem, had a plan that we felt they could execute, and were smart enough to see that we create value for them) is just repetitive.

Stay the course, pg :)

xenoterracide
"(They got funded b/c they solved a problem, had a plan that we felt they could execute, and were smart enough to see that we create value for them) is just repetitive."

I'm asking for more than just why the got funded. I believe that I also suggested, flaws, and how they grew during their time at YC.

blogimus
well, for starters, I'd suppose YC thinks favorably on the startups they've invested in. I mean, they're putting some of their money and I suspect a bunch of their time into them. Maybe I'm dense, but this seems obvious to me.

YC has posted the launched startups here: http://ycombinator.com/faq.html

So, if you were so motivated, you could contact these startups and do scoops on them, if they are so willing.

xenoterracide
you aren't dense. You are just oversimplifying the answer.

I could contact them, but it is not their perspective I am asking for. There is more than one perspective on the story.