If you're working on a big idea that is slightly ahead of its time, then persistence can pay big dividends -- check out the story of Pandora (http://www.businessinsider.com/pandora-story-2011-6). If you're working on a…
This is the tech equivalent of being trapped in a Portlandia skit. You guys are taking his parody seriously...
In general I think pay-to-pitch is highly suspicious, but I'm sympathetic to Graham Lawlor and Ultralight startups. He charges a small fee to cover expenses and make sure people are moderately serious. There's no way…
On the one hand, it's kind of a classic dick move by Mark, pretty typical of his bloody mindedness. (He's more of a bulldog than Zinga ever was.) On the other, in any company as big as Zynga there are people who coast…
You're absolutely right -- RDBMSes were designed to solve problems with the nosql-type approaches that preceded them. The nosql bandwagon is blindly rolling into the past, where it will crash into the old problems of…
There's already artemisinin resistance starting in several places around the world, especially the Thai-Cambodia border, a very chaotic area with high endemic malaria. The main problem is that cheap medications are…
Most vaccines are against viruses and bacteria. Malaria is a more complicated organism, a protist with many local varieties, and a tremendous ability to evolve around vaccines and medications in general. Natural…
There are so many ways to screw over a non-employee, minority common shareholder, you may well have no case here. For example, if the company hit a rough patch, it might have been recapitalized, with all current…
Comforting words from pg... If you start a startup, you'll probably fail. Most startups fail. It's the nature of the business. But it's not necessarily a mistake to try something that has a 90% chance of failing, if you…
The real story might be that his product just isn't as good as the competition. It took 10 seconds of searching to find https://www.igradeplus.com/, which on the surface looks like a much better offering. He seems…
@pg I think you should consider that your portfolio company is possibly not telling you the whole truth after they screwed up in a major way. I have no idea what happened -- just asking you to consider the possibility,…
They have every right to promote their differentiation. Speaking as someone who lives in a great part of Manhattan and is often out of town, I've never used AirBnb because I don't trust their verification. I will…
The most important reason to move to EC2 is flexibility -- do you need to quickly add servers, then later turn them off? If you have very predictable needs, and already have dedicated servers running, then there's no…
1x is still 1x -- if you don't get over it, the common shareholders don't get paid. In a pool as big as YC's there will be plenty of examples.
You'd be surprised. The ones that raise the most money also have the hardest time getting over the preferred total. The purchaser will take care of the employees it wants, but other common shareholders often end up out…
If YC holds common shares, then you need to adjust the expected value down quite a bit. On any exit that isn't a huge win, non-employee common shareholders are by far the most likely to get short end. The expected value…
If Java could be redesigned from scratch, with no concern for backwards compatibility, it would probably look a lot like C#.
We had consistent serious problems related to EBS for a several-month streak about a year ago, and I heard almost identical stories from other EC2 users around the same time. Instances with EBS attached would suddenly…
In his example, the company is profitable from day one. The question is deciding how much those profits are worth -- ie, valuing the company. PE ratios and comparable company valuations are two standard ways to assess…
It's impressive that YC helps founders succeed by putting them through a short but intense program. It's even more impressive that YC helps founders succeed by rejecting their applications, and motivating them to try…
These definitely happen all the time. Another thing to watch out for is for unfilled seats that can change the board dynamic. If multiple parties have to agree on the board seat, then an intransigent investor can…
I think the problem is lack of a clear data element that captures what you need. The current vote up/vote down system blends a lot of factors together, which is valuable for some calculations, but not the one you're…
Your graphs don't back up your headline. Fred thinks his returns are trimodal, and that he plays mainly in the middle. Looking at your chart, he seems to be 100% correct. He's got one exit at 70% annual returns, but he…
Are these all graduates of US colleges? I can't find confirmation either way, but it's worth keeping in mind that college degrees from many countries are not comparable to US.
Building product != Building business If you want to build a business, then you need a real plan for sales and marketing. Doing these well is just as hard as writing code. It takes a lot of careful thought, and it often…
If you're working on a big idea that is slightly ahead of its time, then persistence can pay big dividends -- check out the story of Pandora (http://www.businessinsider.com/pandora-story-2011-6). If you're working on a…
This is the tech equivalent of being trapped in a Portlandia skit. You guys are taking his parody seriously...
In general I think pay-to-pitch is highly suspicious, but I'm sympathetic to Graham Lawlor and Ultralight startups. He charges a small fee to cover expenses and make sure people are moderately serious. There's no way…
On the one hand, it's kind of a classic dick move by Mark, pretty typical of his bloody mindedness. (He's more of a bulldog than Zinga ever was.) On the other, in any company as big as Zynga there are people who coast…
You're absolutely right -- RDBMSes were designed to solve problems with the nosql-type approaches that preceded them. The nosql bandwagon is blindly rolling into the past, where it will crash into the old problems of…
There's already artemisinin resistance starting in several places around the world, especially the Thai-Cambodia border, a very chaotic area with high endemic malaria. The main problem is that cheap medications are…
Most vaccines are against viruses and bacteria. Malaria is a more complicated organism, a protist with many local varieties, and a tremendous ability to evolve around vaccines and medications in general. Natural…
There are so many ways to screw over a non-employee, minority common shareholder, you may well have no case here. For example, if the company hit a rough patch, it might have been recapitalized, with all current…
Comforting words from pg... If you start a startup, you'll probably fail. Most startups fail. It's the nature of the business. But it's not necessarily a mistake to try something that has a 90% chance of failing, if you…
The real story might be that his product just isn't as good as the competition. It took 10 seconds of searching to find https://www.igradeplus.com/, which on the surface looks like a much better offering. He seems…
@pg I think you should consider that your portfolio company is possibly not telling you the whole truth after they screwed up in a major way. I have no idea what happened -- just asking you to consider the possibility,…
They have every right to promote their differentiation. Speaking as someone who lives in a great part of Manhattan and is often out of town, I've never used AirBnb because I don't trust their verification. I will…
The most important reason to move to EC2 is flexibility -- do you need to quickly add servers, then later turn them off? If you have very predictable needs, and already have dedicated servers running, then there's no…
1x is still 1x -- if you don't get over it, the common shareholders don't get paid. In a pool as big as YC's there will be plenty of examples.
You'd be surprised. The ones that raise the most money also have the hardest time getting over the preferred total. The purchaser will take care of the employees it wants, but other common shareholders often end up out…
If YC holds common shares, then you need to adjust the expected value down quite a bit. On any exit that isn't a huge win, non-employee common shareholders are by far the most likely to get short end. The expected value…
If Java could be redesigned from scratch, with no concern for backwards compatibility, it would probably look a lot like C#.
We had consistent serious problems related to EBS for a several-month streak about a year ago, and I heard almost identical stories from other EC2 users around the same time. Instances with EBS attached would suddenly…
In his example, the company is profitable from day one. The question is deciding how much those profits are worth -- ie, valuing the company. PE ratios and comparable company valuations are two standard ways to assess…
It's impressive that YC helps founders succeed by putting them through a short but intense program. It's even more impressive that YC helps founders succeed by rejecting their applications, and motivating them to try…
These definitely happen all the time. Another thing to watch out for is for unfilled seats that can change the board dynamic. If multiple parties have to agree on the board seat, then an intransigent investor can…
I think the problem is lack of a clear data element that captures what you need. The current vote up/vote down system blends a lot of factors together, which is valuable for some calculations, but not the one you're…
Your graphs don't back up your headline. Fred thinks his returns are trimodal, and that he plays mainly in the middle. Looking at your chart, he seems to be 100% correct. He's got one exit at 70% annual returns, but he…
Are these all graduates of US colleges? I can't find confirmation either way, but it's worth keeping in mind that college degrees from many countries are not comparable to US.
Building product != Building business If you want to build a business, then you need a real plan for sales and marketing. Doing these well is just as hard as writing code. It takes a lot of careful thought, and it often…