Comment by adamlangsner | Hacker News Reader

Comment by adamlangsner | Hacker News Reader

Some of the feedback here is a little harsh. This kid applied for YC when he was 18 and now he's only 20 years old. I wish I had launched something and had it fail when I was 18. When I was 18 I wasn't even finishing my software projects. It wasn't until a few years later that I would launch something, it fail and I'd realize I need to re-evaluate my approach.

He's young and making mistakes, but if he operates on a long time horizon I think he's doing pretty good. He realizes the he needs to research a market before creating a product (customers own the problem, you own the solution).

His mistake here is that he's angry about YC (which is unjustified, they were right to deny him) so he wants to make an "incubator". That's probably not a good idea, but he's only 20 so has plenty of time to fail more.

I think he knows what to do though. Research an idea first before building. So, the smart thing to do would be to find a vertical that intrigues him and start engaging with people in that industry trying to identify problems they may they need solving. B2B (specifically B2SmallB) is always easier than B2C for a solo founder.

I personally think the criticisms are too polite, not direct enough. It’s fine if a person spends time trying and failing on their own, but this person’s idea is explicitly to influence other people, knowingly, with no experience or reputation. The targets are the most inexperienced, naive, passionate candidates.

It’s likely that the absence of a project like this, led by a person with zero or possibly negative experience, would be better.

Isn't the origin story for Stanford University that the founders wanted to be benefactors for another Ivy League school but were snubbed (classism)?

There are a lot of adversities that steel a person's resolve. Rejection is one of them, if not as sexy as personal or family trauma ("I became a neurologist because my childhood friend died of seizures").

And what if that's part of his schtick? If he specializes in YC's blind spots, then he has an ice breaker. Hey YC didn't want to talk to you, get in line to talk to me instead.

We the public get some data points on whether YC's blind spots are rational or not. We all avoid things we are bad at. Some of those things everyone is bad at, so nobody would fault you for avoiding them too. But if you are good at it, people will throw money at you to deal with the situation.

> Some of the feedback here is a little harsh

The problem is that he’s starting to get involved with other people’s businesses before he even understands how business or startups work. It’s not clear if he’s ever worked at any company other than his own, yet he’s trying to mentor others on how to start and operate businesses. Incubators traditionally trade mentorship and other valuable resources in exchange for equity.

If he’s taking equity (not stated in his post but assumed if he’s operating as an incubator) then it’s right to be more critical about what he’s offering in exchange. University students can be vulnerable to entering into bad equity deals or working arrangements operating under the guise of incubators, accelerators, or angle investors.

I think that's getting a little ahead of ourselves. The guy built a landing page that links to a google form. Who knows if he'll get any interest. And if he does, founders need to do due diligence on their investors too. It goes both ways, the market for private equity is relatively illiquid non-commoditized and informationally asymetric which means it requires a higher transaction cost and due diligence. I don't think it's constructive to shame someone for trying something new even if they're not super experienced in it. What is the threshold one needs to cross before they try an idea? There's a balance between gaining experience and taking action, maybe he needs to move a little to the other side of that spectrum, but he'll learn that and in the end there is no effort without error. I don't think his incubator is going to be very successful so it's no big loss to anyone

> What is the threshold one needs to cross before they try an idea?

That’s missing the point. The concerns aren’t about his personal business. The concerns are about the students he’s trying to influence and take equity from.

Once you start putting yourself in a position to take equity in the labor and businesses of University students, the bar is higher.

> I don't think his incubator is going to be very successful so it's no big loss to anyone

You’re still missing the point. If his incubator isn’t very successful, then presumably any of the students who become involved with his incubator won’t be successful either. It’s not fair to the University students to be drawn into an incubator program that we can all apparently agree is not on a track for success. I just hope Universities are smart enough to not endorse this idea.

It's not going to be successful, not because it's gonna gain a lot of traction and then go bust, but because no one's going to sign up for this. Look at the comments in this thread, read his landing page. It's obvious you wouldn't take this seriously as an incubator. It's not even an incubator, it's just google form he's using to do customer development. He'll probably have some conversations with the few people he gets to fill it out and then realize it's too much work or it's a bad fit and he'll move on to his next idea or maybe it'll morph into something else. Who knows? You make it seem like he's this charlatan peddling some false incubator product to unsuspecting founders. He's a 20 year old college student from Macedonia dipping his toe into something.

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