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Comment by dang | Hacker News Reader

Discussed at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3124983

>> [pg] That does count for a lot with us. It's surprising how many of the groups who apply have a cofounder who's not willing to quit his or her job. It's a worrying sign when someone who knows the company a lot better than we do isn't willing to bet on it. But again, there are always exceptions.

The conversation is about the dropbox founder quitting his job to wok on dropbox part-time.

The problem I see with pg's logic is that the founder and YC are not betting the same value on the company. The way I see it, YC is asked to bet some money, but the founder is asked to bet everything they got. If YC was asked to bet everything they had on that one company, they'd say no. In that case, having a plan B is not a sign of lack of resolve, it's a sign of sanity.

But I'm probably missing something. I really don't have the whatsitcalled, entrepreneurial spirit. It all looks like gambling to me and I hate gambling, especially when the odds are stacked against me; which they always are, otherwise it's not gambling. So I guess I don't get it.

I think one of the reasons it's a useful indicator is because most (if not all) startups require a huge level of commitment and focus from the founding team. If you aren't able (for whatever reason) to commit to it, it's a sign that you might struggle to be successful.

I'm not arguing that people who don't quit their jobs don't have amazing ideas; it's just that to make a startup work as a business requires so much effort, it's likely that if you're not able to quit to work on it, you'll lose out to a team that can.

PS: I'm saying this as a founder who quit his job (as did my co-founder) when it looked liked we had something, and I doubt Overleaf would be where it is today if we'd not. So I may be biased in that direction!

Just wanted to drop by and say that Overleaf is an amazing product, and my only complaint is that I didn't learn about it sooner.

Thanks hansvm, always good to see replies like this :) Glad you're finding it useful!

Well, if you put it that way, in terms of commitment, I can understand it, but pg framed it in terms of making a bet. That, I don't get.

Edit: hansvm is right, Overleaf is cool :)

Overleaf has been the most positive day-to-day change in academic science I can think of in the last five years!

Just wanted to give a shoutout and say Overleaf has been a great product for me and my team so far. Incredibly easy and clear collaboration. And if I need to go look at change history over the last six months, it’s there within 2 clicks.

Not to mention, the UI is easy and (shockingly in this day and age) gets out of my way so I can focus on the content.

And easy pricing tiers. For just $15 a month I get a 10-collaborator project. Thanks Overleaf team!

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