Paul Graham To Hold Y Combinator “Office Hours” At TechCrunch Disrupt | Hacker News Reader

Paul Graham To Hold Y Combinator “Office Hours” At TechCrunch Disrupt

techcrunch.com

93 pointsssclafani19 comments

I hope everyone realizes that these are going to be held on stage, and that if you do this, a lot of stuff of the type that companies usually like to keep secret is going to get discussed in front of a roomful of people.

I also don't know if it's going to work. I compressed the time slots about 3x to make it interesting for the audience. Since I won't know the startups already and the time slots are so short, the result will probably be more like YC interviews than office hours.

This format definitely detracts from the total benefit these companies can get from these office hours, but the possible press from getting their idea vetted by you on stage somewhat compensates for not being able to ask the pressing questions that usually come up at OH.

My one question would be: can you be as brutally honest as you need to be on stage with a team you've never seen before and might never see again? If so, then I think this is still an invaluable experience for the companies - most startups that just get feedback from their friends and a few early adopters don't get to hear the things that they need to.

I suspect after all these years habit will take over. I've noticed that happening at other events where I had to talk to startups.

Would you consider doing this as a teleconference on a regular basis (ex. once a quarter)? It would be valuable access to a much wider audience.

With a family, and N Y Combinator companies to follow, what would be the benefit for PG in doing so?

I like the idea of seeing something more like a YC interview than office hours. I look forward to seeing the video.

I think companies will be quite willing to open up. I share the concern on the time compression though. My gut said 20 minutes per company would still be interesting with the right companies/people. But this is an experiment, let's see how it goes.

Will you be selecting the startups or TechCrunch?

They're going to.

hmm, still maybe an interesting experience to see unfold.

Sounds like a splendid idea. Not sure if I'll be at TCD this year but if I am I'll be sure to check it out.

PG, can you please give us a description of what Office Hours means.

cool, whomever down voted this you are a pretentious ass - rather than explain, you downvote.

As a side thought:

Given that we have had this ongoing discussion about the comment scores being hidden to preserve real dialogue - we should require a comment for every downvote, such that every downvote comes with an explanation or talking point for further discussion.

As it stands, the downvote is a silent and anonymous point of disagreement -- is allowed, and becomes visable (through greyed out comments) -- where the ability to see the comment's upvote count is not allowed and not reflected in the font size/color of the comment and thus invisible.

PG, I respectfully disagree with any and all reasonings you may have of hiding comment upvotes, and my opinion is only reinforced through the visable effect downvotes have on comments.

A big portion of the article answers this question.

A more detailed explanation of office hours in pg's 'At YC' article - http://ycombinator.com/atyc.html

hnofficehours.com

I worked on this webapp with ez, guz, and others. The idea is that people with knowledge/expertise in a subject can "hold office hours" with (strangers?) people looking for advice.

What is the top comment (from Robin Wolaner) talking about?

"Does he allow women founders to come to office hours? Although given his admittance that he prefers not to invest in women of child-bearing age, perhaps none will bother."

https://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Ftechcrunch.com...

An article called "The False Choice Between Babies and Startups" was on the front page a few days ago.

From the article:

"When I got to the bottom of [Paul Graham's] post I found the following footnote that read:

[2] One advantage startups have over established companies is that there are no discrimination laws about starting businesses. For example, I would be reluctant to start a startup with a woman who had small children, or was likely to have them soon. [emphasis added] But you’re not allowed to ask prospective employees if they plan to have kids soon…Whereas when you’re starting a company, you can discriminate on any basis you want about who you start it with.

While its common knowledge among career savvy women that we often have to prove that we are “in it to win it,” so to speak, I was surprised to see this advice given so matter-of-factly without noting any further mitigating factors a “reluctant” founder might consider when contemplating starting a company with a woman who was, or desired to become, a mother."

The article goes on to explain this is a false choice.

Link to the article: http://blogs.forbes.com/85broads/2011/05/16/the-false-choice...

Link to the HN thread on the article: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2554807

I don't see how this would be like true OH (not that I've ever been to one), which only truly works if it's about one or a couple specific/isolated topics.

I suspect it would be more like a pitch-your-company-and-Paul-will-give-you-his-opinion-about-it session.

It really would be nice to have open office hours where any team can come into chat in private. When I move down to the valley I would like to chat with people I think would be interested and not have to chase people around or feel they are too busy. As an entrepreneur I think we should be able to score a meeting with anyone, too bad its not the way it goes. In reality some of us sacrifice so much and for a meeting to never be setup at times is such a waste for entrepreneurs and then again I understand not everyone would fit the "YC" type. I do love YC and many others, but its time for the entrepreneur to be on stage interviewing the Angels and VCs. Without us they aren't much :)

I guess if were that good they will find us or at least hear about us later.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com