FamilyLeaf's (YC W12) Y Combinator Application
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
I have a couple of questions however:
Did you face any problems having disclosed you scrapped a competitors site for potential clients/leads? Did all the founders think that was an acceptable method for building a base?
How did you derive the potential turnover figures and was the model and revenue discussed in depth at the interview?
Finally, how did you guys decide that FamilyLeaf was the right direction?
Best of luck to you all with the company.
1. We didn't have any problems disclosing that. In fact, (as you can tell by this little stunt) we are very open about it. We thought it was acceptable. But we also are fallible.
2. Turnover figures? We talked about it at the interview, definitely.
3. We were extremely passionate about it. And less so about AthleteNet. That was the number 1 thing. The other smaller but still very valuable factors included the market size, social impact, and potential for faster scaling.
Feel free to email me if you have any more questions! wesley@familyleaf.com
Tell us in one or two sentences something about
each founder that shows he or she is an "animal,"
in the sense described in How to Start a Startup. "Animals? We're a freaking zoo.
Andy: When Paul described the type of person whom he
believes is an animal at his "How to Start a Startup"
talk, Andy was the first person of whom I (Steve) thought.
Steve: Steve regularly works extra hours at his current
programming job, even when over-time isn't an option (i.e.
working for free) to fix nagging bugs. At school, Steve
often works late nights with Computer Science friends
helping them get assignments working.
Alexis: See current schedule. When it comes to design,
Alexis literally won't rest until every pixel is aligned--
sleep deprivation is the status quo and when it comes to
working in general, coffee makes sure he's the last one to
go to sleep at night and the first one up in the morning."
P.S. Wow, small world. I went to the same high school as you guys. Good luck with FamilyLeaf, I'm now a big fan!
We're also now a big fan of you!
(I read in your YC app that you were from Bellevue so I Googled you and saw that you went to IHS. :)
"It's spreading like a weed"..."It's already been extremely sticky"
I would think very hard about hiring or investing in someone who used marijuana, or who decided to sell marijuana (a bet with a big risk for very little reward), or who thought that using drugs was cool enough to include it on an application. Speaking from experience, marijuana is addictive, saps ambition, and makes it difficult to think hard and think logically. Anyone who has tried to code or do math while high knows exactly what I am talking about.
Wesley, obviously you have grown and been very successful since. I wish you only more success, and you are already far ahead of where I was at 19 (still smoking too much pot).
The difference is that I think very few people would say "Let's remove the stigma from alchoholism."
For me, I really don't give a damn what kinds of drugs people take beyond heroin, crack, meth, and others that have a clear history of detrimental effects on the individual. As long as you are rock solid and reliable, that's all that matters.
If you can be sure that someone is reliable, then you are right, there is no reason to have a problem with their drug use. When you are hiring someone or making the decision to invest money with them, you rarely know enough to be sure. Using drugs is a HUGE red flag there, and should say think twice before hiring this person / giving them money.
I don't think drugs are incompatible with being a responsible and productive person. There would be downsides to high profile drug use, like what happened to Sean Parker at Facebook, where presumably there was fear that the LPs in various investors would raise issues.
People can be useless fucktards with or without drugs; people can be productive with or without drugs.
Pot isn't the worst thing ever, but it isn't going to help you start a business or become a great programmer. While you are high, you will be worse at reasoning and your working memory won't be great. This makes it harder to write code. There is also a legal risk, justified or not.
Drugs are a frustrating topic to debate. On one side there is a huge amount of misinformation intended to scare people away from drug use. Then, in reaction to that and coming out of the cognitive dissonance of millions of people doing something that they know isn't good for them, there is a ton of 'pot is good for you because it comes from the earth' bs on the other side. I think people on the internet (and apparently on HN) tend to be in the latter group, and I feel like it is worth pointing out the downsides.
People who are concerned with the age of their boss are a little too concerned with status / authority / hierarchy to be at an early-stage startup.
They'll be fine :) If anything, they are best positioned to appreciated exactly how Facebook doesn't work for families.
Edit : should have said thanks in advance for the downvotes. Criticism is not accepted on hn these days.