Applications open for Startup School
startupschool.org
startupschool.org
Then your form doesn't really allow for that. You're only asking to list the coolest thing someone has built. Why not change the form to: List the coolest thing you have built (maximum of three).
This enables the 30+ year crows to show their broader list of accomplishments and not artificially tilt it toward the younger audience.
You say you have higher standards but then you don't allow the higher standard to show. What if someone has consistently hit singles (to use a baseball metaphor) and a rookie has one home run. You're rewarding the onetime home run over consistent delivery. I'm not saying one is better than the other, but you need diversity and your system discriminates against that.
Hey, this is your show and you're going to run it the way it fits your need. However, with risk of blacklisting my name, I feel it's important for someone to speak out and help you see it from another perspective.
You also wrote this [1] back in 2007. Have your views changed since then?
Edit: As mentioned in a sibling comment, This appears to be an issue with Safari where items 'below the fold' don't render. Strange.
There's more value in educating and pumping enthusiasm into a 16 year old than a 65 year old.
What happens to these 16 year olds when they get to be 30, 40, 50. Do they think they are no longer able to start new things or they are less valuable? Because this is the message we are sending.
Nobody is saying you can't start new things. I'm saying the game is creating new experiences on hardware that didn't exist a year ago for, usually, a demographic of people under 30. Trying to break into that world as a nobody outside of that demographic and life experience is a long shot. Not impossible, but energies are better spent fueling people who have an actual chance at changing the world (and an entire lifetime ahead of them to do it).
Edit: to clarify, I think you incorrectly assume they're asking for age to filter for candidates that are younger. I don't think they use to filter at all, but even if they do, I would consider it highly improbable that it is to target a specific range.
Anyway, thanks for hosting these. Really loved the first one I went to years ago. The atmosphere is awesome. Really energetic and inspiring. I encourage everyone to apply. Plus, you might get to see me.
[0] A joke.
http://startupbootcamp.mit.edu/
(so am I)
We really do have a lot of startup events in Boston, and I try to do my part to help, but nothing matches having a bunch of experienced, awesome people give talks in an auditorium.
I still treasure my recordings of all the talks at the 2005 Startup School (especially Olin Shivers). I hope MIT records these talks and makes them all available for those of us who can't make it!
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http://bambax.smugmug.com/Other/2012-10StartupSchool/2708004...
Obviously the quality is already very high, but still quite a ways to go for each batch consist of "50 AirBnBs", which to me is a far more impressive goal than having 1000s of lower quality startups. It's also better that YC is a signal of success than "not-YC" being a signal of failure. Franchising would dilute the brand and more importantly be a distraction from (as YC would always say) making and improving something people want.
YC is relatively "open-sourced" and there's nothing to stop others from creating accelerators with similar models around the world (and in the valley). There are already hundreds of imitators and these catch many of those that YC misses.
a.) you would say that, wouldn't you, you'd like as much of PG's attention as possible
b.) it's quite presumptious to state that the 1000s of others would be lower quality. Are the less than 1000, mid 20s, mostly male, mostly american, applicants to YC the best candidates on earth?
There are probably 1000x, if not more, capable founders of all age groups, nationalities, and genders that PG could get a slice of. He's built a brand and should seek to capitalize on it before someone establishes a superior brand.
Off course, this all about what PG does for fun, he's already rich enought to never work again. It might be that he enjoys mentoring a few founders a couple of times a year and doesn't have global ambitions.
Harvard "built a brand", but I don't see Harvard establishing franchises around the world to capitalize and satisfy it's "global ambitions". It's satisfied with trying to be a better Harvard, which is why it's brand persists.
In the same sense, YC could scale by getting more of those 1000x capable founders to apply the regular way and continue to improve on picking the best of them.
I think YC does extend its' brand in a different way: by funding companies that create new avenues for startup funding/networking such as FundersClub.
However, from a purely profit perspective, PG would stand to make a lot more profits from scaling. After all, Walmart is younger than Harvard by hundreds of years, but makes a lot more money.
If there was a YC here in Costa Rica the startups would be heading to SV to raise money. Multiply that by dozens of other countries that can't provide the complete ecosystem and the name becomes worthless and the network no more beneficial than HN.
I'm currently building a smaller business. Decent recurring revenue, very unlikely to scale to big proportions. Basically aiming for financial freedoms. Not technical, but learning to make websites for what I'm working on.
Is this worth my while to apply for? My time is flexible, so I'd just be looking at cost of flight + booking to attend.
I always met great people at the day of the event but I had the feeling that I may have missed some important connections with people that may have similar interests and/or complementary skill set to mine.
Flint Center 21250 Stevens Creek Blvd, Cupertino, CA
My only guess would be since they don't need a venue on Stanford's campus, they don't need help from BASES anymore, but I was just looking for someone to confirm.
I've come up with a formula...
<large font><made up word - typically something like boopnik, slurpio, cloppertrin, etc>Do <something that has been done 5,000 times>, <faster, better, more, gooder, bestester, more better, simply, less hard, more easier></large font> blah blah blah blah blah, here's a picture of us sailing and helping the homeless, because we're unique. Give us money. Thx.
...because in order to really protect your customers' data, you should share it with more clueless children who think javascript should be used for everything.