On turning Y Combinator rejection into reddit | Hacker News Reader

On turning Y Combinator rejection into reddit

theatlantic.com

72 pointskn0thing14 comments

Hey Alexis.

Between Small Empires on The Verge, and a number of recent media appearances, you've recently begun very publicly advocating in favor of entrepreneurship.

Any particular reason you chose to do this now, instead of earlier, or even sometime in the future?

It's been something on my mind since SOPA/PIPA. After that, I turned my eyes toward getting people think about the internet economy happening outside of the Valley (e.g., INTERNET 2012 bus tour + documentary: http://siliconprairiefilm.com) so that more Americans (and our politicians) realize just how important protecting + nurturing the internet is for the American economy.

I'm spending the next year promoting lowercase "e" entrepreneurship -- not just for people who want to start companies, but just use the same entrepreneurial skills to help themselves be awesome. The motivation for Small Empires was not only to make founders + startup employees more relatable, but also the users who are using these tools.

For everyone one person who wants to start etsy, there are tens of thousands who just want to start an etsy store -- I'd argue they're even more important to reach.

And after speaking at enough universities, it was clear there is no curriculum in the country preparing students for the new economy, yet we're sitting at a time of unprecedented potential. That's what lead to the book (Without Their Permission) and the 70-university, 150-stop tour I'm doing this fall!

http://withouttheirpermission.com/tour-dates

There is no master plan, though, I can guarantee that.

Doesn't matter if you have a master plan -- you got started.

Silicon Valley is doing a poor job at connecting with the rest of the world. In people's eyes it's all brilliant MIT kids who get millions of dollars to write software that lets other kids share pictures and sell it for billions. Most of the rest of the world can't even fathom this. It's a novelty, a fairy tale which will never affect them. In a lot of people's eyes there will be no major casualty if the tech business "goes away".

It is really important for rest of America to relate to Silicon Valley. To see the millions of lives these companies are changing, not just by connecting people to each other but also by helping them earn a living. The etsies of the world are providing real opportunity that didn't exist before. The rest of America needs to see that.

This is why I am so excited about Alexis' "Without their Permission". I hope it gets a much wider audience than the tech sector and people see the tech world for what it really is.

In similar vein, it is very important for the tech world to remain humble, not to get carried away by catered lunches, google buses, 6 figure salaries and free ubers. The tech world needs to understand that this is not how life in most professions works and we are in real danger of turning into spoilt and privileged people that the rest of the world has started seeing us as.

> The etsies of the world

Etsy was launched in NYC. Other than that, I agree. I'm struggling to think of a SV company other than Facebook, Twitter, and Google. And as far as I'm aware, Google is the only one of those three with projects outside SV. Maybe it's easier to think of more if you're in SV and not on the other side of the continent.

I think this is less 'Silicon Valley' the geographic location and more 'Silicon Valley' the idea -- the metaphorical land of hype, of venture capital, of red bull vodkas and launch parties, of being wired in -- of buzz.

Are you serious? Facebook and Twitter are huge forces worldwide. There's a reason countries like Iran and China have blocked them. (And this just in: Iran has unblocked FB and Twitter as of this week.)

And for SV companies other than those, there's no lack of big names: Apple, Oracle, Salesforce, HP, Intel, Symantec...

> Are you serious?

You must have missed this:

> Maybe it's easier to think of more if you're in SV and not on the other side of the continent.

I didn't know those were SV companies. They're household names because of their impact, not their location. People don't tend to associate them with the location of the company's headquarters.

> There's a reason countries like Iran and China have blocked them. (And this just in: Iran has unblocked FB and Twitter as of this week.)

You missed this too:

> only one of those three with projects outside SV

I was thinking of Google Fiber and Google's lobbying to make driverless cars legal in as many states as possible. Projects. "Getting banned in China" isn't a project. It's almost as if you ignored the content of my comment.

And today I learned that Menlo Park (Facebook) and Cupertino (Apple) are in California. I imagine this is what it's like when someone learns there's more to Atlanta than the airport.

I really appreciate that Small Empires exists, and we've even talked briefly about it before on Reddit (I'm /u/jhu).

I couldn't agree more that there's a dearth of entrepreneurship education at most universities. My career advisor was asking me how accelerators work. I don't fault them for it however. They can already barely keep up with the traditional employment recruitment cycle. But it really hit home to me that disregarding a few notable exceptions it's going to be a long time before people interested in entrepreneurship will be able to go their career centers for advice.

Your book tour stop at Hopkins is listed as in progress. Looking forward to seeing you right as finals come around, and let me know if I can do anything to help.

Oh yes!

Well, I want the Without Their Permission tour to help remedy that!

The best thing any of you can do to help is email epicbooktour@alexisohanian.com offering to help! Even if we're 'booked' it'll still help because we can assist you in spreading the word as the date approaches.

Alexis,

Any chance when you're in Ann Arbor that you can also head up the road to Michigan State in East Lansing? Be glad to connect you with the right people up here.

Sorry! The schedule is so tight as it is, we just can't make it: http://withouttheirpermission.com/tour-dates but please consider coming to the Ann Arbor event or the Brand Camp event I'm doing in Detroit.

How can I get involved?

Seriously - I am in the Valley's nebulous zone: good history, background, and connections - never made the major hit, too much bridge-skills not enough developer skills to see what I personally would prefer built - though I have enabled some great successes...

I'd like to help others, and myself, over the hump to execution on your dreams.

Well, aside from pre-ordering my book and telling everyone you meet about it.... heh, you should come to one of our events! The tour list is up to 150 stops (!) http://withouttheirpermission.com/tour-dates and hopefully you can meet some like-minded folks with whom you'll go on to make something amazing that I'll later take credit for.

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