PG On Fox Today | Hacker News Reader

PG On Fox Today

ycombinator.posterous.com

104 pointsrams48 comments

I was actually pleasantly surprised by the hosts. Was expecting them to come off as complete morons (having watched some of Fox Biz) but they did a decent job.

Direct link: http://www.foxbusiness.com/search-results/m/25897600/funding...

What's interesting about this is seeing how something that we know a lot about is conveyed to the general public in a few brief clips. It must be difficult to choose exactly what to say.

Successful Pittsburghers:

Andrew Carnegie sold US Steel to J.P. Morgan and ended up in New York.

Mark Cuban sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo and ended up in Dallas.

Paul Graham sold Viaweb to Yahoo and ended up in Silicon Valley.

I'm determined to be next. Working on it.

Carnegie was a teenager when his family emigrated to Pittsburgh, do Pittsburghers count him 100% as one of their own?

I'd think the Scots would have something to say about that ;)

The Pittsburghers that worked for Carnegie certainly did not count him one of their own.

In a local PBS special about one of Carnegie's libraries, an elderly gentleman said that he would go to the pool in the basement of the library when he was a kid. But his father would never darken the door of any place with Carnegie's name on it. The father called Carnegie a "son of a shoe," apparently a grave insult in the father's home country.

The coolest thing about different cultures is that the grave insult that can get you and your family killed and your brother-in-law's tractor dealership bankrupted in one, is funny or no big deal in others.

A guy I know (here in US) got in trouble for beckoning a Fillipino coworker. Apparently only prostitutes are beckoned in the Phillipines as a solicitation. In some places in India, you -can- will get killed (or, if you are lucky, your dick cut off) for saying "Your sister is hot". In other places you will be considered enemy for life. In the US, I hear "Thanks man, I'll tell her". Cultural differences between families is also very interesting to observe. When I was a semi-kid, I heard one guy shout at his brother that he is son of a whore and my jaw dropped and remained dropped for a while.

I wonder how shocking alien cultures will be. Zaphod was(is?) his own great-grandfather due to a time-machine mishap and a defective condom, if I remember it right.

In some places in India, you -can- will get killed (or, if you are lucky, your dick cut off) for saying "Your sister is hot".

That's not the brightest thing to say to any guy, even in the United States.

My friends must just be very laid back people then, I guess :)

Apparently. :)

Of course, these things are probably situation dependent no matter what culture you're in. If you're good enough friends with someone, you can probably get away with saying nearly anything ... if they think you're joking.

Go Ed, go!

I was surprised that the hosts actually let Paul speak for more than seven un-interrupted seconds. When the interview first started, the game of "I'm going to say some stuff that I think you might say and ask you if that's what you want to say" seemed to have begun, but the hosts thankfully scaled back to occasional yapping.

It is not easy to be that natural in front of a TV camera. I wonder if pg's had training.

Is it just me or does he look mildly irritated by the end?

It seemed to start around the point where the host accuses Mark Cuban of duping everyone with broadcast.com then lumping Viaweb in with that... as if all founders made money by tricking acquirers rather than creating value.

Of course, maybe I'm projecting...

I didn't see irritation. I saw amusement when the host mentioned Mark. But then again you might be right.

Most of us have heard Cuban pretty much say he duped his investors and acquirers. Perhaps the host knows this too, but he didn't actually say that. He simply referred to "getting out in time" or "knowing when to sell". I think to the mass audience, pg came off looking real good.

As much as I have seen PG talking, he's always calm and natural. So I am thinking no.

He has the composure of a man whom tens of thousands hang on his every word.

My guess is maybe a little training but mostly lots of public speaking practice in general, thorough understanding of interview topic as well as lots of practice answering these questions in particular.

Last question was good - and the answer. Must admit to learning stuff in the interview as an unlikely yc-applicant.

Watching the video reinforced my desire to apply to Y Combinator. I've read in the guidelines that submitting multiple ideas is acceptable, and even preferred. It's also clear the majority of accepted startups are product-oriented (I'm considering automated subscriptions to a web service a product in this case), rather than service-oriented.

My company is following the Guy Kawasaki method of offering services/consulting to generate immediate cash flow, while working on product-driven solutions in the background. I strongly believe the product I'm currently working on will succeed, though I don't believe it will ever be a good acquisition candidate for Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, etc. I'm wondering how important that is for acceptance into Y Combinator.

Even the services I'm offering have an extra entrepreneurial twist. With a nod towards Anomaly (http://anomaly.com/), I have one carefully-screened client with whom I'm essentially working for equity rather than cash. Thus far I've been impressed by his performance and contributions to the project.

In summary, I'm hoping that someone here will evaluate what I've written and respond with a convincing argument for why I should: A. Apply with my 'big picture' vision, incorporating most or all of the above - keeping my fingers crossed that what is essentially an agency with multiple business models has a chance at acceptance B. Apply with total focus on the app - even though it's not a good acquisition candidate C. Wait to apply until I have a product-driven idea that is a good acquisition candidate

Thank you in advance for any light to be shed. I hope my questions possess some semblance of universal applicability.

First, read this if you haven't. http://ycombinator.com/howtoapply.html

If you email me specifics I can give you some specific feedback as you start writing your application. However, (A) is probably the right answer: it is good to demonstrate to YC that you have multiple paths to success, especially because the ideas for these startups tend to change over the course of the Y Combinator program and behind. Just be very, very specific about what you're going to do.

Not being an obvious acquisition target for Big Internet absolutely does not disqualify you or even hurt you. Your basic idea is a good one that will make you money -- and if you have real revenue you can always sell a company.

Wufoo is the canonical example of a YC company going strong as an independent. So, my universal suggestion, would be to apply with your biggest picture vision, while focusing on that big picture as a specific, well-defined product rather than as services for individual clients.

Thanks very much for your feedback. As a Wufoo user myself, it is a very encouraging example.

I would advise being prepared to slide along the consulting/product continuum depending on your ability to raise funding. If your startup is good, you shouldn't have to rely on consulting, unless investors are too stupid to realize it (which does happen).

The thing I notice most about your post, though, is the use of the singular. I'd get a cofounder if I were you.

I didn't realize it until I watched, but with a single word, pg tells you the answer to the question posed by one of my favorite books, "The Ultimate Secret to Getting Absolutely Everything You Want," by Mike Hernacki.

"No?"

"That's what you've got to figure out"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k1uOqRb0HU

Wrong video.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/search-results/m/25897600/funding...

Answer at B4.

Is this playing for folks outside the US?

Yes. I'm in Singapore.

thanks! For some reason it didn't play in Safari. It did work in Firefox though.

I can see this becoming a reality TV. :)

Hackers are (almost) always male and don't get laid that much, so a reality TV with a bunch of guys and no sex is not going to attract a lot of viewers...

Web based show! I think it would be interesting if they made a little documentary following around 3 months of YC, commercially though I guess it wouldn't be overly viable, would be great to see though.

Joel Spolsky did something similar, except with a group in interns:

http://www.projectaardvark.com/movie/

There's also a little bit in there with the founders of Reddit and (IIRC) it briefly shows a bit of the first round of YC.

Wasn't this show originally called justin.tv?

The beginning of the end of Justin.tv (as tv about Justin) was when he turned the camera off midway through a date. It was a noble experiment.

Have you ever seen The Ultimate Fighter?

I have not, but that's a good point. Well, hackers tend to enjoy intellectual fights more than physical ones. The average viewer wants entertainment, not intellectual stimulation...

They just need to make those fights flash-y and brutal. (I have no idea how.)

So have them put it on SpikeTV or G4 then.

It's been done -- http://www.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden/

"Paul, did you have a startup at one point?"

UM...yeah!?

haaa. I guess there is no reason to expect that she would know that...

(what?)

Oh geez, 1000 applications? Is ycombinator taking 60 this fall?

Black Polos are serious business.

he is posh haha

and fluffy!

PG for president!

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