jmcannon

This understanding is outdated. AKP has gutted the old secular military establishment and instituted reforms that no longer make this a realistic scenario.

As an anecdote, I went through YC twice: once in 2009 with 30 companies and again in the last batch with 65 companies. I was skeptical at first as well, but if anything, the value my company got out of advising in the last batch was greater than the first time around. We could still meet with PG whenever we really needed him specifically, and the partners are really just as useful as PG in most cases. In many, they're better - being able to rap with Justin Kan about PR or Garry Tan about design is gold.

The one noticeable weakness is the decreasing familiarity between founders in the batch. My first time through, all the founders knew each other by name. This second time, there were other founders I still had trouble recognizing in the bathroom line at demo day. That's not necessarily as bad as it might sound - niches formed that grew close, and the camaraderie of this last batch was much better than in 2009. I don't really know why that is - just a more gregarious bunch in general, I think.

"because it's interesting and fun and challenging and sometimes disappointing and a fantastic learning experience and you might get rich or go broke while experiencing the full, unfiltered range of human emotions and potential"

This is one of the best articulations of why I'm an entrepreneur that I've read. Thanks.

Thanks for the feedback. Sounds like others feel the same. We'll slow it down a bit.

Ahh, I saw that. I'm sorry - our artists' personalities are as diverse as their styles. We've done our best to screen for people that will work well with clients, but we will be watching closely to make sure they're all a good fit. I'm following up with an email to you now.

You've touched on a really interesting point here, and one that we've thought about really hard. In building the company, we had to decide what sort of portfolio we wanted to represent. We were gaining the most traction with work that's often described as narrative or illustrative, and we discovered that the people most excited weren't even thinking about their pieces as investments (in the sense of future resale value). I wouldn't describe this work as kitschy, though - it's got a broad appeal that most people are able to connect with quickly. The narrative aspect is important for motivating people to commission, too - it's not as easy to commission an artist that works in a very minimal style. Even then, I don't think the kind of people that would prefer that sort of work are going to be early adopters.

You will notice that we do represent some more contemporary styles. Like any smart startup, we're measuring and exploring different niches. We'll recruit artists based on what people respond to. Moving up the ladder to more expensive and established artists that people regard as investments isn't out of the question as a part of our future.

Having said all that - we are working on including more background information in our artist profiles. Good feedback.

Thank you!

Thank you! I think you're right on both points.

Thanks for the feedback. It actually used to work that way, but users were telling us that they wanted to go directly to the image that the clicked on. We'll work on a happy solution.

Yep. We considered that a proxy for demand.

Absolutely. We were our own first customers and sometimes have to restrain ourselves from blowing all our YC money on commissioning our own artists. Most of the work so far has been for the wall, but some people have commissioned pieces that they've used in a site design. No games. . . yet.

Perfect! Let us know if we can be of any help along the way.

Dividing by quality "Good, Great, and Excellent" is weird to me. What metric distinguishes the different options? If I only check "Good," will you edit my text while watching television instead of devoting your full attention to it?

I would get rid of the quality gradient altogether, instead ensuring your users that all of your work is "excellent." If you still want an extra tier to your pricing, I guess you could do what translation services do and charge per revision or by number of people the text passes through, but the idea that you simply aren't trying as hard if I check "good" doesn't sit well.

Use javascript to automatically extract this information from the URL that they enter.

Yup - I paid my way through my first start-up tutoring. Again, it probably depends where you are, but on the east coast at least, some middle and high schools cost more than most college tuitions. The kids there often have several tutors to supplement their education and are willing to pay top dollar if they think you are smart; coincidentally, this is mostly determined by how much money you ask for and where you went to college.

Anyway, it can be very rewarding and fun work. Once you get that first student, it becomes exponentially easier to find the next by asking for referrals.

Fine, but even then he does a wonderful and passionate job articulating that 'universal' reality shock.

Definitely - we understand and appreciate the spirit of HN. All the feedback here is gold.

IE6 is still very prevalent in the American school system (don't know about elsewhere). We used to sell a web product to schools and you wouldn't believe the number of districts using IE6 for "compatibility" with their network software or because they don't consider upgrading a priority.

I started working on my startup immediately after graduation 1500 miles from my parents' basement. I found a cheap room in a boarding house from which I work and tutoring rich private school kids just four hours a week keeps me going. For a little padding, I took a tiny loan from various parts of the family - it really annoys me when people assume anyone can find a $20,000+ loan from "friends and family," (I can't) but my family is almost exclusively low-income and was able to put together a little something that helped cover incorporation, business cards, etc.

Actually, this was the article's point exactly. You would help her out to satisfy a social expectation. What would others think if you didn't?

You might ask how that changes if you and the old lady are alone. You would probably say that you'd still help her out, though I'd say that's just a response trained within a particular environment in which there is a help-old-ladies social expectation.

Especially with Web startups, following Tip 1 (Take Your Time) might mean you're still on the ground floor when a more ambitious someone has secured investment and begun executing despite poor economic conditions. She basically admits this herself in Tip 4 (Wear the Watch).

I find it interesting how a "trust rating" would affect traditional media outlets, all of whom now publish scores of content online. A rating system wouldn't just discredit LHC doomsday sites, but could potentially be a positive source of pressure for TV news, newspapers, and magazines as well.

Anyway, I agree Duncan is being a spaz and that TBL's idea isn't completely absurd. I imagine something like a Firefox plugin for factcheck.org.

This woman seems to think that sacrificing the pen for the keyboard somehow makes us a more evolved or sophisticated brand of human.

But when I picture a room full of Americans than can't even scribble their own names on an application form, I get exactly the opposite impression.