I didn't at all mean to say the interviewers aren't able to see through it. They're all incredibly smart people, and after reading 1000's of applications I'm sure they can tell who is trying to game it and who isn't. As for the rest of the post I agree with what you're saying.
I keep the credit cards open, I just don't use them and phase them out slowly over time. I'm very diligent with it, and because I use them often and never miss a payment my credit is quite good. Admittedly though this was simply the first answer that came to mind.
Alcohol abuse has actually been correlated with High IQ and is most commonly abused by this group because of the despair they see in the world due to their high IQ's. Essentially, because they tend to be more educated, and aware of global problems that makes them depressed.
Diversity for diversity's sake is an empty gesture. Not only that, but diversity for diversities sake is demeaning. I love startups. One of the reason is that when I was in school I despised the political correctness of large, bureaucratic institutions. We exist in a meritocracy, and when success in a startup is already so difficult, anything less than choosing a team based on merit is making an already difficult task damn near impossible.
Perhaps you could do blind bids then just cut the top 10% and the bottom 10%. Get enough bids to make a bell curve and then take one standard deviation. That way you can get a deal, but still be reasonable enough to finish the project within budget.
Well, we'd shoot a team video, but we're in the process of relocating our startup so we're a little disparate. I guess you'll just have to interview us :)
The problem with that though is the equity stake is an important piece of the puzzle. It may seem a little paradoxical, but by giving out an equity stake you're reinforcing the non monetary social rewards as much as the monetary ones. Not to say of course that the money isn't important because it is, but my point was there is many kinds of "rewards" an investor receives. Money is just one part of the equation.
I think the author is overlooking one very important thing. Crowdfunding for startups or small business isn't only about the financial return. Yes some people are going to put $100 into a company claiming to be the next facebook thinking they'll be rich. However, many, many more people will invest in these companies to be a part of something or support their friends and families etc. All of the satisfaction isn't derived from the return.
That being said, protecting investors and maximizing their likelihood of return is going to be largely about the platform. What kind of deals do they facilitate? How do they vet? etc.
The next year is going to be very interesting, and I'm excited to see how this pans out, especially because I'm one of those guys working on a crowdfunding platform.
Something like this though could help to make labor a more realistic market. We can comparison shop almost any product via walmart or amazon, etc. Why shouldn't it be that way with employees?
I disagree. The ability to have a myriad of information as an individual soldier on the field could prove to be invaluable. Think about squad mates that get separated from groups. With technology like this you could see a top down map over your location what his/her position is and where you are relatively ala a Battlefield 3 or Modern Warfare 3 esque mini map. Also consider the ability to reduce friendly fire by being able to see exactly where an artillery strike is being painted and your relative position to that strike. These are just a few applications off the top of my head, but I think that augmented reality has the potential to dramatically aide the armed forces.
I take this as a compliment as one of the main things I focus on is marketing. However, even as you made this comment my two co-founders have been furiously coding to get our MVP ready to roll.
We're doing crowdfunding for equity for small businesses. So we're like Kickstarter aimed at for profit businesses and you get stock (or a revenue sharing agreement)
You hit on exactly why I wrote this second post. We aren't the guys that want to found a startup to be able to say we founded a startup. We're working on Seedlauncher because it's something we're passionate about, and it's something we want to exist for ourselves.
I'm sorry but I disagree. Here's the thing, everything you're saying is true in the context of a big city. However, you come out to the country and none of what you're saying holds true. I've lived in Chicago and I've lived in Iowa for years each. I had lots of friends in both places. I talk to exactly one person from Chicago still, but I regularly keep in touch with all of my Iowan friends even after they've moved.
We actually are doing that. We're in the process of looking at PG's list of ambitious startups/Y Combinators list of ideas for startups. Even if they don't get back to us over the next few days we're going to mull these over then execute.
That would be me. :) The thing is I'm finding cold emails aren't generally well received, if they are even answered at all. We'd go to more networking events and the like but most are on the coast and plane tickets are expensive. We're building up a strong network here in Iowa. What I was referring too was Y Combinator specific people. So we do what we can with where we're at. Not that I'm complaining because im really not, all I'm saying is from our current position, it's difficult (but definitely not impossible) to build strong relationships with Y Combinator alums.
I have. They're awesome guys. The thing is what I said was not at all a knock against Iowa. I love it here and the people are amazingly helpful and nice. It was more self depreciating humor to the fact that we're realitivley unknown college students.
We aren't waiting for seed funding. We pivoted to seedlauncher back in December, and have been working on it since. We're prelaunch while we wait for the SEC to write the regulations surrounding crowdfunding so we can operate.
To clarify, I don't mean this as a knock to Iowa. I love it here, I just wanted to emphasize that connections to Y Combinator alums are hard to come by out here.
Our team has been talking, and we've decided that even if we don't hear back from anyone at Y Combinator we're doing a 72 hour hackathon sometime in the next week using something on one of those list. :)