python_kiss

"Good to Great" and "Built to Last" are both amazing books. But I do not recommend it to startup founders unless you're planning for an IPO. Both books were written to entice established corporations (GE, Sony, P&G, etc) not startups. CEO's of big companies will certainly find Jim Collins of much help, but us startup founders won't. Though, it is a definite read if you've some spare time on your hand :)

It's interesting to hear this advice from multiple channels. I was just on phone with iJigg cofounder (zaidf on news.yc) and he emphasized this point as well.

I finished reading first three chapters of "Founders At Work", and this advice seems to be consistent with all three interviewees. I am sure there are exceptions to the rule; but generally speaking, it pays to have a good team.

This reminds me of a similar situation mentioned in "Founders at Work" about PayPal's original plan to develop applications on the Palm Pilot.

In their own words, "..the move of the enterprise to handheld devices was actually not forthcoming...Any minute now (we thought), there'll be millions of people begging for security on their handheld devices. It just wasn't happening. We were correct to change our strategy, since it still hasn't happened."

Has anyone considered the possibility that the cellphone might not be the glorious next step forward? Most tech evangelists, including myself, expect mobile devices to eventually diminish our reliance on the desktop. What if that actually never happens at the expected grandeur scale?

A friend of mine recently bought a Nokia 8800. It's an expensive phone, so I asked him what he used it for. His answer, "for phone calls and sms". It seems to me that mobile startups are pushing supply ahead of demand.

Yeah, in an article, I mentioned this as one of the coincidences that made Google fabulously successful. Have a look,

http://shuzak.com/Personal/Article.php?Article-Title=Coincidences-that-made-Google-successful

You are right. Have a look here:

Digg.com No Longer Just for Tech News Junkies

http://www.podtech.net/home/technology/790/digg-this-diggcom-no-longer-just-for-tech-news-junkies

Three notable generals who successfully implemented this strategy are Tariq ibn-Ziyad, Hurnan Cortez, and Xiang Yu. They managed to take on armies many times their size by deliberately cutting off any channels of exit.

Read more about them here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariq_ibn-Ziyad

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hernan_Cortez

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiang_Yu

That is also true in Ontario, Canada; you are not required to incorporate if you're using your own name for the business.

I remember back when you had to manually submit your website to 30 different search engines. It's amazing how fast times change.

Web 2.0 has to be it. But you know what tips me off even more? Web 3.0! gosh

My sister recently received a job offer from Microsoft at their Mountain View office. She will be moving there for the entire summer. I will let you know what the process involves. I am Canadian, and therefore concerned about this myself. (here's my email: jawad.exe@gmail.com)

Someone please show us the light.

A strong antagonist makes a strong protagonist. Computer users wouldn't support the open source movement so enthusiastically if Microsoft did not exist. Genghis Khan, the prolific leader who conquered the world, learned early on that by determining a common enemy he could unite the divided Mongol tribes and unleash a force unheard of. Similarly, if it were not for IBM back in the 80's, Steve Jobs would've never been able to build a cult around Apple. Strategy, therefore, is not just the art of planning the line of attack; it is also choosing whom to fight.

Some smart entrepreneurs tend to use their comeptition to validate their own product. While the article is great (I mean it), it should be noted that it is not always bad to have competition.

As a Canadian, don't you just need the citizenship card to get in America? The borders are pretty much open, so I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case.

Here is a related post by Phil on Profy: Online Communities Continue Growth

http://www.profy.com/2007/03/15/online-community/

"Know your enemy and know yourself, find naught in fear for 100 battles. Know yourself but not your enemy, find level of loss and victory. Know thy enemy but not yourself, wallow in defeat every time." - Sun Tzu, The Art of War

I keep a very close eye on my competitors. I follow their rss feeds, coverage on blogs, and features that make them better than us. I am surprised this is even up for a debate.

That must be it. I incorporated my dad's company as a sole-proprietor and it was dirt cheap. I am guessing the process gets complicated when more than one founder is involved. Blood thirsty lawyers!

I hope this helps:

"Financially, a startup is like a pass/fail course. The way to get rich from a startup is to maximize the company's chances of succeeding, not to maximize the amount of stock you retain. So if you can trade stock for something that improves your odds, it's probably a smart move." - How to Start a Startup

This made me laugh, lol:

"Paul explains. 'Haven't you seen the Segway he built?' We walk into the other room. 'See, this is typical Trevor-logic. He wants to lose weight so he starts biking to work, but biking is too easy so he teaches himself to unicycle. Then when he builds his own Segway, he decides that two wheels are redundant, so he builds a self-balancing unicycle." :p

I am wondering why it costs $1000 to incorporate in Delaware? That is quite a lot compared to how much it costs us in Canada.

It depends on how you use this site. You might've noticed how the top users tend to post articles and spark interesting discussions while new users tend to post news. As a startup founder, you are more interested in analytical articles rather than news. For news, you might be better off subscribing to other sites for a larger scope (i.e. TechCrunch, Mashable, GigaOm, and KillerStartups). There is no shortage of news.

Good analytical articles, however, require that users swipe through their rss feeds, find an interesting piece, and post it here. The value of yc.news, in my opinion, is in the articles that other startup founders find interesting. And that alone makes this place worth your time.

Variety of ideas are indicative of the plasticity of mind. Rest assured, this is something YC will see as a good thing. Go ahead and list them.

It all boils down to this: when a VC invests money in a startup, they are putting their reputation on the line. So imposing some control over the startup just seems natural. Imagine if you had to trust $11 million on a group of strangers; installing one of their own on the startup's board gives them a birds eye view of how their money is being spent.

Here is a list of almost 1000 Web 2.0 logos: http://web2logo.com

Good post though :)

lol@"20 ways to make your cellphone look like Steve Jobs".

Digg users are indeed obsessed with lists. I once posted an article to Digg titled "9 Inventions Edison Did Not Make" along with "Anatomy of a successful social network". Both reached the frontpage; but the former received 500 more Diggs than the latter, eventhough I must've spent 20x more time writing "Anatomy of a successful social network".

Digg users have severe ADD; they like to consume information fast, and then get out of the site. Lists let them do just that.

TechCrunch has 351k feed subscribers not 53,651. I remember when Mashable covered mainstream startups but, in face of competition, positioned itself towards a smaller niche (covering social networks). Today Mashable has close to 80k subscribers.

There is nothing wrong with aiming small.

All business start off as micro-niche. Friendster's demographic was considered a niche just four years ago. Now it is considered "mainstream".

The one thing startups do risk for aiming small is VC investment. Venture Capitalists are reluctant to write a 7 figure check to a startup aiming for the 53,651 audience.

Great site gustaf. I love the simplistic UI and one page sign up. Here is a minor fix: increase the window size of your "terms of service" page. It is hard to read when the user has to scroll both vertically and horizontally :)

I think Y Combinator didn't receive as much publicity this year as they did earlier (Jessica's book certainly helped, though). Judging from the number of users on news.yc, I am guessing that there are less than 500 applicants. Which to me is quite a low number considering the opportunity!

Here is a nice tactic I came up with: Type your competition's name in Technorati and determine all the blogs that reviewed your competitior. Next, dispatch an email to all those bloggers informing them that you have created a rival product. The bloggers are usually interested in covering products similar to those they have covered in the past :)

I think the photos were taken this winter, so it must be Mountain View. I like the padded walls; are those to reduce echo?

There is something strange about that Segway; the wheels and the handle on it look very different. But anyway, great photos! I think this topic was posted earlier as well :)

That is a good point! Dropping out of school is analogous to "buring all your ships". Sun Tzu writes that "put your enemies in a spot where they have no place to go, and they will die before fleeting. If they are to die then, what can they not do? Warriors exert their full strength. When warriors are in great danger, then they have no fear. When there is nowhere to go, they are firm, when they are deeply involved, they stick to it. If they have no choice, they will fight to death."

You do your "damndest" when your success depends on the success of your startup.