ryanmickle

Thanks for the feedback, we actually never set out to compete with Craigslist. We built Yardsale as a way to list and sell for all the items that don't get posted on Craigslist or eBay, because it's too painful. So really, at least in my own personal experience, the choice is to get nothing for an item, or to list and sell it to a neighbor and make money that I wouldn't have otherwise.

Really sorry about this. We're on it now!

Edit: to answer your question on fees, we're still considering how we roll them out. Appreciate the feedback. We felt strongly that we wanted to build a service worth paying for. We also didn't want to bait and switch users, so we do mention fees when you post, but the entire experience is free. When you try it, I hope you'll agree that it's a lot better than the one for which you pay 40% at a consignment store.

timjahn, you're right (I've seen it in action). Users will be scanning their own cards for purchases made on third party apps. It's really slick.

Or lots of little things over time. The user only needs to scan the card the first time.

Love the ambition, but I'm curious why her portfolio work isn't nearly as good as this site.

+1, me either. But once they're in, life is easy. Just ask Groupon or any slam dunk subscription site.

One is owned by the entity (associated with an EIN), while the personal account is owned by an individual (and associated with an SSN).

+! Definitely find a partner

Congrats Sahil, on your decision to take some time. I trust that you'll quickly fall in love with the energy and meritocratic environment that is the startup world. Also know that you always can go back, even if USC doesn't normally allow it, the lessons you'll likely learn in the "real world" will make you a better student, if you chose to return (looking back I'm sure many of us wish we could do it "all over again").

I have a good friend who was offered the opportunity to work for a startup out of high school in 1999 after he finished an internship. Long story short, the company sold to Netscape and he always speaks highly of his experiences and the people he met. When he returned to school, rather than graduating "into" a decimated Silicon Valley job market, he rode the bubble until the 101 felt like a ghost town during rush hour. And he made his way back to school, where he was able to get exactly the education he knew he needed, based on experience. Now, just for the purposes of the case of one example, he is a YC W10 founder.

Obviously, dropping out of school to work as broad-stroked advice probably doesn't make sense, but in the case of a talented, driven entrepreneur like yourself, I say go for it.

Let's get this straight, Marc Benioff doesn't give a damn about startups. His clients are the Fortune 500. When he thinks about the current clients of Heroku, he gags (and sees how much money can be made by selling to CTO and CIOs at companies like Boeing, Dell, Starbucks, etc.).

One might argue that most job creation is hardly "teaching men to fish."

The friction between the "business guy" and "programmer" (as in your startup us worth X for every programmer and -X/2 for every MBA) seems to always pop up in startup discussions, and it might lead some astray. Startups aren't about which tasks a business guy should take off a programmer's shoulders or which features a business guy should direct a programmer to build. Startups are an organism, a team. Every founder is going to do stuff, like selling, or something analytical, that is uncomfortable at first. That's what it's about.

The problem seems to arise when once founder/contributor values his or her skill set more than others. This is where you'll find the business person who thinks he/she just needs a programmer to build the killer app he/she designed. BS. But the same goes for a programmer... it is the business that must succeed, finding a product/market fit, building, launching, selling, etc., more than just lines of code.

Ask an advisor/mentor who has built a successful startup before what will be involved in growing the startup you're aiming to build. Look at that list closely and be humble. Think of people who are much better than you at the things at which you're not necessarily at the top of your game, and get them involved. Not people who can sort of do it, people who will rock at it.

Good luck.

Health data could be a powerful next data layer, perhaps as location has become. There are some devices and apps in the space, but I haven't seen anything yet that focuses on _publishing_ the data, as Foursquare focuses on publishing location and tips and I think Adams has it right... it's got to be easy (and fun) or people will just give up.

They're randomly selecting about 30 people a day, who are let all the way in (immediately) upon requesting an invite, last I heard. Be sure to do that and I'd expect that you'll have access shortly.

Next I hope Gmail incorporates some way to batch automated emails such as newsletters, social network email alerts, etc. It is crazy how much time we spend on email, despite the low signal to noise ratio.

Not sure I agree with Sachin. If I want people to be in touch real time, I give them my mobile so he or she can text me. Otherwise, I'm looking for less emailed noise, not more.

Yet, if the discussion is strictly that of the protocol's limitations, not sure it would hurt to ensure more immediate delivery, but I agree with the other commenters that IM seems to float the boat. Not sure I've ever heard anyone complain that IM isn't fast enough for them. Perhaps the discussion should be about a migration of IM to a shared, open standard, as opposed the silos of Gchat/jabber, Skype, AIM, FB chat, etc.

Maybe Google can actually pull off free wi-fi, unlike its attempts in San Francisco.