This is how you do great content marketing and branding.
This entire video series is about inspiring people with a side benefit of illustrating what makes YC special.
Compare this to content by other accelerators (of which there are many). It's not a lecture nor a recital of advice. It's a series of relatable and personable stories with a consistent theme. Start with "Why" you do something, not how or what.
While I agree with this being a great way to build an inspirational brand, I am convinced that it has worked because Jessica stays authentic. She sounds genuinely inspiring.
I do think they are keeping this profile in purpose. Jessica mentioned one of the things she wished she had done earlier is start YC's outreach earlier and cast a wider net with more partners. I interpreted this as her saying, this is what has worked wonders, I wish we had done more of it.
Feel free to shoot me any suggestions of content you'd find useful via email. We're always looking for more ways to make valuable and interesting content more accessible to everyone.
I think there needs to be a moratorium on that AirBnB political cereal box story. "The most important thing to do is to focus on your business, but also it's cool if you spend time on a random side business," is a big mixed message.
I think the message that I've gotten from that story is that you need to do whatever you can to afford you the means to focus on your business, no matter how un-scaleable it may seem. And that's the attitude we love here at YC.
It's definitely one of my favorite stories, and really serves as a great testament to the idea that staying alive so you can keep working on your product is easily one of the most important things for (early stage) companies.
I see your point - but don't you think that's kind of a hyper real view of what this "starting a startup" is really about?
Whether its making personal sacrifices, cutting all unnecessary costs, selling "on boarding" you would do anyway for free - whatever it takes to keep the company alive (lots of things that don't scale) end up being significant in the early (and middle-year) history of startups.
Maybe its played, but I still think its a pretty great example of just getting it done by whatever means necessary.
I don't see a mixed message. They did what they had to do to survive as a company rather than become consultants or get jobs because they were that focused on making the company work.
It was a great interview. The story about how Airbnb started is interesting. I'd have laughed at renting air beds during conferences, too. I'd see potential in it but not billions. The pivot and cereal gimmicks were excellent examples of her advice that determination is most important. Also, remember that most politicians or Fortune 100 CEO's didn't get there by being the smartest. They also got there with a combo of understanding people, focus and determination. Ruthlessly so in many cases.
So, the goal was increasing innovation across the board rather than making money. Hmm. I've previously brought up that I'm anti-VC innovation because many just get acquired by big companies that shelve it, esp if patents are involved. I also know they're interested in exporting or improving Y Combinator. I think it would be interesting if they modified the model so the software had to be GPL, the business had anti-lockin tooling like data importers, and/or patent suit immunity for non-profits or free software doing compatible offerings. These kept true even after an IPO or acquisition by legal means. A combo of techniques like these would allow continuous stream of competition while preserving most of worth of company due to its brand and first-mover advantage.
What you all think about that or another modification of YC model to discourage monopolistic practices, lock-in or shelving post-acquisition?
> Also, remember that most politicians or Fortune 100 CEO's didn't get there by being the smartest. They also got there with a combo of understanding people, focus and determination.
Huh, and here I thought it was access to family money and Ivy League elite connections. Who knew?
Maybe slightly off topic, but I'm subscribed to YC on Soundcloud and had a notification pop up last night to tell me that this interview was available. Hit "play" on the driveway this morning while still connected to wifi and started my commute. 5 minutes later and it cuts out - mobile data dropped out (I live in a rural area).
Does the Soundcloud app not support buffering at all? I'd have thought that 20 minutes of speech would be a couple of MB at most. I see I can "upgrade" to allow offline listening for £9.99 per month, which seems pointless as this is all I'd use the service for.
I suppose I'll have to go down the route of using a legally dubious third party service to download the interview like I did for the Zuckerberg one a few weeks back. Shame they don't offer a more convenient way to listen, as this is shaping up to be a really interesting series.
I had similar issues with the Soundcloud app on iOS cutting out mid-track. Nothing seemed to fix it aside from totally restarting the app and finding my play head position again. It's kind of surprising because their desktop experience is so so good.
It's definitely possible to download on Soundcloud (ex. see "Download" button here https://soundcloud.com/travisscott-2/uber-everywhere). I think whoever runs the YC Soundcloud account has not enabled it. I agree it would be nice.
As long as we accept that "endearing" and "politically radical" are attributes that can and have been held by many, but equally are often not found in the same person. Afterall, the world will change whether or not YC exists.
For both PG and JL, a big requirement is surely avoiding any of the possible and unappealing permutations of the phrase "if I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution". This is obviously really tough to do once you start tangling with big capital. Motherhood and apple pie is terrific but boy is it associated with social normativity.
So...this page has a YouTube embed, a SoundCloud embed and then also a Scribd embed. I got lazy with the timings / formatting of the transcript, but would be people rather a single link to something like this? https://presentio.us/t/610902
Note: You can click the text in the first few paragraphs to jump to the correct part of the video.
That app seems to break in Safari. Clicking many of the links seems to start the video over if it hasn't fully loaded yet, which is a confusing experience.
It's unclear on the page that there's no visual indication (within sight) that clicking in the text is doing something.
What Jessica has done in YC is an amazing example of how to build great culture in a Startup (and YC was and still is, in several ways, a startup!).
It's a challenge, but I believe YC can be an organization that can outlive its founders by the force of its strong, enduring culture. As a YC founder I didn't have the pleasure to meet Jessica (or Paul) yet (they are in a Sabbatical in London). But just spending those 3 months in YC and all the amazing people they put there made me feel as if I had.
Paul Graham (and Trevor and Robert) founded a company, Viaweb, that was sold to Yahoo for close to $50M in 1998. Like Jessica said, they invested $12k per company in the first batches of YC.
AirBnB is an evil company and YC should be ashamed to be apart of it.
AirBnB has the official policy that it's okay to lie about where listings are. I booked one that turned out to about about half a kilometer away from where is was marked on the map. I would never have rented it had it been correctly marked. When I complained I was told it's their policy. It's buried in their privacy policy in a paragraph aimed at hosts, not guests. Also, the law appears to say burying stuff in a policy is not a defense excusing deceptive practices.
I can list more AirBnB deceptive practices. I don't think the idea of AirBnB is bad but YC should not be associated with the kind of management that thinks deceptive practices are ok.
You have a valid point. They do it to protect the privacy of their hosts but mostly their best interests since hosting one's entire home/apt is illegal in many areas.
I agree that they should have a clear disclaimer on the exact location because it is very important in many areas. I think VRBO may be exact so you have another option.
I was tempted not to reply given the topic but she mentioned them exemplary enough that it was worth checking. Plus, I added "ruthless" to her recommendation that determination trumps all other traits for success. Made me curious. So, I looked at their policy pages to find something about location listings. Here's my first find:
"Misrepresenting your spaces
You should not provide inaccurate location information, have incorrect availability, mislead people about the type, nature, or details of your listing, substitute one listing for another, set up fake or fraudulent listings, leave fraudulent reviews, engage in deceptive pricing, or fail to disclose hazards and habitability issues."
...I noticed they had permission to display location-related stuff, which should be affected by other policy, in your profile with an "approximate location" on a map. There could be problems if approximation was wrong due to crappy, mapping service but good ones are usually pretty good.
Which policy link and quotes do you have that lets them lie about what has to be honest in the above sections? Or another I haven't seen?
I've banned this account for repeatedly breaking the HN guidelines, and because you don't seem to be using this site in good faith. Intentionally or not, your comments have the effect of trolling. (Grandiose rhetoric about YC and the HN community, btw, doesn't insulate an account from needing to follow the rules here.)
If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email [email protected] and give us reason to believe you'll follow the rules in the future.
I down voted this comment because it is based on counterfactual anecdotes (those companies do have popular and well-liked products), and builds on those anecdotes to insult people who believe those statistics, and then tries to inoculate itself against criticism by accusing downvoters and flaggers of responding irrationally. The attempt to frame a predictable response as an unreasonable one hurts the discussion without offering anything in return.
I do agree that world-changing is a term used in contexts such as disease eradication. Certainly disease eradication changes the world more than avoiding a stay in a hotel. However, world-changing as a term is not restricted to the most impactful change to which it has been previously attached. For a typical programmer, making something that lets millions of people have an easier workday, vacation or home life should count as changing the world, even if it is a bit mundane.
In my home European city alone, 450 000 people have stayed on the 4500 available houses on Airbnb in 2015. Other cities have passed or are planning to pass new laws specifically due to its effects.
"Changing the world" is an ambiguous concept, but you can't say it hasn't had an impact on cities across the world.
Jessica is awesome. That said, this part near the beginning, where Sam says...
>>Sometimes they create a small success, and sometimes they create these companies that really transform the world, and YC has been very fortunate to be involved in a lot of these, Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe, the list goes on.
I mean... really? OK, I'll grant you Airbnb, but Dropbox "transformed" the world?
I dunno. Before Dropbox I didn't really use a general purpose file store in the cloud for anything. I stored pictures on flickr and documents on Google Docs but nothing general purpose.
Now I store my entire home directory, all of my financial & legal documents, and quite a few other things (some in Dropbox some elsewhere). I dunno if that's transforming the world or not but it's made a pretty big difference to me personally.
Stripe has transformed the world. In 1999, I was asked to look into how to setup credit card processing for our company. I contacted Authorize.net for technical help. They just asked me to fax some information to them. Two months later my boss receives a bill for $3,000 claiming we had signed a contract agreeing to that fee. I think Stripe has made CC processing a lot easier for everyone.
http://www.ycombinator.com/press/ quotes 1297 startups
http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/view?acceleratorid=1011 has 1069 companies (+ ~100 from the S16 class) for ~1200 in total
[+] [-] noodles23|9 years ago|reply
This entire video series is about inspiring people with a side benefit of illustrating what makes YC special.
Compare this to content by other accelerators (of which there are many). It's not a lecture nor a recital of advice. It's a series of relatable and personable stories with a consistent theme. Start with "Why" you do something, not how or what.
[+] [-] rollinDyno|9 years ago|reply
I do think they are keeping this profile in purpose. Jessica mentioned one of the things she wished she had done earlier is start YC's outreach earlier and cast a wider net with more partners. I interpreted this as her saying, this is what has worked wonders, I wish we had done more of it.
[+] [-] sandslash|9 years ago|reply
Feel free to shoot me any suggestions of content you'd find useful via email. We're always looking for more ways to make valuable and interesting content more accessible to everyone.
[+] [-] bobbylox|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sandslash|9 years ago|reply
It's definitely one of my favorite stories, and really serves as a great testament to the idea that staying alive so you can keep working on your product is easily one of the most important things for (early stage) companies.
[+] [-] btrautsc|9 years ago|reply
Whether its making personal sacrifices, cutting all unnecessary costs, selling "on boarding" you would do anyway for free - whatever it takes to keep the company alive (lots of things that don't scale) end up being significant in the early (and middle-year) history of startups.
Maybe its played, but I still think its a pretty great example of just getting it done by whatever means necessary.
[+] [-] simonebrunozzi|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tedmiston|9 years ago|reply
I don't look at it as a random side business because it provided marketing and helped them raise money when they were broke.
[+] [-] Mz|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] melvinmt|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] elmar|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] runesoerensen|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] danbmil99|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nickpsecurity|9 years ago|reply
So, the goal was increasing innovation across the board rather than making money. Hmm. I've previously brought up that I'm anti-VC innovation because many just get acquired by big companies that shelve it, esp if patents are involved. I also know they're interested in exporting or improving Y Combinator. I think it would be interesting if they modified the model so the software had to be GPL, the business had anti-lockin tooling like data importers, and/or patent suit immunity for non-profits or free software doing compatible offerings. These kept true even after an IPO or acquisition by legal means. A combo of techniques like these would allow continuous stream of competition while preserving most of worth of company due to its brand and first-mover advantage.
What you all think about that or another modification of YC model to discourage monopolistic practices, lock-in or shelving post-acquisition?
[+] [-] ryandrake|9 years ago|reply
Huh, and here I thought it was access to family money and Ivy League elite connections. Who knew?
[+] [-] SmellyGeekBoy|9 years ago|reply
Does the Soundcloud app not support buffering at all? I'd have thought that 20 minutes of speech would be a couple of MB at most. I see I can "upgrade" to allow offline listening for £9.99 per month, which seems pointless as this is all I'd use the service for.
I suppose I'll have to go down the route of using a legally dubious third party service to download the interview like I did for the Zuckerberg one a few weeks back. Shame they don't offer a more convenient way to listen, as this is shaping up to be a really interesting series.
[+] [-] tedmiston|9 years ago|reply
It's definitely possible to download on Soundcloud (ex. see "Download" button here https://soundcloud.com/travisscott-2/uber-everywhere). I think whoever runs the YC Soundcloud account has not enabled it. I agree it would be nice.
[+] [-] demircancelebi|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] HiroshiSan|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] theoh|9 years ago|reply
For both PG and JL, a big requirement is surely avoiding any of the possible and unappealing permutations of the phrase "if I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution". This is obviously really tough to do once you start tangling with big capital. Motherhood and apple pie is terrific but boy is it associated with social normativity.
[+] [-] haberdasher|9 years ago|reply
Note: You can click the text in the first few paragraphs to jump to the correct part of the video.
Thoughts?
[+] [-] tedmiston|9 years ago|reply
That app seems to break in Safari. Clicking many of the links seems to start the video over if it hasn't fully loaded yet, which is a confusing experience.
It's unclear on the page that there's no visual indication (within sight) that clicking in the text is doing something.
[+] [-] contingencies|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ioda|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] berpasan|9 years ago|reply
It's a challenge, but I believe YC can be an organization that can outlive its founders by the force of its strong, enduring culture. As a YC founder I didn't have the pleasure to meet Jessica (or Paul) yet (they are in a Sabbatical in London). But just spending those 3 months in YC and all the amazing people they put there made me feel as if I had.
[+] [-] known|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tedmiston|9 years ago|reply
That's kind of insane when you think about it.
*marginally paraphrased only because I can't find it in the transcript
[+] [-] cdupiton|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] berpasan|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] greggman|9 years ago|reply
AirBnB has the official policy that it's okay to lie about where listings are. I booked one that turned out to about about half a kilometer away from where is was marked on the map. I would never have rented it had it been correctly marked. When I complained I was told it's their policy. It's buried in their privacy policy in a paragraph aimed at hosts, not guests. Also, the law appears to say burying stuff in a policy is not a defense excusing deceptive practices.
I can list more AirBnB deceptive practices. I don't think the idea of AirBnB is bad but YC should not be associated with the kind of management that thinks deceptive practices are ok.
[+] [-] exclusiv|9 years ago|reply
I agree that they should have a clear disclaimer on the exact location because it is very important in many areas. I think VRBO may be exact so you have another option.
[+] [-] nickpsecurity|9 years ago|reply
"Misrepresenting your spaces You should not provide inaccurate location information, have incorrect availability, mislead people about the type, nature, or details of your listing, substitute one listing for another, set up fake or fraudulent listings, leave fraudulent reviews, engage in deceptive pricing, or fail to disclose hazards and habitability issues."
From here:
https://www.airbnb.com/standards
In the privacy policy here...
https://www.airbnb.com/terms/privacy_policy
...I noticed they had permission to display location-related stuff, which should be affected by other policy, in your profile with an "approximate location" on a map. There could be problems if approximation was wrong due to crappy, mapping service but good ones are usually pretty good.
Which policy link and quotes do you have that lets them lie about what has to be honest in the above sections? Or another I haven't seen?
[+] [-] throwaway991199|9 years ago|reply
I'm in Europe and I just polled a whole bunch of friends, anyone using these companies and got a resounding NOPE.
I just polled a bunch of US friends too and they say the same. Sure, purely anecdotal.
But for me, none of these have changed the world.
Maybe if you worship at the alter of YC or a wannabe Paul/Jessica groupie or liberal/progressive fantasist then I guess you totally buy into that.
Transformed is really a total stretch.
I'm still laughing after listening to that interview.
Waiting for the down-votes and I'm sure this will be flagged as it will upset some thin-skinned people who live in a (tech) bubble.
[+] [-] dang|9 years ago|reply
If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email [email protected] and give us reason to believe you'll follow the rules in the future.
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12393868 and marked it off-topic.
[+] [-] 1123581321|9 years ago|reply
I do agree that world-changing is a term used in contexts such as disease eradication. Certainly disease eradication changes the world more than avoiding a stay in a hotel. However, world-changing as a term is not restricted to the most impactful change to which it has been previously attached. For a typical programmer, making something that lets millions of people have an easier workday, vacation or home life should count as changing the world, even if it is a bit mundane.
[+] [-] icebraining|9 years ago|reply
"Changing the world" is an ambiguous concept, but you can't say it hasn't had an impact on cities across the world.
[+] [-] rezashirazian|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] symbolepro|9 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] ulkram|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] enraged_camel|9 years ago|reply
>>Sometimes they create a small success, and sometimes they create these companies that really transform the world, and YC has been very fortunate to be involved in a lot of these, Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe, the list goes on.
I mean... really? OK, I'll grant you Airbnb, but Dropbox "transformed" the world?
[+] [-] harryh|9 years ago|reply
Now I store my entire home directory, all of my financial & legal documents, and quite a few other things (some in Dropbox some elsewhere). I dunno if that's transforming the world or not but it's made a pretty big difference to me personally.
[+] [-] utefan001|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nojvek|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adamnemecek|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dwaxe|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] asperous|9 years ago|reply
* Helped people trust the "cloud" and inspired other cloud services to do similar things
* This might have help improve the foundation for remote workers to become more common.
[+] [-] asolove|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jedc|9 years ago|reply
Really?
Where do the extra companies come from?