ajkates

Great idea guys. Love it, and look forward to using.

I understand what Mattermark is trying to do here, and applaud them for trying, but the way the data is presented doesn't withstand scrutiny. There are far too many interceding variables for this analysis to have any merit. Namely (1) total deals done/varying market conditions in a given year, (2) yearly cohort size, (3) the fact that most Series A deals happen within 3 years of accelerator graduation, (4) not accounting for large seed deals, later stage deals, and exits. I don't quite understand how number of Series A deals equates to success in the first place, and I'm having trouble finding what this analysis proves, if anything.

Congrats guys! Awesome team with an incredibly high-need and well-executed product. Looking forward to seeing you guys scale!

Thanks for another great post Garry. This is also perfectly relevant advice for talking about your business in general, not just for YC (investors, prospective hires, etc.).

Congratulations to Garry, Alexis, Alina, and team! Such an awesome group---and an immense pleasure to work with. You won't find a more beloved group of partners in the entire Valley. So excited to be sharing in this journey together!

Whether entrepreneurship can truly be taught or not is debatable. Still, there's no question that certain schools better nurture an entrepreneurial attitude.

I couldn't help but notice the statistics for these schools, though. I presently attend Cornell University, and have a hard time believing that these schools would be better suited for an entrepreneur. 30 entrepreneurship courses? Cornell has over 200, including more than 30 geared toward web entrepreneurship alone. No less than two of my friends' teams here were given YC interviews. My courses for next semester include "Internet Strategy," "Networks" (taught by the legendary Jon Kleinburg), "Entrepreneurship and Personal Enterprise," and "Psychology of Social Computing."

In any case, a college education is by no means necessary to be a successful entrepreneur. In many cases, an entrepreneur's time can be better spent working on a startup than attending school. I'm rather surprised though, with how instrumental my education has been to my startup, and how helpful the resources of a college campus have been. No amount of education can replace experience, but I know that what I've learned will serve me well when I begin to work on my startup full time.

You absolutely NEED the RSS feeds for each of these sites, otherwise it's just a bunch of uncustomizable links; totally worthless.

I'll stick with my iGoogle at the moment.

Again, it's a trust thing. Communities are based entirely upon trust, and no one wants to trust an old geezer.

Plus, it probably helped him pick up the ladies.

One of my co-founders worked for Google this past summer. He didn't have one negative word to say about it.

Excellent find! I really miss the core concepts behind the original facebook. It could have been so much more if Zuckerberg had chosen to expand vertically instead of horizontally.

Now that I think about it....this concept may be better suited as a facebook application. I think the high-schoolers may have fun waking each other up for school.

Well, without signing up, I don't really get it. Maybe you'd care to explain it to us in a few lines? A few things of note though:

1) Breaks the back button on my browser. That's a no no

2) The splash image takes way too long to load.

Deal-scouring isn't a new idea by any means. Nonetheless, I've been playing around with it, and I'm very much impressed with the speed and ease of use of the service. Well done.

One suggestion though that may or may not be helpful at this point. Perhaps when a user searches, you can have a "short list" that lists the most popular products in that search, so that the search can be narrowed to a single product.

For instance, when I type "bluetooth headset," a short list of headset models could come up on top of the results. When I click on one, it limits it to, say, H700.

Also, I searched for "Playstation 3." I was looking for the console, but got one console result and a bunch of games. Perhaps categories like "Playstation 3 Console," "Playstation 3 Games," "Playstation 3 Accessories," etc.

The former would be much easier to do than the latter I'd imagine, but both types would be helpful.

So, you built an application by yourself, with no funding or help,and you're willing to give up 50% of the equity just like that?

I'd also recommend seeing a lawyer. Additionally, a partnership may not be the best idea if you don't know and trust this second co-founder. I'm no lawyer, but it sounds like an LLC might be a better choice. You can vest his shares over a time period that you feel is appropriate, and include a clause in the operating agreement that discharges him if he fails to perform the duties required of him.

Again, I'd go see a lawyer. It's not worth the headache later on.

Sorry! Wasn't my intention.

LOL, no offense, but that's just silly. Even with the ridiculous valuations of 15+ billion floating around, that wouldn't put facebook in the top 500, let alone top 5.

Though, GM is probably not the best example...it's bleeding cash at the moment, and has even had negative earnings some quarters.

If you want to play the profit game, compare Google's profit to Wal-Mart, Exxon-Mobil, and CitiGroup. We're not even in the same league here. In fact, we're not even in the same order of magnitude!

Again, Google making that list (and having a high market cap) is much more an effect of it's expected growth (and high multiple) than it's actual present value as a company.

From what you describe, it looks like there may be room for a competitor. Before putting in the time though, do some research (if you haven't already). Can it really be that profitable? What percentage of the market do you plan to capture?

I'm often wary of startups that differentiate themselves on a cost basis when the cost is minimal ($3 in this case). Even if the margins are substantial, the difference between $3 to get things done right, and any other lower price offered by a competitor, just may be an insignificant point of differentiation.

Yes, I suppose it is a bit bitter. And certainly, some people find value and fun in applications; I only argue that those people are primarily high-schoolers. In my humble opinion, alienating the loyal and valuable users, and catering to the younger users, is just asking for disaster (and perhaps a mass-exodus in due time).

And with so little debt. Though, these rankings are done by market capitalization. The true, sheer size of some companies ranked much lower are actually much larger with regard to revenues and profits...they're just not trading at 55 times earnings.

But, Google's market cap is indeed 5th. That's incredible any way you slice it.

Cool, thanks for the update.

Well, as a "college kid" myself, and a heavy facebook user, and a total social software dork, I think I know just about as well as anyone the value of Facebook to college students. I can sum it up in two words: Social Capital.

I'm not saying this "competes" with facebook,per se. Rather, it's just an alternative to the idea of an "open (proprietary) API" that has failed in so many ways (uselessness of applications, nagging app requests, lack of universality for things like classes, etc). I'll be writing a blog post on this very topic soon.

I hope that clears things up a bit.

Very cool. Just one more reason why Facebook is doomed.

We use Django as well. Plus, authentication is sort of inherent in our startup by its very nature, so even that isn't needed. I couldn't really say more than that, but if I explained it, you'd understand.

Woz is always so critical, at least in part, because it helps consumers trust the company. Having the second co-founder "on the side of the consumer" helps to build that bond between the tech-savvy apple fanboys, and the company itself. I don't mean to say that what he says isn't sincere, but rather, that highlighting these things and making them public does wonders for the company...and yes, he still cares for the well-being of Apple.

It's definitely very cool, and useful. Something I can't live without? Certainly not. Still, I think the idea was well-implemented and wonderfully executed.

Well...isn't that a surprise? Who would have thought?

Ahh, now I see. Yes, that's very clear. Cool.

I think that this would be very useful. My biggest complaint would involve having to sign up and create my own lists in order to see lists that best match my own. That takes a lot of time and energy.

Perhaps utilizing lists people have created elsewhere on the internet, just to supplement things? I mean, I have all that stuff already in facebook. Perhaps you could use that information, and allow me to find other people/movies/books/magazines without having the feel like i'm putting time and effort to join a new community.

That's the only thing that would stop me from signing up and doing it all right now. (I'm playing devil's advocate just a bit, sorry for the harshness).

Perhaps. You and I don't care, not yet. I use just about every mainstream Google product/service available. But, we're not most people. Most people are already weary about what they do with their personal information.

There will be a time in the not too distant future when this barrier will be crossed. Giving any large, corporate entity too much information is often perceived as dangerous, because they have a greater ability to utilize/mine/profit from that information than a new startup. I guess we'll just have to wait and see...

Haha, do what feels right. Still, there's always option 3: Find a team of talented young entrepreneurs where at least one has the cash to float a startup for a while. That way, you can avoid the "office job" entirely.