Glad we (http://olark.com) could help you guys out :-) Thanks for the props!
2,403 karma · joined October 6, 2008
-Ben
Are you using Xen to virtualize a bunch of servers on it?
I've always figured colocation + System Admin ends up costing more than a cloud solution. Especially when you need to have enough redundancy so that you don't fall over if a single server fails. In the cloud if a single server fails, it's their problem. In physical space it's your problem or your system admin's problem. How much time can you spare?
So I'd argue.
for #3
3) Don't stress out about the minimal resources necessary from day one. Figure out what the minimal resources are over time, and just take advantage of the fact you can delete servers.
Here's what I would avoid:
1) competing on price
2) building a commodity
If you focus on customer service, you won't fail your customers, your product can be mediocre i.e. (http://www.tiptopwebsite.com) and with the right connection to your customers you can still make money.
If I was going to start a new hosting company today. My cheapest plan would be $25 a month. I'd shoot for superb service, and try to find a really wealthy under-served part of the market to focus on. I'd try to build something that was unique, i.e. not a commodity. (That said, as an executive in a webhosting company, you probably know how tough it is to compete in webhosting)
Good luck!
-Ben
We took WuFoo's advice and just used one big shared Gmail inbox (similar to your approach), with one person monitoring the inbox every day. Most day-to-day issues can be handled by anyone on our team.
If you want to reduce your expenses, get a room-mate. (Then it will be $400 a month)
"Date All Within the last week Within the last 2 weeks Within the last 30 days Within the last 60 days Within the last 90 days Within the last 180 days Within the last year Within the last two years Custom Type All Articles Podcasts Slide Shows Video Channel All Asia B-Schools Europe Innovation & Design Investing Lifestyle Magazine Managing Small Biz Technology Top News Author Search Cancel close "
the 2nd to last paragraph on the 1st page. weird.
At the same time there are some nice advantages to interning at a large company with an established internship program. 1) You'll meet other interns who are really good developers from all over the country, so if you want to launch a startup in the future you'll have a good talent pool. 2) You'll learn more about the corporate culture and procedures of larger companies, which will give you insight into the types of things to look out for when your young startup becomes a larger company. 3) You'll have a better idea for sure whether you want to do startups or corporate jobs in the future.
It doesn't sound like you interned at a company with an established internship program, as most companies with good internship programs use them as a recruiting and pre-screening process for hiring full time employees, so they try to give you something engaging to do.
Of course on the other hand interning at a small startup might give you more of an opportunity to release code to the world really early in the process. But you'll definitely have less potential other interns to hang out with, and may have to work as hard as the founders to be respected.
Whenever I use any computer, I find myself installing all of these programs, in order to get anything done.
I'd say Ycombinator is more about winning the lottery, than doing everything right. I am fairly confident that YC receives far too many really good applications to be able to really vet everything. And also, to be fair if you are looking for mentorship, I can imagine this year will be a little different from normal, as the number of teams has doubled, and PG and Jessica have a new addition to the family. As for connections, if your scrappy you can make your own connections -- and $25K for 5% is really not that great of a valuation.
Let's hope tomorrow has more to bring. Good questions at the talks, btw.