colellm

judging a startup by the founder's email address..brilliant methodology

The "shocking" part was completely sarcastic :) I totally understand the value of one's time. i am not hoping to ignite that whole business person vs coder battle or come across as a business person jerk, which is why I am presenting myself as a tech collaborator who will build the front end.i myself have already spent countless hours baking the idea, talking to industry experts, etc

p.s. if interested melissa_colella@hotmail.com

shocking that I should get such a response.

on one end, there is a TON of legwork with regard to my idea that involves reaching out to each adventure operator and incorporating content into the site. I did mention it was extremely fragmented and a lot of the value would come from bringing information together/generating unique content.

also, i did learn to hack in xhtml/css and although i know they are not true programming languages it is a start in that i can at least hack together part of a front end

A lot of the applications for the yc like programs are similar (ex. launchboxdigital), which, I agree, does make it easier to apply to multiple programs.

"I am pretty sure that starting a business involves some level of desperation."

I agree. People do have to be pushed up against a wall to some extent and feel they are left with few options, otherwise, it is too easy to convince yourself not to startup.

Me too - I will go

Any suggestions on things to read so I can start to learn. I am going to buy a book on rails (agile web development). Know of joel on software. Programming.reddit.com. Anything else?

Thanks :) Didn't mean to sound defensive. I posted expecting responses similar to yours. Initially I was naive but a little networking in the tech community solved that pretty quickly.

Yeah. I would not apply to ycombinator without a programming co-founder (I am going to apply to launchboxdigital though).

Definately have considered "hiring" someone, but I wanted to exhaust trying to find a co-founder first.

Yup. Know Y combinator funded them. Actually, brings up another point. Curious what people think about applying to ycombinator if they have funded a potential competitor of your company in the past??

Thanks for the advice. Right now, I would like to continue in my hunt for a co-founder but do plan on trying to pick up some knowledge of programming even if I do find someone to work with.

I knew I would probably get attacked on this post in some way. I am not naive and I do realize my limitations. Additionally, in a business you are looking ideally for individuals who complement yourself in skills (i.e. one business person, one technology person).

What is wrong with 1 non-programmer + 1 hacker sharing equity equally? I realize product development is paramount. I do not expect to be twiddling my thumbs while my partner hacks away. As a user of the internet and sites like the one I would like to build, I have many ideas concrete ideas about features/functionality I would like on the site and would hope to function as a team in developing the product.

Beyond that, down the road much of the focus would be on user acquisition strategies (for a user generated content site such as the one I would like to do). I cannot imagine I would not be able to contribute equally to the overall process of building a sustainable company.

Put together a short list of bloggers that are appropriate for your product!

I think bloggers and press can help when you have a niche consumer product (like a user generated travel website) but you need to get your name in the relevant (i.e. travel) news/blogs.

What I don't think works for a general consumer site (site that is not necessarily geared towards techies) is spending a lot of time trying to get covered by techcrunch because your time could be better spent targetting more relevant media (yes techcrunch readers travel but not all travelers are techies).

Great tips. I have heard the one about wearing your nametag on your right side. Not something you would ever think about unless you were told.