A more technically literate user base will use Adblock.
And it's about time -- it's bizarre that start-ups are trying to get acquired with money that ultimately comes from advertising Tide. Don't offend the corporate sponsors.
238 karma · joined April 2, 2007
And it's about time -- it's bizarre that start-ups are trying to get acquired with money that ultimately comes from advertising Tide. Don't offend the corporate sponsors.
Making profit may be amoral, but I wouldn't say immoral.
Oh, and the point of college, actually, is tagging co-eds. Comp. Sci majors tend not to realize this at the time.
And human biological feedback loops ensure that stays interesting. Hacking doesn't, so do it while you still find it novel and exciting!
/Nuff
>>> range(1,10)
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
>>> range(10)
[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
[1]> (dotimes (i 10) (format t "~d" i))
0123456789
NIL
I don't know how to compete with that kind of class act.
And he's been against free and open standards ever since.
Python, PHP, Perl, PostScript, PDF, Pascal, Pict, Pike, PL/1, Prolog.
Don't you love IBM... Programming Language 1... Operating System 2...
It's a prejudice. They've decided things already, a priori, without knowing your particular details.
Whether or not a lot of other people can or cannot accomplish something doesn't affect whether or not your or I can or cannot accomplish something.
Additionally, the notion that "not being able to talk your friends into starting the company with you" is a "vote of no confidence" is mistaken, for numerous reasons. For example, these days it's hard to find people to work with you at YOUR start-up because so many people are doing start-ups of their own! Furthermore, entrepreneurial spirit is a personality trait, and people have widely differing personalities. Look at all the awesome Linux hackers that write code 100 times more complex than anything most start-ups have to worry about, and yet who work at Red Hat or similar, instead of starting their own company with their fearsome hacking skills. And not all of us have friends that are into this stuff in the first place.
It just happened that PG's buddies were into hacking Lisp. Other people's social circles may revolve more around music, or gaming, or any number of other interests a person may have besides programming or start-ups. I know a lot of people in bands; if I didn't program, I'd probably be in one too.
Very few people will accept having no life as the price of attempting a start-up. The prospect of staring at a screen all day every day, living with hackers, and eating ramen for months is just not something that has wide appeal. That's not a vote of NO confidence; that's just called being reasonable and wanting a life.
I think most people couldn't go through with it even if success were guaranteed. They'd bail partway through. I think that's normal. To actually do it you have to be somewhat insane.
Doesn't this further argue that going public is beside the point? The point is making money, and when you're that small, the whims of investors can wipe you right out. Another reason Google doesn't split its stock.
"Cheriton is also credited for setting up Stanford students Sergey Brin and Larry Page with money men at Kleiner Perkins, thus becoming one of the early investors that helped get Google off the ground." (Wikipedia)
Silicon Beat says, "He'd invested in Google as part of the angel round."
Steve Yen already did it years ago!
Kind of. The code looks pretty brief.
Larry and Sergey's Charlie Rose interview is a bit unclear, because Larry talks about getting that check from a "David Sheridan" or "Sheraton", one of the "founders of Sun". I think he may have mixed up Andy with the Stanford faculty member at whose home they met.
The only other occurrence I see of "David Sheraton" is here: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0407/14/i_ins.01.html
Charlie Rose interview: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6958201596441974119 (40 minutes in)
So $100k for 1%? That's 40x the YC rate. What kind of dilution are we talking about?
Humans are not infallible machines. It's like playing chess against someone: if you play you always have a chance, and your chances are only ever 0% if you resign.
Edit: No, really. "Because, really, what else could it possibly be?"
Marc: You may not know me, but I'm the founder and former
chairman of Silicon Graphics. As you may have read in the
press lately, I'm leaving SGI. I plan to form a new company.
I would like to discuss the possibility of your joining me.