lquist

Stop trying to build a startup. Build a business instead. A bootstrapped, makes cash today business. Maybe it's a consultancy specializing in bank software or maybe it's something else that you have expertise in, but stop trying to build an all or nothing startup.

The YC VC program (and it's earlier incarnation) made sense to me because VCs wanted access to YC deal flow. But now with the new program traditional LPs are investing at the same time (i.e., acceptance to YC) as YC LPs, but with much worse terms.

Maybe I'm missing something here?

Some highlights from Yelp:

"Their web immersive is a joke, but you'll never hear anyone admit that because they make you sign a waver/NDA that you promise not to tell anyone anything truthful/negative about your GA experience."

"Most of the money goes towards the advertising and marketing team, they have more marketers running around doing nothing all day than actual instructional staff."

"Sup-par teaching conditions: we were in a kitchen with a loud fridge in the back"

"Our teacher for our immersive was so underprepared and unenthusiastic and unqualified that the students tried to get him fired."

"The tables were jammed so tight in the room that we used to joke if there was a fire, no one would get out alive."

Wait, what?

* Heroku (owned by Salesforce) * Climate Corporation (owned by Monsanto)

The above two and some similar companies should hit all your checkboxes.

A script could probably do the most time consuming bits.

My answer was Docker and Oculus VR.

It’s easier to sit around and talk about building a startup than it is to actually start a startup. And it’s fun to talk about. But over time, the difference between fun and fulfilling becomes clear. Doing things is really hard—it’s why, for example, you can generally tell people what you’re working on without NDAs, and most patents never matter. The value, and the difficulty, comes from execution.

A corollary of this seems to be that investors (such as YC) provide little value because they don't execute. This seems incorrect on its face; most YC founders find the experience to be very beneficial. Maybe I'm missing your point, Sam?

Year 1 Salary: $100k Year 2 Salary: $600k-$1M (6 months in to Year 2. Estimated salary)

Here are a few things that I found interesting:

* Bikini modelling (perhaps obviously) pays the most. Numbers are in the $50-75/hour range.

* For non-bikini modelling, liquor gigs pay the most. About $35/hour. Non-liquor gigs are roughly $20-25/hour.

* A lot of girls do this full-time.

On another note, here's a recent anecdote (the plural of anecdote is not data!) about Khosla Ventures. A successful entrepreneur ($300M exit under his belt; CEO of $5B company) was in advanced talks (post-term sheet) to raise funding from them. Out of the blue, Khosla came back with a list of demands such as adding a 3rd co-founder. Obviously just one situation, but left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.