Startup School 2018

[nelsonic]

https://blog.ycombinator.com/startup-school-2018-curriculum
via/comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17708469

@iteles what do you think about applying for this?
(as a catalyst to build the @dwyl app/product...?)

[iteles]

This was a bit of a black hole of links 😄

I Love this idea, either way we should follow along with the lessons.

We have quite a lot on in September, shall we catalog it together and make sure there is time to show progress to a mentor in order to use the help as much as possible on a week by week basis?

In the meantime, we should fill in the application anyway, it will be great for clarifying 'the pitch' 😉 Win-win

[nelsonic]

@iteles stoked you found the time to take a look and do some link-crawling. 🎉
When do you have time to sit down with the application form? (e.g: tomorrow morning 08:00...?)

[iteles]

If you prefer the morning (which I know you do), Friday would be preferable. I have 🦆s to get in a row.

[nelsonic]

@iteles I just want to "divvy up" the tasks for the application ASAP in case I need to work on a "demo" or defining something that is going to take time ...

[nelsonic]

https://youtu.be/BTS-rFzROOg

[nelsonic]

Signed up:

[iteles]

I also filled in the first page 👍

[nelsonic]

This is a useful list of all YC companies: https://yclist.com
It's insightful to see how many are "dead" or "exited".

I would be especially interested in doing a "meta analysis"
to understand why companies succeed/fail.
(fairly certain YC have this data/insight as their "secret sauce")

[nelsonic]

Devtools Console open:

• Company Name
• Company URL
• Describe your company in a sentence or two. <input maxlength="60">
• Vertical:

<select class="select required" name="company[vertical_id]" id="company_vertical_id">
<option value=""></option>
--
  | <option value="1">Agriculture / Agtech</option>
  | <option value="2">Artificial Intelligence</option>
  | <option value="3">Augmented Reality</option>
  | <option value="4">B2B</option>
  | <option value="5">Biomedical</option>
  | <option value="6">Biotech</option>
  | <option value="7">Community</option>
  | <option value="8">Consumer</option>
  | <option value="9">Crowdfunding</option>
  | <option value="10">Developer Tools</option>
  | <option value="11">Diversity</option>
  | <option value="12">Drones</option>
  | <option value="13">E-commerce</option>
  | <option value="14">Education</option>
  | <option value="15">Energy</option>
  | <option value="16">Enterprise</option>
  | <option value="17">Entertainment</option>
  | <option value="35">Esports / Online Gaming</option>
  | <option value="18">Financial / Banking</option>
  | <option value="19">Government</option>
  | <option value="20">Hardware</option>
  | <option value="21">Healthcare</option>
  | <option value="22">International Market</option>
  | <option value="23">Jobs</option>
  | <option value="24">Marketplace</option>
  | <option value="25">Media / Advertising</option>
  | <option value="26">Moonshots / Hard Tech</option>
  | <option value="27">Nonprofit</option>
  | <option value="33">Other</option>
  | <option value="28">Robotics</option>
  | <option value="29">Science</option>
  | <option value="30">Security</option>
  | <option value="34">Sport / Fitness</option>
  | <option value="31">Transportation</option>
  | <option value="36">Travel</option>
  | <option value="32">Virtual Reality</option>
</select>

• What is your company going to make? <textarea maxlength="200">
• Why did you pick this to work on? <textarea maxlength="250">
• Are you currently part-time or full-time on this startup?

<select class="select required" name="company[commitment]" id="company_commitment">
<option value=""></option>
--
  | <option value="full_time">Full Time (40+ hours a week)</option>
  | <option value="part_time">Part Time (20+ hours a week)</option>
  | <option value="other_commitment">Other</option></select>

• Which of the following best describes your progress?

<select class="select required" name="company[stage]" id="company_stage">
<option value=""></option>
--
  | <option value="nothing">Nothing Built</option>
  | <option value="idea">Idea/sketches</option>
  | <option value="mocks">Mocks/Renderings</option>
  | <option value="prototype">Prototype/pre-launch</option>
  | <option value="private_beta">Private Beta</option>
  | <option value="public_beta">Public Beta</option>
  | <option value="preorders">Taking Preorders</option>
  | <option value="launched">Launched</option></select>

• How far along are you? <textarea maxlength="250">
• Have you incorporated your company?* [yes/no]

[nelsonic]

Female founders: http://www.ycombinator.com/companies/?has_ff=true

https://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-winter-2018-stats/

[nelsonic]

@iteles recommended reading: "Requests for Startups" https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs/

[nelsonic]

http://www.femalefounderstories.com

[nelsonic]

Michael Seibel (YC CEO) office hours:https://youtu.be/JJ2BWOT4hfs
27:42 MS: “when I think about doing the pitch, these are the things that actually stand out to me:
1: clarity and conciseness, more words are actually bad. When you feel like you are pitching for a long period of time, that’s a bad sign typically.

[nelsonic]

@iteles thinking of including a link to the "Feedback App" in YC SS App
(as it's our only relevant "live" MVP...)
please see: dwyl/feedback#95 (comment)

[iteles]

@nelsonic Reviewed, thanks.
Also, see dwyl/code-of-conduct#6

[nelsonic]

Startup Playbook: http://playbook.samaltman.com

[nelsonic]

@iteles when you can: dwyl/dwyl-site#462
Thanks!

[iteles]

Deployed, but something's not quite right.

[nelsonic]

Are you able to debug it?
If not, I can take a look in the morning...

[nelsonic]

Moore’s Law of Real Estate (2012!):
https://youtu.be/JQ6irnso40c

[nelsonic]

https://dwyl.com/home

It's a poetic "blank page" ... 🤣
Fixing it now ... 🚧 👷 ⏳

[iteles]

I was already in bed by the time you wrote that last night and at a bus stop right now so won’t be able to use my computer for a little while yet 😬

[nelsonic]

Totes working https://dwyl.com/home ✅

[iteles]

This is what "rejection" looks like: 😞

And this is what it looks like when they realise that "the software" made a "mistake":

#accepted 😉

https://youtu.be/SsoOG6ZeyUI

[nelsonic]

@iteles I knew you would get in! 🎉

what's next...?
Do you want to take a couple of hours this evening or tomorrow to go through the "curriculum"?

[iteles]

I didn't, you did, but yay! Thanks for writing and submitting the application.

Yes, we'll need to spend time over the weekend to fill out our profile and go through the time commitments over the next few weeks. Whenever you have time.

[nelsonic]

To clarify for posterity: I wrote the YC SS application on your/our behalf based on many verbal conversations we've had because you did not have time to focus on it.
you were scheduled to spend time with your family for the weekend preceding the deadline
and the little "spare time" you had was spent on catching up on @dwyl work
so that you could spend quality time with your Grandma, brother, cousins and aunts/uncles/parents.
I chose to "exclude" myself from the family weekend
so that I could put the application into writing: https://github.com/dwyl/home
and <input type="submit" value="Accelerate"> our learning as part of building the Braga home.

I think that long-term, diligently following the Startup School curriculum
will be one of the best time investments we will make in our lives.
Yes, it's going to require a lot of work considering there is still lots of "@dwyl London" work to do
and there is both (a ton of) carpentry and "interior finishing" work that we need to get done in the house before we can open to the public ... but I'm excited to get it all done!

If You Want Something Done,
Ask a Busy Person To Do It ~ Anonymous

[nelsonic]

Through further reading of YCList I found

https://starcity.com

According to https://starcity.com/story their mission is:

"to make cities more accessible to EVERYONE"

They have four co-founders: (all of whom are guys)

and only one is "Technical": https://github.com/jalehman

Josh appears to be a legitimately good programmer/engineer.

At the time of writing the Starcity GitHub: https://github.com/starcity-properties
has only one (public) member:

And zero "stars" on any of their projects.
Not what you would call a "community effort" ...

According to their Crunchbase profile: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/starcity

They "raised $3,800,000 / Seed from Alrai Capital and 12 other investors"
and "raised $16,450,000 Series A from Alrai Capital and 4 other investors"

IMO StarCity is only partially "overlapping" with home in the community aspect.
They are focussed on big cities (specifically only in SF 2 years on from "graduating" YC)

And the minimum you spend with them is $2k/month ... hardly "affordable".

Addendum:

After doing a bit of searching online for StarCity when I logged into facebook to send someone (who only uses Fb for communication...) a message, this is what I was greeted with:

Whenever I view something (my family are still hooked) on Fb I always logout.
So StartCity must have a tracker which then allowed Fb to target me with this ad... 🙄

[nelsonic]

Jessica Livingston Founders at Work Google Talk: https://youtu.be/z6hoPw5hItY
The book is obviously a “Must Read” for founders, but in this video presentation, JL actually gives a good summary.

[nelsonic]

Jessica Livingston - What's Different about "Unicorns"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygr3rx4hSsc&list=PLQ-uHSnFig5OfUA6Kgif-AfRFJhkFksXI
(female founders conference playlist)

It boggles my mind how 16% of people "down-voted" the video ... it's a superb talk with lots of actionable insight and advice for female founders!

The corresponding Blog Post: http://foundersatwork.posthaven.com/whats-different-about-unicorns
is a great summary if you need a quick recap.

[nelsonic]

@iteles let's put some time into revisiting and capturing our "Mission" (statement) today.
e.g: https://www.tesla.com/about

The mission was recently changed from "sustainable transport" to "sustainable energy":
https://futurism.com/tesla-changes-one-word-in-its-mission-statement-and-it-already-says-a-lot/

Telsa ("Super Secret") "Master Plan":
https://www.tesla.com/blog/secret-tesla-motors-master-plan-just-between-you-and-me

[nelsonic]

https://youtu.be/ZoqgAy3h4OM

[iteles]

Excellent! I love the simplicity of the 'master plan'. It's kind of inspiring.

I'll open new issues in https://github.com/dwyl/home/issues (thank you for creating it) as we go through Startup School.

Let's put time into revisiting the mission statement in the next 24 hours!
The difficulty is always to choose a focus when there is so much potential ❤️

[nelsonic]

I tried to build enthusiasm for this project and following "Startup School" ...
the https://github.com/dwyl/home/graphs/contributors tells you all you need to know about this:

One person putting in hundreds of hours of research.
The other getting distracted by busywork and watching TV.