"Not everyone has Sam's deal-making ability. I myself don't. But if you don't, you can let the numbers speak for you."
PG you have hundreds of people applying to make a deal with you (through YC) and once you agree to make a deal--a decision that takes you 20 minutes--you are rarely rejected. Plus, when you are rejected the people who reject you usually fail. I appreciate the modesty but by no means do you seem like a poor deal maker.
I feel that no matter one's starting point they should work on there deal making ability so they can have more then just the numbers. You need the steak and the sizzle.
Just as startup founders in order to make a good product need to be persistent, intelligent and understand the technology; in order to make good deals the founders still need to be persistent and intelligent but also need to understand the components of what it takes to find and close deals.
So how can startup founders learn to be good deal makers?
Picking who to give money to is not "deal making," or at least bears little resemblance to the deal making that founders need to become proficient at to gain customers and partners. In particular the exploding offer structure ("make your decision before you leave the room") is only possible when one side in the negotiation is in a highly advantaged position.
"So how can startup founders learn to be good deal makers."
Practice, negotiation training, cultivating a creative frame of mind, preparation, spending two-thirds of your preparation trying to look at the situation from the other party's perspective.
I appreciate the distinction (& the modesty) but I think that YC is exceptionally sold. It seems to be a pretty good machine for getting people to do what you want them too.
Does YC convince people to start companies? ..move cities? ..change game plan in a way that is as significant or more significant (to them) then signing a deal is to a VC?
But I get what you mean. That knack for projecting momentum is rare.
I'd guess around 12-14 hours of actual thinking and working time. At a normal startup as an employee, I'm guessing you'd average around 10 hours, but more around crunch time
The solution is to apply the YC principles that fit for you and still live your life and to not get overly caught up in the message and let it block out outside reasoning.
Google may have lost some of its feel and culture as it has grown but for such a large company it is a really cool place to work.
You mention since they can't find smart people to hire fast enough they can either lower the bar or hire less. The third option is to work more on recruiting people and that is just what they are focusing on.
I know I'm probably being dense but I'm not seeing what you mean by hiring affecting their traffic acquisition costs. All that graph shows to me is that ad revenue is growing faster than outlay for traffic.
In order to maintain that trend, Google has to both keep hiring and acquiring the best people and also do what it can in a non-evil way to prevent the best people from becoming serious competitors.
I am in the midst of learning to program in PHP. I am working hard and loving it. I realize the value of the skill. I met with one of the founders of a YC company and got inspired. I now plan on graduating early and working full time on my startup at that time.
You're spending a lot of time arguing against any negative opinion that's given. It's great to see that you have a positive attitude, but you did post asking for advice ;)
Perhaps you have your mind made up already- But part of the criticism process is taking in what everyone says; I hope you wouldn't just argue against an opinion because it disagrees with what you've already decided.
I do hope things work out well for you and the startup.
You are 17 years old and about to drop out of high school...I personally would advise you to at the least, finish school and get into a cool university and experience life outside the comfort zone of your parents' house. There's still a lot to learn, see and experience out there.
However, that does not necessarily mean that you completely stop working on your startup. While being committed is important, there is a right time for everything and it may not be the best time to drop out of school... suppose an year down the line, you change your mind- it will be a lot harder and for you to get into good universities. The risks vs. benefits at this stage may be out of whack.
The important thing is that the idea should not die and should always be on the backburner until the time is right and you have the matured view of the world [and how cruel it can be] to make the whole scheme of things to work in your favor.
Honestly curious- have you experienced bringing an idea on the backburner back to life? I've always felt like if immediate action isn't taken and maintained to move an idea forward it dies.
I'd love to hear your perspective here, I'm interested.
I just brought one back a couple weeks ago (http://eve-language.blogspot.com/). I'd started it 3 weeks before my startup, and then let it die to focus on something that might actually make money, and am now bringing it back as a hobby project.
If you're really passionate about something, it's not going to die just because you spend some time on other stuff.
I think the "strike while the anvil is hot" phenomena is largely because of survivorship bias. Most of the time, if you drop an idea after 2 weeks, you're not going to come back to it. But that's because most ideas that are only 2 weeks old aren't very good and should probably be abandoned anyways. While if you've been turning the idea over in your head for 2-3 years (as Eve had been, before I started working on it), another 18 months isn't going to make much difference.
I've done that a number of times. I have to, because in my life, ideas are constantly jostling for first place, and falling to the side.
I'm blessed with an ability to focus very sharply on one idea and do great things with it, but that blessing is a curse too since while I'm focused, I tend to ignore all the other stuff.
On the other hand, I've also got a bad habit of starting many more things than I can finish. As a result, most of my ideas have been on the backburner for some time. Eventually, they have to become the focus, but being on the backburner doesn't mean they're gone (though some of them certainly do change and evolve and even die while on the backburner... but I don't get too attached to a single idea).
We will work that much harder to prove doubters wrong.
No one here's doubted your ability to deliver eventually. Just the wisdom of dropping out of school to start a start-up at 17.
A top quality for any entrepreneurs is the ability to judge risk accurately. If you drop out of school now, you probably lack that ability, because you're taking a risk with an unlimited downside potential, and those are never good.
1) Despite high school not being easily deferrable he can get a GED instead and go to community college
2) We are not most startups. We may still fail and we accept that. We believe the process has inherent learning value. So we win regardless of financial gain.
3) Due to our youth we will have to prove our competence in other ways. We will work extra hard to make people take us seriously. Age is only a biological number. Maturity is different.
4) I am making sure we both work hard to learn. Learning is part of the process. There is always more to do so we want to work as hard as possible.
I will do my best to remain calm and keep the team level headed. That is some important insight.
I agree with you about the importance of collaboration on the different elements and we will check and help each other.
I started up when I was 18, and ended up going to uni when I was in my mid 20s - "these people are so much younger than me!". It was a mistake (for me) not to go when I was 18.
But in your heart you know what it is you want to do. You can always change track later. Richard Branson didn't finish high school.
Sometimes seemingly common sense advice is necessary.