How does Jessica Livingston do it? How does she look at new, (usually) unproven entrepreneurs and figure out which of them are worth banking Y Combinator’s money, reputation and mentorship on? When I asked her co-founder at Y Combinator, Paul Graham, he said she has a social radar. She is very rarely wrong, he told me….
http://mixergy.com/y-combinator-jessica-livingston-interview/?doing_wp_cron
Tagged with jessicalivingston mixergy business startups
Are you sure you want to spend time pursuing outside funding?
Amit Gupta has had it both ways. Today he’s running PhotoJoJo, a “lifestyle business” that doesn’t need outside funding and kicks off real profits. But before that, he ran The Daily Jolt, an angel funded company.
Am I the only one who thinks that startups spend too much time geeking out about code and development, but not enough time getting passionate about marketing?
If you want to get passionate about the power of clever marketing, download the program I recorded with Matthew Inman. He’s a smart developer and designer who built the dating site Mingle2 in only 66.5 hours. That’s a stunning accomplishment, but I think it would be meaningless if he didn’t market it.
Tagged with business startups mixergy matthewinman
The founders of Airbnb are guys who couldn’t make rent a few years ago, but they kept turning desperation into creative solutions. In October 2007, eager to make extra money, they noticed that local hotels were booked up because of a conference. So they pumped up some inflatable mattresses and listed their place online as an air bed and breakfast. It was quirky and it worked. That little act of creativity became Airbnb, the (profitable) site that allows anyone to list their extra space for rent. This interview is full of examples of that kind of hustle, like how…
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Paul Graham, essayist, programmer and partner in the y-combinator talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about start-ups, innovation, and creativity. Graham draws on his experience as entrepreneur and investor to discuss the current state of the start-up world and how that world has changed due to improved technology that makes it easier to start a software company. Graham talks about his unusual venture firm, the y-combinator, and how he and his partners work with start-ups to get them ready for more advanced funding. Along the way, Graham discusses why hackers are like painters and how to survive high school.
From http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2009/08/graham_on_start.html
Tagged with paulgraham innovation creativity startups business