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Ask HN: Should I Apply for the YC Fellowship?

by MichaelCrawford on 7/27/15, 2:08 AM with 1 comments

YC Fellowship on HN

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9917334

Sam Altman's Take

http://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-fellowship

The YC Fellowship is an experiment to help more people start startups.

http://fellowship.ycombinator.com/

Apply Here

http://fellowship.ycombinator.com/apply/

I am reluctant to avail myself of the fellowship in part because I regard the public traded corporation as a bad idea. Not unethical; rather that public trading is a poor choice. In my own estimation other ways other kinds of businesses are far better.

(I can name some public companies that I do regard as having real benefit.

My first business card read "Michael D. Crawford / Inventor and Programmer". Dad was so proud, he handed my cards out to all his coworkers.

Some of my inventions would be unsuitable for a startup even in the best of circumstances.

Others I will not sell for any price; to do so would not serve the public interest.

I don't pursue funding for some others I don't want to lose control:

   "I don't understand video games.  You should 
    sell your assets to maximize my ROI."
While the fellowship is a grant not an investment nor loan, I cannot in good conscience even apply unless I will follow through with a startup that will not merely prosper, but be a huge hit.

Given my fifteen years of adamant assertion that There Is A Better Way than Venture Capital, while the fellowship would be good for me in so many ways, I would do right by others to demonstrate BY MY OWN EXAMPLE that that Better Way is self-funding.

  • by MichaelCrawford on 7/27/15, 2:13 AM

    I do have two specific ideas that would work well for the fellowship as well as for an actual startup. One, while quite valuable would be complex. I expect I could produce an appealing pitch demo in eight weeks. The other I expect I could bring a Minimum Viable Product to market during the fellowship. I am unsure how to price the latter; possibly I would use it to attract potential customers for some other kind of product.

    I will cop to you the REAL reasons I desire the fellowship:

    My self-employment is very isolating even in the best of times. During one of the cruelest, loneliest times of my entire life I billed $120.00/hour for as many hours as I could stay awake.

    I am often asked by interviewers why I want to give up consulting to take a salaryman position:

       I would not wish software consulting on my worst enemy.

   What I really want from a regular job is coworkers.
    That's It.

    Of far deeper concern is that I know well that I have expertise, insight and wisdom to pass on to the younger generation.

    While I seem to be getting better not long ago I was convinced I would die soon. The doctors are unable to diagnose the underlying reason for my brain seizures, the best they can do is give me medicine that makes future seizures less likely.

    Many of today's startup founders are very young compared to the founders I knew when I set out. Back in the day most had real-world job experience, some already had fortunes of their own.

    Some of today's founders have never had paying work of any sort.

    Consider my oft-repeated mantra here at HN:

       Use assertions before you use debuggers.
    While assertions serve me well these days they did not serve me at all until I had been coding for seventeen years. I quite commonly find others suffer not because they refuse to Read The Fine Manual, but because they are unaware of The Fine Manual's very existence.

    Thank you for any insight you may enable me to obtain.