Download or read book Guide To YC Y Combinator written by Jason Shen and published by Hyperink Inc. This book was released on 2012-03-14 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ABOUT THE BOOK This guide began as a series of personal notes to help friends and acquaintances interested in applying to Y Combinator. Its main purpose is to illuminate the YC process and to equip you with ideas and approaches to bring out the best in your application. Read it as you would peruse extended notes from a long coffee meeting - and then go use it to make your application stronger. My name is Jason Shen and I applied with two cofounders to YC's Summer 2011 batch - we were fortunate to get in. This was my first time applying to YC, and Ridejoy is my first tech startup. I'm nontechnical, but happened to have two technical friends (and roommates) who both worked at startups. I'm aware of how lucky I am to be in this position. We got a lot of help from friends and YC alumni when preparing our application, so I wanted to make this guide to give back. Working with YC has definitely been a game-changer for me and my startup would not exist with out it. I sincerely hope that this guide leads you to a similar place, and provides you the benefits I've received. Disclaimer: This guide is based on solely my personal experience and judgement, conversations with YC alumni, and things that Paul Graham and other people have written and/or stated about getting into YC. Act on this advice at your own discretion - if things go well, congratulations! If things go poorly, you agree to hold me harmless (though if you're really distraught, I might buy you a beer). MEET THE AUTHOR Jason Shen is the co-founder of Ridejoy - a Y Combinator-funded community marketplace for ridesharing. His blog, The Art of Ass-Kicking, has been featured by Lifehacker and ReadWriteWeb. Jason studied biology and philosophy at Stanford where he led the men's gymnastics team to an NCAA national championship. EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK Get to the Point Fast Y Combinator received over 2,000 applications for YC in S11 and a similar number for W12. There are a total of ten partners who read the essays and YC also asks some founders for feedback, but the sheer number of applications, paired against time constraints, means the first run-through of your app is very, very short. Tedious, hand-wavey and mostly illustrative math follows: According to PG, every partner reads every app. Partners read about 700-1000 apps (after the first culling by YC alums) over a period of about 10 days. Assuming an 8 hour day with 5 minute breaks each hour means each application, on average, gets about 2 minutes of each partners time. (440mins per day / ~85 apps per day = 5.2 mins per app) The takeaway here is that you need to get to the point fast and make every answer matter. At the end of the day, nothing matters except that they say "oh shit, this team is really smart/over-the-top hardworking/resourceful/can get things done/likes each other/could successfully build a great startup." Think constantly about how you can impress with substance, not style (unless the style is in your product). Give numbers if they seem large, and explain things in the most favorable way possible. Note: It's important that you don't ever lie or say something false. But just as you don't discuss your work week in the same way to your boss as to your friend at the bar - be very mindful of how your application comes across. They need to first remember you and secondly think you're legit. And you have very little time to make your case. Buy a copy to keep reading! CHAPTER OUTLINE Introduction: Guide To Y Combinator + Acknowledgements + Readme Chapter 1: Background + YC, Ridejoy, and Me Chapter 2: Why Apply + The Process Chapter 3: Basic Advice + The Easy Stuff Chapter 4: The Team + In Good Company + Evaluating the Founders Chapter 5: The Idea + Starting Up: Success & Impact + Starting Up: Concrete, Original, Desirable Ideas Chapter 6: Users & Distribution + Know Who’s On the Other End + Distribution: How It Gets There ...and much more

Download or read book The Hardware Hacker written by Andrew Bunnie Huang and published by No Starch Press. This book was released on 2019-08-27 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For over a decade, Andrew "bunnie" Huang, one of the world's most esteemed hackers, has shaped the fields of hacking and hardware, from his cult-classic book Hacking the Xbox to the open-source laptop Novena and his mentorship of various hardware startups and developers. In The Hardware Hacker, Huang shares his experiences in manufacturing and open hardware, creating an illuminating and compelling career retrospective. Huang’s journey starts with his first visit to the staggering electronics markets in Shenzhen, with booths overflowing with capacitors, memory chips, voltmeters, and possibility. He shares how he navigated the overwhelming world of Chinese factories to bring chumby, Novena, and Chibitronics to life, covering everything from creating a Bill of Materials to choosing the factory to best fit his needs. Through this collection of personal essays and interviews on topics ranging from the legality of reverse engineering to a comparison of intellectual property practices between China and the United States, bunnie weaves engineering, law, and society into the tapestry of open hardware. With highly detailed passages on the ins and outs of manufacturing and a comprehensive take on the issues associated with open source hardware, The Hardware Hacker is an invaluable resource for aspiring hackers and makers.

Download or read book High Growth Handbook written by Elad Gil and published by Stripe Press. This book was released on 2018-07-17 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: High Growth Handbook is the playbook for growing your startup into a global brand. Global technology executive, serial entrepreneur, and angel investor Elad Gil has worked with high-growth tech companies including Airbnb, Twitter, Google, Stripe, and Square as they’ve grown from small companies into global enterprises. Across all of these breakout companies, Gil has identified a set of common patterns and created an accessible playbook for scaling high-growth startups, which he has now codified in High Growth Handbook. In this definitive guide, Gil covers key topics, including: · The role of the CEO · Managing a board · Recruiting and overseeing an executive team · Mergers and acquisitions · Initial public offerings · Late-stage funding. Informed by interviews with some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley, including Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn), Marc Andreessen (Andreessen Horowitz), and Aaron Levie (Box), High Growth Handbook presents crystal-clear guidance for navigating the most complex challenges that confront leaders and operators in high-growth startups.

Download or read book The Score Takes Care of Itself written by Bill Walsh and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2009-08-20 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The last lecture on leadership by the NFL's greatest coach: Bill Walsh Bill Walsh is a towering figure in the history of the NFL. His advanced leadership transformed the San Francisco 49ers from the worst franchise in sports to a legendary dynasty. In the process, he changed the way football is played. Prior to his death, Walsh granted a series of exclusive interviews to bestselling author Steve Jamison. These became his ultimate lecture on leadership. Additional insights and perspective are provided by Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana and others. Bill Walsh taught that the requirements of successful leadership are the same whether you run an NFL franchise, a fortune 500 company, or a hardware store with 12 employees. These final words of 'wisdom by Walsh' will inspire, inform, and enlighten leaders in all professions.

Download or read book Founders at Work written by Jessica Livingston and published by Apress. This book was released on 2008-11-01 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now available in paperback—with a new preface and interview with Jessica Livingston about Y Combinator! Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days is a collection of interviews with founders of famous technology companies about what happened in the very earliest days. These people are celebrities now. What was it like when they were just a couple friends with an idea? Founders like Steve Wozniak (Apple), Caterina Fake (Flickr), Mitch Kapor (Lotus), Max Levchin (PayPal), and Sabeer Bhatia (Hotmail) tell you in their own words about their surprising and often very funny discoveries as they learned how to build a company. Where did they get the ideas that made them rich? How did they convince investors to back them? What went wrong, and how did they recover? Nearly all technical people have thought of one day starting or working for a startup. For them, this book is the closest you can come to being a fly on the wall at a successful startup, to learn how it's done. But ultimately these interviews are required reading for anyone who wants to understand business, because startups are business reduced to its essence. The reason their founders become rich is that startups do what businesses do—create value—more intensively than almost any other part of the economy. How? What are the secrets that make successful startups so insanely productive? Read this book, and let the founders themselves tell you.

Download or read book The Art Spirit written by Robert Henri and published by . This book was released on 1923 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Hackers Painters written by Paul Graham and published by "O'Reilly Media, Inc.". This book was released on 2004-05-18 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author examines issues such as the rightness of web-based applications, the programming language renaissance, spam filtering, the Open Source Movement, Internet startups and more. He also tells important stories about the kinds of people behind technical innovations, revealing their character and their craft.

Download or read book Hello Startup written by Yevgeniy Brikman and published by "O'Reilly Media, Inc.". This book was released on 2015-10-21 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the "Hello, World" tutorial for building products, technologies, and teams in a startup environment. It's based on the experiences of the author, Yevgeniy (Jim) Brikman, as well as interviews with programmers from some of the most successful startups of the last decade, including Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, GitHub, Stripe, Instagram, AdMob, Pinterest, and many others. Hello, Startup is a practical, how-to guide that consists of three parts: Products, Technologies, and Teams. Although at its core, this is a book for programmers, by programmers, only Part II (Technologies) is significantly technical, while the rest should be accessible to technical and non-technical audiences alike. If you’re at all interested in startups—whether you’re a programmer at the beginning of your career, a seasoned developer bored with large company politics, or a manager looking to motivate your engineers—this book is for you.

Download or read book The Great CEO Within The Tactical Guide to Company Building written by Matt Mochary and published by . This book was released on 2019-12-05 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Matt Mochary coaches the CEOs of many of the fastest-scaling technology companies in Silicon Valley. With The Great CEO Within, he shares his highly effective leadership and business-operating tools with any CEO or manager in the world. Learn how to efficiently scale your business from startup to corporation by implementing a system of accountability, effective problem-solving, and transparent feedback. Becoming a great CEO requires training. For a founding CEO, there is precious little time to complete that training, especially at the helm of a rapidly growing company. Now you have the guidance you need in one book.

Download or read book Influencing Virtual Teams written by Hassan Osman and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learn the psychological secrets of persuasion that influence your remote employees to do what you need them to do.Stop chasing down your employees to make sure that their work is being done.In "Influencing Virtual Teams" you'll get step-by-step tactics that you can implement straightaway with your team to improve your team's engagement and commitment to doing their work.You'll learn:*How a single word can increase compliance by 33%. *How to make someone reply back to your emails (using only the subject line). *How to set deadlines so that they're met by your team. *What you need to do before, during and after every meeting to increase adoption rates. *How to ensure 100% commitment from a team member in six easy steps. *Using just four questions, how to know what your remote employees are really thinking. *How to leave the perfect voice message. *The secret formula for establishing trust with your team. And much, much more! Here's what's covered in the book:Tactic #1: One Word That Influences Your Virtual TeamTactic #2: Set DeadlinesTactic #3: Assign ResponsibilityTactic #4: Explain TasksTactic #5: When Delegating Tasks, Write Them OutTactic #6: The Secret Formula for Establishing TrustTactic #7: Increase Reliability Among Your TeamTactic #8: Increase the Level of LikeabilityTactic #9: Six Steps to Ensure 100% CommitmentTactic #10: Know What Someone Is Really ThinkingTactic #11: Leave the Perfect Voice MessageTactic #12: Write Assertive EmailsTactic #13: What You Should Do Before Every MeetingTactic #14: What You Should Do During Every MeetingTactic #15: What You Should Do After Every MeetingTactic #16: Use Your Voice to Your AdvantageTactic #17: Make Your Emails Stand Out Using The Subject LineWould you like to learn more?Get the book and start managing your virtual team today.Scroll to the top of this page and click on the "Add to Cart" button.

Download or read book The Mom Test written by Rob Fitzpatrick and published by Robfitz Ltd. This book was released on 2013-10-09 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Mom Test is a quick, practical guide that will save you time, money, and heartbreak. They say you shouldn't ask your mom whether your business is a good idea, because she loves you and will lie to you. This is technically true, but it misses the point. You shouldn't ask anyone if your business is a good idea. It's a bad question and everyone will lie to you at least a little . As a matter of fact, it's not their responsibility to tell you the truth. It's your responsibility to find it and it's worth doing right . Talking to customers is one of the foundational skills of both Customer Development and Lean Startup. We all know we're supposed to do it, but nobody seems willing to admit that it's easy to screw up and hard to do right. This book is going to show you how customer conversations go wrong and how you can do better.

Download or read book Startup Accelerators written by Richard Busulwa and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-01-22 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The must – read guidebook for entrepreneurs looking to get into accelerator programs and to build and scale their startups with speed Accelerator programs have become one of the most powerful and valuable resources for entrepreneurs seeking to learn rapidly, build powerful networks, raise capital, build their startups and do this at speed and scale. In recent years, the number of accelerator programs around the world has grown at an incredible rate, propelling startups such as AirBnB, Uber, DropBox, Reddit, and others — many to billion-dollar valuations. The number of accelerators, the differences in accelerator program offerings and the unique benefits and costs of different accelerator locations makes choosing the right accelerator a challenge. Selecting the wrong accelerator, failing to be accepted in the right one, or not fully taking advantage of all the accelerator has to offer can be costly, sometimes fatal. With the stakes so high, entrepreneurs need to understand all their options, choose carefully and do the right things to maximize their chances of success. Startup Accelerators is the go to guide for any entrepreneur, providing a firsthand look into the acceptance criteria and inner workings of different accelerator programs. Written by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, this indispensable resource explains what different accelerator programs offer, how to get accepted, what to do during the program, how to raise money during accelerators, what to do after the program ends, and much more. Packed with real-world case studies and advice from leading experts on startup accelerator programs, this one-stop resource provides step-by-step guidance on the entire accelerator process. Reveals how accelerators help founders navigate different challenges in the startup journey Describes the differences in the benefits and costs of different accelerator programs Explains how to prepare accelerator applications Discloses what actions to take during an accelerator to make the most of it Depicts case studies of entrepreneurs’ accelerator applications, experiences and outcomes across different accelerators Features interviews with accelerator program managers, founders who went through accelerators, and investors in companies going through or having gone through accelerators Includes insightful data and reflections from entrepreneurship education researchers and academics Startup Accelerators: A Field Guide will prove to be invaluable for startup founders considering or going through accelerators, as well as aspiring entrepreneurs, educators, and other startup accelerator stakeholders.

Download or read book Venture Capital For Dummies written by Nicole Gravagna and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-08-15 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Secure venture capital? Easy. Getting a business up and running or pushing a brilliant product to the marketplace requires capital. For many entrepreneurs, a lack of start-up capital can be the single biggest roadblock to their dreams of success and fortune. Venture Capital For Dummies takes entrepreneurs step by step through the process of finding and securing venture capital for their own projects. Find and secure venture capital for your business Get your business up and running Push a product to the marketplace If you're an entrepreneur looking for hands-on guidance on how to secure capital for your business, the information in Venture Capital For Dummies gives you the edge you need to succeed.

Download or read book How to Start a Startup written by ThinkApps (Firm) and published by . This book was released on 2016-02-17 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New startups are created every day around the word, with many founders dreaming of millions of users and billions of dollars. But the harsh reality is that very few will succeed. How can entrepreneurs stack the odds in their favor? By learning from the experiences of startup founders, executives, and investors who've been there before. That's exactly what "How to Start a Startup" provides, sharing essential lessons from 25+ Silicon Valley insiders who've faced the challenges of starting a new business and come out swinging. Based on a Stanford University course taught by Y Combinator (the prestigious startup accelerator behind companies like Dropbox and Airbnb), this in-depth reference guide features advice from experts like: - Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn co-founder - Dustin Moskovitz, Facebook co-founder - Paul Graham, Y Combinator co-founder - Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, co-founders of Netscape and Andreessen Horowitz venture capital firm - Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and Founders Fund, early Facebook investor - Ben Silbermann, Pinterest co-founder and CEO Nominated as "Book of the Year" by Product Hunt (the leading Silicon Valley community for discovering the best new products), "How to Start a Startup" reveals the secrets to raising money, building products users love, hiring a great team, getting press coverage, attracting customers, growing your business, and more. No matter what type of product you're creating (web, mobile, hardware, online-to-offline, etc.) or what audience you're targeting (consumers or the enterprise), this playbook will give you all the information necessary to launch and scale a successful startup. This book was created independently by the publishers and all net proceeds will go to support charitable causes promoting wider access to opportunity for all.

Download or read book Embodiment and the Inner Life written by Murray Shanahan and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To understand the mind and its place in Nature is one of the great intellectual challenges of our time, a challenge that is both scientific and philosophical. How does cognition influence an animal's behaviour? What are its neural underpinnings? How is the inner life of a human being constituted? What are the neural underpinnings of the conscious condition? Embodiment and the Inner Life approaches each of these questions from a scientific standpoint. But it contends that, before we can make progress on them, we have to give up the habit of thinking metaphysically, a habit that creates a fog of philosophical confusion. From this post-reflective point of view, the book argues for an intimate relationship between cognition, sensorimotor embodiment, and the integrative character of the conscious condition. Drawing on insights from psychology, neuroscience, and dynamical systems, it proposes an empirical theory of this three-way relationship whose principles, not being tied to the contingencies of biology or physics, are applicable to the whole space of possible minds in which humans and other animals are included. Embodiment and the Inner Life is one of very few books that provides a properly joined-up theory of consciousness, and will be essential reading for all psychologists, philosophers, and neuroscientists with an interest in the enduring puzzle of consciousness.

Download or read book The Book of Esports written by William Collis and published by Rosetta Books. This book was released on 2020-08-04 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive guide to the modern world of competitive gaming and the official history of Esports™. Almost overnight, esports—or competitive video games—have exploded into the largest entertainment and sporting phenomenon in human history. The Book of Esports answers: What exactly are esports, and how did they become so popular so quickly? Why did blockbuster video games like League of Legends, Fortnite and Starcraft succeed? Where exactly is all this video gaming headed? What do gamers and college students need to know to position themselves for success in the industry? How do you create a billion-dollar esports business? What strategic choices drive success in the modern gaming industry? Can video games really get your kid into college? (All expenses paid, of course...) Whether you are a lifelong gamer, a curious Fortnite parent, or a businessperson seeking to understand the marketing opportunities of this multibillion-dollar phenomenon, The Book of Esports charts the rise of this exciting new industry, for the first time ever crafting a comprehensive overview of esports and its implications for human competition—and even the future of humanity itself. Gaming luminary and Harvard MBA William Collis has painstakingly translated esports’ mysteries into a detailed and accessible testament for today. Featuring select interviews from the biggest names in the industry, The Book of Esportsweaves tales of trust, betrayal, and superhuman reflexes into predictive frameworks, explaining exactly why our industry looks the way it does, and how all this growth—and more—is inevitable as the divide between man and machine blurs into oblivion.

Download or read book Start Small Stay Small written by Rob Walling and published by The Numa Group LLC. This book was released on 2010 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Start Small, Stay Small is a step-by-step guide to launching a self-funded startup. If you're a desktop, mobile or web developer, this book is your blueprint to getting your startup off the ground with no outside investment.This book intentionally avoids topics restricted to venture-backed startups such as: honing your investment pitch, securing funding, and figuring out how to use the piles of cash investors keep placing in your lap.This book assumes: You don't have $6M of investor funds sitting in your bank account You're not going to relocate to the handful of startup hubs in the world You're not going to work 70 hour weeks for low pay with the hope of someday making millions from stock options There's nothing wrong with pursuing venture funding and attempting to grow fast like Amazon, Google, Twitter, and Facebook. It just so happened that most people are not in a place to do this.Start Small, Stay Small also focuses on the single most important element of a startup that most developers avoid: marketing. There are many great resources for learning how to write code, organize source control, or connect to a database. This book does not cover the technical aspects developers already know or can learn elsewhere. It focuses on finding your idea, testing it before you build, and getting it into the hands of your customers.