If you don't have a lot of followers, twitter is private-ish. There's a difference between a founder tweeting something and a posting on the official company blog, for example.
My twitter feed is so private I only have three followers: me, myself, and I. My wife doesn't even follow me. I don't think she even knows I have a twitter account. It's all very hush-hush.
I should send out more private celebratory tweets....
If StoreEnvy already had "product, customers, revenue, and whatnot", and "just needed cash to hire a bunch of people", it seems odd that the author was so desperate to get funded by YC since that wouldn't give them the cash to hire anyone.
Joining YC obviously gives you tons of other very valuable benefits, just seems to be some dissonance there in the narrative.
The full text of that sentence explains that he "hadn't really considered" YC because he "thought" he just needed cash. Not sure how you figure that he was desperate for YC; he was accepted through a chance encounter without even submitting an application.
edit: After a re-read I understand more where you're getting the desperation from, but that came after he had been accepted, and was trying to hold on to the gift he had been given. I think it's fair to say that the situation had changed sufficiently by that point.
Well I think you're being a bit harsh. He definitely headed out thinking he needed just capital. But once YC seemed interested he probably starting thinking "hmmm, rather than just capital maybe spending 3 months under these guys wings and everything that entails is the smarter way to go"
Having "product, customers, revenue, and whatnot" does not a successful startup make. You have to continually execute, improve, and grow at a very high clip. YC is probably one of the best, if not the best, resources for advice and direction on how to do just that.
Startups are so hard you have to take every bit of help you can get.
Is anyone keeping count of how many times this story has appeared here? It's somewhat interesting (this isn't a jab at the content), I'm just surprised to see it appear again. Is this more compelling because of the series A?
Mostly when I find a very interesting article on a Startup, I almost always think it might have been submitted on HN already so instead of using the HN search to find the article so I can read through the comments related to it, I would simply submit it using News.yc bookmarklet.
More often than not, hitting submit will take me directly to the comments and that's what I was hoping for with this submission but I wasn't lucky I guess.
I did notice this. I wonder if "Y Combinator" being in the title has something to with it reaching popularity again and again.
My curiosity-- has anyone here actually used Storenvy? Sounds like a nice guy for a founder, and the product is good, but the USERS! Ugh.
I sold $5-20 Storenvy design templates for a while and have never done business with such awful customers. After the zillionth person decided, post-purchase, that they wanted me to redesign the template completely just for them, by tomorrow preferably-- I had had it. Don't know why such miserable people have set up shop there. Totally different crowd buying WordPress stuff.
It is irrelevant that you have seen this article before. I, for one, have not -- like many others judging from it hitting front page -- and I really enjoyed the article! Thanks for resubmitting!
Congratulations on the success and great story. After reading it I would have enjoyed something along the lines of: "Rejecting Y Combinator; making sure you and your co-founders share the same vision on how you'll build your company"
I throw the "Rejecting Y Combinator" in there so you'll get on the homepage. I found the story about developers building a successful business and then rejecting the Bay Area/Y Combinator lifestyle really interesting and probably a refreshing read. And how different your personalities clearly were. They didn't even want to go there while you clearly took to it like a duck to water and networked like a crazy man. Maybe the other founders though are the right guys to write my desired post.
Being "kicked out" seems kind of misnomer. I was expecting some kind of story about how he defied PG or did something unusual, not how the company was accepted on a whim and were disassociated with the program before it even started. Great story none the less.
I gotta say, obviously it is not clear how this went actually down. But if this is actually true, then what YC did there was pretty much the opposite of classy. I guess YC sees itself as a startup, too, and this was just one of many pivots...
Likely risk management. He was working with two other people, but the sudden change in that dynamic obviously didn't sit well with them. It's hard to realize it sometimes, but doing something on your own even if you do have customers can be pretty difficult and the probability of failure is pretty high.
What if something happens to you? Can you keep going? Is there anyone else available with intimate knowledge of the inner workings to keep things going with customers?
These aren't easy questions for a solo founder. It's certainly not impossible for one person to create and run a successful company, but the fact that you have no support and no one to bounce ideas off of obviously creates more risk. VCs don't just want to spend money, after all, they do expect you to succeed.
All good points. Now how do I find co-founders in El Paso? I am highly motivated and will never give up but I can't find anyone here to match that passion. I don't really want to settle on someone just so I can have a co-founder. I want to work with people that are as motivated about my product as I am.
Lol you people are funny. VC's will certainly miss on startups, YC included. The goal isn't to get funded. It's to build a sustainable growing business. Everything else is just a benefit.
Yes, it is if you are an out-of-towner. There is no Caltrain stop at the airport. You have to figure out BART and then figure out Caltrain. The shared van shuttle to MV sucks too ... especially if there are any Stanford students on board. On some days, the line up for rental cars is insanely huge. Plus, the rental car depot is at the far end of the airport. If one values their time, taking the $120 cab to MV isn't that big of a deal.
Though to be frank if you are not willing to drop an extra $100 on getting to a potentially lucrative meeting like that then you probably were not confident enough the meeting might be a success that you should be going in the first place.
So "how the hell are we going to get there?, what if public transport like?, sod it I'll get a taxi" doesn't seem an unnatural situation to me.
Also the problem with rental cars is you have to drive down 101 which can be a nightmare especially if you don't know the road, in a cab you can at least sit in back and decompress/prep.
One of the YC App questions involves detailing a story of a real life hack. I know he didn't fill out the app, but I certainly hope that figuring out public transportation falls above the bar.
Figuring out how to use a system as designed isn't much of a hack...it would be more of a hack if he figured out how to reconfigure the system to route a bus or train directly past the front entrance of the building he was trying to get to.
It is hard to figure out! I've taken it from the airport to Mountain View many times. First you need the airport train to the BART station. That's easy enough, once you see the signs telling you how to get there. They don't tell you which train is which, but if you get on the wrong one all that happens is you go the wrong way through all the airport terminals. Once you're at BART, you have to figure out how to buy a BART ticket (not that hard, only half a dozen steps or so) and how to use it to get admitted into the station. Various people will be doing the latter (you insert your ticket one place and then it opens a turnstile and pops the ticket out and you grab the ticket again. Don't forget to grab your damn ticket!) so hopefully you can just copy them.
Now things advance a level. Your BART train may be sitting there, but the doors will be closed. People are sitting inside--how did they get there?--but you can't get in. Expect this bizarre situation to last for about ten minutes, and just act cool like the locals. Eventually the doors will probably open; that was just to throw you off a bit. You're on BART! Ok. You must get off at Millbrae because that's where Caltrain is.
Surprise! BART doesn't necessarily stop at Millbrae. Sometimes you must go past it to San Bruno, then cross the aisle and catch a different BART back to Millbrae. The conductor is supposed to tell you so, but often is too indifferent to bother; that doesn't matter, though, because BART's PA system is so old and ratty that you wouldn't be able to hear it anyway. What you'd hear is "shbluwarmillblahcalshulb". If by some twist the intercom started working, you might not understand, because the conductors are bored and like to read the script as unintelligibly as they can. So make sure you're an expert in the right American accent. Anyway, now that you're going the other way on BART from San Bruno, you get off at Millbrae.
Now you have to figure out how to get out of the BART station. That's almost the same as how you got in--you insert the ticket and then it pops out and you take it and it lets you through, unless you paid exactly, in which case the ticket doesn't pop out but does let you through, or unless you didn't pay enough, in which case it pops out but doesn't let you through. In that case you have to find and figure out the machine that lets you add enough money to the ticket to get let out of BART. That's not quite the same process as the one by which you bought the ticket in the first place, but the learning curve is similar so you may enjoy it a bit better.
Congratulations, you're out of BART. Your next mission is to figure out where the Caltrain platform is. It's nearby, haha, but don't think it's easy to get to! I've wandered around looking for it for ages. You have to go up the correct escalator and down the correct staircase; there are perhaps a dozen to choose from. And make sure you end up on the correct platform, because otherwise your Caltrain is going to take you to San Francisco, which is not Mountain View at all. It's far from obvious which platform is which, especially since after working your way through the maze I've described so far, you will have zero orientation as to which way is north. You want south. Actually what you want is "San Jose", because that's where the Caltrain you want is going. You don't want San Jose, but San Jose is the way to Mountain View. Fortunately you knew that.
Now buy a Caltrain ticket. That involves figuring out which of several "zones" you want to go to, each of which is a list of names that mostly mean nothing to you but one of which, you'll eventually discover, includes Mountain View. Then do another simple half a dozen steps to pay and get your ticket. Edit: but don't miss the demonic detail kindly supplied by ghshephard below, unless it pleases you to figure out the hard parts yourself.
The machine will spit out two tickets, though. One is your receipt, which you probably don't need, and the other is your ticket, which you certainly do. Don't make the mistake of keeping the wrong one; if you do... that's an exercise to the reader. Now you're ready for the train. Oh, one passed by while you were trying to find your damn platform and buy your damn ticket, but don't worry: another will be along in an hour.
Make sure it stops where you want to get off, though. If it's an express train, it may blaze right through that stop, in which case you'll be backtracking on a train for the second time today! (I have made this mistake.) However, you're going to Mountain View and I believe the express trains all do stop there. Better double-check, though. But there won't be any signs on the platform telling you which trains stop where. You might try to look it up on your phone, but there won't be any internet access, so be aware which arm or leg you may pay for roaming data; also, roaming data is often so painfully slow as to be unusable, and the Caltrain schedule if you do find it will be a pdf you have to download. On the bright side, this gives you something to do during your hour waiting for the next train.
Once it comes, you'll get on, but since you're coming from the airport you probably have luggage, and that means you probably want The Luggage Car, which is usually in the middle of the train and has a rack you can put your suitcase onto. Since you don't know that, be sure to be magically positioned so that that car happens to stop in front of you and you happen to see a little sign that says "Luggage Car" to the side of the doors. If you suck at being magically positioned, lug your luggage through the aisle of one of the other cars and hope that you find a couple of adjacent seats and that someone doesn't come along who needs the seat so you have to take your suitcase off it. Failing that, sit with your suitcase on your lap.
Finally, be aware that the stop you want to pay attention to is not Mountain View, where you're going, but San Antonio, the one right before it. Because once the train leaves San Antonio you'll be wanting to begin maneuvering yourself and your suitcase near an exit. Those doors don't stay open very long! If you wait to hear "Mountain View" before you start the maneuver (Caltrain announcements do tend to be audible and intelligible, mostly), you may find that the thirty seconds or so that you have before the doors close again are insufficient to get you and your suitcase off the train, in which case, welcome to Sunnyvale! Don't worry, though; all you were doing was going to meet PG at Y Combinator to talk about your startup. Sunnyvale's nice too, and you saved money on a cab.
I've grown fond of Caltrain since then but will forever empathize with beginners.
Edit: Fine, I added whitespace, but if you're going through this process for the first time, don't think you'll get any whitespace.
One of my favorite ever posts on HN! Positively Ulyssean.
The BART-BART transfer showed excellent eye for detail. You did leave out how Caltrain has a very non-zero probability of hitting a suicide, or a car left on the tracks, often right outside my apartment - drop in to say hi! - or just breaking down for no reason at all, delaying you for a further hour or two. But hey, no rush.
And although it may not apply to the OP, since we know how YCombinator feels about non-native English speakers, but imagine following all the steps above if English is not your first language.
I remember buying two tickets in hope the second one would be a return ticket. Then I noticed you don't validate the tickets at the train and they've already been timestamped. :(
What you call a "return ticket," Caltrain calls a "day pass." It costs twice as much as a one-way ticket, so is actually a good deal if you plan to ride the train back and forth all day.
"And although it may not apply to the OP, since we know how YCombinator feels about non-native English speakers, but imagine following all the steps above if English is not your first language."
One can imagine many ending up in Springfield given how BART stands out.
As for the incident area you appear too have - might want to setup a webcam, could even charge subscription as there be some strange people on the internet somewhere. Given rolling news works, then that in itself is proof enough that a market exists.
perhaps i misread the original story, but sounded like he was checked into a hotel in the city and could have taken caltrains directly from SF. get to caltrains (taxi/bus/walk) then one train all the way. google maps is pretty incredible for figuring this stuff out in a hurry. story reads as kind of impulsive, almost bragging about wasting money. maybe not a good steward of investor capital.
You're on your way to a once in a lifetime meeting. Spending 100 dollars to have an expert drive you there seems like money well spent. Assuming that "google maps is pretty incredible for figuring this stuff out in a hurry" seems like a really bad idea. If you're not from SF, how would you know how good google maps is at determining the right caltrain route?
And, you forgot the best part, which is just as the train is approaching the platform, you are trying to buy the ticket in the machine, but, lo and behold, cal train Credit Card payment is unlike any credit card payment system you've ever used - you do not rapidly push your card in/out, no, it is uniquely designed to require you to push the card in, pause, pause, and then only when it informs you it is safe to proceed, do you then rapidly pull your card out.
I originally wrote it as one monolithic paragraph with just the last line separate at the end. I thought it would be funny that way, plus capture the feeling of being faced with all those details. But some people found it annoying, so I relented.
Great writeup! I enjoyed reading it. As someone who moved to the Bay Area last year, I think most American systems are geared toward utterly fast and effortless everyday use at the cost of steep initial learning curves.
Which probably makes sense, I take the Caltrain everyday and almost 99% of the passengers on the express trains are everyday seasoned commuters.
Airports on the contrary are geared toward first-time use rather than everyday efficiency -- which sounds sensible too.
However, none of this explains the awful analog Caltrain ticket machines.
I went through this very recently (heading to Sunnyvale rather than Mountain View), and the only improvement I can offer for a first timer is to keep an eye out for Caltrain pamphlets that list all the schedules, fares, zones, and whether each train will be an express train or not.
Of course said pamphlet will not be available on the Caltrain platform, but I found one in a rack at the top of the staircase at Millbrae.
That pamphlet is called a schedule, it is posted in every station, and it is surprisingly readable and understandable. Only the larger stations have copies of the schedule to take, as well as on board every train. The only cryptic things are the train numbers, but you don't really need them, especially now that stations have real-time train arrival signs.
I've never used BART/Caltrain so I can't say if it's that horrible, but most of the stuff you talk about sounds like totally normal train riding issues you'll find everywhere.
How to get there, what's their take on fares, how are the lines organized, how bad will the ticket machine suck, how to not miss my destination, how does entry/exit/transfer work, that's it. Nothing special or challenging for anyone who uses public transit on a semi regular basis.
I usually research the workings of the local public transport before i go somewhere. That's 20 minutes (on the plane/train) well spent, because all cities have a slightly different approach to the same problem. Someone should really make a website for this that boils all the facts of the world's transit systems down to a cheat sheet.
Thank you so much. I've often said that travel is a skill, and couldn't really express exactly why I've grown more comfortable with it over time, but this is perfect.
Also, my first time to Europe, I tweeted something about being stressed about my first train ride. I got back several confused "Wait, trains are so simple, what are they like there???" This. This is what they're like here.
This is a terrible rant written in block-of-text style, to make it seem foreboding.
You're cherry-picking things and describing them in the most difficult way possible. Any mass transit system is confusing at first. Bart+Caltrain are not particularly worse than the average.
Yes, the Bart+Caltrain connection is insane. Are there any other popular public transit routes that take an hour or more plus a transfer to go like a mile?
I came somewhat close to missing an international flight when I waited 30 minutes at Millbrae and then for 45 minutes at San Bruno. Never again. I'll take a cab from Millbrae to SFO from here on out. Damn do I miss the Caltrain shuttle.
Bart is fine, Caltrain is OK, but the Bart+Caltrain+Millbrae connection is putrid. They should have just run the AirTrain out there.
It's true that most of those details are not so bad. I've exaggerated in an attempt to recapture the feeling of being a beginner faced with all of them at the same time.
Being a beginner in NYC, Boston or DC is just as daunting. I've had had to navigate transit systems as both a tourist and as a daily commuter, and calling Bart-Caltrain particularly worse than the equivalent worse parts of other metro systems is disingenuous.
It is pretty bad and could be a lot better, but the griping from Bay area people in this thread is ridiculous.
1. Local transport system in an unfamiliar city is always more complicated than catching a cab.
2. Given the importance he attached to YC, he prioritized the problems flawlessly. Saving that $100 vs. making absolutely sure that he reaches YC office on time, not exactly a brain-teaser if you ask me.
I've ridden a lot of public transportation all over the world. Caltrain is actually a little tricky, and the signage isn't great.
If I'm flying into SFO and I have to get to Mountain View later that day there's no way I would do anything else but shell out the hundred bucks for the cab.
How does that work? Are there private tweets? Like the ones that Anthony Weiner sent out?