I'm always more impressed by the companies that show a list of customers before they launch, then the companies assuming they need to launch to get customers (or that launching will necessarily lead to additional customers).
Is it because you are interested in hearing the answer? It's a social media company focused on attracting users and eyeballs (at the moment). The revenue is nil, same as it was for fb and google in the early days (not saying that dailybooth will be the next facebook and google, just that there are examples of companies that were once focused on users and eyeballs that are now focused on revenue).
Or is it because people enjoy the snark? Screw that company that just raised $6M!! I'm not jealous, I'm just...Bubble, bubble, stupid VCs, no revenue, no business model, pictures, bubble!
> I know of one incredibly talented potential female founder who applied with a killer idea and was rejected.
I know of dozens of incredibly talented potential male founders who applied with killer ideas and were rejected. Seriously.
> I think it is very likely that YC has a strong bias towards men, which this data certainly supports.
Why do you think it's very likely? What data supports that. As one of the other commentators already pointed out, the percentage of YC founders that are women is about equal to the percentage that apply. Saying that the "data support" the argument that YC is biased when there is such an obvious alternative explanation (namely, that there are less female founders) is disingenuous.
> since YC is a for profit business they are making economically sound decisions.
Wait, what? Are you saying that since Silicon Valley (I'm guessing you mean investors in this context?) favors men, YC intentionally (and consciously) chooses to fund men in order to increase the chances that YC founders raise subsequent rounds of financing? That's crazy talk...
> saying any fault lies with women is really unfair.
I don't think anybody is "faulting" women. They are just stating the facts - there are less female engineers, and less female YC applicants.
>> This is also why I hate VC's (PG included), they force you to become inward focused rather than seeking external inputs (IE: Customers).
In my humble and limited experience with both PG and VCs, the focus has always been on customers.
I'm surprised that you include PG in your sweeping statement. He is a pretty outspoken advocate of launching early, listening to customers, and iterating.
Do you mind sharing where you get your perspective?
It's mostly all included in my comment. But Paul is simply a lesser evil. I'm a bit older than most founders - I remember the dotcom bubble. I watched the absurdity as vulture capital tore through many good developers in the late 1990's early 2000's. I've come to realize that anything that takes away from your iteration loop kills you.
The instant you take VC money (Paul's included) you now have a focus away from your customers towards inward interests. You have to worry about raising money, about the next round, about that meeting next week. Over time, customers stuffer. Right now Ycombinator is the darling of the "startup" scene, but my opinion is that the "startup" scene is a bad place to be for building a company. (Great place for a quick exit though! But the odds of that are poor.)
Whatever their intentions, VC money alters your fledgling company in a harmful way. A quick browse at all the news items on this site about "navigating VC world" and raising capital, and convincing VC's of X should be evidence enough. That time is better spent navigating product strategy, raising customers and selling product.
Don't worry, I know better then most all the issues you face in doing what you are doing, and frankly, you're being smart about it, which is why I'm rooting for you. =)
I'm not sure which comments to answer first: The ones that say WePay is nothing like PayPal and the comparison is misleading, or the ones that say WePay is just a feature of PayPal and therefore undifferentiated.
We'll just keep building the product and let people decide for themselves.
I know nothing about this industry, but I can say categorically that hipmunk has the best UX of any airline search site on the web. It just makes me happy.
> Also I suspect a billboard advertisement for something with such a small user base (vs. the average person who will see this)...
Probably true for most billboards, but the 101 on the peninsula might be the one place in the world it makes sense (box.net has some great ads; AOL and Zynga have ads looking for job applicants)
"After thinking about it for a moment, I guess I'm totally wrong."
And yet, your totally wrong and snarky comments above get up-voted. Go figure.
"The secret of dating in SV/SF that I wish I knew when I moved there: the women are all in Palo Alto, Pac Heights, and The Marina."
And you said you were here for 10 years? Based on the amount of real-estate you devoted to talking about getting girls, I'm guessing you're not too good at it. Yes, it's harder to get girls in SF than in NYC, but the people droning on about it are as hopeless in SF as they are anywhere else.
I'm always more impressed by the companies that show a list of customers before they launch, then the companies assuming they need to launch to get customers (or that launching will necessarily lead to additional customers).