Questions

My startup has been selected to fly over to Mountain View and interview for YCombinator. What are some of the types of questions we can expect Paul Graham to ask us?

Interviews Ycombinator Venture capital Hacker news

asked Jan 29 '14 at 18:41

Tylar Michaelson
41 points

I have an idea for a web app that will target to a specific audience and will collect news and blog articles, analyze them (for keywords, trending topics and more) and then display the article...

Legal Copyright

asked Jan 30 '11 at 18:41

Mike T
174 points

I own a web hosting company and maintain my own servers in a colocation facility. I do not resell the hosting services of another company. My new startup company is a SaaS provider that I'm hosting...

Legal Saas Hosting

asked Apr 20 '11 at 12:57

Tauren
240 points

I'm from Germany and want to run small events (around 50 participants) in the United States, which involve the sale of tickets (probably online) and payment to contractors which contribute to the...

Incorporation Legal USA Events

asked Feb 16 '12 at 08:05

Benjamin
16 points

I've read that the online image editor app http://www.picnik.com closes. How should a competitor react on such a message? What marketing measures are the right ones to reach users that are looking...

Marketing Competition Online

asked Apr 10 '12 at 19:40

James
16 points

My friends, wife, and even a partner, are all urging me to at least apply for a patent to discourage others from attempting to implement similar and/or competing software. Is this a worthwhile...

Patent

asked Nov 21 '10 at 04:16

Igorek
886 points

I have a plan for some software / services that I believe can generate some cash through advertisements, selling 'pro' versions of the application in their respective 'app stores' and through...

UK Tax

asked Jan 12 '12 at 02:22

Krslynx
118 points

My business is based in Australia, but most of my sales are made in the USA in US dollars, and most of the bills my business pays are also paid in USD (via debit card). I know that some...

Finance Bank Account Currency

asked Oct 16 '12 at 13:27

Paul Stovell
204 points

I'll try to keep this as brief as I can. Recently I have taken up a position within a big agency where I am responsible for an 'innovation cell'. People can voluntarily join this cell and they get...

Management Leadership Team

asked Nov 12 '12 at 21:46

Maikel
18 points

Lets say you are bootstrapping your startup and generating a little revenue. Should you use that revenue to first pay yourself a salary or should all of the profits be re-invested back to fuel growth?

Bootstrapped Salary Revenue Growth Startups

asked May 21 '14 at 16:42

David Thornhill
17 points

My wife and I run a referral site for professionals in the childbirth industry where past clients can post testimonials (reviews) of their experience working with the professional. We are trying to...

Crowdsourcing

asked Oct 12 '10 at 02:40

Pat James
138 points

Background: I am a developer with a SaaS product that is bringing in revenue, but not enough to pay a sales person's salary (yet). The company shouldn't need outside funding. The product is...

Sales Partner Equity Saas Business Development

asked Aug 27 '12 at 07:11

Nw Architect
136 points

I've seen a few posts on this site about crowdsourcing which imply that it's not possible to use kickstarter outside the US. I'm wondering where does this information come from ? Any sources ? I...

Funding Crowdfunding

asked Oct 16 '12 at 16:30

Dinaiz
116 points

I need your advice. Our startup plan is to give support to high quality open source softwares like xen, postgresql,drupal, hadoop, nagios etc. What do you think how must be the process from...

Ideas

asked Nov 7 '09 at 05:06

User1362
18 points

How crucial is the fit between partners in a start-up? Have you investigated this aspect of formulating the start-up package? Have spoken with experienced investor and entrepreneurs? Would you use...

Partner Entrepreneurs

asked Nov 17 '09 at 15:35

Ami
16 points

I'm considering building a system that allows our users to purchase points, trade them between themselves, then cash them in for real currency. The system will work like this: User A buys points...

Payments Legal Accounting

asked Mar 27 '10 at 02:24

Codebeef
148 points

HI, I am about to launch my new web application which deals with exchanging info about a certain city among the users. but in the first launch, i will not have any users. So even if i advertise...

Website

asked Nov 26 '10 at 18:25

Anand
116 points

I put up a test landing page for a SAAS product/service that I think has potential. My goal is to test the market to see if there is enough interest to justify building out the...

Pricing Testing Lean Validation Landing Page

asked Oct 19 '11 at 23:07

Bc Web
16 points

I'm hiring a software engineer and have gotten a boat load of resumes. I can easily rule out the obvious ones based on geography (since I can't afford to pay someone to relocate).What are some...

Recruiting Hiring Engineers

asked Mar 28 '14 at 17:29

Rufus Joyce
17 points

I have an idea for a very niche/boutique slightly naughty chocolate product to be sold online, but I am not sure how to approach it. The product will require moulding/shaping chocolate into a...

Co-Founder Strategy

asked Jan 25 '11 at 06:41

Ivan Zlatev
216 points