Y Combinator partners can no longer participate in the first $500k a company raises, unless it’s 3 weeks past Demo Day, according to a recent announcement.  The reasoning provided is “other investors could treat investment by YC partners as an accurate sign of how promising [YC partners] thought a startup was.”  The side-effect was it became “harder for the startups that partners didn’t invest in to raise money.”  Maintaining good business ethics is also a possible reason for this revised policy.  This change keeps fundraising fair for everybody. Continue reading …

Gentrification in the Bay Area is a popular topic lately.  San Francisco rents are up more than 3 times the national average, reports SFGate.  The cost of living has simply gotten too expensive except for those with well-paying jobs at established companies.  That’s a serious long-term problem for everybody because the high cost of living destroys startups.  Startups, at least in concept, create innovation and new jobs.  No startups means no innovation and no new jobs.  I recent wrote New YC Investments Still Get Same Low Offers Since 2005.  In this post, I’d like to briefly explain why seed money startups may be unsustainable. Continue reading …

Funding non-profit organizations was a new initiative announced by Y Combinator in September.  Assistance to these organizations from YC includes a charitable contribution and the same techniques used to help startups.  Two non-profits have recently announced their participation in YC W14: Zidisha and Immunity Project.  Both of these organizations address global problems they’ve been working on for several years. Continue reading …

Aaron Swartz’ death a year ago was absolutely a tragedy.  The grand jury indictment conceded Aaron had legitimate access to JSTOR through Harvard’s Center for Ethics.  Even though the alleged hacking occurred at MIT, how could he “steal” documents that were free?  If Aaron had no prior criminal record, why did a plea bargain require prison time?  Questions like these are now moot.  Aaron Swartz is gone.  Gone, but not forgotten. Continue reading …

[Verse 1]
Just waking up in the morning, gotta thank God

I don’t know but today seems kinda odd

No barking from the dog, no smog
And momma cooked a breakfast with no hog

Continue reading …

Easel.io has been acquired by GitHub, announced today on Easel’s company blog.  From YC S12, Easel is an in-browser web design tool.  The company’s service will continue post-acquisition, providing support and additional benefits to paid subscribers. Continue reading …

Rap Genius is a community for user-contributed annotations of everything.  Song lyrics and creative writing are the site’s primary use: rap/r&b/soul, rock/pop/indie, and poetry/literature.  There’s also annotations for news content, fashion, and recipes.  Rap Genius could be a lot of fun. Continue reading …

Y Combinator Universe published more than a hundred blog posts in 2013.   Topics covered everything from relationship apps for couples to in-memory relational databases.  I wrote about fashion startups and wearable devices.  The acquisition of a dozen companies were mentioned.  And Demo Day for two new batches were detailed, YC W13 and YC S13.  Here’s a few highlights from 2013. Continue reading …