Ask YC Archive

This page is an archive of quality Hacker News “Ask YC” posts grouped by subject. “Quality” means posts that are a) generally relevant to startups and b) contain a decent amount of useful discussion/advice. All posts on this page have been looked at manually. Within groups (and sub-groups) stories are sorted in descending date order because newer stories are more timely (in addition to often having more comments).

Financial

• Can you defer student loans to start a company?

Accounting

• Accounting suggestions - how do you do it?
• Who Are the Startup Friendly Accounting Firms?
• What Bank account and accounting software are LLC startups using?

Acquisitions/Selling Business

• How would you sell your business?
• Selling a Working Web 2.0 Website - Where to Sell?
• Do unpopular languages affect acquisition?
• Would you accept a buyout offer that made you rich but you still felt was undervalued?
• Founder salaries after an acquisition: how much?
• I need Acquisition Advice
• Is acquisition a valid exit strategy?
• How do acquisition prices get settled?

Angels

• I'm pitching to an angel. How do I value my startup?
• What's the best way to meet an angel investor?
• Angel Networks

Funding (General)

• Giving raises after a series A round
• Are you self-funding/bootstrapping?
• How do you (or how did you), a start-up, get your first lump sum of cash?
• Do these guys really help? (helping to raise capital)
• Why do startups need all that funding money? It is just for advertising?
• How are valuations for startups established?

Health Insurance

• What do you spend on health insurance?
• Startup healthcare and dental?
• Provide Health Insurance at Start-Up?
• What are you doing about health insurance?
• What about health insurance?
• Do you founders pay for health insurance out of pocket while working full-time on your projects?

Monetization

• "37signals/DHH style" companies?
• Google Adsense: +1000 visitors = $1.50 usd, WTF?
• Who is building a startup/product and making money by charging customers?
• When to monetize your user generated content site?
• How many page views does a website need to produce a month before it can get advertisers?

Venture Capital

• What are the most frequently asked questions by a VC?
• Why Venture Capital for Web Startup?

Y Combinator

• Can you please provide statistics of YC funded cos?
• What are the most useful things Y Combinator provides its startups?
• The Irony of Applying to YC
• What is the approximate percentage of applicants with a working demo or prototype?
• What is a good size for a YC idea?
• How does debuting your app on news.yc affect a possible future application to yc?

General (Startups)

• What to do when the competition surfaces?
• Choosing advisors for your Startup?
• Should I open up alpha or wait until full(er)-featured beta?
• How To Prioritize
• What causes startups to NOT build something users want?

Founders

• Finding a Co-Founder
• Finding a Cofounder
• Number of founders - statistics
• Absolutely, DO NOT, get a co-founder!
• How did you find your cofounder?
• What are the downsides of being a single founder (ie. not having a co-founder)?
• Any recommendations on convincing wives to let their husbands become entrepreneurs?

Founders (Disputes)

• Startup crisis. Dorm room style.
• Startup crisis. Out of money and tech co-founder has bailed.
• Dispensing with a Co-founder
• How do I break up with my co-founder?
• How do you handle dispute resolution between 2 founders?

Giving Up

• How to re-motivate yourself?
• Experiences with founder burnout?
• When is it time to give up on your web startup?

Hiring

• Any suggestions on good places to find freelance developers?
• What's a reasonable share of equity to get as the first developer?
• Best site for finding good web programmers?
• What would the salary range be for programmers?
• How do you attract smart people to work at your startup?
• Any words of wisdom on hiring an outside C.E.O? Cautionary tales?
• Percentages for New Hires...
• Would you hire a telecommuting, part-time (but talented) college student?

Ideas

• Could you provide a specific account of how you personally come up with novel ideas?
• How did you come up with your startup idea?

Life Choices

• Masters in CS? Or no?
• PhD, yes or no?
• Why would someone leave his/her cushy job to join a startup?

Lifestyle

• Best ways to become socially adept?
• Solo Founders: How do you do it?
• How do you lose weight?
• How do you stay emotionally efficient?
• What methods do you use to manage your time?
• Dealing with post startup depression
• Hack a meal in 10 minutes or less. No ramen allowed
• How do you work for 8 hours straight?
• Relaxation tips?
• Food Ideas for Startup Guys
• Dating? Wives? Relationship balance?

Lifestyle (Part Time)

• Part-time consulting while working on a startup, good idea?
• Are you working part-time on your startup/project/idea?
• Are you working on your startup/side-project strictly in your spare time?
• How to start becoming an entrepreneur while still being an employee
• How to best make money on the side?
• Is it possible to do a startup parttime?
• Moonlighting? Please Tell Me About It

Locations

• Where to startup? (If not the US, then Canada or UK?)
• What are the startup hubs outside of the US?
• Number 3 Startup Hub?
• Why is it hard to startup a company outside of Silicon Valley?
• Cambridge hangout - Please name places in Cambridge with good programmers, good food, clean bathrooms, and free wifi.

Locations (San Francisco/Silicon Valley)

• Cost of living in Silicon Valley
• Moving to SF, need advice
• Best areas for startups to relocate to Silicon Valley?

Non-Hackers

• Keeping and Recruiting Hackers as a Non-Hacker
• Can Hackers and Non-Hackers co-found?
• I have a great idea for a webapp, but hardly any programming knowledge. What should i do?
• What should a striving non-programmer do?

Legal

• What are my options if I get "fired" very close to a vesting date?

Entity Formation

• When should you incorporate?
• Legal costs of startup?
• Starting up: Registering a company
• Has anyone formed an S Corp and then converted to a C Corp later
• How necessary is it to have a lawyer incorporate you?
• LLC or S-Corp? Which is easier and which is better?

IP

• GPL'd Source Code
• How do I startup if I don't own the code?
• To open source or not, that is the question
• Is distributing your source code a stupid idea?
• IP Agreements - Safe to launch a startup while still working?

Lawyers

• Need Good Startup Lawyer Recommendation
• Lawyer recommendations? (with startup experience)

Terms of Use

• Where to find standard user agreements and other boring legal stuff for my startup?
• Is it OK to copy terms of service/privacy policy from another site?
• How do you write a "terms of use" for a website?

Visas/Green Cards

• Getting visas to attend programs like YC
• Can a person in US on F-1 Student Visa be a co-founder?
• if you're from outside USA then you may apply for J1 visa.
• How long did your U.S. green card take?
• How does a non-American entrepreneur get into the US?
• Non-US Visa Applicants to the US - Don't You Think It's Time We Compared Notes?
• Startup Visas..?
• Folks On Student Visas Leave Comment About Your Burning Start Up Urge!

Marketing/Sales

• How important do you think it is to have a blog?
• Reliable Script Generated Email Delivery Anyone?
• Selling software/services to corporate clients
• Your google adwords experience?

Demos

• Recommendations on how to make demo video (60 sec tour) for our starup?
• I want to make a video demo for my website. What are good programs/services/compani... to use?

Design/Usability

• Who do the Y Combinator companies go to for design?
• Who did you get to do the website layout?
• Where do you guys find designers for your projects?
• Best way to learn CSS/UI design?
• Your best sources to learn about design & usability
• How valuable are designers to a startup team?
• Where can I find a good designer?
• Nah Seriously! Who designs the YC startups websites? Loving it.
• The websites of all the YC companies look similar. Have they all been worked on by the same designer?
• How to get/make a Logo for Your Startup?

Domain Names

• Are all the good domains taken?
• Who's your favorite domain registrar and why?
• Just How Important Is A Good Domain?
• How do you go about acquiring a parked domain?
• How to deal with domain name squatters?

Names

• Finding names for your startup
• How did you choose a name for your startup?
• Coming up with a name
• How did you guys name your startup?

Getting Traffic/Users

• I built it but they wouldn't come!
• What are your best SEO resources?
• Source of users for early stage startups
• How do you get traffic?
• I have a social website. How do I market it online effectively?
• Where and how to announce the launch of a website?
• 2 weeks after launch, and no real traffic. What should I do?

Press

• How do I promote a web app to bloggers?
• Can anyone recommend a cut rate PR firm? Or, how do you do your own PR?
• Do you still see value in traditional PR?
• How are you all sending out your press releases?

Market Research

• What resources do you use for your market research?
• What's your Advice on Performing Market Analysis for a Startup?
• How to do market research?

Programming

• Things that separate the men from the boys and/or major concepts in software
• Good compiler books?
• Development-wise, what do you do that's unconventional and why?
• The way hackers plan software
• Is MVC the best solution?

Features

• Activation emails
• Is it hot or not? Ranking of user modded content.
• Why do we require user registration?
• Usernames: allow, require, or forbid users to user their email address as a username?

Learning

• Where does a wannabe hacker begin?
• I want to make a webapp. Where do I start?
• Learning Web Development, were should I start?
• How to become a programmer

Refactoring/Rewriting

• How is your refactoring done?
• To rewrite the code or not?
• Should you rewrite your software from scratch?

Testing

• What is the best way to test mobile app across several networks and phones?
• Is the development of automated tests a waste of time for a startup?

X vs Y

• Python vs. PHP
• Ruby and Lisp devs, please answer this (Not a flame war)
• Whats better than AJAX?
• Rails vs. Django
• Javascript or Flash Widgets debate. Help me choose what to use.

Language Choice (General)

• What languages are you using to build your startup?
• Why do some people like difficult programming languages such as C++ and Haskell? Here's my theory...
• What programming language should I start with?
• Should I use a framework or just write the code myself?

AJAX

• Where do I start if I want to learn AJAX?

C++

• C++

Flash

• How do I get Started Making Games in Flash?

Haskell

• Book on Haskell?

Java

• Java-based Startups, do they exist?

JavaScript

• What editor/ide do you use to hack javascript?
• How to become the best JavaScript programmer? (q by 12yr old)
• Javascript obsfucation
• Does anyone here use jQuery?
• Anyone using a functional programming style in their Javascript?
• What's your favorite Javascript framework?
• Recommend me *the* best Javascript book/reference
• What's the best text for learning Javascript?

Lisp

• Algorithms in Lisp
• The nightmare of installing Lisp: a noob's perspective
• Why Lisp Is Unpopular
• I started learning Lisp and I'm looking for some advice.
• Scheme in the real world
• Which editor to use for LISP programming?
• For the lisp experts - tell me how you learned the language.
• Is Scheme as good as Common Lisp?
• Lisp web frameworks: which one should I use?
• PG: If starting Viaweb today, would you use Lisp?
• Which editor do you use for Lisp?

Lua

• Anyone using Lua for web apps?

OCaml

• Opinions on OCaml?

OSX

• Best text for learning to develop apps for Mac OS X

Perl

• What is the best way to learn Perl?

PHP

• What do hackers think of PHP?

Python

• Python Desktop Frameworks
• Django - starting from ground zero - any advice?
• Choosing a Python framework for web development?
• What Python web framework should I use?
• What is the best Python book for a beginner?
• What is the best approach to web app development in Python without a RDBMS?
• does web.py have documentation and are you using webpy?

RoR

• Is there a way to secure a Rails-deployed app without exposing the source code?
• What do you use for Rails web stats?
• 2 Questions about RoR
• Rails users: would you use rails again?
• Warning: RoR is slow
• How did you learn RoR?

Smalltalk

• Smalltalk a good option?
• Does anyone code Smalltalk any more?

References/Research (General)

• Where can I quickly find interesting non-fiction video besides ted.com
• Learning circuit/hardware; lab book?
• Articles, Ideas, Books and/or Concepts that have changed your life
• What class in college did you get the most out of?
• Other good online entrepreneurial/business communities?
• How does one learn about the latest advances in Computer Science (not fads) to apply and improve your work?
• What is your recommended beginner's hacker training course?

Advice

• What's the best advice you ever got?
• What's the best advice you actually use?

Blogs

• The best blogs you are not reading
• Your best programming websites/blogs
• Blogs of startup founders

Books

• Best Books For a Startup?
• What would you put on a hacker's bookshelf?
• Favorite books
• What books would you recommend reading? Why?
• News.YC Library
• Startup founders, what books did you find most helpful?

IRC

• IRC channel for startup people and/or YC hackers?
• Hacker News IRC chat room?
• What IRC channels can I join to meet startuppers?

Podcasts

• What podcasts do you subscribe to?
• What podcasts can people recommend?

Technology/Software/Services to Use

• Who do you use to print your business cards?
• Text Message Providers? (Who do Buxfer,etc use?)

Algorithms

• How would you do keyword classification
• What's the best way to model a threaded comment system like YC?
• What is a good open source Bayes classifier?
• Anyone done any work with Processing?
• Can anyone recommend good books, articles or essays that introduce machine learning?

AWS (EC2, S3, etc.)

• How do you do Sessions on EC2?
• Yes or no: Should web startups host on Amazon?
• Who uses Amazon EC2 or S3 here? What are your experiences?
• Opinions on EC2?
• Deploying on EC2 + S3

Crawling

• What do you scrape? How do you scrape?
• Where to start with creating a distributed crawler
• Any ideas about intelligent crawlers :)

Databases

• MySQL v PostgreSQL: Which have you used and why?
• SQL Server 2005 vs. MySQL for a startup?
• Anyone using CouchDB?
• Object databases
• Which database should my startup use?
• Thoughts on using SQLite?
• What are the best non-database solutions you've seen? What did Viaweb use?
• Who wants to discuss about MySQL vs PostgreSQL?

Editors/Development Environments (General)

• Online Text Editors
• What is your preferable development environment?
• Any of you use Dvorak?
• What's your favorite editor to hack with?

Geolocation

• Open geoip databases?
• Geolocation by IP Address API/Service?
• IP address - locality resolution suggestions

Hosting

• Shared Web Hosting: Who Is Good?
• Does anybody have a positive experience with slicehost's 256 slice?
• Recommend a hosting company.
• Which web host do you use?
• Where do YC applicants host their projects?
• Our current hosting company keeps failing. Do you guys have any dedicated hosting companies to recommend?
• How to host the startup server?
• What hosting provider are you using for your startup?
• Shared Virtual vs Dedicated vs Colocated server hosting - which do you use for your startup?
• What webhost do you use for your startup?
• Where do you colo your servers?

OpenID

• Why should I use OpenID?
• Who uses OpenID?

Payment Processing

• Recommend a merchant account provider
• What is the cheapest and/or easiest way to accept credit cards online for subscriptions?
• What payment gateway do you use?
• Experience with Amazon Flexible Payment Service
• Advice on web-app credit card processing and invoicing?
• Best Credit Card Processing? (recurring payments)
• What is the best credit card processing setup for startups?

Project/Customer Management

• Do startups work well when managed remotely?
• Good application for support emails and tickets?
• Design/code reviews in a startup
• Documentation format?
• What CRM do you use?
• What do you use for Project Management?
• Version control hosting site for private projects?
• Your bug tracker
• Best Wiki Software?

Scaling

• What load balancing software do you use?
• Any users of SimpleCDN?
• Whats the best tool to load test a web app?
• What do you use to stress test your app/db?
• Scaling questions.
• How can I learn to scale my project?

Sysadmin

• What tools do you use for notifications of server/site uptime?
• Which OS are you using on your app's server(s)?
• What software do you use for analyzing apache logs?
• Who are you using for DNS?
• Securing your servers?
• Good resources for dev/staging/production config
• What DNS provider do you use?
• Dealing with DDoS
• How does everybody backup?
• What tools are you using to monitor a site's load?
• Anyone using *BSD for hosting instead of Linux?
• What mail server do you use?
• Virtualization: good idea for startups?