Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham?

Re:Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham? by cperciva on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @02:57AM (#1652086)

This doesn't quite qualify as ignoring, but I think it matches the spirit of the question: I wouldn't be running Tarsnap now if Paul Graham hadn't listed "Single Founder" as the #1 mistake that kills startups. Having read that, I decided I was going to prove him wrong, damnit.

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Re:Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham? by azharcs on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @06:35AM (#1652371)

Hey, Do you hate CSS ;-) When I visited your website, I actually checked my web developer toolbar to see if CSS is disabled.

Can I design tarsnap and provide you a CSS template.

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Re:Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham? by cperciva on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @06:44AM (#1652378)

I don't particularly like CSS, but I do use it. I believe in separation of content and presentation, though, so I want the page to be readable without CSS. While the page is somewhat ugly, I think the minimalism suits the service.

That said, if someone sends me a redesigned page, I'll certainly look at it. :-)

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Re:Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham? by azharcs on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @08:00AM (#1652494)

Sure, I am on it. Give me a week and I will have something to show.

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Re:Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham? by zepolen on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @08:48AM (#1652594)

It just goes to show that a pretty landing page is not all that necessary. Functionality and usefulness are more important than web 2.0 glitz and glamor. You think tarsnap's website is ugly now? You should have seen it at the beginning.

I wish more HN startups would realize that. Almost all of the 'review my startup' posts are just a single page with an email signup form you fill out to be notified when the app will be ready.

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Re:Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham? by cperciva on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @09:25AM (#1652699)

You should have seen it at the beginning.

To be fair, at the beginning it didn't claim to be a website -- it just said "there will be a website here later, meanwhile go read these blog posts about tarsnap".

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Re:Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham? by _delirium on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @07:01AM (#1652395)

I went to the site to see what you meant, and figured initially I had gone to the wrong site, because I saw some modern-looking thing with floating divs and whatnot. ;-) When you implied it was pretty old-school I was expecting the design to look like, say, this: http://www.gnu.org/software/grep/

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Re:Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham? by apu on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @09:03AM (#1652641)

Hah! tptacek: are you adding this to your list of data points?

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1639443

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Re:Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham? by cynicalkane on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @09:29AM (#1652709)

I like Tarsnap's design. It's easy to tell what's going on and there's no eye-candy to get in the way. The lack of design is old-school in a pleasing way.

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Re:Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham? by gordonguthrie on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @03:30AM (#1652136)

As a satisfied Tarsnap customer I'm glad you did!

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Re:Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham? by dood on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @04:19AM (#1652199)

Likewise, though I haven't "got away with it", because I haven't succeeded yet. But I'll show him, oh yes. And then he'll have to amend his advice to "no single founders unless they're really awesome".

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Re:Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham? by cperciva on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @08:18AM (#1652526)

And then he'll have to amend his advice to "no single founders unless they're really awesome".

At one point PG stated that the YC investing rule here was "no single founders unless you're a genius".

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Re:Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham? by hasenj on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @03:55AM (#1652169)

Great to hear! Reading PG got me convinced I can't run a successful startup on my own. I was gonna try doing it anyway, but I would've been expecting to fail from the start.

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Re:Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham? by suckerfish on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @11:19AM (#1653009)

So what did you do in the end?

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Re:Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham? by hasenj on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @04:22PM (#1654128)

I'm still at the beginning ..

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Re:Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham? by thailandstartup on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @05:18AM (#1652280)

While I'm happy to run a startup as a single founder myself - I think I'd prefer to invest in teams too. A team already has something to match your investment (the team itself).

Also, I wonder if its not more difficult to judge which single founders will be successful, and easier to judge when it is a small team.

So I think treat this rule as investment advice, but if you're confident of running your own startup, trust yourself rather than PG's advice.

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Re:Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham? by suckerfish on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @11:18AM (#1653006)

That is an interesting piece of advice. Credit yourself in areas that you are capable but be humble to recognize your weaknesses, and you'll have a clearer picture of whether you can make it on your own.

In the words of Sun Tzu, "If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles."

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Re:Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham? by kwokokwai on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @06:57AM (#1652394)

But you havent succeeded.That Tarsnap site sucks!

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Re:Ask YC: Have you ever ignored Paul Graham? by cperciva on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @07:10AM (#1652408)

Tarsnap is a backup service, not a website.

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