YC has proven that it is capable of returning results that beat the market. Few other incubators are able to replicate the success of YC. As an incubator, it is an outlier. Is an outlier a good "control" sample to prove that this reform works?
Startup visa reform is a necessity, clearly. Founders have the opportunity to make a strong positive impact on jobs, etc. I'd love for YC to be able to work with additional talented founders. No question, I am all for giving YC access to founder visas.
Question: Would a successful beta program at YC prove that the program works? Or would it prove that YC works? If the latter, is there an alternative "beta" program that would be more representative necessary for large scale reform?
AeroFS is a great option for file-syncing. Compare public file sync (Dropbox), private file sync (AeroFS), and traditional network file shares (CIFS/NFS).
Can you risk files in the public cloud? If no, you're limited to just private file sync and traditional network shares. And this is where AeroFS can shine.
You may already have a network share. Its secure. But its a pain to access remotely (VPN) and mobile devices are not compatible at all. So you may choose to migrate your files into an AeroFS Private Cloud so you can sync files instead of browsing files via the network. Syncing files to your desktop gives you offline/remote access.
I'd argue the most secure option is probably leaving data where it already is. If you already have a file server, with permissions and such thats already vetted secure. Cloudtenna adds mobile file access to your on-prem file server. No need to migrate files to a new storage platform.
My blatant pitch aside, AeroFS is right solution if you want to replace mounted network file shares with file sync. Cloudtenna, instead, is good for adding the web/mobile access features of Dropbox to your existing network shares.
I consider "sync" to only be a feature of Dropbox. Its the absolute best way to get files into their cloud storage platform (as compared to something like uploading files manually via a web portal).
But I think the value of Dropbox is in their cloud storage platform itself. It is the platform that is responsible for integration into a bevy of mobile apps, backup, and many other useful tools.
In my opinion, BitTorrent is a feature that doesn't offer the value of a platform. This feature is super awesome for a select use-case (maybe moving my media library across all of my home devices), but its no Dropbox killer. Its not a full platform at its current state.
My takeaways:
(1) Look for unconventional ways to create a MVP
(2) Hustle is a very valuable asset to a startup. For startups with high hustle-to-technical ratios, they may consider building a culture around hustle rather than code.
The first step to a Yelp killer? Type in "Italian Restaurant" and get back list of all the restaurants your friends have checked into. A recommendation engine.
For now, its mostly to filter your facebook data. But do you think it can expand and become the goto search engine, ala google?
It could maybe work if they do it like Netflix: build a profile of you based on what you have rated highly, and put you in a pool with similar people (friends or otherwise), thus providing more accurate recommendations.
But I think Facebook overhypes how much people care about their friend's preferences, at least for most things. We generally don't pick friends based on how closely their shopping/eating/whatever habits match ours.
At my company we've been arguing this same point for years. It doesn't matter what your friends like; it matters what people with similar interests like. Rarely are your friends and family a reflection of all of your likes and dislikes. I'm sure some psychologist could point out the low probability of forming friendships with people who are exactly like you.
It seems like Facebook and other social networks took the idea of asking your friends for a recommendation on a good doctor or auto shop and twisted it into some overly simplified premise that if one friend likes something, all of my friends will like it too.
Agree. There are a large class of Facebook applications that are really UIs slapped on top of graph search queries. I guess this would get really interesting in a practical sense once Facebook opens up an API for these queries.
Startup visa reform is a necessity, clearly. Founders have the opportunity to make a strong positive impact on jobs, etc. I'd love for YC to be able to work with additional talented founders. No question, I am all for giving YC access to founder visas.
Question: Would a successful beta program at YC prove that the program works? Or would it prove that YC works? If the latter, is there an alternative "beta" program that would be more representative necessary for large scale reform?