http://www.bosstalks.com/ BossTalks.com Topic: The day before Startup School 2007. The reception at Y Combinator. en Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:33:20 +0000 http://www.bosstalks.com/topic/53#post-116 Sun, 25 Mar 2007 14:47:30 +0000 white 116@http://www.bosstalks.com/ <p><strong>The day before the Startup School 2007</strong></p> <p>We've been invited to a reception for speakers, press, and some of the attendees the night before Startup School. It was happening in Y Combinator's place in Mountain View, CA.</p> <p><img title="ycombinator and anybots" src="/StartupSchool2007/ycombinator_and_anybots.jpg" /></p> <p>We decided to get a car for rent from Budget, but they screwed up and gave us an old Ford Taurus, which was too big for me and too fuel inefficient.</p> <p><img title="our huge american car" src="/StartupSchool2007/our_huge_american_car.jpg" /></p> <p>The drive was safe, but very boring.</p> <p><img title="long drive to mountain view by 5" src="/StartupSchool2007/long_drive_to_mountain_view_by_5.jpg" /></p> <p><img title="on the way by 101" src="/StartupSchool2007/on_the_way_by_101.jpg" /></p> <p>It was very exciting when we've got closer to Silicon Valley and a lot of IT companies' buildings are showed up.</p> <p><img title="the giants are close again sun" src="/StartupSchool2007/the_giants_are_close_again_sun.jpg" /></p> <p><img title="the giants are close intel" src="/StartupSchool2007/the_giants_are_close_intel.jpg" /></p> <p><img title="the giants are close moto" src="/StartupSchool2007/the_giants_are_close_moto.jpg" /></p> <p><img title="the giants are close sun" src="/StartupSchool2007/the_giants_are_close_sun.jpg" /></p> <p>We stayed in the hotel Lodge, which is about 1 mile from the Y Combinator. I like beer and was pretty sure they should have some, so it wasn't worth driving.</p> <p><img title="hotel lodge its okay" src="/StartupSchool2007/hotel_lodge_its_okay.jpg" /></p> <p><img title="hotel lodge our stay" src="/StartupSchool2007/hotel_lodge_our_stay.jpg" /></p> <p>Mountain View's downtown really sucks. Sorry, but it just a big village. We came from Pasadena, which is close to Los Angeles, and I thought that it's pretty boring place. I was very wrong.</p> <p><img title="some sculpture mountain view" src="/StartupSchool2007/some_sculpture_mountain_view.jpg" /></p> <p><img title="mountain view downtown" src="/StartupSchool2007/mountain_view_downtown.jpg" /></p> <p><img title="mountaine view a big billage" src="/StartupSchool2007/mountaine_view_a_big_billage.jpg" /></p> <p>We had a lunch before visiting Y Combinator and visited some Teriyaki place. It wasn't good at all. Unfortunetly, the sushi place which we found was closed and we should to wait for an hour before opening. That was really surprising that sushi restraunt is opening only after 5 pm.</p> <p><img title="teriayki place bad choice" src="/StartupSchool2007/teriayki_place_bad_choice.jpg" /></p> <p><img title="teriyaki place at least theyve got soda" src="/StartupSchool2007/teriyaki_place_at_least_theyve_got_soda.jpg" /></p> <p>The networking was cool. Well, I was really surprised that the most part of the people were thinking or already doing some startup, and the most ideas were not unique. The were trying to change something or to improve something minor, were too positive about hitting the market and sometimes too blind about competitors. Anyway, the most of them were pretty young, so my concerns are pretty understandable. I had a chance to meet and introduce myself to Jessica Livingston, the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&#38;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FFounders-Work-Stories-Startups-Early%2Fdp%2F1590597141%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1173729152%26sr%3D8-1&#38;tag=prokhorenkous-20&#38;linkCode=ur2&#38;camp=1789&#38;creative=9325">Founders at Work</a>.</p> <p><img title="yc evening networking" src="/StartupSchool2007/yc_evening_networking.jpg" /></p> <p><img title="yc networking 1" src="/StartupSchool2007/yc_networking_1.jpg" /></p> <p><img title="yc networking 2" src="/StartupSchool2007/yc_networking_2.jpg" /></p> <p><img title="yc reinvent the wheel" src="/StartupSchool2007/yc_reinvent_the_wheel.jpg" /></p> <p><img title="yc wall" src="/StartupSchool2007/yc_wall.jpg" /></p> <p>There were two robots. Pretty fun.</p> <p><img title="anybots 1" src="/StartupSchool2007/anybots_1.jpg" /></p> <p><img title="anybots 2" src="/StartupSchool2007/anybots_2.jpg" /></p> <p><img title="anybots 3" src="/StartupSchool2007/anybots_3.jpg" /></p> <p><img title="anybots 3 its alive" src="/StartupSchool2007/anybots_3_its_alive.jpg" /></p> <p><img title="anybots 4" src="/StartupSchool2007/anybots_4.jpg" /></p> <p><img title="anybots god" src="/StartupSchool2007/anybots_god.jpg" /></p> <p><img title="anybots like beer" src="/StartupSchool2007/anybots_like_beer.jpg" /></p> <p><img title="anybots room" src="/StartupSchool2007/anybots_room.jpg" /></p> <p>After some networking we decided to take a walk in some nice place. Unlikely, it was more then one hour drive to San Francisco, so we decided to visit San Jose. It's was really cool and we really liked it.</p> <p><img title="san jose downtown cool" src="/StartupSchool2007/san_jose_downtown_cool.jpg" /></p> <p><img title="san jose lights" src="/StartupSchool2007/san_jose_lights.jpg" /></p> <p>I've got some videos from the event. You can see them at <a href="http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=bosstalks" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=bosstalks</a> They may not be available, yet, but as soon as YouTube updates the database, you'll see them there. </p> (read more)