OnStartups

Rewriting is (almost) always a bad idea. (and you're planning some kind of a rewrite, since the new system will replace the old one)

Let's assume that Team A will work on the newer version, while Team B will continue to work on the old version.

Team A will start working and implementing stuff. Team B will keep working on the old project and add new features. Team A will need to keep up and add new features that Team B added, and so on.

> Those members are eager and passionate to contribute
ANYONE is eager to contribute to a brand-new project!

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How I'd do it?

1) Incremental changes on existing product. Unless you're using some ancient programming language and you have troubles on finding programmers (or you have some licensing options, or the product is locked on a certain platform; e.g. is written in obj.C and you want it ported on Windows and/or Linux), probably this is the best approach. If the system is too big to add features at first, start improving existing code. Clean up. Add unit tests. Clean up even more and start adding features.

2) If you're set on rewriting and this is the only option to consider, feature-freeze the existing project and move all developers to the new project (every once in a while, pull a developer to fix critical bugs _only_). Don't pull the same developer twice in a row though and don't ask them to fix trivial stuff.

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Additional lecture (in no particular order):

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we:

1. picked a list of 50-60 words/prefixes/suffixes we liked

2. wrote a python script to generate permutations, and then

3. ran dig -f on the text file to see which weren't taken

4. scraped buydomains search results to see which ones were easily for sale.

absolutely everything else was a waste of time, although we're also working with a naming agency and that might be promising (but expensive).

amusingly, domains that were occupied by squatters or companies like buydomains were easier to deal with -- at least they're rational and the conversation, though annoying, is straightforward (arrive at a #.)

domains that are occupied but unused (and don't have a 'for sale' sign hanging up) are generally hopeless. if you get a response, you'll generally get some whacko who either won't sell it, or who will only sell for millions of dollars or something. you'll probably not believe me, and will learn this the hard way (just as pg told us months ago :))

ok enough bad news -- some links that might help:

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/02/the_name_game.html

http://onstartups.com/home/tabid/3339/bid/223/The-Startup-Name-Game.aspx

http://foundread.com/2007/08/20/3-rules-for-naming-your-startup/

and last and best (a 100+ page guide)

http://www.igorinternational.com/process/igor-naming-guide.pdf

hope this helps -- it's a struggle :)

Answer can be found at this URL: http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/198/Game-Theory-and-Software-Startups-Part-II.aspx

While I'm not sure that I buy the author's advice, I have been thinking about ways in which founders can think outside the box in attracting funding and signaling as part of negotiating a funding round - if they want to go the VC route.

Obviously a huge part of getting the highest valuation and the best terms out of a VC round rest on how the founders can directly sell investors on the prospects for their business by talking about the technology, market, financials/projections, etc...

But negotiating a funding round is still just that - a negotiation. Professional investors are well-aware of this and are strategic negotiators.
From the founder side, I see much less of the type of strategic negotiation thinking than I do on the investor side.

Curious if other agree or disagree.

Both technical folks and business folks both have value that exist on a slider, and their value increases with experience. Judge anyone you want to work with on what you think they can do now, how much / how fast they can grow, and how in sync with you they are.

Keeping that in mind, look for tangible skills that could help push the company forward. Experience in Design, Product Management, Marketing/Sales, or some other useful skill is great. Experience with running companies, recruiting, fundraising are all positives. Some ability to generate PR (through fame or connections) is a positive. If those were successful ventures, even better.

Here's two good posts on it:
- http://www.quora.com/Startup-Advice-Strategy/What-is-the-perfect-startup-team
- http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/13808/The-Magical-Founding-Team-Mix-For-Web-Startups.aspx

Totally agree. Plus, I find that hobbies & activities unrelated to my startup can actually help. I'm a big believer in lateral thinking, and one great way to practice lateral thinking is to shift your mind onto other, unrelated topics.

I was reading this article from the founder of Kayak earlier today:
http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/12604/Startup-Insights-From-Paul-English-Co-Founder-of-Kayak.aspx
and he mentioned something interesting. Despite being a travel startup, he avoids hiring people from the travel industry. I believe that's because he sees value in having people with different modes of thinking.

And in a way, that's kind of what a hobby does for you. It puts you into a different mode of thinking, which can come back and benefit your startup. :)

Just my $0.02.

I can tell you've got a ton of emotion behind this post. Hopefully writing it all down helped put it all into perspective.

Not getting YC funding is definitely not the end of the world. There are a ton of reasons why you might not have gotten funding, and many of them aren't really related to how great a hacker/startupper you might be.

There are plenty of folks around here who are going to press on despite the setback [2]. No matter what you do, you're going to run into roadblocks, and part of being successful is getting past them without losing heart. Don't give up now, and good luck in the future.

[1] http://onstartups.com/home/tabid/3339/bid/1350/Why-Not-All-Great-Hackepreneurs-Get-Picked-By-Y-Combinator.aspx

[2] http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=11551