In March 2005, programmer-essayist Paul Graham gave a talk to the Harvard Computer Society on How to Start a Startup arguing that there should be more startups. Graham and his friends, of course, made millions (around $49 million) by selling their online store startup to Yahoo!
Graham decided he should do something more than talking and started a summer founders program with his cofounders so that “students, and particularly undergrads” could get funding for a summer project.
I was emailing with Paul at the time and he encouraged me to apply and maybe blog the experience so I quickly got together some friends (Simon and Sean) and we applied.
When it was announced they received 227 applications my partners were worried. ‘We’re doomed!’ they said. ‘It’s no problem,’ I explained. ‘By Sturgeon’s law, only 23 of the applications are any good and I know that a couple of those aren’t very good [this wasn’t really true], and one is ours [this makes no sense], so that leaves 20. They’re funding 10, so our chances are 50-50!’
Apparently I convinced everyone but myself for when the response came in the mail, my chest choked up and my heart started pounding. “Come see us,” it said. “[Y]our odds at this stage are now 50-50.” I told Simon. ‘Oh, good,’ he said. ‘I hope you know you’re going to be the one to go see them.’ I tried Sean. ‘Oh,’ he said. Oh? ‘Well, I just expected we’d win.’ (In Sean’s defense, he was ill at the time.)
So this weekend I fly to Cambridge, Mass. to convince them to accept us and look for an apartment. Today I got the contract we have to sign, so if any lawyers in the audience want to advise me about it, let me know. I, for one, am excited.
posted April 08, 2005 01:22 AM (Education) (3 comments) #