1
Top posts
Every blog post that took off on Hacker News, ranked by the votes of its best submission. 53 posts.
2
Building and Scaling a Startup on Rails: Things We Learned the Hard Way (by Posterous S08)
There are a bunch of basic functional elements to building out a popular Rails app that I've never really seen explained in one place, but we had to learn the hard way while building Posterous....
3
4
5
6
The “Interview” with Y Combinator That’s Not
So, in our last installment of the Y Combinator saga, we talked about applying. Since a handful of folks will be gearing up for their interviews shortly, it seems a fine time to move on to the next step in our journey.
7
8
On Applying to Y Combinator
I’ve decided to do a mini-series of sorts on our Y Combinator experience. Â Originally I was going to fold everything into one ginormus post, but I think it better to break it up and focus on different aspects.
9
The Dropbox iPhone App is Out
Modern work can be frustrating and chaotic—if you don’t have the right tools. From context engineering to multimodal search, go behind the scenes and hear how Dropbox engineers are building AI that actually understands you, so you can focus on the work that matters most.
10
11
Paul Graham interview on Econtalk - Start-ups, Innovation, and Creativity
Paul Graham, essayist, programmer and partner in the y-combinator talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about start-ups, innovation, and creativity. Graham draws on his experience as entrepreneur and investor to discuss the current state of the start-up world and how that world has changed due to improved technology…
12
13
14
15
It’s very easy to underprice your product
What’s the right price for your product? According to Steve Blank, it’s apparently $0. And it’s also $1 million. What? Listen to this wonderful story to learn how Steve uses these…
16
Sell it before you build it
Fliggo does it right: Fliggo Pro is a minimum viable product in action. MVPs reduce time to market. It’s a good sign when people sign up to be notified. And if nobody signs up, you build the …
17
Nobody told me it’s impossible, so I did it
I just read this great post on Derek Sivers’s blog: There’s no speed limit. (The lessons that changed my life.) You should go and read it right now because what Derek says is so inspirational and so true. There is no limit to what you can achieve if you are motivated and inspired. I want to tell you how I started…
18
Bug tracking isn't a network-effect business
Facebook sucks you in because everyone you know is using it. You go to eBay to find something because you know someone is selling what you want to buy. Oracle wins in the enterprise because there are tons of experts and plenty of auxiliary software available. All these business rely heavily on the …
19
20
Heroku: Why Instant Deployment Matters (YC W08)
How much better are two steps than three? Does it matter if something takes five minutes instead of twenty? When it comes to software deployment and...
21
Rules for Bootstrapped Web App Startups
Allan lists 10 things that every startup should value.
22
Matt Mullenweg's 12 Rules to Move from 1 User to 100k
Printer-Friendly Flyer One-Page Flyer (PDF) for your bulletin board. (Requires the free Adobe Acrobat Reader .)
23
24
Heroku: Commercial Launch (YC W08)
When Adam, Orion, and I started Heroku two years ago, we had no idea how much new technology we would have to build to realize our vision of an instant...
25
The natural evolution from side project to full-time business
Some have doubted our advice that you should hold on to your day job and start something on the side. They argue building a business requires such persistent effort that you need to devote all your time to it to do it right. And it’s true that building a business requires plenty of time an…
26
27
Balsamiq - A look back at 2008
News and announcements from your friends at Balsamiq.
28
Sometimes having nothing to lose can be a real advantage for a startup
espite being coastally challenged (currently living in Philadelphia), Josh has been an active entrepreneur and investor in the Internet industry since its commercialization. In 1992, while he was a student at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Josh co-founded Infonautics Corporation – an Internet…
29
30
