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Tech Industry & Business

The most popular blog posts about tech industry & business on Hacker News. 371 posts.

2015
100

23andMe meets FDA standards, adds back wellness reports

23andMe made some news today, with the launch of a new experience for customers that includes the first and only direct-to-consumer genetic service that meets U.S. FDA standards. We invested nearly two years of work conducting extensive user testing, working with regulators, scientists, physicians, and top product…

102

Win for Fair Use in ‘Dancing Baby’ Lawsuit

San Francisco – A federal appeals court in San Francisco today affirmed that copyright holders must consider whether a use of material is fair before sending a takedown notice. The ruling came in Lenz v. Universal, often called the “dancing baby” lawsuit. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)...

103

YC Open-Source Sales Agreement

We’ve just open-sourced a sales agreement [http://www.ycombinator.com/documents/#sales]any company can use. Though obviously you should use this at your own risk, we’ve had a lot of experience with what makes good and bad sales agreements. Special thanks to Tyler Bosmeny, James Riley, and Carolynn and Jon Levy for all…

110

Cortana available on iOS and Android

Cortana was created to be a truly personal digital assistant – available on the go, no matter where or when you need help, and on whatever device you carry. That’s why it’s important to us that we bring Cortana to not only the Windows 10 ecosystem, but to other platforms. Today, we’re excited to announce

112

Kickstarter is Debt

Kickstarter, Indiegogo and other crowdfunding platforms are often misunderstood. It definitely isn’t investment: It’s debt. Hardware startups struggle to manage their cash. It’s common to pay for large expenses (like tooling and inventory) 9–12 months prior to selling your product. This is why pre-

114

Inside The Fine Art Factories of China

When Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo toiled for four years on his master work. Renoir spent six months painting Luncheon of the Boating Party—the painting featured in the film Amélie. Even Guernica, which Pablo Picasso painted quickly to publicize the…

115

Startup Metrics

We have the privilege of meeting with thousands of entrepreneurs every year, and in the course of those discussions are presented with all kinds of numbers, measures, and metrics that illustrate the promise and health of a particular company. Sometimes, however, the metrics may not be the best gauge of what’s actually…

119

YC Stats

We get asked (a lot) for statistics on the YC portfolio about valuation and fundraising. Although these are very imperfect indicators of success, here they are. All of these companies actually went through a YC batch and got their start with us (e.g. we do not include Quora). Also, the YC application for the next…

120

Why Facebook Failed Our Censorship Test

If you click around Facebook’s “Government Request Report,” you’ll notice that, for many countries, Facebook enumerates the number of “content restrictions” the company has fulfilled. This is a sanitized term for censorship. For example, Facebook restricted access to three items of content on its...