nicholasdrake

7 ms·

1.
by nicholasdrake 11y ago
there were some great quotes in this interview from bill gates... 'And he [Lee Kuan Yew] was not only just thoughtful, just the very idea that he would take parts of the Western system and say 'Oh this part is good, this part may
2.
by nicholasdrake 11y ago
it is not just a function of companies moving after they are successful. just look at silicon valley where most of the best start-ups are founded. silicon valley is a classic global zero-sum game because the network effects are so strong...
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Competition risk and why VC investors are all wrong(lao8n.com)
2 points by nicholasdrake 11y ago|0 comments
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by nicholasdrake 11y ago
哇塞！
5.
by nicholasdrake 11y ago
http://lao8n.com/2015/04/05/if-technology-growth-does-lead-t... the flaw in your reasoning i think is that there will be zero-sum fight to have the limited number of companies in your country so that you can
6.
by nicholasdrake 11y ago
i think there's way too much group think in the Valley. it's carlota perez's overadaptation, overlearning the lessons of the recent past..
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by nicholasdrake 11y ago
haha u have hit the nail on the head re: our bad pr problem..usually people go for indentured servitude rather than all the way to slavery though haha... we think equity>debt for students because a) in bad times your debt is lower (% of
8.
by nicholasdrake 11y ago
i think that's why you can't have western governments investing in students, because they don't have any money.. in fact my friend and i have applied to this yc batch with our idea for a 'vc firm for people' where y
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by nicholasdrake 11y ago
someone should do this for apple/microsoft/general motors/general electric/xiaomi etc.
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by nicholasdrake 11y ago
yeah i managed to find some of his stuff on youtube... seems like it was pretty marginal idea with benefits being an aggregation of software streamlining of traditional lending + some career advice + job search functionality https:/&#
11.
by nicholasdrake 11y ago
thanks... very interesting. i'm going to try and figure out why they failed lol!
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by nicholasdrake 11y ago
it would be interesting to have two separate fantasy leagues. one just like this one . but another where investors get to see 2 minute videos with the founders just talking about themselves/their company... it would be itneresting to s
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by nicholasdrake 11y ago
ahhh so it's less fantasy football more stock exchange where value is determined collectively by the market, as opposed to externally e.g. with fantasy scores every week. i understand now. this could indirectly be a good way to reveal
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by nicholasdrake 11y ago
this is a really cool idea.. its also great intel on the yc batch companies haha! how do you track returns? how much money the companies raise? what the companies are valued at? isn't this dangerous because all angel investors includin
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Outsourcing coding – the end of programmer founders?
1 points by nicholasdrake 11y ago|0 comments
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by nicholasdrake 12y ago
the statistical term is sample selection bias. to test the importance of mentors you'd need to figure out some way to compare to groups of start-ups which are identical in every way except access to mentors... which i can't think
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by nicholasdrake 12y ago
thanks xander this is great feedback. hit me up on facebook if u get the chance ( https://www.facebook.com/DrakeNicholas ).. me and my friend actually spent 4hours last night completley redoing our application, answering the
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by nicholasdrake 12y ago
i'm similarly baffled... but this is what elon says 'I think it's worth noting that when somebody has a breakthrough innovation it is rarely one little thing. Very rarely is it one little thing. It's usually a whole bunc
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by nicholasdrake 12y ago
'What percentage of a launch vehicle (rocket to space) do you think is the cost of labour? It's about 80-90%! It's labour!' Peter Diamandis, X-Prize
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by nicholasdrake 12y ago
cool cool. yeah hn is great for a certain type of perspective on the world that it's hard to get elsewhere.. i suppose it's the hacker mentality lol well this is kinda random but my best friend and i are looking to apply to yc, ou
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by nicholasdrake 12y ago
yeah it's difficult to tell... the narrative from all the vcs is it's all about the team, pg even goes as far to say that if you choose good people even if they initially have a bad idea they'll pivot out of it... but given t
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by nicholasdrake 12y ago
a lot of top engineers are understandably going ot be risk-averse about taking low-salary for equity in a company that most likely will not work out... this however is not good for vc firms, because for their investments to work out they ne
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by nicholasdrake 12y ago
haha good point.. actually my friend and i are applying this summer batch of yc with an alternative to student debt financing of university... student equity.. from the student side it helps in 2 ways 1. taxes high income earners more, low
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by nicholasdrake 12y ago
i only did one essay module in my entire time at lse (psychology lol) and i hated having to learn all the references haha so no advice. how are you finding lse? it's funny how the most social place on campus is the library lol what bri
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by nicholasdrake 12y ago
thanks for the feedback. yeah there is a definitley a danger that human capital just gets interpreted as slavery... i studied econ at uni where human capital is kinda the positive buzz word, like invest in educating your workforce etc. etc.
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by nicholasdrake 12y ago
haha thanks. elon musk is one of my heroes http://nicholasdrake.svbtle.com/my-favourite-quotes these are some other great quotes from him (and others)
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by nicholasdrake 12y ago
thanks so much for all your great feedback. although we are open to new ideas (and potentially the idea of doing it in the us - ironically because we think the political/regulatory/legal environment is going to be more stable) we
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by nicholasdrake 12y ago
'Constantly seek criticism. A well thought out critique of whatever you're doing is as valuable as gold and you should seek that from everyone you can but particularly you're friends. Usually your friends know what's wro
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Please give feedback on our YC app(nicholasdrake.svbtle.com)
4 points by nicholasdrake 12y ago|5 comments
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by nicholasdrake 12y ago
why didn't u get a student loan?

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