Sunday, September 21, 2014

UPDATED--Startups: "Y Combinator Releases Its Curriculum as a Stanford Class — And Online"

Updated with some of our earlier Paul Graham/YCombinator posts after the jump.
Original post:

I don't believe that entrepreneurial ability can be taught, there are just too many university level classes that haven't produced much.
And then there's Y Combinator.
From recode:
Especially in boom times, Stanford has a reputation for being a channel for ambitious young techies to plug themselves into Silicon Valley, sometimes in lieu of academics.

Now it’s coming true, literally. This fall, Stanford will offer a course in “How to Start a Startup,” taught by incumbent startup school headmaster Sam Altman, the president of Y Combinator. It’s officially “CS183B” and worth credit for Stanford students.

Ironically, Altman himself is a Stanford dropout, having founded a mobile location startup his freshman year.
The 1,000-minute course will also be made available online and will include appearances by well-known investors and entrepreneurs. Peter Thiel will give a lecture on monopoly theory, and Marc Andreessen and Ron Conway along with Ben Silbermann of Pinterest will talk about how to raise money. These are based on talks that the same speakers have made at Y Combinator class dinners over the years in Mountain View, Calif. They’ll be posted on Altman’s personal website as well as on iTunes and YouTube, rather than in one of the existing “MOOC” online education platforms....MORE
Some of our previous posts on Y Combinator:
YCombinator's Paul Graham on How to Get Rich
Milestone: The Value Of Y Combinator's Portfolio [Companies] Exceeds $30 Billion
Y Combinator: When Raising Money, How To Convince Investors
Y Combinator's Demo Day
Y Combinator's Paul; Graham: "How to Get Startup Ideas"
Attention Brainiacs: Y Combinator on What They're Funding Now (not yet a brainiac? become one in ten days)
YCombinator's Paul Graham on "Startup = Growth"
"The Aha! Moments That Made Paul Graham's Y Combinator Possible"
"Frighteningly Ambitious Startup Ideas"
Venture Capital: Behind the Scenes at Y Combinator
And many more. We do take Mr. Graham and his approach seriously.