Neat. Even better if there was a Hacker News Startup Challenge, similar to Rails Rumble, where instead of mere 48-hours, you work for 1-2 months and launch, then you get reviewed by a panel of judges. This would be much more interesting to me, I guess.
It would be awesome if the winner would get a free ticket to fly to the Valley and join the current YCombinator class for one of their famous dinners, and get to present.
At the review part right now. That's absolutely right. Why bother doing projects like this when there's nothing stopping you from playing the game for real.
There's nothing more valuable than going from A -> D (open for sales) and then realizing you have no fucking idea how to get to E. Excuse my language.
This would be really interesting, especially for those of us who are struggling to meet that special someone (i.e. a co-founder). For me at least, I think being part of a competition and having external interest to keep motivation up would be helpful.
Literally, if you don't like something, fix it. Just do it yourself. Don't cry on HN that something needs to be done. To me, that's a tell-tale sign of entrepreneurs.
"Don't cry on HN that something needs to be done."
I read nothing in that comment that sounded like crying.
As to your first suggestion about the Co-Founder-Wanted-Meetup: Am I such a cheapskate that $65 in advance/ $125 at the door to attend a meetup sounds a bit steep? Perhaps I can't see the forest for the trees and the opportunity cost of missing a meetup like this is way greater than the attendance fee. So for anyone who has attended this meetup, is it worth the fee?
Sorry, you confused the regular co-founders meetup (price between $6 and $10 to get in), with the founder conference, a once-a-year event. Different size, different price.
The crying part: I was trying to anticipate the reaction of "but there is no such meetup where I live". Just do it.
That's a really cool idea. I'm not sure how many people would be available to participate though. Rails Rumble works partly in that no one expects anything that great from a weekend and a lot more people can make a weekend worth of time.
If I was starting a startup right now it'd be silly for me to wait a month for the "Startup Rumble" and I wouldn't want to cheat and get a headstart.
i just thought about this and wah here you've posted it.
why not make a spreadsheet with each one's name and start date (may vary depending on our schedules)?
We can log our names and our app urls whenever it's done and we'll collaboratively set a final date. We'll then have people review our submissions.
Agree with the time period. 1-2 months is great. 48 days? Just to match railsrumble's 48hrs :)
The spreadsheet can be used to log our progress too. So if anyone finishes fast and and some other app is on the same track offering data which another app needs, then they can collaborate and release their data via APIs etc. Would be a great hackmonth :)
It would be awesome if the winner would get a free ticket to fly to the Valley and join the current YCombinator class for one of their famous dinners, and get to present.
Wishful thinking, maybe.