I
was asked to guest post again by Sarah Lacy on her blog, this time about the Y Combinator and their Demo Day for summer 2008. She knew that I liked what they did because of this tweet last week. So off I went to cover the semi-annual event and produced a post called “American Startup”. I tried to be as fair and honest as possible but it still generated a firestorm of controversy not only in the comments area on SarahLacy.com but also on TechCrunch because Michael Arrington published this post, “I Don’t Understand Y Combinator Hate”
Talk about a horrible way to start the week! I’ve never experienced so much anger and negative criticisms before so it was a shock to the system. I didn’t know what to do or how to react. I read what I wrote again very carefully and read all the comments again and still didn’t understand how it was all so misunderstood. I did take note of a couple of statistics that weren’t accurate or up to date such as the percentage that the startups give up. I stated that it could be as much as 10% but I was told that the more factual figure was 2 to 10 % so I edited the post and changed that stat.
I did the same for the number of startups they’ve funded from 80 to 100. Again, not a major rewrite or anything like that, just a couple of factual changes to be more accurate. Obviously, I got permission to make the changes from Sarah Lacy herself who agreed that it made sense to do so.
I was feeling down in the dumps from all this until I decided to take a look at the comments on TechCrunch’s site. Why would I do such a thing? Perhaps I’m a glutton for punishment? In any event, I was so happy that I did because I was surprised to see so many positive comments. My favorite comment was this one:
Eventually, I received an email from someone at YCombinator and we had a civil discussion thru a series of cordial emails and I believe we came to a satisfactory conclusion. I learned a valuable lesson thru this experience. I need to remember to double-check every fact and figure and statistic before publishing any article. I also need to make sure that the tone and style of the piece cannot be misunderstood as it was with this one. What was supposed to be a tongue in cheek attempt at being cute and clever with my American Idol analogy backfired big time. Still, in the end, I wouldn’t have it any other way. It truly has taught me a valuable lesson that will help me the rest of my writing career.
This is a test. http://ow.ly/3NK
@jaxxo This is a test. This tweet is now supposed to be translated into English by a human translator.
This is a test. (74)
Health Care Law Slides: Bob Coffield?s slide set, Consumer Driven Health Care: The Impact of Social Media .. This is a test.
This is a test.
#news : Pakistan arrests more than 100 suspected in terrorist act This is a test.
via @sundocs: This is a test. Anyone out there?
When I go to zi.ma I get “This is a test.” Anyone else? Is it busted? I knew it was a girly drink.
RT: Live: Test: This is a test. Real posts to follow. http://tinyurl.com/8yxav6 http://tinyurl.com/9dp9wx
Live: Test: This is a test. Real posts to follow. http://tinyurl.com/8yxav6
I asked “This is a test…” at http://tinyurl.com/892j7b
This is a test. This is only a test. http://gpstwit.com/l8e
This is a test. This is only a test. http://gpstwit.com/l85
This is a test.
Hi. This is a test.
This is a test.
This is a test. http://twitpic.com/14q0q
This is a test. We’d like to use this to put updates on our church website…quickly and easily.
This is a test. http://twitpic.com/15xrv
just “unprotected” my updates on twitter, is that a good strategy or not. This is a test.
This is a test…. http://twitpic.com/15uti
This is a test. Please ignore.
This is a test. ZOMG working c/p on the iPhone. Has some issues, but really slick. LiveTime is also really
“This is a test.”
Post Everywhere : This is a test.
Testing posting:
This is a test… if this is public… please ignore 🙂 Hmmm… does this photo end up with a.. http://tinyurl.com/by74b2
This is a test.
This is a test.
This is a test.
@atomicninja This is a test.
This is a test. A what?
Why won’t my phone receive twitter updates? This is infuriating. Also. Ignore this. This is a test.
I think I’ve fixed friendfeed. This is a test…. http://ff.im/Q3i2
I think I’ve fixed friendfeed. This is a test….
This is a test… Only a test, if this was a real emergancy I wouldn’t be on my phone… DUH!
This is a test.
This is a test. @fionakellydesign said nothing, but I just want to see what happens when I quote her with the @ thing.
This is a test.
This is a test.
This is a test.
This is a test. I’m new to Twitter and trying to figure things out. Please ignore. I apologize in advance. Thank you
This is a test.
This is a test. http://ow.ly/3NK
@jaxxo This is a test. This tweet is now supposed to be translated into English by a human translator.
This is a test. (74)
Health Care Law Slides: Bob Coffield?s slide set, Consumer Driven Health Care: The Impact of Social Media .. This is a test.
This is a test.
#news : Pakistan arrests more than 100 suspected in terrorist act This is a test.
via @sundocs: This is a test. Anyone out there?
When I go to zi.ma I get “This is a test.” Anyone else? Is it busted? I knew it was a girly drink.