My partner and I will be launching our startup in a week or two. We will subsequently be moving to San Jose, CA on June 8th to pursue our venture full time. We will be staying at a great 4 bedroom single home in a fantastic area.<p>Our startup is small, just the two of us. So that means we will have two rooms to spare, rather than renting the rooms to some total (useless) strangers i would rather have two (useful) hackers stay.<p>I came up with an interesting solution. Why not let hackers stay for free as long as they provided some contribution to the house and our project. It would make for great environment, an environment of education,networking and most of all, fun. So if you think you would be interested in staying in the "hacker house" submit a short application to us via our e-mail. Include your Name,background,projects/demos,and what you would add to the house.<p>We would like for the interested YCers to be from the east coast or Midwest, people that normally wouldn't have the opportunity to move to bay area. A younger crown is preferred, i'm 22 and my partner is 23. For many reason, men only. You don't have to be a hacker, but it's strong recommended.<p>Please understand that there will no compensation besides room and board and possibly a community car(i'm not sure yet, i have to check with insurance company).food?ramen?. You will be responsible for all travel expenses. We will also have a crash couch for any hackers that are passing through. We simply ask that the guest write a blog post on our blog about themselves/company. I'm sure i'm forgetting a lot of info, but i'll be setting up a simple dedicated site just for the house soon.<p>Feel free to subscribe to my twitter feed for more info.http://twitter.com/cbomb
I just want to thank everyone for their positive feedback and all the great applicants. There's a lot of great talent and i'm sure we'll have no problem finding the right people. My only wish is that we have more room. I also wanted to take this time to respond to a couple comments.<p>why only girls you ask. I think this is a non-issue since most girls wouldn't want to live in a house full of "geeks", but in either case i believe it would cause for huge distraction and ultimately take away from what we are there to do, and that's build great companies. Don't get me wrong, the last thing i want is a sausage fest. Members/tenants are welcome to have guests of any sex.<p>You don't have to work on our startup solely. we actually would encourage you to have your own job and just moonlight with everyone else in the house on their respective projects. You can stay as long as you want or until the money runs out, which ever happens first. We have enough cash for a little less than a year.<p>Many of the applicants are relatively close to us (Philadelphia Area) so i will attempt to meet as many of you guys as possible in the coming months prior to the move.<p>I'll have a house blog up soon. I would like anyone that's currently working on a project and would like some coverage to send me a write up of their startup so that i can post it on the house blog. I find the idea of a community of hackers working to help each other really exciting, and i hope that more startups use similar methods.<p>Can anyone come up with name for the house. I need a domain name idea.
Don't forget to subscribe to my twitter feed for updates <a href="http://twitter.com/cbomb" rel="nofollow">http://twitter.com/cbomb</a>
That is a very cool idea. Unfortunately I can't apply.<p>I thought about another idea that would work for me though and might be fun and helpful for you.<p>I think you guys should also have a virtual guest hacker stay at the house. Setup some sort of video chat and the virtual guest hacker would hang out virtually and you could trade ideas and do the same type of hanging out except the shared pizza/ramen. I'd do the same type of selection process and maybe limit it to a day or a week. You might even get some famous hackers to hang out. You might consider targeting the profile of the guest hacker too. There are specific steps that need to be done along the path to success. Why not try to get the hacker of the week that has experience doing what your working on. It could also generate some buzz if you do it right.
Just to be a bit contrarian, while it sounds like a good idea, the dynamic of having "some people more equal" than others might be tricky. Having people pay their part, or at least a part, might actually make sense from that point of view.
hopefully we'll see more of this type of thing. wouldn't it be great if hacker news wound up getting some co-founders together that went on to be successful? PG mentions in several essays that college is the best place to find co-founders. Why not a social network that is exclusively for startup minded people?
This is an excellent idea - and I don't think you'll have trouble finding the kinda housemates you need. Personally, I'd be all over this if I didn't have a job over here, so good luck.
Now I'm just imagining what is essentially a hacker frat house. That would be sweet for some sort of incubator or whatnot to set up a 10-20 bedroom house in SJ or SV or somewhere and get like 5-7 startups to all work out of there. You could pay their living expenses +stipend and such in exchange for equity and they could get the benefit of living with a bunch of hackers. Eta Alpha Kappa!!
this brings up a point..<p>do we need a YC hacker housing feed? We are moving from the Midwest and are interested in meeting as many people out there as possible. I have been trying Roommates.com now for a while, but many people there are not as crazy into the start up experience as we are.<p>We are planing on renting a uHaul in the middle of May.
<a href="http://superhappydevhouse.org" rel="nofollow">http://superhappydevhouse.org</a> (not the same thing of course, but still useful for anyone that's interested)
If it weren't for my lack of confidence in being able to contribute in the hacker-sense (I've never been part of a huge project), I would say that I'd be glad to help. There's not much start-up wise going on in Sandusky, OH. I would be all over this idea if the post had stated: Looking for someone with some knowledge of programming and a strong background in finance.
This is interesting. I plan to move out to San Jose in mid-July to do FT at IBM. Would you mind sending me more info., namely where in San Jose you're located and what your project is all about?<p>adambossy [at] gmail [dot] com
Hey, I'm up in Toronto working on my startup and looking to launch in a week or two. I wanted to head down to San Jose to work on the launch, so the timing would be great for me. Look for my email.
hey i stay in San Jose downtown, right next to San Jose State University, I dont plan to stay with you guys, but i dont mind helping out with stuff, code and so on, get in touch when you move here!
This is a fantastic idea. I'm going to be in Seattle this Summer and am hoping to drive down to the Bay Area for a weekend. I'll send out an email if it all pans out.
That's awesome. I might just have to take you up on your offer for a couple of weeks between semesters if the offer is still open before or after summer.
thanks for opening your home to everyone, but no ownership in code at all? It will be exactly like working on a really early stage startup for no equity, but instead of being paid with money, one just gets room and board. I think you should openly say you're hiring, give some equity and say you won't get paid, but have room and board.
That is a very cool idea. Unfortunately I can't apply.<p>I thought about another idea that would work for me though and might be fun and helpful for you.<p>I think you guys should also have a virtual guest hacker stay at the house. Setup some sort of video chat and the virtual guest hacker would hang out virtually and you could trade ideas and do the same type of hanging out except the shared pizza/ramen. I'd do the same type of selection process and maybe limit it to a day or a week. You might even get some famous hackers to hang out. You might consider targeting the profile of the guest hacker too. There are specific steps that need to be done along the path to success. Why not try to get the hacker of the week that has experience doing what your working on. It could also generate some buzz if you do it right.