Atom-Thick Material Shows Electronic Promise

Molybdenite, a mineral that's currently used as a lubricant, turns out to have extraordinary electronic properties when deposited in single-atom-thick strips. Researchers in Switzerland have now made high-performance transistors out of this form of molybdenite. Used in this way, the mineral could hold promise for more efficient flexible solar cells, electronics, or high-performance digital microprocessors.

Like graphene, an atom-thick form of carbon, "two-dimensional" molybdenite has electrical and optical properties that are much better than those found in three-dimensional forms of the material.

Researchers led by Andras Kis at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) made molybdenite transistors using methods used in the early days of graphene research. Molybdenite, a relatively inexpensive mineral of molybdenum disulfide, has a layered structure similar to that of raw graphite. Kis's group crushed crystals of molybdenite between folded pieces of tape, peeling back layer after layer until all that remained were single-atom-thick sheets. They then deposited the molybdenite sheets onto a substrate, added a layer of insulating material, and used standard lithography to add source and drain electrodes and a gate to make a transistor. Other researchers had done this before but didn't get good performance. Kis says the molybdenite transistors have a comparable electrical mobility to similar ones made from graphene nanoribbons.

After Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov demonstrated the promise of graphene in 2004?a feat that won them the Nobel Prize in 2010?there was a burst of interest in making and testing other two-dimensional materials. But graphene was considered more promising than anything else, and other materials came to be seen as curiosities, says James Hone, professor of mechanical engineering at Columbia University. Hone was part of a group that demonstrated that graphene is the strongest material ever tested. Hone, who is not affiliated with the EPFL researchers, expects their results to generate new interest in other two-dimensional materials, and molybdenite in particular. "This is a very promising result that will make us look at this material more carefully and see how we can squeeze better performance out of it," he says.

Importantly, molybdenite is a semiconductor, which means it provides discrete energy levels for electrons to jump through?a property known as its bandgap. This is key for any material used in a digital transistor. Graphene does not have a bandgap, and to give it one, researchers must layer it or cut it into ribbons, which is complex and can lead to the degradation of graphene's other properties. "You have to work very hard to open up a bandgap in graphene," says James Tour, professor of chemistry and computer science at Rice University.

Graphene was originally seen as a material that could replace silicon in digital logic circuits, the type at the heart of today's microprocessors. But because it's so hard to make it into a semiconductor, it's becoming clear that graphene's promise lies elsewhere, for example in superfast analog circuits, the type used for telecommunications and radar, says Phaedon Avouris, who leads the IBM group developing graphene electronics. Molybdenite's bandgap is particularly promising for solar cells, LEDs, and other electro-optical devices.

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Making Bad Search Results History

Search engines could soon make better use of your search history to fine-tune the results you see.

In two new papers being presented at this week's Fourth ACM International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining, researchers from Microsoft offer novel ways for search engines to offer personalized results.

Personalization promises to help search engines deliver results that are more likely to be clicked. Someone who searches for recipes a lot, for example, might want to see results for the term "apple" that are different from the results expected by a fan of Mac computers.

Search engines already use certain clues, such as a person's geographical location or whether she is searching on a phone or PC, to offer more personalized results. Google goes a step further by mining a person's past searches, if they have enabled a feature called Web History; and Bing is experimenting with using data collected via a user's Facebook account to improve search results.

But personalized search is far from perfect. For one thing, trying to predict too much can make search results overly narrow?only returning pages relevant to recipes, for example. And many users are hostile to the idea of search engines using their search history. The new research suggests ways for search engines to experiment with more personalization without skewing results or alienating users.

Jaime Teevan, a researcher at Microsoft, says search engines could start by using personalization to direct users to sites they've visited before. It turns out that more than 25 percent of all search queries aren't about discovering new information at all?they're meant to navigate to information and websites that people have already visited.

"Nobody bookmarks," Teevan says. Instead, many people use search queries to find sites they've already seen. Teevan has been working on an algorithm that can determine when someone is using a search engine for this purpose.  The algorithm, developed by Teevan and colleagues Daniel Liebling and Gayathri Geetha, can predict which search result a user will choose for about a sixth of the queries that a search engine receives.

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Under Banner of Fiscal Restraint, Republicans Plan New Abortion Bills

Invoking the mantra of fiscal restraint that has dominated House action since lawmakers reconvened last month, Republicans began committee work this week on two bills that would greatly expand restrictions on financing for and access to abortions. Another bill, one that would cut off federal dollars to women?s health care clinics that offer abortions, is expected to surface later this year.

?This House is more pro-life than it?s ever been,? said Representative Joe Pitts, Republican of Pennsylvania and the author of one of the bills to limit money for abortions.

Democrats in both the House and Senate immediately fought back Tuesday, working closely with reproductive rights advocates. They have appropriated the Republican charge from last year that Democrats were working on a liberal policy agenda instead of on job creation and the economy, and turned it on its head.

?This election was about the economy,? said Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, who joined with other Democratic senators Tuesday to decry the House bills Tuesday as needless and intrusive.

Over and over, Democrats said that by bringing up the abortion issue now, Republicans were going back on their word to focus on the budget.

Yet the bills that have surfaced on the House floor this year have been fiscal in nature, including the repeal of the health care law, which was later rejected by the Senate, and some measures designed to cut spending.

?Republicans are focused on creating a better environment for economic growth and job creation,? said Kevin Smith, a spokesman for Speaker John A. Boehner, ?and that is reflected in the legislation the House is passing,?

Still, Republicans in the House are clearly energized about using their new majority to reopen debate on an important issue for conservatives, especially in the context of the health care overhaul.

On Tuesday, Representative Eric Cantor, the Republican majority leader, described the new measures as ?obviously very important in terms of the priorities we set out initially in our pledge to America.?

He indicated that he expected the first version of a House bill to finance the government through the rest of the year to bar spending to carry out the health care law. That provision is likely to also be attacked by the Senate and the Obama administration.

One bill, the ?No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,? would eliminate tax breaks for private employers who provide health coverage if their plans offer abortion services, and would forbid women who use a flexible spending plan to use pre-tax dollars for abortions. Those restrictions would go well beyond current law prohibiting the use of federal money for abortion services.

The bill, sponsored by Representative Christopher H. Smith, Republican of New Jersey, has drawn fire over language that undercuts a longstanding exemption on the ban on using federal money for abortions in the case of rape or incest; the measure narrows the definition of rape to ?forcible rape,? a term that his office has never defined. Democratic lawmakers and others repeatedly hammered on the term, saying it suggested that victims of statutory rape and other crimes could not get abortions paid for with federal money.

While Mr. Smith?s staff said last week that the term "forcible rape" would be removed from the bill, the staff of RepresentativeJerrold Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, said that language remained intact as of Tuesday.

Another bill, sponsored by Mr. Pitts, addresses the health care overhaul head-on by prohibiting Americans who receive insurance through state exchanges from purchasing abortion coverage, even with their own money. The bill is essentially a resurrection of a provision in the House version of the health care law but was not in the Senate version.

The bill would also permit hospitals to refuse abortions to women, even in emergency situations, if such care would offend the conscience of the health care providers.

?Both bills are designed to drive coverage for abortion out of health insurance plans, period,? said Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights.

The bills drew immediate fire from House and Senate Democrats. ?We are sending a clear message to House Republicans that their agenda on women?s health is extreme,? Senator Barbara Boxer of California said at a news conference. ?It breaks faith with a decades-long bipartisan compromise, and it risks the health and lives of women. It also punishes women and businesses with a tax hike if they wish to keep or buy insurance that covers a full range of reproductive health care.?

Senator Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey, another Democrat who joined the news conference, compared the proposals to ?a Third World country that?s requiring women to wear head shawls to cover their faces even if they don?t want to do it.?

As Mr. Smith?s bill provoked a spirited back and forth at a hearing of a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, it also drew praise from some outside supporters.

?The federal government should not use tax dollars to support or promote elective abortion,? Richard Doerflinger, associate director of the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a news release.

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Making Bad Search Results History

Search engines could soon make better use of your search history to fine-tune the results you see.

In two new papers being presented at this week's Fourth ACM International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining, researchers from Microsoft offer novel ways for search engines to offer personalized results.

Personalization promises to help search engines deliver results that are more likely to be clicked. Someone who searches for recipes a lot, for example, might want to see results for the term "apple" that are different from the results expected by a fan of Mac computers.

Search engines already use certain clues, such as a person's geographical location or whether she is searching on a phone or PC, to offer more personalized results. Google goes a step further by mining a person's past searches, if they have enabled a feature called Web History; and Bing is experimenting with using data collected via a user's Facebook account to improve search results.

But personalized search is far from perfect. For one thing, trying to predict too much can make search results overly narrow?only returning pages relevant to recipes, for example. And many users are hostile to the idea of search engines using their search history. The new research suggests ways for search engines to experiment with more personalization without skewing results or alienating users.

Jaime Teevan, a researcher at Microsoft, says search engines could start by using personalization to direct users to sites they've visited before. It turns out that more than 25 percent of all search queries aren't about discovering new information at all?they're meant to navigate to information and websites that people have already visited.

"Nobody bookmarks," Teevan says. Instead, many people use search queries to find sites they've already seen. Teevan has been working on an algorithm that can determine when someone is using a search engine for this purpose.  The algorithm, developed by Teevan and colleagues Daniel Liebling and Gayathri Geetha, can predict which search result a user will choose for about a sixth of the queries that a search engine receives.

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UK Internet TV service YouView confirms delays, will launch ?early 2012?

UK Internet TV service YouView confirms delays, will launch ?early 2012?

YouView, the UK?s next generation TV service, has announced that it will delay the launch of its internet TV service until 2012, confirming rumours that its launch would be knocked back by more than a year.

The service, originally known as ?Project Canvas?, was officially announced in September 2010 and was billed as a platform that could sit between existing cable services and new internet-connected platforms like Google TV.

Offering a programme guide that went ?back in time?, YouView says that users would be able to watch catch-up TV services including BBC iPlayer, giving developers the opportunity to build their own apps to provide extra functionality at the same time.

YouView will now roll out a product trial at the end of this year, planning a full consumer launch for early 2012, also announcing that it would soon publish its core technical specifications for launch, providing the standards on which developers and broadcasters can work on.

Richard Halton, CEO, YouView said:

?Our focus has always been to deliver a product to consumers that is right, but not rushed. Creating a truly open TV platform that will bring consumers increased choice has required significant technological innovation. Our timings for the launch reflect the scale and complexity of this project.?

The delay could help YouView in the long-run; by the time it launches internet-connected TV devices could claim a fair share of the market, meaning that when YouView launches, consumers will be aware of what the technology can offer.

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Facebook CEO gets restraining order against stalker

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has obtained a restraining order against 31-year-old Pradeep Manukonda. Zuckerberg filed legal papers claiming Manukonda tried to follow and contact him, his sister, and his girlfriend using threatening language. Manukonda visited several Facebook offices in Palo Alto attempting to ask Zuckerberg for financial aid for his family, and security even intercepted Manukonda at Zuckerberg's home on January 24, 2011 just as he was about to walk up the front steps, according to TMZ.

Manukonda received a verbal warning from cops, but Zuckerberg claims he has continued to try to contact him. These communications include at least one Facebook message on December 22, 2010 and one hand-written letter on January 28, 2011. The judge has decided Manukonda must stay at least 300 yards away from Zuckerberg, his sister Randi, and his girlfriend Priscilla Chan. The orders may change after a hearing later this month.

After receiving the restraining order, Manukonda has claimed he never meant to scare Zuckerberg, feels terrible about the whole situation, and promises to never bother the Facebook CEO again. Here's what he told TMZ:

"I'm a peaceful guy ... I'm sorry he thought I was trying to harm him." Pradeep says he was dealing with a major personal problem -- and "I thought Mark would be able to give me advice." Pradeep wouldn't disclose the nature of his problem, but insists it had nothing to do with computers. Pradeep continues, "I understand he's a busy man ... I'll respect his privacy."

Remember, Facebook stalking can be harmful or harmless, but in the real world, stalking is just stalking.

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Break the ice with TableTopics for your iOS device

Break the ice with TableTopics for your iOS device

We used to play games like Charades or Pictionary to break the ice during parties. As technology changes, though, so do our options for such activities. TableTopics has been around for quite some time in the cards format that sat around waiting for you to use it. If you want to take things tech (and you?re reading TNW, so you probably do) then you need to check out TableTopcs Mobile.

The app comes in two flavors: one for the iPhone and another for the iPad. Downloading and running it, you?re taken to a main screen that displays choices between topics sets. The apps come with a Starter set and a Happy Hour set. Each of these has 60 questions along the lines of this:

What nicknames have you bee called?

That?s the biggest risk you have taken recently?

Want more topics? You can buy them for $1.99 each. There are 4 others available, from Gourmet to Go Green. While we?re not real thrilled about the pricing, the app is still very clean and done very well. There are two game modes ? Original displays the cards as a single stack and Chance will show you 6 from which you can choose. You can edit the stacks, as well, removing questions that you don?t like or adding questions of your own.

Overall, it?s worth the price, but just barely. We?d love to see the present prices dropped by a dollar to really make it a great value. Want to give it a try? You can. Download it for the iPhone or iPad and let us know the questions you?d add in the comments below.

About the Author

Brad is a music and tech junkie who calls Nashville home. While he writes across many channels on The Next Web, he has a particular interest in startups located in the Southern US. Find him on Twitter @BradMcCarty.

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iPhone Review: Dead Space

It?s startling what?s possible with technology these days. A few decades ago Pong! was the pinnacle of interactive entertainment, and digital watches were the height of fashion. Nowadays, games such as Dead Space for iPhone offer console-like experiences on pocket-sized devices. Meanwhile, I?m wearing a wind-up watch, so maybe not everything progresses equally.

The term ?console-like experience? is one that gets bandied about a lot on the AppStore, with the likes of the simplistic-but-stylish Infinity Blade making an especially big deal about it. To us, though, the iPhone version of Dead Space is the first title that really lives up to that claim, matching great graphics with decent complexity.

Casting players as a new character in the Dead Space universe, codenamed Vandal, Dead Space for iPhone bridges the game between the 2008 series debut and the more recent sequel. Acting as a secret agent for the church of Unitology, Vandal is manipulated in the opening chapters in order to contribute to the disaster that forms Dead Space 2?s backdrop.


In an effort to escape and repent, Vandal faces off against the now-familiar cast of alien mutants using a semi-familiar arsenal of weapons, plus two all-new additions ? the core extractor and the plasma saw. As with the iPhone version's bigger brother's enemies, you?ll need to blow the limbs off the enemy Necromorphs in order to kill them quickly ? something that?s very impressive to see on a platform as diminutive as the iPhone.

The dissection also makes Dead Space on the iPhone an incredibly gory affair too, possibly more so than any other iPhone game we?ve yet seen. Blowing Necromorphs apart yields a lot of blood and guts, spattering more icky-ness across gross and dark levels ? levels which are stunningly large and detailed too.

It?s not just a matter of running and gunning, however. The iPhone version also features small tactical and RPG choices, just like the console and PC releases. Ammo and health packs are limited resources, which you?ll have to conserve and utilise carefully, although it?s worth mentioning that the iPhone game limits these more stingily than the ?full? game. This is because the iPhone version features micro-transactions, meaning that players are charged extra for weapon upgrades and extra power nodes.


Purchasing these upgrades is optional and it?s possible to complete the game without them, but it?s certainly disappointing to know you might miss some game content without them, especially when Dead Space is far from free to start with.

Despite this one significant shortcoming, however, Dead Space on the iPhone remains an incredibly polished and good looking title. The controls are superb too; the left side of the screen controls movement, while the right pans the camera, and tapping various hot spots lets you use your Stasis ability.

Verdict: While we don?t approve of the micro-transactions that have been cynically forced on to an already premium pp, we can?t deny that Dead Space for the iPhone is a great game, which offers a truly console-like experience.

Dead Space is developed by Electronic Arts and is available for iDevices via the AppStore.

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Obama Presses Business Leaders to Hire and Invest

?If there is a reason you don?t believe that this is the time to get off the sidelines ? to hire and invest ? I want to know about it. I want to fix it,? Mr. Obama said in a speech to business leaders at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

In the speech, Mr. Obama pledged to eliminate unneeded regulations and simplify the tax code, but said companies had responsibilities to help the economy recover.

?Ultimately, winning the future is not just about what the government can do to help you succeed,? he said. ?It?s about what you can do to help America succeed.?

The president?s comments came as he sought to reassure members of the business community that he was not their adversary and to mend fences with their forceful lobbying advocate in Washington.

?I?m here in the interest of being more neighborly,? Mr. Obama said, alluding to the contentious relationship he has had with the Chamber of Commerce over the past two years. ?I strolled over from across the street, and, look, maybe if we had brought over a fruitcake when I first moved in, we would have gotten off to a better start. But I?m going to make up for it.?

The chamber has fiercely opposed most of Mr. Obama?s health care and banking agenda and spent more than $50 million during last year?s midterm elections to cast the president and his party as anti-business and a threat to capitalism.

But the chamber, too, is eager to tone down the rhetoric, according to senior officials there. At the height of the high-profile fight with the White House, several big-name companies left its board, citing concern about the chamber?s opposition to the administration?s efforts.

Thomas J. Donohue, the Chamber of Commerce?s president, has in the past warned of a ?regulatory tsunami? that will result from Mr. Obama?s policies. In particular, he told reporters after the November elections last year that the health care law would produce hundreds of new burdens on American businesses.

But in introducing Mr. Obama, Mr. Donohue emphasized his group?s desire to work with the administration in areas where they might agree. Those include increasing free trade and exports, investing in technology and infrastructure and reducing the nation?s debt.

?I reaffirm the American business community?s absolute commitment to working with you and your administration to advancing our shared priorities,? Mr. Donohue said.

Mr. Obama?s remarks reflected the careful effort of a White House eager to seem more pro-business but anxious about the accusations of betrayal by some of the Democratic president?s most liberal allies.

The president?s basic message to the business community ? ?I get it,? he said of the profit-making imperative ? was joined with an admonition that corporate America must feel some sense of duty as well. That effort to walk a political line appeared to please neither side completely on Monday.

Mr. Obama?s suggestion that businesses can help the economy recover by spending their reserves was met with skepticism by some in the audience. Harold Jackson, a executive at Buffalo Supply Inc., a medical supply company, called it naïve.

?Any business person has to look at the demand to their company for their product and services, and make hiring decisions,? Mr. Jackson said. ?I think it?s a little outside the bounds to suggest that if we hire people we don?t need, there will be more demand.?

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader in the Senate, said in remarks Monday that ?we?ll just have to wait and see whether the administration?s actions support its rhetoric.? Mr. McConnell urged Mr. Obama to prove his intentions to help the business community by doing more to push free trade agreements with Colombia and Panama.

At the same time, Mr. Obama?s decision to address the chamber in the first place has upset liberal groups, who say the president is consorting with the very forces they believe have worked to undercut his policies.

Public Citizen, a liberal group in Washington, issued a statement condemning the president?s comment that he would ?go anywhere? in the world to promote trade, a line that prompted one of the few moments of applause from the crowd of business leaders.

?It?s unclear what is more mortifying: President Barack Obama choosing the club of America?s notorious job-offshorers to talk about the importance of creating American jobs, or his rallying of his fiercest political opponents to help him overcome the majority of Americans who oppose more-of-the-same job-killing trade agreements,? said Lori Wallach, the director of Public Citizen?s Global Trade Watch.

Erica Payne, the founder of the Agenda Project, a liberal organization in New York, said: ?Two weeks ago, the president promised that he would work to rebuild people?s faith in government. Meeting with the biggest lobbyists in the country is hardly a step in the right direction.?

In an interview after Mr. Obama?s speech, Ms. Payne said the president?s speech had ?many words, little content.?

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Y Combinator Partner Harjeet Taggar Gives His Insights [Interview]

Y Combinator Partner Harjeet Taggar Gives His Insights [Interview]

Last week I had the chance to talk with Harjeet Taggar who previously founded Auctomatic and is now a Partner at Y Combinator (YC). This is his first in-depth interview since he joined.  Part One of this interview was posted yesterday and it was to do with Start Fund. This post contains the rest of our conversation.

Part Two: Harjeet Taggar and Y Combinator

After selling his first startup, Auctomatic for $5 million at the age of 22 it was expected that Taggar would start his next company. However, instead he decided to join YC as a Partner. I asked him why he chose that path.

?It happened randomly. I did YC myself in 2007 and sold the company in 2008. I spent a year with the acquiring company but it didn?t go as well as I had hoped. I left after a year and I prepared myself to do another startup. At the end of 2009 I met up with PG [Paul Graham, often called PG] and Jessica [Jessica Livingston] briefly, telling them what I was planning to do. Then I went back to England to spend some time with my family/friends and think about new startup ideas. A few days before the start of the new year I got an email from PG [Paul Graham]. The email said that YC was growing, they were in the process of raising a new fund and it felt like PG and Jessica were reaching full capacity with how much they could do themselves.

?In terms of full-time people at YC it was just Jessica and Paul. Robert Morris and Trevor Blackwell were involved in a part-time basis. PG advised all the startups himself and he felt that he was reaching the limit of how many he could do alone. They [YC] were looking to get someone to help. I was uncertain and semi reluctant because all I?d been thinking about was doing my next startup. PG suggested I come back out to the Valley and talk about it some more.

?I wanted to have a closer look because it did seem like an interesting opportunity. I came back to Mountain View and hung around the first YC dinner. I spoke to PG in-depth and I saw that YC was very different to how I remembered it being in 2007. There were more founders and the quality of the teams was just phenomenal.  The atmosphere at the dinner was incredible, I hadn?t been around such anticipation and excitement for a while. There was clearly something very interesting happening at YC. So I said yes to joining without completely knowing what to expect .?

I pressed Taggar further into how he could give up on starting his own company, especially since that is what he had his heart set on. I wanted more of a reason than anticipation and excitement.

?This is something I learnt from my time at Livecurrent, the company that acquired us. It?s really important who you surround yourself with. This may sound harsh, and I do not want to be harsh but surrounding yourself with unambitious or mediocre people severely restricts how much you can learn and grow. Basically I didn?t know for sure if it was the right decision to join YC rather than doing another startup but I knew being around PG would inevitably lead to interesting things happening. PG has probably had the biggest influence on my life / career so far, his essays convinced us to relocate from England to the Valley and the chance to work with him was the deciding factor. I figured I have plenty of time to do another startup but I didn?t know if I would get another chance to work with PG on something as interesting as YC . I sensed it was an opportunity that would not present itself again and I had to take it.?

I then asked Taggar what being a Partner entailed, because it?s a pretty awesome title, but what did it mean?

?Some people seem to think that YC is a part-time gig for me where I do one hour here and another hour there. Actually the role is really intense. Not only do we fund startups, but we give a number of reasons why we are different from other investors, like our advice and really being involved with the startups. So the founders are entitled to then expect that help from us. Advising and taking care of 45 companies, that?s about 110 founders, 110 people constantly wanting your time and help, is very intense.  Just replying all of their emails is heavily time-consuming?

Taggar then went on to explain what his day-to-day work involves.

?Day-to-day my time is split between office hours with the startups, which I usually hold two to three, or if there is enough demand more, times a week. The office hours are when I and the other partners set aside time, to speak with startups. We set aside hours or days, then the startups book slots, each slot is about 25 minutes, but inevitably they usually overrun. In those sessions, they [founders] come and talk to us about whatever issues they are facing or questions they have.

?Some of the new startups are trying to figure out what to do and we talk about ideas that may be suitable for them to pursue. We often focus on product feedback and the UI [user interface] and help decide when a product is ready to launch. We also often talk about different user acquisition strategies. Once the founders are ready we talk about fundraising. Office hours is the type of stuff I enjoy the most, because I have direct interactions with the startups and talk about interesting things.  I learn a lot from them.

?When not doing that, I spend time meeting people who would be beneficial for the startups. Last year I spent a lot of time meeting with investors who wanted to invest in YC companies. Which was pretty useful, some companies from the last batch eventually got funded by investors that I had found, introduced and matched them up with. This proactive approach is something that YC hadn?t done before, because there wasn?t enough man power.

?The rest of the time we are trying to leverage the YC brand for startups. For example getting discounts/ deals/partnerships with companies that they [the founders] wouldn?t be able to directly approach themselves. I?m the only one at YC that does this. How I assist each startup is not preplanned, it?s pretty organic. For example a startup says to me, I wish we had some AWS credits or I notice that most of them are using Github. So I went and spoke to Amazon and Github, now all startups have access to AWS and Github credits.

?Another recent relationship I helped build would be with Facebook. YC companies now get access to instant personalization and preferential support. Same thing with Twitter, they [YC companies] get direct support and access to the API.?

?Then there?s also twice a year when I lock myself in my bedroom (also my office) for a few weeks and read YC applications. That?s probably the toughest part of YC, it?s incredibly tiring work.?

Taggar has been involved with 4 YC batches. I wanted to know what he has seen change since he joined. He told me that the most significant thing that changed was how much the power balance was shifting towards the favor of founders, in particular the relationship with investors.

?There is so much angel activity going on, and so many people determined to try to find good startups to invest in. The founders have lots of leverage. I remember when we did YC [in 2007], there was a select few angels that you really wanted to raise money from and those angels probably had their pick of the best deals. You felt lucky if they wanted to invest in your company. Now for the first time founders are more discerning, they are not prepared to take on investors at face value. They [founders] do not focus on the brand values of the investors or blindly accept the line ?access to my rolodex?. Now founders are thinking, this guy seems like a big deal but what can he actually do to help my company??

Founders are becoming more powerful, which is great for the future success of their company. But what are the trends he has seen since he joined that successful founders display? Taggar responded with the famous one liner, ?There only really is one reason, determination.?. This subject area really interests me, and Taggar has exceptional insight, so I pushed him further and he gave me this little gem:

?After a few months of being at YC, PG asked me what has surprised you the most so far? And I replied that every company is, in some way, screwed. By that I mean every company presents a happy face when internally there are a whole host of things that they are worried about, like worrying if they are even going to be around next week. When I was doing YC, I used to think it was just us who was broken and everyone else was doing really well, which was actually kind of depressing.

?Now I realize that every startup, no matter how seemingly good, is in the same boat, like constantly a meter away from dying. If you think you are in a bad situation I bet you could find someone who would happily trade your problems for theirs. Which I think is powerful knowledge because if you look at things that way, no matter how bad things seem, it could always be worse so you should keep going.

?The startups that take off are the ones that continue to keep going, that is the difference between success and failure. Often people don?t start a company because they think they are not good enough, I have yet to see a company fail because the founders were truly incompetent or not good enough to do one. Yes we have a filtering process, but no founder is perfect, every founder and every company has their flaws but the ones that succeed are the ones that keep going. Like PG says, the way to win is to not die.?

I then asked Taggar to tell me from his observations what the common factors were that lead to companies failing and not the obvious reasons. Taggar said this question was hard for him to answer but did go on to answer.

?At our stage companies fail because they give up or the founders don?t get along, but that?s obvious. The other reason people fail is because the company is not making what people really want. I see this manifested in different personality types e.g. hackers, who just want to build really interesting things from a technology perspective but that no one else cares about.

?The same applies to business/academic-type people, they won?t build something because they like the technical aspect of building it but they are attracted to ideas for which they?ve clearly used the heuristic ?what sounds like a good startup idea??. It?s totally made up. It?s something that reads well on a business plan, but it?s not something they could identify ten passionate users for. People often think to resolve these issues by applying the lean startup principles, or go out and ask people what they want and mechanically try to build that. If it was that simple then everyone would do it. When people tell you what they want, you have to understand what they really want, underneath the surface. You have to understand what the true use case is of your product if you don?t want to fail. Like the YC mantra says; Build Something People Want?.

Taggar went on to say that the local small business market was particularly hot during applications for the past YC round:

?I?ve noticed that technical founders especially have realized that local small business will pay you money for products. Even thought it?s not the sexiest area. They have concluded that they can probably build better software than what exists now but what?s interesting is I?m also seeing more of them prepared to go out and do the initial sales themselves.  If you can build good software and do sales, you have real potential.?

With all this experience, I asked about when he launches his next startup, what will he do differently?

?I would definitely work on a problem or product that I personally was interested in and meant something to me. When I was working on Auctomatic, we bought all this stuff from China and tried to trade it on Ebay [Auctomatic was an auction and marketplace management system] to try and understand how power sellers work and the problems they faced. But it wasn?t the same as making something that I really resonated with.

?I don?t think there is a massive amount I would change next time around, other than build something I really wanted to exist in the world. With my first startup our end goal was to get rich, and that was the wrong motivation. It?s actually very hard to get really rich from a startup, statistically the odds are not in your favour. I think that my reasoning for doing a startup in the future will be more meaningful than that.

?Starting a company is an irrational choice, doing anything where the odds are stacked against you is irrational. Doing something irrational requires fuel to keep the wheels turning. When you do your first startup the fuel can be blind optimism and naivety. That?s why some of the best companies come from first time entrepreneurs, i.e Google and Facebook. They are not limited by what they can or can not do. But if you?re not lucky enough to have a Facebook or Google first time around, you now have the double-edged sword of knowledge and need to replace the blind optimism fuel with something else.

?For me that fuel is; I want to have a positive impact at a large-scale in the world. That is why I find YC so fascinating, because in my opinion we are changing the world and that is very exciting to me. I?d want anything I start in the future to have the potential for as big of an impact on the world as YC can have, which is a somewhat daunting bar to set myself.?

Y Combinator has definitely had a positive impact on the world and being part of that must feel wonderful. I asked Taggar what the most rewarding part of being a Partner is;

?It?s both the most rewarding and the most challenging thing; always being around highly intelligent, energetic people.  When I step out of YC, I realize that the YC Network is the most high quality network around. If I go home to England, the mentality is so different. Here I spend all day with people who are planning on building a huge company that is going to take on another huge company, and it?s just regular talk and you don?t think anything of it. But when you go back into the rest of the world, that type of talk is considered crazy talk, which is sad.?

Then I asked Taggar to tell the most interesting thing about working with Paul Graham;

?The best thing about working with PG in my opinion is that he is, along with PB (Paul Buchheit), the most candid person I know. The founders will also tell you this from their office hours with PG. Most people thought to speech process is; idea, then filter if acceptable to say, then say it. PG skips the filter part. Which is great, because you know exactly where he stands.?

?It?s something that I am trying to do more of myself, it?s really a great way to be. When you say exactly what is on your mind, it?s easier for everyone else around you. When people are indirect, you have to try to guess what they are really saying, which leads to two things happening; you open yourself to wrongfully interpreting that statement and it wastes everyones time, their time in filtering and your time in decoding.

?The other great thing about PG is that he will tell you what he thinks you should do but isn?t personally offended if you don?t follow his advice. He will continue to advise you on what he thinks is best whatever you do with your company. It?s still your call, it?s your company.?

I wanted to know Taggar?s view on why YC is so hot right now. He said it was because it is an investor that does a whole bunch of additional stuff and is run like a startup. ?People assume because we don?t operate like regular investors that we are some kind of incubator, but we are fundamentally  just investors who do a lot of stuff for our companies.?

But that didn?t explain why YC is so hot that the folk can feel the heat radiating from Mountain View to Russia. Taggar went on to explain further:

?PG and Jessica, they work outside of their own interest and focus on the founders. This is a philosophy that YC has had from the start. YC is founder friendly. It may sound clichéd now, but if you look at it, YC was the first investor that issued themselves pure common stock, no preferred, same as what the founders get.?

?I meet a number of investors that ask me ?do you follow on? [investors that invest in proceeding rounds], to which I reply ?no we don?t follow on?. They get shocked because a lot of investors make most of their money from ?following on?. We don?t because it could harm the other startups that we didn?t ?follow on? with.

?Other investors are also shocked that our shares get diluted by the founders each time they raise another round. Suggesting that we put provisions in place to stop dilution of shares. But Paul and Jessica, have always said they will do what is best for the founders and won?t do things that could misalign those interests.

?When we sold Auctomatic there was no pressure from YC to not sell and shoot for an IPO [when YC would benefit most]. Our acquisition felt like the right decision and was good for us, it didn?t have a massive return for YC but they never made us feel bad about that. How YC treats its founders gets around. People talk and that is why we are so popular. Also the calibre of talent joining YC itself is phenomenal e.g. Paul Buchheit, Garry Tan and Alexis from Reddit.

?The YC brand and visibility has not come from marketing pushes, it has come from word of mouth from the founders thinking that they got a lot of value from YC. Then they go and tell other people. Airbnb was initially skeptical about joining YC, because they were launched. They knew the Justin.tv guys really well though. The Justin.tv guys said ?You have to do it, it will really be worth it?.

?People forget YC started in 2005 and they have been working really hard since then. Last year seemed like an inflection point for YC in terms of visibility. We tell founders that they should make users happy and so we practice our own advice. We are all founders ourselves, and we treat YC as a startup where the users are the people we fund, and we always try to do what it takes to make the users happy. I think viewing investors as a product and the startups as its users is novel. I also think there?s a lot of innovation yet to be done in the investor world.?

YC?s popularity has even reached out to Tinsel Town with celebrities like Ashton Kutcher investing in tech startups. Tagger told me ?Kutcher was all Ron Conway?s doing? and that will.i.am may also be getting involved. I then asked Tagger if celebs were affecting the YC brand, it?s cool and all but is it affecting the seriousness?

?I don?t think it dilutes the seriousness of the brand or has that much impact on YC. People like Ashton Kutcher can clearly add value as investors. Founders seem to enjoy working with him and he?s enjoyed success outside of acting, in business. He also has genuinely interesting thoughts about using the web to reach and engage with large audiences. Those all sound like good things to me.?

I finally asked Taggar if YC had any more magic tricks up its sleeves, to which he replied, ?The answer is yes, but I don?t know what yet. There is no master plan. We will just continue to experiment and work hard for the startups.?

Whatever happens next with Y Combinator, TNW will be there to cover the story, so keep reading.

Follow Taggar on Twitter @Harjeet

About the Author

Fatema is the West Coast editor of TNW she is based in San Francisco. Fatema writes about startups and entrepreneurs. Follow her on twitter, @FatemaYasmine

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/industry/2011/02/08/y-combinator-partner-harjeet-taggar-gives-insights-interview/

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