I’m going to Y Combinator’s Startup School 2010

Yippee!! I have been accepted into Y Combinator’s Startup School 2010!

I stretched in bed as my eyes opened up to be greeted by another beautiful Californian Saturday morning. I reached for my smart phone to check email to see what has happened in the last 5 hours that I was asleep. And there it was. An email from Y Combinator informing me that I have been accepted into Startup School 2010. It couldn’t have come at a better time, only 3 days after my birthday – what a great birthday present. 3 also being my lucky number.

Startup School is an annual event sponsored by both Standford BASES and Y Combinator. To put it simply, Startup School teaches technical people about startups. It is said that “the atmosphere of energy in the room at startup school is something you have to experience to believe” – now I get the opportunity to experience this first hand. I’m thrilled and excited! Thank you Y Combinator for this amazing opportunity.

Who is Y Combinator

Y Combinator is an American seed-stage startup funding firm, started in 2005 by Paul Graham, Robert Morris, Trevor Blackwell, and Jessica Livingston.

“Y Combinator is a new kind of venture firm specializing in funding early stage startups. We help startups through what is for many the hardest step, from idea to company.

We invest mostly in software and web services. And because we are ourselves technology people, we prefer groups with a lot of technical depth. We care more about how smart you are than how old you are, and more about the quality of your ideas than whether you have a formal business plan.” Source: http://ycombinator.com/about.html

Hacker News

Y Combinator is also responsible for the very popular Hacker News. Hacker News is a social news website about computer hacking and startup companies. It is my daily source nutritional intake of mind stimulating content and discussions. I highly recommend this site for anyone interested in startups – http://news.ycombinator.com/

Startup School lineup

The line up of speakers for this day is exhilarating. They include:

Andy Bechtolsheim
Founder Arista Networks; Founder, Sun Microsystems

Dalton Caldwell
Founder, Picplz; Founder, Imeem

Brian Chesky
Founder, Airbnb

Ron Conway
Partner, SV Angel

Adam D’Angelo
Founder, Quora

Paul Graham
Partner, Y Combinator; Founder, Viaweb

Reid Hoffman
Partner, Greylock; Founder, LinkedIn

Andrew Mason
Founder, Groupon

Greg McAdoo
Partner, Sequoia Capital

Tom Preston-Werner
Founder, GitHub

Mark Zuckerberg
Founder, Facebook

WOW!! What a line up.
All this will take place @

Where: Dinkelspiel Auditorium, Stanford University.
When: 16 October 2010, 9:00 am.
More info: http://startupschool.org/

I’ll be Tweeting & Facebooking “live” from this event. If you haven’t already connected with me, please do. Just tell me who you are when you do so I know you’re a fellow hacker. If you are going to Startup School 2010 I would be delighted to meet you there and/or via the social links below. Come and say G’day to this Aussie.

Catch me online:

• Twitter – follow me today to never lose a new & exciting post.
• Linkedin – connect with me on a professional level. We are after all only six steps away from each other.
• Facebook – place I’m most active.
• My personal blog: http://blog.ernestsemerda.com/

This is me being me:

About Ernest Semerda

Ernest Semerda is an experienced Engineering Leader formerly a hacker from Sydney (Australia) and now a Mountain View (CA, Silicon Valley) resident. Ernest holds 2 degrees; a Bachelor in Computer Science from University of Western Sydney and a Executive MBA from Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM). Ernest has experience helping build & grown startup companies with a few years stint in the corporate world. Startups are his specialty and also his passion.

More about Ernest Semerda here: http://www.theroadtosiliconvalley.com/about/

Ernest