soulxtc
February 21st, 2006, 04:06 AM
At 26, Phil Yuen's identity lay somewhere between Dilbert and a Microserf. His office, on the first floor of Building 16 on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Wash., did not have a window. Not to worry. "I could see the window from my manager's office," he said.
Mr. Yuen was a midlevel manager who wrote specifications for enterprise project management software — giant computerized flow charts. "I drew boxes and lines to help other people draw boxes and lines," he said.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/02/21/business/businessspecial2/21startup1.583.jpg
Then one night last spring, he was sitting in his apartment, surfing the Web. He went to Slashdot.org ("news for nerds") and saw an article that Paul Graham, the essayist and guiding light of computer programmers, was establishing a start-up company, later called Y Combinator, which would be giving seed money to hackers to start businesses. The word "hacker" is not derogatory in the computer world, but it is someone who is creative and resourceful with code.
"It's like Rob De Niro wants to start an acting school," Mr. Yuen said. "Do you want to join it? You get to work with him every week, you might even get a small little movie deal out of it at the end."
READ ARTICLE (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/business/businessspecial2/21startup.html)
Mr. Yuen was a midlevel manager who wrote specifications for enterprise project management software — giant computerized flow charts. "I drew boxes and lines to help other people draw boxes and lines," he said.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/02/21/business/businessspecial2/21startup1.583.jpg
Then one night last spring, he was sitting in his apartment, surfing the Web. He went to Slashdot.org ("news for nerds") and saw an article that Paul Graham, the essayist and guiding light of computer programmers, was establishing a start-up company, later called Y Combinator, which would be giving seed money to hackers to start businesses. The word "hacker" is not derogatory in the computer world, but it is someone who is creative and resourceful with code.
"It's like Rob De Niro wants to start an acting school," Mr. Yuen said. "Do you want to join it? You get to work with him every week, you might even get a small little movie deal out of it at the end."
READ ARTICLE (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/business/businessspecial2/21startup.html)