A couple of months ago I emailed Paul Graham to note how much I enjoy his essays. (I also made note of MakeFive, asking him to check it out.) He responded shortly thereafter, noting that we should really consider applying to Y Combinator. Since then we’ve been emailing back and forth brief messages, and Eric Shelkie and I have been awfully tempted by the possibility of trying it out.

If you’re not familiar with Y Combinator, let me give you the short version: Twice a year a handful of entrepreneurs apply to the program, with a handful being selected for the three-month term. During this time they trade a small percentage of their company for living expenses and coaching. The exciting part is that they get to work with people like Paul Graham and Jessica Livingston (author of Founders at Work) and a raft of other brilliant people. By the end of the program, they leave ready to pitch their ideas to funders. Word on the street is that the experience will get you a access to pitch any investor.

Of course, the whole thing is a rather strange thing for us to contemplate. We already have smashLAB and have built-out MakeFive completely on our own dime. So, why would we contemplate the program? It all comes down to my “hockey player in the Bahamas” theory. Sure, he could train in the tropics, but without the access to community and those to push him it would be an uphill battle.

I went through this when I painted in Prince George. I had a nice studio and ample time to work in it, but I felt disconnected. No matter how strongly some will disagree, an internet connection can’t connect you in the same way as actual human interaction does. So, we’re interested in Y Combinator for the opportunity to spend time in Silicon Valley and even more so because of Paul. He seems like an awfully interesting and smart guy. (Plus, he started out as a painter and works as an entrepreneur in the tech sector. I have to say that this feels pretty “close to home”.)

So, after an excited couple of days, we went online and filled-out all of the paperwork. I’m still not sure if we’d go (assuming that we’d even make the cut), but it can’t hurt to apply. The program seems like an exciting ride, even though it would necessitate us flying back and forth from San Francisco to Vancouver while juggling a lot of balls.

Oh yes, and Amea and I are expecting our second child smack-dab in the middle of that period of time. (It could be a wild ride.)

Here’s the application that we sent in. Thought it might give you a smile. :-)

Company name:
MakeFive

Company url, if any:
www.makefive.com

Phone number(s):
604 683 2250 (smashLAB office)
604 202 2206 (Mobile)

YC usernames of all founders, including you, separated by spaces. (That’s usernames, not given names: “bksmith,” not “Bob Smith.” If the startup has 3 founders, there should be 3 words in this answer.)
karjaluoto shelkie

YC usernames of all founders, including you, who will live in the Bay Area January through March if we fund you.
karjaluoto
shelkie

What is your company going to make?
A website that allows people to make and share their opinions through top-five lists.

For each founder, please list: name, age, YC username, email address, personal url (if any), and current employer and title or school and major. List the main contact first. Separate founders with blank lines. Put an asterisk before the name of anyone not able to move to the Bay Area January through March.
Eric Karjaluoto, 34, karjaluoto, karj@smashlab.com, www.erickarjaluoto.com, smashLAB - Creative Director
Eric Shelkie, 37, shelkie, shelkie@smashlab.com, smashLAB - Technical Director

For each founder, please list: name, colleges and grad schools attended, and the type, year of graduation, and subject of each degree. Put unfinished degrees in parens. Separate founders with blank lines.
Eric Karjaluoto, Emily Carr Institute, Art School, 1995, Fine Arts - Painting
Eric Shelkie, British Columbia Institute of Technology, Trades School, 1994, Machinist

Please tell us in one or two sentences about something impressive that each founder has built or achieved.
For the past eight years we’ve run smashLAB, an interactive agency. Our work has been recognized internationally, perhaps most notably by TIME Magazine in their Design100. We created an elegant content management system, spearheaded a campaign to combat climate change, and developed a site that connects people through their opinions. We write extensively on design, brands and experience at www.ideasonideas.com and have spoken at major design conferences.

Please tell us about the time you, karjaluoto, most successfully hacked some (non-computer) system to your advantage.
Ultimately, Eric and I “hack” everything. We have no formal training; we simply take on projects that we’re interested in and work like hell until we figure them out. smashLAB is a great example of that; we knew nothing about interaction design or brands when we started. Nevertheless, we kept looking at what seemed to work, “reverse-engineered” things, and kept iterating. Since then we’ve built some highly-regarded design work.

Please tell us about an interesting project, preferably outside of class or work, that two or more of you created together. Include urls if possible.

There are many of these, but I think one of the most interesting is Design Can Change. It started with our observation that designers could have a significant impact on climate change by “heading-off” waste before it was even created. We spent the better part of a year learning about sustainability and crafting a simple and clear website that asks designers to commit to more sustainable practices. It has been recognized internationally and continues to do good. You can see it here: www.designcanchange.org or get the “gist” of it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_Can_Change

How long have the founders known one another and how did you meet? Have any of the founders not met in person?
I suppose that our first connection goes back to the eighties. Eric Shelkie’s future wife and I were in our high-school library, sitting at the same table. I was trying to sell a batch of comic books (at a healthy mark-up) to a classmate. During the conversation, she turned to me and noted that I was, “quite a little J.R. Ewing.” (To be honest, I wasn’t that happy with her comment.) Eric and I met and became friends in 1995 and have been working together since 2000. I wouldn’t be as interested in doing this if we weren’t able to work together. He’s a great friend and a brilliant guy.

What’s new about what you’re doing? What are people forced to do now because what you plan to make doesn’t exist yet?
We’re affording people an easy way to exhibit their opinions and tap new ideas. An example: The other night I wanted to download some new movies but couldn’t think of ones that I hadn’t already seen. Finally it hit me that I could use MakeFive. (I suppose I should have thought of that earlier, given that it’s our site. Duh!) Anyway… A few clicks later I was here: http://www.makefive.com/categories/entertainment/movies/best-movies-of-all-time and found plenty of suggestions. Needless to say, this can be applied to pretty much any subject (i.e. restaurants, vacation spots, general debate).

What do you understand about your business that other companies in it just don’t get?
First: that the process of adding something must be dead-simple; we’ve really worked on simplifying this, so that we can “hook” people first. Once they’re “in” and adding things, they seem to spend a fair bit of time doing so. (Some of our current users are logged-in for hours at a time.)

Second: that without a managed dialogue, people will drop out of the site. We find that many users are fanatical for a couple of weeks and then fall-off because it’s so hard to see that people are participating in their topics. As such, we’re working on a notification system that lets users know when their topics are creating a stir.

Third: that many of the users want status/respect more than anything. Until we implemented a point-system for activity, users weren’t nearly as active.

Who are your competitors, and who might become competitors? Who do you fear most?
www.yelp.com
www.cityvoter.com
www.rateitall.com
www.grupthink.com

How will you make money?
Ad sales–the site allows advertisers to connect with users interested in specific content. Additionally, as the site continues to gain strength on Google, we’ll see our organic traffic increase substantially. We haven’t created the ad system yet, as we’re concentrating on increasing usage first; however, when we do reach this stage, we see it as something that will operate much like Facebook’s ad system.

Later, we’d like to explore co-branded and “themed” sponsorships and contests. For example, Harley Davidson could ask their loyal riders to document their “best moments on the road” on a uniquely-designed MakeFive page. Here, users would be able to vote for their favorite story, with the winning entry receiving select merchandise.

If you’ve already started working on it, how long have you been working and how many lines of code (if applicable) have you written?
We started to work on it in May 2007, launched in November and continue to refine it. We’re currently at around 45,000 lines of code.

If you have an online demo, what’s the url? (Please don’t password protect it; just use an obscure url.)
www.makefive.com

How long will it take before you have a prototype? A beta? A version you can charge for?
It’s already live.

If you’re already incorporated, when were you? Who are the shareholders and what percent does each own? If you’ve had funding, how much, at what valuation(s)?
Our interactive agency is incorporated. Eric Shelkie and I are equal partners in it. We plan to incorporate MakeFive as a separate entity but haven’t done so yet. We haven’t received any funding to date.

If you’re not incorporated yet, please list the percent of the company you plan to give each founder, and anyone else you plan to give stock to. (This question is as much for you as us.)
We’d split the stock evenly between the two of us, and potentially share a small amount with our current staff.

If we fund you, which of the founders will commit to working exclusively (no school, no other jobs) on this project for the next year?
We’d both work on it full-time over the next year; additionally, we’ll hold on to our existing staff as they are nice people and can help us move more quickly. (We’re a good team.)

For founders who can’t, why not? What level of commitment are they willing to make?
See above.

Do any founders have other commitments between January and March 2009 inclusive?
My wife and I are expecting a baby in January. I’ll probably have to take the day off when she goes into labor. (She’s fussy about that sort of thing.)

Do any founders have commitments in the future (e.g. finishing college, going to grad school), and if so what?
No; we’re just going to keep working on projects like this.

Are any of the founders covered by noncompetes or intellectual property agreements that overlap with your project? Will any be working as employees or consultants for anyone else?
No.

Was any of your code written by someone who is not one of your founders? If so, how can you safely use it? (Open source is ok of course.)
We have employed one developer who has been working on this project. He’s already been paid for these services and holds no IP rights to any of the code.

Are any of the following true? (a) You are the only founder. (b) You are a student who may return to school in the fall. (c) Half or more of your group can’t move to the Bay Area for the winter. (d) One or more founders will keep their current jobs during the winter. (e) None of the founders are programmers.
No.

If you had any other ideas you considered applying with, feel free to list them. One may be something we’ve been waiting for.
We have many other ideas with a couple underway. We can talk about these later if you think we’re the “bee’s knees.” ;-)

Please tell us something surprising or amusing that one of you has discovered. (The answer need not be related to your project.)
I’ll go for “surprising”. We always used to think that we had to do something wildly different and exciting in order to succeed; however, everything that has worked well for us has instead been completely straight-forward and the result of common sense.

When we try to sound like business-people no one listens, but when we’re ourselves people seem to take notice and reach out to us. When we find something that bugs us personally, it tends to be the best place for us to build a solution. (I suppose this is probably rather dry, but it did take us years to figure it out.)

Posted on October 14, 2008 | Share this