No, of course they didn't ask permission to copy the application form. And it's not just the application form. Reading their site is a freaky experience, because I keep coming across bits and pieces of my own thoughts, and even idioms.

I'm a bit indignant about the whole operation, actually. I feel like J. K. Rowling would feel if she came across a book that was set at a boarding school for kids with magical powers, with a hero called Henry Potter, who lived with his disagreeable non-magical ("moggle") step-parents, his own parents having been killed by the evil Valdemort...

We often think about that. We could hire assistants, so we didn't have to do everything ourselves. Or we could make YC work more peer-to-peer. Or we could build a robot that would walk around telling everyone "don't make users register," "delete half the text on your frontpage," "face the audience when you're presenting," etc, and I could just hang out in the next room with a book and a cup of tea.

I did some seriously unscientific and extremely dirty stats on the "age of success" for people in Founder's At Work. In a couple cases I guessed DOBs based on university graduation. I freely admit this is a very lazy attempt and it's flawed, but I didn't see anything like it. Anyone know of a good list?

#################### (Blake Ross/20)

########################## (David Heinemeier Hansson/26)

########################### (Mena Trott/27)

########################### (Max Levchin/27)

############################ (Sabeer Bhatia/28)

############################ (Joe Kraus/28)

############################# (Steve Wozniak/29)

############################## (Dan Bricklin/30)

############################### (Evan Williams/31)

############################### (Joshua Schachter/31)

################################## (Paul Graham/34)

################################### (Mitch Kapor/35)

#################################### (Philip Greenspun/36)

#################################### (Caterina Fake/36)

##################################### (Joel Spolsky/37)

###################################### (Mike Lazaridis/38)

####################################### (Ray Ozzie/39)

########################################### (Charles Geschke/43)

################################################## (Craig Newmark/50)

Average: 32 Min: 20 Max: 50

That was one of the three questions they didn't copy from ours.

From their app: "What does entrepreneurship mean to you?"

Seriously? Does TechStars come with a free team building retreat?

So what does this prove? The ages are so evenly spread-out, I think the only conclusion is that age has no relevance at all.

I think TechStars made three mistakes:

1. Low publicity.

2. Asked too many questions (i.e. what does it mean to be an entrepreneur?)

3. Deadline too soon.

They should've kept the deadline for applications at April 12th since by that time, all YC applicants will know if they have been accepted/rejected. The rejected ones could then apply at TechStars. This is not necessarily a bad thing since YC only picks 15 teams, while leaving a big pool of other great startup ideas and founders behind.

I have had phone conversations with numerous entrepreneurs on news.yc, and almost all of them plan on applying to TechStars while keeping YC as their first option.

TechStars could have, for marketing purposes, used aikido strategy and turn Y-Combinator's strength into weakness: since TechStars is new, they could've claimed that they place greater focus on the startups they fund as a way to prove their model superior to YC. A lot of people would've bought into that argument.

Having competition actually validates Y-Combinator's business model. While two similar programs may not be good for either parties, it is definitely good for the prospective founders.

Techstars is a clear second to Y Combinator. But there's nothing wrong it. They have a solid program lined up. Yes, the application is completely plagiarized. PG, did they ask permission or did they just do it?

Regardless, the YC application is pretty much perfect for this type of program, so I can understand that they didn't want to mess with something that worked. Plagiarism is a high form of flattery. The three or four changed or new questions make the TS application worse than the YC one, they shouldn't have bothered.

A venture capitalist is one of the founders of TS -- PG sees that as a negative but it could make it easier to get money from a friendly venture capitalist or provide insight into the notoriously obtuse mind of a VC.

TS also has more than one session a week. I see that additional structure as a good thing but I'm sure PG would argue that it's taking time away from hacking.

The website of each company certainly shows a difference in mentality -- YC is stylized minimalism, TS is over the top web design you get when you pay someone too much to design you a site.

So what should you do? Apply to both. Don't sell yourself short. Boulder's a nice city. So is Boston (even though the trains don't run past midnight).

The following email got spammed to everyone in my CS department this morning:

Subject: UF Student looking for Computer Science Assistance

I am in need of a programmer who can build an intricate social networking site. Without revealing too much information, I am in the process of obtaining an LLC for this venture, which should turn out to be extremely successful. Hopefully someone within your college could assist me in the formation of a website and a fee would be paid for such assistance.

Let's play "count the red flags".

Yes... Bay area is terrible... very expensive, crowded, rude. Please, don't move here.

My favorite beach was packed with 10 other people there last weekend. It was awful. ;)

Perhaps the time has come for a startup that starts startups that start startups.

It's great that support for young entrepreneurs is expanding. The entrepreneurial world is a brutal one and you want as many people on your side as possible.

Because I live in Colorado (but go to college in Austin), I'm surprised I hadn't heard about this before -- despite it launching about 4 months ago. Boulder is an awesome town, and you have the Rocky Mountains all around.

Regardless of the detrimental effect the attraction of nearby ski resorts could have on a startup (which also makes it a great place to live), I feel that Denver's/Boulder's weakness is that there aren't universities with better computer science programs. All the major startup hubs have excellent universities nearby whose talent they can feed off of:

Cambridge: MIT, Harvard Silicon Valley: Stanford, Berkeley Seattle: University of Washington Austin: University of Texas

(Darn -- After visiting PG's website, I realize I am re-iterating what he says this in his essay, "How To Be Silicon Valley.")

I can see this first-hand, attending the University of Texas. I've interviewed with many startups, and you can see how they're student quality is evident in the company's work.

I would imagine this is true even moreso in the better CS programs like MIT and Stanford, and double that with towns that have two great programs.