I also think licensing a patent to a company that actually uses it qualifies the owner not to lose the patent. Bottom line is that if the owner doesn't actually allow the public to benefit from the IP in some way then it should fall back into the public domain. I realize this is very much a layman's perspective but that's what I believe. -Bill
The current super soaker models are very disappointing to me. I've held a few "battles" with neighbors in my yard and the power is not what I remember from years ago. Taking a step back in product development makes very little sense to me.
I would say that the operative questions is more about founders who become successful after they were not accepted into a YC "class." YC themselves are good at pointing out that most start-ups have to change direction/pivot multiple times before being successful. That's why it's about the people/founders imho.
I also suspect that there is little correlation in terms of success or not for companies accepted/not accepted into YC. The one exception worth exploring is that moving to SV for 90 days for non SV companies and working in one living room might increase focus and hence chances of success. That would be interesting to know.
Interesting points. We're actually doing a trip to Mexican villages in the coming weeks. We're bringing the VP Engineering as part of a customer validation effort.
"gruseom": In regards to cultural, organizational, technical issues. I don't discount that but it's really hard to know. We haven't been around long enough for issues like these to manifest themselves but I'll have to think about that more.
http://billbar.posterous.com/patents-use-them-or-lose-them