Very excited to get this off the ground - we've got some big ideas where this can go - ultimately we want to support many use cases, but before we get there we need to battle test it in the market - would love any feedback, and if you want to get involved reach out to me denis at proxy dot co
Do you encrypt the Bluetooth signal at all or it is all out there? That is the only thing that scared me, you obscure user information with a unique-id-key, but if I'm close to your office I can just get your key and get in the building.
We use a one-time token for each interaction. We don't use Bluetooth encryption, but the tokens are signed and cannot be replayed/transferred, so intercepting one is near-useless.
Would this not still be vulnerable to a kind of man-in-the-middle attack though? I don't know much about the workings of bluetooth, so maybe this just isn't possible, but I was envisioning a kind of relay device that could capture an incoming signal, forward it to another device, from which it would then be rebroadcast.
The idea being you have an attacker standing in front of the door, relaying the bluetooth transmissions to an associate, who in turn rebroadcasts those transmissions to an employee who he has followed out to lunch. That employee's phone then responds exactly as if he were standing in front of the door.
I can't see why this wouldn't work, but I'm sure I must be missing something.
Obviously if the user is forced to confirm an ID request before continuing with the transaction this wouldn't be a problem, but I got the impression from the article that that wasn't necessarily required.
Like all things in startup life - nothing is easy, everything is hard. To me it sounds like you've given up already.
If you don't have the fire in your belly to overcome challenges, then chances are you probably won't be very good at building a successful company.
"soul crushing", "lottery" are words that people who easily give up use. Where's the fire, where's the ambition?
That's one of the most important things I'm looking for in the founding team when I read applications. I want to see determination, fire in the soul, and an ambition to go out there and make amazing things happen.
A great founding team can take a shitty idea and still make a success out of it, a shitty team can take a great idea and make nothing out of it.
I wish I can show you the fire in me about my startup! If you were knew me you were seen the determination. But 20 fellowship where min 10 will be remote out of 6500, dont you agree the lottery part. Can people say rejection email from YC is not soul crashing(), unless you knew it will not work out.
It's true that I gave up applying to YC but not my dreams!
If you are truly determined, and will stop at nothing to build a successful startup, then I strongly encourage you to apply for YC and don't worry about your chances or treating it as a lottery.
Yes, it sucks not getting into YC. I know, I didn't get in the first time I applied, it felt shitty for a day, but then I just went on with building my startup regardless. I applied again the following year and this time we did get in. I didn't give up or think about our chances once.
Determination is not something you say, it's something you do, especially when the odds are stacked up against you. So if you are determined, apply for YC, don't over think it, then keep moving forward with your world domination plans.
Agree with Kevin, this might encourage the wrong way of thinking when applying for YC.
Average people, that do average things, generally think in terms of the odds "what's my chance of this, or that.." when deciding about things.
Extraordinary people don't care about their chances, they do things because they are determined or obsessed about whatever it is they are doing, and stop at nothing to make it happen. These are the types of people that go on to build great companies and are the types of people YC generally looks for in the applications.
So if you're the type of person that doesn't care about the stats: you should definitely apply!
I studied Mech Eng. and Physics but now spend most of my time building software related technologies. I think the big take away from my Mech Eng. degree is that I've learnt how to solve technical and non-technical problems. Solving problems is one of the most important parts of any startup and you should look at your Mech Eng. background not as a destination but as a continuous journey of learning to solve more and more problems (technical or not) as you encounter them in whatever challenges you confront. Apart from using your Mech Eng. skills directly in a mech related startup, those skills should not limit you to that specialization alone if you continue on the learning process of picking up more tools/knowledge to add to your chest of problem solving experience in a startup.
Companies will be successful with or without YC if they are determined to succeed. YC alone won't make any company successful, only the founders and their employees can do that.
Agreed, although, the aim here is not to focus on the 'why' part? It's to focus on the 'where to go from here' part. The 'why' will always be anecdotal as it's one perspective vs another. The key to this post is really honing in on the fact that the best entrepreneurs can take setbacks yet still move on to succeed in their endeavors to build amazing companies with our without YC. Which 'anecdotally or otherwise' makes for the best YC applicants.
Nice work Googlers - Now for the Nexus 7 I so deserve for being a good boy this year, can I please have it in black and in its original box so it doesn't get damaged when Santa comes down my chimney. Thx.
