Starts Hacker News
Graham creates the news aggregator to sharpen the use of Arc on applications. It is initially called Startup News, and gets around 1,600 daily uniques as potential Y Combinator founders discuss pitch ideas. Graham:
There are a number of Reddit users that I know only by their usernames, but I know must be smart from the things they’ve written. We’re counting on the same phenomenon to help us decide who to fund.
Hires moderator
Graham brings a second person on board to the site, after he spends three to four hours a day just on moderating duties.
It was becoming my life
Hacker News may be worth $500 million
Altman says in an interview with Arrington that Hacker News could be worth $500 million if sold, but he says that it is worth more to Y Combinator than to anyone who would potentially want to buy it. He adds:
Intermediate valuations are completely made up and silly.
Steps down from Hacker News
Graham announces that he is stepping down from his day-to-day role at the site. Kat Manalac and Garry Tan will be take over responding to individual comments, and others will be responsible for design, code and community management.
I’ll still be around as a user, but less frequently than when I felt I had to check the site every hour or so to make sure nothing had broken.