I hope everyone realizes that these are going to be held on stage, and that if you do this, a lot of stuff of the type that companies usually like to keep secret is going to get
discussed in front of a roomful of people.
I also don't know if it's going to work. I compressed the time slots about 3x to make it interesting for the audience. Since I won't know the startups already and the time slots are so short, the result will probably be more like YC interviews than office hours.
This format definitely detracts from the total benefit these companies can get from these office hours, but the possible press from getting their idea vetted by you on stage somewhat compensates for not being able to ask the pressing questions that usually come up at OH.
My one question would be: can you be as brutally honest as you need to be on stage with a team you've never seen before and might never see again? If so, then I think this is still an invaluable experience for the companies - most startups that just get feedback from their friends and a few early adopters don't get to hear the things that they need to.
I think companies will be quite willing to open up. I share the concern on the time compression though. My gut said 20 minutes per company would still be interesting with the right companies/people. But this is an experiment, let's see how it goes.
PG, can you please give us a description of what Office Hours means.
cool, whomever down voted this you are a pretentious ass - rather than explain, you downvote.
As a side thought:
Given that we have had this ongoing discussion about the comment scores being hidden to preserve real dialogue - we should require a comment for every downvote, such that every downvote comes with an explanation or talking point for further discussion.
As it stands, the downvote is a silent and anonymous point of disagreement -- is allowed, and becomes visable (through greyed out comments) -- where the ability to see the comment's upvote count is not allowed and not reflected in the font size/color of the comment and thus invisible.
PG, I respectfully disagree with any and all reasonings you may have of hiding comment upvotes, and my opinion is only reinforced through the visable effect downvotes have on comments.
I worked on this webapp with ez, guz, and others. The idea is that people with knowledge/expertise in a subject can "hold office hours" with (strangers?) people looking for advice.
I also don't know if it's going to work. I compressed the time slots about 3x to make it interesting for the audience. Since I won't know the startups already and the time slots are so short, the result will probably be more like YC interviews than office hours.