Some of you may have noticed a new badge showing up in your profile called the “Seller Wings” badge.  Currently you are considered a “new seller” if you do not have your Wings badge, but we’ve decided to replace this with the Seller Wings badge instead.  We decided that this would be a better gauge of whether or not you a user should be required to go through the pending credit process.  The requirements for the Seller Wings badge are 5 positive seller feedback ratings, listed at least 5 auctions, maintain a 90% postive seller feedback rating and been a member for 20 days.

We will finish rolling these out to our users by the end of the week and some time next week pending credits will be based off this badge instead.  Thanks!

First off we’d like to say Merry Christmas to everyone! We hope you all are having a great holiday season with friends and family. A couple new updates with Listia: new badges, Google Wave/Voice auctions & block lists.

We finally got around to making some new badges for our power users. Congratulations to freestuffforyou ( http://www.listia.com/profile/9392 ) for being the first Listia user to receive 1000 feedback ratings!!! Wow look at all those badges!

As of 12/24 we are no longer allowing Google Wave and Voice auctions.  These invites are becoming more readily available so we have decided to not allow any new auctions.

We’ve been having a few requests for user block lists so we went ahead and added this. You can block any user you want after you log in and visit their profile page. There should be a link that says “block user” near their user name and you can also manage your block list under “My Account”. Users that you block will not be able to bid or comment on any of your auctions as soon as you block them. If they have already bid or commented on your current auctions those will still remain valid, but all future actions will be blocked. Blocking a user will also disable the contact page so those users will not be able to send you email through Listia.

We’re looking forward to a great 2010!

We released a new type of auction today. We’re experimenting with a special type of rewards auction where you can vote on what the item
will be. Users can vote once a day up until 30 minutes before the end of the auction. At that time the most voted on item will be revealed and that is what the auction will be for. We currently have one auction like this listed, but be on the lookout for more! Happy holidays and stay warm!

Here’s our first one! http://www.listia.com/auction/23627

I was going to title this blog “Advice For A YC Interview”, but I thought that would be the wrong choice of words for what I want to write.  I figured I’d tell the story of how things played out for me during the application process.  I probably should have written something about the application process as well, but time seems to just slip away.  This is totally from me and I’m not sure what Gee went through during this process, but maybe he’ll write something too.

After getting our interview email there was about a week and a half to actually prepare for it.  We spent most of that time building a demo because we had heard that it was essential for a YC interview.  When we applied all we had was an idea that we had been hashing out for a few months so when we got the interview we had 0 lines of code.  The typical advice you’ll read is “if you don’t have a demo, YC wants to see what you can build in a week” and I’m a firm believer in this also, granted we didn’t even get to show what we created (more on this later).  By working on your idea with every spare hour you have before the interview process you start to think about it all day and night … and that’s the way it should be.

So we built a little demo of Listia (which was completely different than what it is now) where we could showcase what we had in mind.  Gee was actually going to be in Taiwan during the interview so we planned this great demo around him doing all the actions and connecting via Skype while I explained to YC what was going on.  After a week and a half of coding, rehearsing and researching everything was perfect minus all the long nights without sleep.  When I got to YC 30 minutes before our interview I had no idea what to expect.  I walked into this orange room ( https://blog.listia.com/end-of-y-combinator-summer-09 ) and quietly took a seat at one of the tables.  There were a few other groups there on their laptops or talking with each other, but I was so nervous I just wanted to sit down, get Skype up and make sure everything was ready.

Everything was working perfectly then Jessica came out:

“Are you the next time slot?  We’re running a little late and taking our first break of the day, but we’ll be ready for you in 2 minutes.”

I tell Gee via Skype that we’re up in 2 and all of a sudden I can’t hear anything he’s saying.  Fuck.  Restart computer, Skype, etc.  Still no go.  Jessica comes out and says she’s ready for me.  I IM Gee and say I can’t hear him, but have to go and just do it.  Can we say “stress”?

The interview room is exactly how other people describe it.  Jessica, Paul, Trevor and Robert on one side of a table and you on the other.  10 minutes flew by in what seemed like 30 seconds.  We talked a little about everything … our past experience, our idea, how committed we are, etc.  PG asked us if we had a demo and I said “yes” at which point all of them walked around to take a look.  After a couple clicks and trying to explain what was going on PG says “did you just build this for the interview?” to which I said “yes” and everyone went back to their seats … so much for the demo.  Haha.  Even though they only looked at it for 5 seconds I still think building the demo the previous week helped us go through the product and figure out both answers and questions about our product.  This is why I think it’s essential to start building something even if it won’t be permanent (all of our demo code was trashed).  That week of concentrated work on your product will help you more than you know.

The rest of the interview time was spent just talking about the idea.  It was like a concentrated brain storming session about our idea which was exactly the type of interview I was hoping for.  Ideas were thrown around, questions were asked and answered.  1 minute left in the interview and my speakers started working.  Gee had been listening to the whole thing, but couldn’t say anything until the end.  Oh technology.  I walked out feeling positive about the interview but still wasn’t sure how it would go.  A couple hours later that day we got the call and the rest is history (maybe another post on my full YC experience later).

A few final bullets …

• Don’t be intimidated (as you should be) by the YC staff.  They are some of the nicest people you will ever meet.
• Be proud that you got an interview.  Not many get this opportunity and getting an interview is a huge accomplishment.
• Read as many essays as you can that PG has written.  Watch any videos you can find as well.  Get a sense of his style.
• Research previous YC companies.  Take a look at the types of companies YC has funded and see where you could fit in.
• Build a demo.
• Be open to make changes to your idea.  This says a lot more than one may think.
• Reread your application.  The same questions may come up.
• Know the answers to the easy questions.  “Would you be fully committed?”, “How many founders do you have?”, “What problems/hurdles are you anticipating?”, “Who would use your product?”, “Are you open to changing your idea?”
• Once you have an interview it means they like your idea!  Now they’re looking for a few more things to justify their investment.  Most likely they already know if they like your idea or not, but you just need to pass these final checks.  a) Can you execute on the idea?  They check this with your demo or previous apps/hacking.  b) Are you a team player?  A big part of YC is working well with others … especially your co founders.  c) Are you open minded?  Stubborness and cockyness need to be checked at the door.
• Most importantly, be genuine.

Good luck!

-James

We had our first request for an autographed shirt =)

Congrats Yasemina!

http://www.listia.com/auction/11663

Thanks for everyone’s patience during the downtime! It was due to a power failure at our host.  We are very sorry and hope to have some better solutions in place if this type of thing happens again.  Thanks, and happy bidding!

If you are interested about the outage:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/02/large-scale-downtime-at-rackspace-cloud/

Our host seems to be having some problems affecting a large number of sites on the Internet right now.  Listia also seems to be affected and is down at the moment.  Sorry for the trouble.  We hope to be back up soon and will update this blog with the status.  Thanks for everyone’s patience!

We had a hectic weekend here at Listia.  On Friday afternoon, we drove up to San Francisco to meet Gary Vaynerchuk!  For those that don’t know him, he’s the creator of Wine Library TV and has “captured attention with his pioneering, multi-faceted approach to personal branding and business”.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Some good news for Listia just two months after our launch.  Here’s our press release:

Listia.com Raises $400k in Funding to Help People Give and Get Free Stuff

Sunnyvale, CA – October 13, 2009 – Listia.com, a new online auction site for free stuff, announced today that it has secured $400k in financing.  The deal was led by Implistic Capital.

The company previously raised a seed round from Y Combinator, which specializes in funding early stage startups.

This round of funding will enable the company to build the largest online marketplace for free stuff and give users an easy way to give away items they no longer need in return for something they want.

Listia uses an online auction system that makes use of virtual credits instead of cash. Every user gets free credits when they sign up. Users then bid credits for things they want, so each item goes to the person who wants it most.

In addition to providing a community and marketplace for free stuff, Listia hopes to help charitable causes through its charity auction program and promote environmental awareness by helping people give stuff away instead of throwing it in landfills.

Listia Inc. was founded in June 2009 by James Fong and Gee-Hwan Chuang. The Listia.com web site was launched in August 2009 and has since become a popular marketplace for giving away and getting free stuff through its free online auction system.

Contacts:

Gee Chuang
gee@listia.com

James Fong
james@listia.com

Some new additions to the badge family!  We now have badges for leaders in each category.  These are updated periodically throughout the day and as always, stay tuned for more!  Check out the most current badge leaders here.

Congrats to tyhana on a job well done!