tell me about viaweb. the idea was revolutionary. >> the reason the company was called viaweb, the company worked via the web. it was known as a web app. it was an online store builder and got bought by yahoo!. and it is yahoo!'s store. >> what was it like working at yahoo!? the guy who was suspended every year. >> i apologize to the people i ever worked for. i barely lasted a year. >> you went on to write. >> yeah. >> and you started building your following. what were you writing about? >> writing about software and i realized that no one would drag me away if i started writing about other things, too. >> what time did you guys meet? >> at a party in paul's house that i almost didn't attend. >> y combinator almost didn't exist. >> scary how close. >> how did you come up with the idea for y combinator? >> jessica was writing a book. >> that was the first book that i read when i moved to silicon valley. >> really? >> your book about founders. >> i never tire of hearing stories about that. i was fascinated b