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Ask HN: Pick startups for YC to fund

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Ask HN: Pick startups for YC to fund

#251

Post by petrbela »

kevin wrote: post #21

Hey everyone! I manage and run the Fellowship program at YC. I just want to build on top of what Dan wrote about being nice. We’re not asking you to do this because we think it’s good manners. We actually believe it’s the right way to think and act like the best investors. It’s easy to form some really bad habits when you sit in a position of power to judge the potential of a person, a team, an idea and their executi…

> The best investors don’t spend a lot of time on what can go wrong. They already know the odds are against every startup that ever comes into existence. They already know every startup is a shit show. Those will be the reasons why all the other investors will miss out on an unpredictable opportunity. The best investors try to figure out what can go right. They dream a little with the startup and they then sell that vision back to the founders.

This should be carved in stone :)

Re: Ask HN: Pick startups for YC to fund

#252

Post by timwaagh »

wow. this is really unprecendented. i know some guy who works at a different startup accelerator. one which is funded with EU money. he made some comment about his acc being a lot better on a value-for-equity basis (like obviously). i tried to explain yc would continue to be the #1 not just because of its size or the amount of funding per share to its startups but because of the way it is run. this is an excellent example.

Re: Ask HN: Pick startups for YC to fund

#253

Post by horsebattery »

Redoubtable wrote: post #212

Right because the first thing I think as a founder is oh definitely I'd love to have my work judged by the insane neckbeard posse that is Hacker News Commentariat. That's totallllllly something I'd love and will likely to end up producing better and more diverse result. Sorry guys I should really not even get involved but this is baffling. HN is second only to Reddit in terms of its nasty, divisive, anti-anything tha…

Speak for yourself, I am cleanly shaven.

Re: Ask HN: Pick startups for YC to fund

#254

Post by dean »

personjerry wrote: post #102
kevin wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You look for grit. What evidence can you find that shows they don't just give up when things get hard? Thing is we don't find out usually until after we invest what the real problems are...so we optimize for people we want to spend a lot of time with and work on these problems/issues whatever they may be. Most founders feel imposter syndrome after they're accepted. The great thing about being part of a batch is you r…

> You look for grit. It always seems to me that "grit" and "stubbornness" are similar, and being stubborn to the degree of being unable to give up a hopeless dream seems to be a problem for startup founders. How do you distinguish between these very similar traits when you interview someone?

This is exactly what I was thinking the other day when I saw a tweet from Jessica Livingston saying: "Denial is the silent killer of startups." How do you know if you are persevering, or if you're in denial?

Re: Ask HN: Pick startups for YC to fund

#255

Post by grey-area »

hoodoof wrote: post #131

Truth is, I'd start writing code to copy any idea that I was totally blown away by, and I don't need any funding to start doing that. Putting your idea right there in front of some pretty fast moving programmers has to be something people would think twice about. Having said that, it's hard to imagine an idea being sufficiently compelling to start writing code to implement it immediately. The only ideas that really b…

Truth is, I'd start writing code to copy any idea that I was totally blown away by, and I don't need any funding to start doing that.

Have you ever actually done this? If so what was the result? Did you then spend the several years of hard work it typically takes to make a great idea into a successful idea?

What people mean when they say ideas are worth nothing is that a good idea is worth nothing without execution, and the effort required to execute and develop it is usually 1000x that to have the initial idea.

Re: Ask HN: Pick startups for YC to fund

#257

Post by dang »

viviennelee wrote: post #248

Curious -- Are Apply HN threads only meant for existing HN users to comment/upvote? I'd be more interested in this if it were condoned and encouraged to have my startup's existing userbase upvote and post comments about why they love the product. My typical user is not a HN user. I know it can be done anyway, but if it's viewed as "gaming" the system I wouldn't want to do that.

You definitely shouldn't do that. It's against the rules, and HN users sniff it out like truffle pigs.

Re: Ask HN: Pick startups for YC to fund

#258

Post by zeemonkee3 »

gizmo wrote: post #137
hoodoof wrote: post #131

Truth is, I'd start writing code to copy any idea that I was totally blown away by, and I don't need any funding to start doing that. Putting your idea right there in front of some pretty fast moving programmers has to be something people would think twice about. Having said that, it's hard to imagine an idea being sufficiently compelling to start writing code to implement it immediately. The only ideas that really b…

There just aren't that many people out there who are willing and capable of doing the hard work it takes to bring something --anything-- to the point where it usable. Those who are have their own projects already, which they won't abandon based on a forum post. And if they do, they're going to abandon this new project the moment they read about an even cooler idea. Besides, ideas grow and take on a life of their own…

> You can literally try to clone any YC company after demo day.

Not quite true. A growing number are hardware/robotics or biotech or some other field that require significant capital investment and highly specialist Phd-level expertise to even get a proof-of-concept off the ground, so you can't just "open your favorite editor" and get started.

Then you have those which cover a niche that again requires some kind of insider knowledge or connections (it helped for example that Facebook was created in Harvard). That's not to say these are impossible barriers, but again they're not broken by hacking away at node or PHP.

The pool of ideas that a) you, personally, can execute on today and b) have a hope of generating profit or funding within a reasonable timeframe is not as big as people like to think. Much of the low-hanging fruit of profitable ideas that can be executed by the single coder in the proverbial basement has been picked long ago.

Re: Ask HN: Pick startups for YC to fund

#259

Post by psygnisfive »

lowglow wrote: post #188
kevin wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You look for grit. What evidence can you find that shows they don't just give up when things get hard? Thing is we don't find out usually until after we invest what the real problems are...so we optimize for people we want to spend a lot of time with and work on these problems/issues whatever they may be. Most founders feel imposter syndrome after they're accepted. The great thing about being part of a batch is you r…

I'm living out of a van right now in Palo Alto, after having sold everything I own to build projects that work. My worldly possessions can fit inside a single backpack. My co-founder and I are generating revenue and grinding on making sure the community loves what we're building. My burn rate is close to 300-400/mo, less if I eat less per day. #grit Beyond that what else is there?

Buy instant(ish) noodles from an asian grocery. They often have lots of great variety and are cheap and healthier than the ramen you'll usually get in big chain groceries. In fact, but as much as you can from asian groceries, they tend to be super cheap and need your business more than big chains do.
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