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How Y Combinator Is Remaking Silicon Valley in Its Image

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Re: How Y Combinator Is Remaking Silicon Valley in Its Image

#21

Post by mbateman »

jacquesm wrote: post #13
terpua wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say Dropbox is on its way.

It's one of the more successful ones but for all the hype I haven't signed up and neither has anybody that I know outside of HN. Now I'm probably not the target audience anyway so that's no surprise, but I really can't see something like dropbox being the next google. They have a business model that requires payment for anything but the most trivial uses (which is great, they'll be profitable, but it is a definite br…

Okay, this is just a counter-anecdote, but I know tons of people that are using Dropbox. It's really big and getting rapidly bigger in academia, which is how I first found out about it.

Last week I had to send a PDF to one of my students (an undergrad philosophy major) and suggested dropbox, and she already had a public folder set up.

Re: How Y Combinator Is Remaking Silicon Valley in Its Image

#22

Post by grellas »

jacquesm wrote: post #10

Silicon valley is a lot larger than just web start-ups. If and when YC launches something that eventually turns in to the next google or something on that scale it will have a real impact, but for now the big winners have not been created using the YC model. Who knows, maybe one day.

Actually, if there was one tension point underlying the conference, it had to do with the impact of this model versus the older VC model that encouraged companies to "swing for the fences." There undoubtedly has been a decided shift in typical early-stage funding during the past two years. The VCs, which once controlled all the key activity, are now in a position of having uncertain deal flow, while the angel side of things is plainly booming. Of course, the biggest winners likely will emerge from the VC side but even then angels are typically heavily involved as co-investors in those deals as well.

The write-up in this piece nicely captures what occurred at this conference. For a few of my notes of the event, see http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1560091.

Re: How Y Combinator Is Remaking Silicon Valley in Its Image

#23

Post by [deleted] »

kloncks wrote: post #4

Opponents of "Pay & Spray" will have a field day with Ron Conway's quote: Archangel Ron Conway, who said he’s put money into 500 companies over the last 12 years, kicked off the day with an optimistic and generous recruiting speech: He said he believes every “entrepreneur who has the guts to start a company” should get funding, and added “I believe the more angels we have in Silicon Valley the better.”

[deleted]

Re: How Y Combinator Is Remaking Silicon Valley in Its Image

#24

Post by david927 »

jacquesm wrote: post #10

Silicon valley is a lot larger than just web start-ups. If and when YC launches something that eventually turns in to the next google or something on that scale it will have a real impact, but for now the big winners have not been created using the YC model. Who knows, maybe one day.

The YC model is great but I think it's going to continue to be a place that mainly turns out companies that investors like, rather than what is a hit with the public at large.

Why? Because of Farmville. Because no one in their right mind could have predicted Farmville's success. And that's the learning. If you're good, you might be able to guess singles and doubles, but no one can guess the homeruns.

Re: How Y Combinator Is Remaking Silicon Valley in Its Image

#25

Post by tomjen3 »

jacquesm wrote: post #13
terpua wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say Dropbox is on its way.

It's one of the more successful ones but for all the hype I haven't signed up and neither has anybody that I know outside of HN. Now I'm probably not the target audience anyway so that's no surprise, but I really can't see something like dropbox being the next google. They have a business model that requires payment for anything but the most trivial uses (which is great, they'll be profitable, but it is a definite br…

I could not disagree with you more - my mother has a dropbox account (and she is _not_ technical), so does my brother, my grandmother (though only because I set it up for her) and pretty much every person I know who is working on anything related to computers.

Re: How Y Combinator Is Remaking Silicon Valley in Its Image

#27

Post by smakz »

jacquesm wrote: post #13
terpua wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say Dropbox is on its way.

It's one of the more successful ones but for all the hype I haven't signed up and neither has anybody that I know outside of HN. Now I'm probably not the target audience anyway so that's no surprise, but I really can't see something like dropbox being the next google. They have a business model that requires payment for anything but the most trivial uses (which is great, they'll be profitable, but it is a definite br…

It sounds to me like you are quoting verbatim something Chris Anderson might say.

Software companies in the valley have gotten along just fine charging for services and software with only giving users a token free trial. Microsoft and Oracle are doing just fine.

If you want to look at the big players on the web, there are far more public companies charging for services then there are whose main product is free. Akamai, Sales Force, Amazon, Ebay, NetFlix, Omniture (now adobe) I could go on and on.

When talking about public companies who give their primary service away for free, I can only think of 4examples with market caps over a billion: Google, Yahoo, IACI, and sometimes Monster.

There is a lot of hype about free, thanks especially to Chris Anderson's highly accessible book and influence, but if you look at the results and who really made it big (not 100 million dollar exit big, but multi billion dollar market cap big), starting with a business model where you charge your customers is the best way to achieve that.

Re: How Y Combinator Is Remaking Silicon Valley in Its Image

#28

Post by eru »

smakz wrote: post #27
jacquesm wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's one of the more successful ones but for all the hype I haven't signed up and neither has anybody that I know outside of HN. Now I'm probably not the target audience anyway so that's no surprise, but I really can't see something like dropbox being the next google. They have a business model that requires payment for anything but the most trivial uses (which is great, they'll be profitable, but it is a definite br…

It sounds to me like you are quoting verbatim something Chris Anderson might say. Software companies in the valley have gotten along just fine charging for services and software with only giving users a token free trial. Microsoft and Oracle are doing just fine. If you want to look at the big players on the web, there are far more public companies charging for services then there are whose main product is free. Akama…

Another example: Citrix opensourced xenserver some time ago. The basic version is free as in speech and bear.

Re: How Y Combinator Is Remaking Silicon Valley in Its Image

#29

Post by trevelyan »

david927 wrote: post #24
jacquesm wrote: post #10

Silicon valley is a lot larger than just web start-ups. If and when YC launches something that eventually turns in to the next google or something on that scale it will have a real impact, but for now the big winners have not been created using the YC model. Who knows, maybe one day.

The YC model is great but I think it's going to continue to be a place that mainly turns out companies that investors like, rather than what is a hit with the public at large. Why? Because of Farmville. Because no one in their right mind could have predicted Farmville's success. And that's the learning. If you're good, you might be able to guess singles and doubles, but no one can guess the homeruns.

I think YC is great. As long as the risk in early stage businesses is misvalued by the market, it doesn't really matter if they hit singles, doubles or home runs.

Incidentally, Farmville was not a crazy bet -- the game was a clone of a Chinese casual game called Happy Farm that was seeing insane traction in China. The US innovation was hooking it up to the non-transparent mobile subscription services that Zenga got nailed for later.

Re: How Y Combinator Is Remaking Silicon Valley in Its Image

#30

Post by redrobot5050 »

p0ppe wrote: post #16
jacquesm wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's one of the more successful ones but for all the hype I haven't signed up and neither has anybody that I know outside of HN. Now I'm probably not the target audience anyway so that's no surprise, but I really can't see something like dropbox being the next google. They have a business model that requires payment for anything but the most trivial uses (which is great, they'll be profitable, but it is a definite br…

Students are a big user group. The allure of accessing your school related files from anywhere (web access is a big plus) is quite big. They're probably not that lucrative, though.

Its a cheap off-site back-up solution. Think about it: Back up everything on multiple PCs for $20/mo. Access from anywhere, even the web.

I haven't converted to a pay using yet, but I'm at 50% of my 3.5GB. When I hit my space limit, I will likely switch.

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