Unless I am mistaken, literally all YC companies raise money. They do it from YC itself.
There are lots of ways you could spin it, but how can Sam justify such a statement when they've invested in all of these companies too?
Sam Altman: ‘Too many’ Y Combinator companies raise money
11–20 of 175 posts
Re: Sam Altman: ‘Too many’ Y Combinator companies raise money
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
By any chance, do you have further readings on this? We're also a struggling marketplace and would take great motivation from this.
Read The Upstarts by Brad Stone. It's a fascinating book about the rise of Airbnb and Uber. Also check out the podcasts with Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky on How I Built This and Masters of Scale respectively.
Wow, those seem like great resources! Thank you so much!
Re: Sam Altman: ‘Too many’ Y Combinator companies raise money
#13> I think there’s sort of this halo around being a Y Combinator company, where companies raise money that perhaps shouldn’t.
This is such a strange sentiment. YC has invested in all of these companies, then they pooh pooh others that follow their lead?
Re: Sam Altman: ‘Too many’ Y Combinator companies raise money
#14He's probably right, didn't Airbnb struggle for about a year after graduation?
By any chance, do you have further readings on this? We're also a struggling marketplace and would take great motivation from this.
Look at your competitors. What do they legally have to do to operate? Licensing, taxes, insurance, permits, etc.. Tally up all those things. Then stop paying them. Now you can offer lower rates than competitors. If the government tells you that you have to do certain things hire a lawyer and claim that you aren't actually in the industry that you are in.
Re: Sam Altman: ‘Too many’ Y Combinator companies raise money
#15The Russian money has got to go somewhere #payitforward
Re: Sam Altman: ‘Too many’ Y Combinator companies raise money
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
Read The Upstarts by Brad Stone. It's a fascinating book about the rise of Airbnb and Uber. Also check out the podcasts with Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky on How I Built This and Masters of Scale respectively.
Wow, those seem like great resources! Thank you so much!
Also the how I built this podcast https://one.npr.org/?sharedMediaId=497820565:497945288, and their mixergy interview from eons ago https://mixergy.com/interviews/airbnb-chesky-gebbia/
Re: Sam Altman: ‘Too many’ Y Combinator companies raise money
#17He's probably right, didn't Airbnb struggle for about a year after graduation?
The opposite - they raised money from some top VC and didn't even present at Demo Day
Re: Sam Altman: ‘Too many’ Y Combinator companies raise money
#18Re: Sam Altman: ‘Too many’ Y Combinator companies raise money
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
By any chance, do you have further readings on this? We're also a struggling marketplace and would take great motivation from this.
Look at your competitors. What do they legally have to do to operate? Licensing, taxes, insurance, permits, etc.. Tally up all those things. Then stop paying them. Now you can offer lower rates than competitors. If the government tells you that you have to do certain things hire a lawyer and claim that you aren't actually in the industry that you are in.
Bonus points: Instead of employees use contractors, and instead of making capital investments make your contractors do it. Just make sure you can change the terms of service at any time, without consultation.
Externalize all your costs, keep all the revenue!
Re: Sam Altman: ‘Too many’ Y Combinator companies raise money
#20Maybe I'm misinterpreting but in a way it sounds like he's saying that YC sometimes (often?) bet on ideas / teams that turn out to be crap. Well, of course that's going to be true.
Just they same, prestige or not, track record or not, it's also possible that not all ideas / teams were the right fit for the YC program. That is, yes within YC they were bad bets, but that's not to say things won't change once they're away from the VC dynamic.
Finally, perhaps he feels that by others putting money into what YC might consider a lost cause, those others will eventually realize what YC realized? But now the losses of others could be "blamed" on YC and thus tarnish the YC brand going forward?