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Sam Altman: ‘Too many’ Y Combinator companies raise money

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31–40 of 175 posts

Re: Sam Altman: ‘Too many’ Y Combinator companies raise money

#31
post #5
post #3

He'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.

These kind of companies are among the hardest to get going unless you are the first entrant into a new field. The chicken-and-the-egg problem can take longer to solve than you can stay liquid. Better make sure you have a lot of runway.

Re: Sam Altman: ‘Too many’ Y Combinator companies raise money

#32
This seems to fit a continuous change in YC and perhaps tech in general. YC doesn't seem so eager to fund 1000 startups so that 2 of them become unicorns anymore.

It's more like they want to fund 1000 startups so that 100 are sustainable.

We don't hear moonshot or billion dollar market depth or hyper growth as much as we used

Anyone feeling the same?

Re: Sam Altman: ‘Too many’ Y Combinator companies raise money

#33
post #25

Is there any way for YC to build its prestige and the sense of value it delivers without being a positive signal?

Yes, this forum. This forum makes it marginally easier for their companies to get recognition and hire employees. Additionally, if you look at the really successful companies that have come out of the program, they were all funded by YC when they took on far less companies.

[deleted]

Re: Sam Altman: ‘Too many’ Y Combinator companies raise money

#34
post #10

Was just thinking the other day, it'd be super interesting if YC ran some YC Equity/YC UBI experiments within its own network. Basically in joining YC, each YC member would be granted a percentage of YC's 7% stake in all of the YC companies which would reduce their need to fundraise. In theory, YC members should all be highly motivated achievers and use that percentage stake to move their diverse set of businesses fo…

For that matter, why not just distribute shares of YC, or a YC ownership vehicle, itself, rather than individual member companies.

Take a percent of equity, add it to the "YC Mutual Fund", and return equal value in the form of "YC Mutual Fund" shares at par value.

Re: Sam Altman: ‘Too many’ Y Combinator companies raise money

#35
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am interested in trying some version of this! Have been thinking about all the edge cases.

That'll be expensive. On the order of 100's of millions per year at that scale. 15,000 * 1000 = 15 M / month for an amount that would move the needle, but still not enough to live off.

I don't think they have 1500 companies inflight at once though.

Re: Sam Altman: ‘Too many’ Y Combinator companies raise money

#36
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That'll be expensive. On the order of 100's of millions per year at that scale. 15,000 * 1000 = 15 M / month for an amount that would move the needle, but still not enough to live off.

I don't think they have 1500 companies inflight at once though.

Roughly, yes YClist has 1280 of them, and every half year there are more. And at 10 FTE / company average the GGGP's 15,000 FTE total is believable. It could easily be more than that.

Re: Sam Altman: ‘Too many’ Y Combinator companies raise money

#37
This seems like a signalling problem. If a YC company looks for funding at some point after demo day, the first question VCs ask is going to be "why didn't you raise money at demo day?" -- so there's going to be an incentive for companies to go after money at demo day even if they're not ready simply because it will be much harder if they wait.

I wonder if it would be effective to tell YC companies that they can participate in a demo day, but it doesn't have to be the one for their batch -- so a company could wait and join the following cohort in order to avoid the stigma of being "the company which couldn't get funding at demo day and is now going around to VCs one by one".

Re: Sam Altman: ‘Too many’ Y Combinator companies raise money

#38
post #27
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's an honest comment about the "Halo-effect" the YC stamp can have on investors. One useful counterfactual is thinking about what our comments would be if Sam said "more YC company should raise money immediately after the program". I think it would be very hard to defend that every (most?) startup is ready for such a commitment at that very specific moment in time.

But YC is already making the claim that every company in the program is ready for investment. It's doing so by investing in them.

[deleted]

Re: Sam Altman: ‘Too many’ Y Combinator companies raise money

#39
Aka... 'too many' companies go on to raise outside money and dilute ycombinator shares. How unfortunate that ycombinator can invest a limited amount of money and have graduates turn around and get 10x as much from other investors. It must be stopped!

Also, I'll have some serious respect for YC if I'm not banned for this comment =)

Re: Sam Altman: ‘Too many’ Y Combinator companies raise money

#40
post #10

Was just thinking the other day, it'd be super interesting if YC ran some YC Equity/YC UBI experiments within its own network. Basically in joining YC, each YC member would be granted a percentage of YC's 7% stake in all of the YC companies which would reduce their need to fundraise. In theory, YC members should all be highly motivated achievers and use that percentage stake to move their diverse set of businesses fo…

This sounds along the lines Hexayurt Capital proposal: http://hexayurt.capital/transcript.html
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