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What Happens At Y Combinator

ycombinator.com

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Re: What Happens At Y Combinator

#81

Post by davi »

pg wrote: post #75
aspir wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How often do those situations happen (ie- take money from a low quality individual or close the doors)? Startup sucess rattes are very low as a whole, so it seems as if there may be a culture of "vulture" investors in SV to prey on entrepreneurs who just need cash. It'd be good to know the warning signs.

Maybe once per cycle. There doesn't seem to be a culture of bad investors; they're all bad in their own ways.

Reminds me of the opening to Anna Karenina: "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

Re: What Happens At Y Combinator

#82

Post by ghshephard »

shykes wrote: post #64
guelo wrote: post #56

The main insight I took from this was the quip about "investing in YC-funded startups is safe in the same way buying name-brand products is". Like many people I sometimes feel ripped off when I pay 50% more for that box of Kellogs cereal or whatever. I imagine the same feeling might be the motivation behind AngelGate.

There's a difference: YC's brand is not based purely on marketing. It's based on the success rate of past YC companies, which is objectively higher than average. From an angel's point of view, YC is a deal refinery. Raw deals come in. High-quality, refined deals come out. Many investors will gladly pay a premium for those, because much of the early risk has been taken out: do the founders get along? Do they crack und…

re: "YC figured out a repeatable, streamlined formula for a process which was previously a black art. They industrialized the gut feeling."

That's not my understanding. I don't think they have any formula other than "We recognize great entrepreneurs when we see them" - It's not something they can write down in a book and sell to other people - so, in that sense, not industrialized. Still a gut feeling.

I could be wrong though - happy to hear otherwise.

Re: What Happens At Y Combinator

#83

Post by ghshephard »

cperciva wrote: post #71
pg wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I meant half a waking day, cperciva. When someone says "I spent half a day trying to find that bug," they don't mean 12 hours.

I meant half a waking day, cperciva. Huh. That never occurred to me as an interpretation. I wonder if this is a British vs. American vs. Canadian English issue, or if I'm just slower than usual today.

I'm from British Columbia originally, Half a Day (in the dinner context) is 12 Hours to me. I'll do a sample of the Indians, Canadians, and Americans in the office and get back to you.

This may be another of those "organ-eye-zation" versus "organ-eh-zation" things that pop up form time to time.

Re: What Happens At Y Combinator

#84

Post by pg »

dzlobin wrote: post #60

If the startup either hasn't decided what to work on Approximately what percentage of startups do you accept that apply with no particular idea?

Nearly all have some idea or ideas. Some make it clear that they're not wedded to their idea, which is fine with us, actually.

Re: What Happens At Y Combinator

#85

Post by pg »

jbhelms wrote: post #51

What do you recommend to the founders that can't move to the bay area? Like people who own homes, have a family, etc? I know the YC requires it. I once emailed and asked about commuting because my co-founder and I both live in Sacramento, but the person who answered my email basically said that commuting is not feasible.

We funded some guys from the Central Valley once, with houses and families. They rented a place in SV for 3 months, and they'd go home on weekends to visit their families.

Re: What Happens At Y Combinator

#86

Post by pg »

andjones wrote: post #57

How exportable is YCombinator? Much of YCombinator depends on people being in the same geography. I understand that to be the reason why founders are required to move to Mountain View. Do you think it would be possible to start YCombinator prime elsewhere in the country? If we put together many of the same factors, angels, infrastructure, good mentors, could this be replicated, albeit on a smaller scale?

The hardest part to replicate elsewhere would be the angels. You really need them, more than you need VCs, and you can't just call them into being.

Re: What Happens At Y Combinator

#87

Post by _delirium »

robg wrote: post #31
pg wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No others are quite as bad. We'd be dubious about startups building stuff for the government, for example, because there is such a horrible mismatch between startup culture and government culture. But we'd still fund a startup building stuff for the government if they weren't naive about what selling to the government would entail.

Thanks and agreed. I'm surprised I haven't seen many (any?) medical applications from YC companies given the margins available over consumer applications. Do you think it is the uncertainty of the FDA regulations or just a space that Silicon Valley doesn't tend to mine as frequently? Make something patients want is particularly alluring to me.

I don't know of any successful medical startups that didn't have strong involvement (usually as founder) of an MD, usually with some experience and connections. Perhaps it's possible for a group of twentysomething techies who are complete medical-industry outsiders to produce a new disruptive product, but it's at least uncommon and makes things harder (especially to get regulatory approval and buy-in among physicians). And I'd guess the overlap between YC applicants and MDs with significant experience is quite small.

Re: What Happens At Y Combinator

#88

Post by nl »

raminf wrote: post #52

I've always thought of YC as more of an incubator for young 20-somethings trying to get an idea off the ground. The impression has been fortified by the reported small amounts of 'seed' that is given out. I know a lot of people in older age brackets (30s-40s-50s) with a family and Silicon Valley mortgage who have great ideas and experience but wouldn't even consider approaching YC. My one suggestion is if you want to…

You may find "Doing Y Combinator in your 30s" useful & interesting: http://zencoder.com/encoder-blog/2010/09/21/doing-y-combinat...

Re: What Happens At Y Combinator

#89

Post by hyad »

Great article! Just reading this finally motivated me enough to create an account here and seriously think about applying for winter 2011. After some reconsideration though, I'm not quite sure I'd be willing to quit my day job just yet. I have a few ideas for startups and one project I've been working on in my spare time that is interesting but nowhere near complete. Would it be worth to apply anyway? Perhaps I could list all the ideas I have or maybe just the best one? I was also thinking about applying to the YCommonApp. But I'd prefer to target my resume to specific companies just because that has worked for me the best in the past. Anyone have advice on what might be a good route to take? YCombinator funding? YCommonApp? Both or neither?
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