Startup School: Every Company That Applied Is Now Accepted • Hacker News Board

Re: Startup School: Every Company That Applied Is Now Accepted

#231

Post by tragicjordan » Tue, Aug 21, 2018, 1:05 PM UTC

threeisoneis wrote: post #209

jackconnor wrote: post #104

Man, credit where credit is due, this showed a lot of integrity. There was one good solution, it was just a painful one, yet they still did it. Well done YCombinator! P.S. They make the point that this is an experiment, and I think all of us who join should prove that it is a good one. Nobody rails against applications and qualifying scores like HN peeps (check the comments of any article, ever, about SAT/GMAT/GRE sc…

I disagree. They didn’t do anything except open up the grant application part to everyone (no cost to them) and promise everybody that they would get some credits (probably no cost to them). The course was always able to be audited. What this really does is make clear the desire of the people at ycombinator to open their pre screening program (which is what startup school is, essentially) to more startups. The value…

Agreed. I was excited by the prospect of being a part of a network of other vetted founders.

If they're letting literally anyone in, it's no more useful than every other founders mastermind group on FB.

Huge misfire by YC. Startup School had the chance to be a wonderful network of promising early stage companies - not only that, you've alienated a lot of the promising companies who were properly accepted.

YC simply does not have the stomach to deal with even an ounce of bad press, and it showed today. I would be very wary as a promising company to jump on board with an organization that will probably throw you under the bus rather than go through the fire with you if ever your company, for whatever reason, incites a mob.

I will no longer be applying to the YC accelerator, and from my conversations with other great founders, I'm not the only one.

Re: Startup School: Every Company That Applied Is Now Accepted

#232

Post by tragicjordan » Tue, Aug 21, 2018, 1:07 PM UTC

dustingetz wrote: post #219

threeisoneis wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. They didn’t do anything except open up the grant application part to everyone (no cost to them) and promise everybody that they would get some credits (probably no cost to them). The course was always able to be audited. What this really does is make clear the desire of the people at ycombinator to open their pre screening program (which is what startup school is, essentially) to more startups. The value…

This – Every serious founder already audited last years startup school via the youtube and podcast. The content was amazing but I saw this as a way for us who don't live in the valley to network our way into YC. However, a YC branded forum exclusively for active founders seems valuable so lets see what happens.

How valuable can a forum with 15,000 companies (most of which are bad) spamming their services ever offer any real value? If you're lucky to have a good group you might find value, otherwise it's going to be pointless.

I'd encourage seeking out other, smaller founder mastermind groups - you'll get much more value there.

Re: Startup School: Every Company That Applied Is Now Accepted

#233

Post by ausjke » Tue, Aug 21, 2018, 1:29 PM UTC

throwmeoutoft11 wrote: post #157

Unpopular opinion here. The value of startupschool (as a previous graduate) is the individual attention we got from a hand selected instructor. I know yc screwed up with the emails, and their response was to please those that they have misled, accidentally of course. But I think they also devalued the class. It's gonna be much harder to offer the quality attention of the past. I think the right thing they should have…

I kind of agree with you, startups have to fix 'mistakes' fast instead of just making others feel pleased? i.e. the so-called 'fire fast', otherwise it might fail more likely. In that sense, YC probably did a wrong move even though it's labelled as an experiment.

Re: Startup School: Every Company That Applied Is Now Accepted

#234

Post by spdebbarma » Tue, Aug 21, 2018, 1:33 PM UTC

allpratik wrote: post #223

r_singh wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your bio doesn't have any contact info. I've updated mine to include my email address.

Hi guys! I'm also a founder from advisor track and from India. You can ping me at mail (at) Khandagale dot com

I didn't apply and I've not been selected because I was moving but I would love to connect with everyone here.

Re: Startup School: Every Company That Applied Is Now Accepted

#235

Post by ModernMech » Tue, Aug 21, 2018, 1:33 PM UTC

tragicjordan wrote: post #231

threeisoneis wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. They didn’t do anything except open up the grant application part to everyone (no cost to them) and promise everybody that they would get some credits (probably no cost to them). The course was always able to be audited. What this really does is make clear the desire of the people at ycombinator to open their pre screening program (which is what startup school is, essentially) to more startups. The value…

Agreed. I was excited by the prospect of being a part of a network of other vetted founders. If they're letting literally anyone in, it's no more useful than every other founders mastermind group on FB. Huge misfire by YC. Startup School had the chance to be a wonderful network of promising early stage companies - not only that, you've alienated a lot of the promising companies who were properly accepted. YC simply d…

> I was excited by the prospect of being a part of a network of other vetted founders.

I mean, that's what YC is supposed to be. Startup school is an effort to bring YC to more people, which obviously is going to involve less vetting. How hard can you vet early age startups that answered 3 questions with 150 words anyway? You're making it a bigger deal of it than it is.

Re: Startup School: Every Company That Applied Is Now Accepted

#236

Post by ModernMech » Tue, Aug 21, 2018, 1:35 PM UTC

dustingetz wrote: post #219

threeisoneis wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. They didn’t do anything except open up the grant application part to everyone (no cost to them) and promise everybody that they would get some credits (probably no cost to them). The course was always able to be audited. What this really does is make clear the desire of the people at ycombinator to open their pre screening program (which is what startup school is, essentially) to more startups. The value…

This – Every serious founder already audited last years startup school via the youtube and podcast. The content was amazing but I saw this as a way for us who don't live in the valley to network our way into YC. However, a YC branded forum exclusively for active founders seems valuable so lets see what happens.

> Every serious founder already audited last years startup school via the youtube and podcast.

I didn't. I'd consider myself to be serious, and I'll presume out of 15,000 other companies there exist some more people like me. I don't think you'll be disappointed by the experience.

Re: Startup School: Every Company That Applied Is Now Accepted

#237

Post by ModernMech » Tue, Aug 21, 2018, 1:36 PM UTC

w_allDueRespect wrote: post #172

funnynoodles wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Respectfully, you don’t see any reasons this would be a bad idea?

Respectfully, what are all of the reasons that this would be a bad idea?

username checks out.

Re: Startup School: Every Company That Applied Is Now Accepted

#238

Post by kcorbitt » Tue, Aug 21, 2018, 1:39 PM UTC

threeisoneis wrote: post #209

jackconnor wrote: post #104

Man, credit where credit is due, this showed a lot of integrity. There was one good solution, it was just a painful one, yet they still did it. Well done YCombinator! P.S. They make the point that this is an experiment, and I think all of us who join should prove that it is a good one. Nobody rails against applications and qualifying scores like HN peeps (check the comments of any article, ever, about SAT/GMAT/GRE sc…

I disagree. They didn’t do anything except open up the grant application part to everyone (no cost to them) and promise everybody that they would get some credits (probably no cost to them). The course was always able to be audited. What this really does is make clear the desire of the people at ycombinator to open their pre screening program (which is what startup school is, essentially) to more startups. The value…

Hi, I was involved in the decision to open Startup School to all applicants and am the developer primarily responsible for writing the software we’ll need to make this scale. We're all planning on working overtime for the next 12 weeks as we prepare for and go through the course. Although we don't have the resources to assign an advisor to every group, we do want to provide human attention to every single company we've accepted.

In general, we're committed to making Startup School an excellent experience for all 15,000 of the companies that applied. This is going to be a great deal of effort for all involved, but it's a point we wanted to get to anyway (even though the timing and communication that lead to this decision was a terrible mistake that we're still really sorry for).

Re: Startup School: Every Company That Applied Is Now Accepted

#239

Post by ModernMech » Tue, Aug 21, 2018, 1:40 PM UTC

threeseed wrote: post #170

fastball wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many companies are still on the advisor track and get that advisor. If you don't find any value without an instructor, then you don't need to participate, but the course material is still there if you want it. Seems like a no-lose to me.

Well technically there is a loss for those on the advisor track. Because you are now competing with 15K teams for the 100 sponsorship spots instead of 4K. But to be honest I don't think it would make all that much of a difference. The top 100 companies will deserve their spot regardless of the competition.

I think you'll be surprised at how many of the 15k actually complete the course. Asking people to write 3 sentences for the chance to win $10k is really really easy. Following through with months of work to win $10k.... not so much. My guess is probably around the original 4k to maybe 6k will complete the course fully.

Re: Startup School: Every Company That Applied Is Now Accepted

#240

Post by tragicjordan » Tue, Aug 21, 2018, 1:41 PM UTC

ModernMech wrote: post #235

tragicjordan wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I was excited by the prospect of being a part of a network of other vetted founders. If they're letting literally anyone in, it's no more useful than every other founders mastermind group on FB. Huge misfire by YC. Startup School had the chance to be a wonderful network of promising early stage companies - not only that, you've alienated a lot of the promising companies who were properly accepted. YC simply d…

> I was excited by the prospect of being a part of a network of other vetted founders. I mean, that's what YC is supposed to be. Startup school is an effort to bring YC to more people, which obviously is going to involve less vetting. How hard can you vet early age startups that answered 3 questions with 150 words anyway? You're making it a bigger deal of it than it is.

I get that, but there was still some form of vetting - enough to disqualify 2/3 of candidates.

I'm not making a big deal out of it. Quite the contrary - I don't care about Startup School anymore, whereas I did before.

Note to anyone reading this: please build a mastermind group that requires an MRR of at least $15k. I'd pay good money to be a part of that.