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Startup School: Every Company That Applied Is Now Accepted

blog.ycombinator.com

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

#261

Post by mLuby »

ModernMech wrote: post #239
threeseed wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

We were accepted and frankly I didn't even notice there was a $10K grant. I mean it'd help of course but not much relative to the value I hope we'll get from advising and serious peers.

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

#262

Post by tragicjordan »

mindcrime wrote: post #244
tragicjordan wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I get that, but there was still some form of vetting - enough to disqualify 2/3 of candidates. But that's just the thing... nobody actually knows if that level of vetting is meaningful... it may perform no better than chance in terms of identifying "good" startups (however you define that). This experiment will actually be very interesting exactly in that it will help YC see if their vetting IS as good as they think…

Having $15k MRR means you actually are a company. What value am I going to get from people who haven't even gotten to that point yet?

It's a pretty good barometer for success - 99% of founders don't get to that point.

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

#263

Post by mLuby »

pilingual wrote: post #64

Hi everyone! I went through SS last year, and I was going to email them suggesting this exact solution. Know that trying to decide 1000 out of 15000 startups is incredibly challenging, especially given the fact that the application asks for very little data. So don’t ever think you weren’t meant for this, because it is a school program and everyone has the potential to dominate. This isn’t a zero sum game. As for sta…

Do they really call it SS? Not to summon Godwin here but historically that wasn't a great organization to be in…

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

#264

Post by tragicjordan »

snowmaker wrote: post #247
tragicjordan wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

We're going to work hard to moderate the community to prevent that from happening. I think Hacker News itself shows that it is possible to run a large community site that's open to everyone and still keep the content interesting and non-spammy.

Yeah, I suppose it's a fair point that if anyone's going to moderate this properly it's you guys.

Don't mind my negative commentary - I know this was a difficult day for you, and I appreciate the hard decisions that need to be made.

As a founder, though, I have a very hard time finding groups of other founders who have reached a certain level of success and was very excited to be a part of that. It's very difficult finding something like that and I really hope you guys can consider my ideas here.

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

#265

Post by privacypoller »

deepGem wrote: post #252
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…

> Agreed. I was excited by the prospect of being a part of a network of other vetted founders. I feel compelled to say this. I am one of the founders who got an initial reject followed by an accept email. I read the accept email and felt good (I had not even read the reject email). When I learned that YC has accepted everyone, I felt better. Sure having access to a dedicated advisor has an advantage. The advisor can…

>> I'm not sure how the vetting process adds any value

What? The entire point of vetting is to increase the quality of the remaining pool. You can argue how successful they are at doing this, but the intent of the process is pretty clear.

>> The way I see it, the vetting is more or less random.

Don't let YC or anybody else define you, but if you'd got in initially I bet you'd take it as a positive signal data point.

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

#266

Post by privacypoller »

punnerud wrote: post #246
tragicjordan wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Does that mean you think HN should turn into a private group, and that way get better than it is now?

I'd put a lot more effort and expect far more value out of a private, vetted startup school then I would say, this response.

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

#267

Post by privacypoller »

mLuby wrote: post #258
deepGem wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Agreed. I was excited by the prospect of being a part of a network of other vetted founders. I feel compelled to say this. I am one of the founders who got an initial reject followed by an accept email. I read the accept email and felt good (I had not even read the reject email). When I learned that YC has accepted everyone, I felt better. Sure having access to a dedicated advisor has an advantage. The advisor can…

There are so many wantrepreneurs and "founder networking" types that suck up valuable time. I'd hoped that YC had filtered those out and that accepted companies could assume their peers are as serious as they are.

Welcome to the new society - participation ribbons for all!

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

#268

Post by enapyggybank »

dang wrote: post #199
shawn wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I felt so bad for whoever made the email mistake. I hope they're feeling alright. It's a bug everyone could see themselves letting slip through.

I checked with him and he's fine, but I think probably also in shock. In case it helps, I haven't seen any signs of blame; everyone knows we could easily have done it ourselves. The general feeling seems to be that it motivated us to do something that we wanted to do in the first place, but thought we couldn't.

Yea, it's a shitty position to be in but it could happen to any of us. Hope he won't be too hard on himself. With that being said, we were one of the originally rejected and then accepted startups. I guess that means we're part of the advisory track. I just hope that YC can still dedicate the originally-intended resources to the advisory group.
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