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It would be counter-productive to say anything bad about seed investors who own 10% of your company, on their news website.
I have seen some mixed reviews of YCombinator on http://thefunded.com. Or you can search for other sites that compare various funds and accelerator programs. Each have their pros and cons, and you shouldn't expect any one program to be perfect for all startups.
I guess there are quite a few negative experiences. Esp those that were rejected by Y Combinator. I think Y Combinator is over-rated- atleast now (I am attracting downvotes-Go ahead) Their startups havent had really big exits, so far.Once they do,things might change.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think you can count 'rejected by YC' as a 'negative experience'. It's pretty much the definition of 'non-experience'. It's like saying that the department store experience was bad because they wouldn't sell you a lawnmower at half price when you asked them to.
I was rejected by YC a couple years ago, and I mostly enjoyed it (I loved talking to the AppJet guys). The fact that I didn't build the company I was pitching is prima facie evidence that I agreed with their assessment. (and in retrospect, I wasn't the right person to do that company and you could hear it in my voice)
It would be counter-productive to say anything bad about seed investors who own 10% of your company, on their news website.
We had a great experience with no regrets. Apply now if you're on the fence. Having said that, my criticism is that, like any startup, YC has some growing pains while it scales.
In particular, our experience (S2010, 36 companies) wasn't as intimate as I had hoped it would be. But they're working to address that, which was a learning experience in itself. You get to see how smart people try to scale an operation while preserving what makes it special.
Relatedly, I also didn't expect YC to feel internally competitive at times. Resources can become limited, from the basics like seating and food, to the important stuff like the time and attention of speakers, investors, and PG himself. With that many companies, there's also inevitably some overlap among product ideas.
However, overall it was much more cooperative than competitive, and I welcomed a little friendly competition. The resulting "coopetition" is a balance I think they'll need to watch as they scale.
1. There aren't enough social events, especially early in the cycle. So we're adding more.
2. Founders were surprised how harsh our feedback was at times. We may be able to be more diplomatic. But I think the fundamental problem is that this is a domain where, so far at least, many participants fail. So if you're truthful, you're often going to be delivering bad news.
3. The speakers got swarmed after talks, because there were some founders who schmoozed with all the speakers as a matter of course, instead of giving priority to others with specific reasons to talk to that speaker. We have a plan to fix this.
4. The acoustics in the orange room are a disaster. When the room's full of people talking you have to yell to be heard. Kate is having a huge sound-absorbing curtain made to fix this.
5. It's too inflexible that office hour slots are exactly 25 minutes. Different problems need varying amounts of time. So we'll make the slots adjustable.
6. Founders wanted a more organized way of getting and sharing feedback about specific investors, so we're going to build something for that.
7. We have to start teaching founders about fundraising earlier in the cycle, because investors are approaching them earlier.
This isn't a place where you would get an unbiased review of the YCombinator experience. I have seen some mixed reviews of YCombinator on http://thefunded.com . Or you can search for other sites that compare various funds and accelerator programs. Each have their pros and cons, and you shouldn't expect any one program to be perfect for all startups.
It would be counter-productive to say anything bad about seed investors who own 10% of your company, on their news website.
Completely the opposite. I've been on HN for several years and am currently applying to YC with a cofounder. Having had the pleasure of meeting pg this past weekend I would say that both he and YC are very open to legitimate criticisms when they arise. YC is all about helping startups to succeed, because if they do then so does YC.