Any bad experiences with Y combinator?

Disclaimer: I don't have YC experience.

In school, my classmates and I too often experienced the opposite kind of feedback: pat on the back, great job, I thought it was fantastic, etc. What little criticism was given usually came in the format of a "compliment sandwich."

Although praise is nice, in general I find that being nice to avoid confrontation or to prevent hurt feelings only promotes complacency and lack of (personal) growth. Not to mention if you tell me something was great when I know it sucks, you've lost all credibility with me.

Don't sugar coat it - I have a pretty good general idea of what's working. I find honest feedback more helpful.

First off, I want to just say thatI think YC is a very good program for younger developers and/or those who know the problem space they want to develop in but haven't quite worked out the firm business model.

However, my negative experience with the program is that I think the funding for the equity you give away is a very poor deal for founders. $20k/$6k a founder doesn't last long and it seems to me that you could raise similar/more money on much better terms elsewhere.

Sure, you get the incubator program as the 'meat' of the investment but it's like saying working at Google is best because you get the wonderful free lunches... I can get better job + pay elsewhere and sort out the lunches on my own (read: where 'lunch' is the network, connections, feedback on my startup, that YC offers... others can provide that too etc).

I'm expecting this will get down voted because most people here are very pro YC. I am too, I even went to Startup School last weekend. I just wouldn't want to take funding at YC over other angel and seed routes at a better valuation (or even better, delay valuation entirely and take a note instead).

to me is seems that the ~7% the founders give, yields them more then ~30k + events + coaching + incorporation.

in my view: YC'inng makes the startup (and even any of your future startups) so much more attractive and exposed to potential investors, that this alone justifies the ~7%.

but i have no metrics for this :-) someone?

(i leave out the 3 months that founders "have to" invest as that is something the "have to" invest in order to starup anyway)

1) Contacts - we can sit down with just about anyone we can think of.

2) Alumni - the YC alumni network is pretty huge and the alums have been super helpful. We've gotten advice, design feedback, encouragement when we were having darker days, and we've used them as product guinea pigs.

3) Brand name - being able to say "We're a YC company" makes people instantly pay attention to you.

4) Advice - yc has seen a whole bunch of startups. They were able to to save us from going down a bunch of bad paths, even when we didn't want their advice. It's hard to quantify, but I feel like I have a better understanding of how to build something that people will actually use because of yc.

4) A support structure - Office hours with pg, jl, harj, et al are indispensable. These are now available to us forever.

Before getting accepted into yc, my cofounder and I had a bunch of discussions about how much of the company we were willing to give up. We were nervous and thought the upper bound (around 10%) seemed really high. In retrospect 10% would have been a totally reasonable price to pay for what we've gotten in return.

As for your job/lunch comparison, I'd argue that YC's network, connections, feedback, advising, alumni network, speakers, etc. are the "job" and the money they give you is the "lunch" rather than the other way around.

Lastly, YC is an accelerator, not an incubator, which I think is an important distinction for anyone reading this thread and considering applying. You don't work on-site at YC. You work in your proverbial garage.

I mention these things because they might help friends, acquaintances, and others who are still considering applying.