31–40 of 42 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because people do not criticize the alma-mater and mentor, especially as influential as, YC (and by extension PG) in public.
Just my thoughts... I think a lot of the people that have a bad experience did so by their own actions. A lot of people flame out during YC... but that it's because of founder issues, personal issues, legal problems... etc. They just quietly go away.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You think there's a dozen Sequoias or DFJs ?
Have there been any "Sequoia invested in me and totally fucked me over" posts? I'd guess there have been very few if any.
My understanding is that the relationship depicted between Sean Parker/Sequoia in the film is pretty close to the reality.
I like YC as much as the next guy, but here's an important question: Why have we never seen a blog post saying that it's not worth it? Even if YC has an extremely high satisfaction rate, the sheer number of startups they've funded has to have left at least one with a bad taste in their mouth. I love hearing feedback like this and I almost never get tired of reading this article (especially when it has a good spin to…
i think it's probably due to the fact that you get as much out of YC as you put into it. If you need help they'll give it to you...they have those kinds of connections. So the only thing it comes down to is money, and it's pointless to complain about that when you just flamed out and the equity is worth 0. And if you are a success, you attribute a large part of it to the connections you got through YC. or they are af…
Darius is the man. Agreed with him 100%. I'll also look at YC % as "advisory shares". You are actually getting a great deal considering the knowledge and experience from the whole YC alumni network.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
i think it's probably due to the fact that you get as much out of YC as you put into it. If you need help they'll give it to you...they have those kinds of connections. So the only thing it comes down to is money, and it's pointless to complain about that when you just flamed out and the equity is worth 0. And if you are a success, you attribute a large part of it to the connections you got through YC. or they are af…
The thing is, if you need a really good advisor, you don't give away 6% of your company to do it. That's unheard of in Silicon Valley. If you want to bring on a great advisor, you'll probably only need to give up 1% (or a fraction of it).
Darius is the man. Agreed with him 100%. I'll also look at YC % as "advisory shares". You are actually getting a great deal considering the knowledge and experience from the whole YC alumni network.
Giving up 6% for advice is very, very expensive.
If you're generating killer revenue, have other investors throwing you term sheets like roses at a matador... Then don't do it. Giving up 6% of your company might not make sense... unless there is a chance YC could help you significantly increase your revenue or valuations... and in that case the 6% is worth it.
Anyway, I don't mean to blow YC's trumpet. It won't make sense for everybody... it did for us and I'm really glad we did.
Darius is the man. Agreed with him 100%. I'll also look at YC % as "advisory shares". You are actually getting a great deal considering the knowledge and experience from the whole YC alumni network.
Giving up 6% for advice is very, very expensive.
But with backers like YC, you suddenly have a team of proven badasses that have a vested interest in making sure you succeed. So ask yourself, will YC _improve your chances of success_ by more than X%? If the answer is yes, take the deal. (Spoiler alert: the answer is yes.)
I like YC as much as the next guy, but here's an important question: Why have we never seen a blog post saying that it's not worth it? Even if YC has an extremely high satisfaction rate, the sheer number of startups they've funded has to have left at least one with a bad taste in their mouth. I love hearing feedback like this and I almost never get tired of reading this article (especially when it has a good spin to…
Actually it's possible to say when it wouldn't be worth it: http://paulgraham.com/equity.html I think the reason we don't often hear about borderline cases is that the market is truncated at the high end by later stage investors, who wouldn't allow the startups they'd funded to participate in YC even if they'd be net ahead as a result. I.e. I've seen more than one series A funded startup that we could have helped suf…
Darius is the man. Agreed with him 100%. I'll also look at YC % as "advisory shares". You are actually getting a great deal considering the knowledge and experience from the whole YC alumni network.
Giving up 6% for advice is very, very expensive.
For that 6% you're not getting idle advice, you're getting YC on your team. It's a rare early-stage startup indeed whose value this wouldn't increase by more than 6.4%. For most, getting into YC is a state change and has profound effects.
Since by the looks of things you've created an anonymous account specifically to question whether YC is worth 6% of a startup, I think at this point you should either back up your assertions with something credible or be dismissed as a drive-by troll.