Yuri Milner, SV Angel Offer Every New Y Combinator Startup $150k • Hacker News Board

Re: Yuri Milner, SV Angel Offer Every New Y Combinator Startup $150k

#101

Post by pg » Sat, Jan 29, 2011, 8:19 AM UTC

wheels wrote: post #94

mlinsey wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The assumption has to be that Milner will participate in follow-on rounds for companies that look like they will be Heroku or bigger.

I wonder if there's a clause that requires the ability to participate in later rounds. That would make more sense. Otherwise it's not clear that they'd be able to. Heroku raised $3m a month after demo day; I'm not sure what it would have taken for an angel to be able to get into that round.

All convertible notes convert into shares with the same rights as the shares sold in the equity round in which they convert. These invariably include pro-rata rights.

Re: Yuri Milner, SV Angel Offer Every New Y Combinator Startup $150k

#102

Post by jolhoeft » Sat, Jan 29, 2011, 8:19 AM UTC

andreshb wrote: post #41

DevX101 wrote: post #37

For all the talk from U.S. politicians about encouraging innovation, it takes the Russian to come here and put his money where his mouth is.

Consider, also, that most entrepreneurs in tech are foreigners (or children of), Vivek Wadwha had an interesting article on that. But those that stand out: Larry+Sergei. If "The Russian" comes to the U.S. to make an investment is because the U.S. has done a really really good job in terms of policy to make it easy and convenient for foreign investors to bring money to the U.S. now they (gov) need to do the same for t…

A while back as I was meandering through my history readings, I noticed that most of the philosophers, sages, and artists of ancient Athens weren't from Athens. I didn't actually follow that up with a study to confirm it, but I can't help but wonder if there is some deep truth hidden here.

Re: Yuri Milner, SV Angel Offer Every New Y Combinator Startup $150k

#103

Post by mkramlich » Sat, Jan 29, 2011, 8:55 AM UTC

mattgratt wrote: post #7

YC is now the best deal that exists.

maybe now we need a YC for new YC's

Re: Yuri Milner, SV Angel Offer Every New Y Combinator Startup $150k

#104

Post by pclark » Sat, Jan 29, 2011, 8:56 AM UTC

I am most excited because this will mean hardware and oter "harder" things might be possible with less "baby steps" involved to get companies where they want to be - faster.

Re: Yuri Milner, SV Angel Offer Every New Y Combinator Startup $150k

#105

Post by jackowayed » Sat, Jan 29, 2011, 8:57 AM UTC

One potential issue I see is that YC companies might get complacent. I know that there are tons of factors that lead to the insane productivity that happens during YC, but I'm sure that the fact that many companies need to raise money or fail contributes.

Also, the money might keep people working on bad ideas instead of giving up and trying something new. Obviously they could pivot, but $150k gives them the ability to spend ~a year working on a bad idea before needing outside validation.

But I'm sure it'll be great for YC overall

Re: Yuri Milner, SV Angel Offer Every New Y Combinator Startup $150k

#106

Post by d8niel » Sat, Jan 29, 2011, 8:58 AM UTC

Y combinator is doing an amazing job!

Re: Yuri Milner, SV Angel Offer Every New Y Combinator Startup $150k

#107

Post by kevinelliott » Sat, Jan 29, 2011, 9:07 AM UTC

This is truly remarkable. Those of us yet to have submitted to YC now have an additional reason to do so. And it took a foreigner to do it. Po.iticians should take note, because this is how you stimulate an economy and innovation.

Re: Yuri Milner, SV Angel Offer Every New Y Combinator Startup $150k

#108

Post by MichaelApproved » Sat, Jan 29, 2011, 9:28 AM UTC

ztan wrote: post #78

trotsky wrote: post #48

Basically he just paid $6M to have a seat at the table and be a guaranteed call when they're raising their series A. I guess that's one way to get in to the early stage game.

That's $6M every batch, at least $12M a year. Assuming YC classes does not expand. I think PG mentioned about 1/3 of the YC companies fail. So that's $4M in the water every year. Out of the rest 2/3s chances of being a Heroku are... actually I'm going stop here because I'm sure they've worked out all the math already.

Maybe the extra 150k can help lower the 1/3 failure rate.

Re: Yuri Milner, SV Angel Offer Every New Y Combinator Startup $150k

#109

Post by MichaelApproved » Sat, Jan 29, 2011, 9:31 AM UTC

jgilliam wrote: post #24

Web startups are now rock bands, and YC is the record label.

I thought rock bands got shitty contract deals from record labels. These terms seem pretty fair and very unlike the recording industry.

Re: Yuri Milner, SV Angel Offer Every New Y Combinator Startup $150k

#110

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jan 29, 2011, 10:33 AM UTC

andreshb wrote: post #41

DevX101 wrote: post #37

For all the talk from U.S. politicians about encouraging innovation, it takes the Russian to come here and put his money where his mouth is.

Consider, also, that most entrepreneurs in tech are foreigners (or children of), Vivek Wadwha had an interesting article on that. But those that stand out: Larry+Sergei. If "The Russian" comes to the U.S. to make an investment is because the U.S. has done a really really good job in terms of policy to make it easy and convenient for foreign investors to bring money to the U.S. now they (gov) need to do the same for t…

[deleted]