I find it surprising that Heroku was the breakeven point. There have been other (what I consider) rather high-profile exits, such as Cloudkick, Reddit, Etherpad, 280 North, etc. These were good companies and were acquired for significant amounts; it seems like YC would have realized some significant gains on them.
I'm wondering if "break-even" in this case means "typical VC 10X expected profit on investments"
Paul Graham's Search for the Next Facebook
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Re: Paul Graham's Search for the Next Facebook
#22I believe the title is a bit misleading. Nowhere in the article was the name Facebook mentioned except in title.
Re: Paul Graham's Search for the Next Facebook
#23Re: Paul Graham's Search for the Next Facebook
#24Re: Paul Graham's Search for the Next Facebook
#25Re: Paul Graham's Search for the Next Facebook
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
It exists and is called Dragons' Den.
American version is called Shark Tank, and based on the deals the investors offer, it's aptly named. Mark Cuban has signed on to be part of the next season!
Re: Paul Graham's Search for the Next Facebook
#27I find it surprising that Heroku was the breakeven point. There have been other (what I consider) rather high-profile exits, such as Cloudkick, Reddit, Etherpad, 280 North, etc. These were good companies and were acquired for significant amounts; it seems like YC would have realized some significant gains on them.
"YC broke even on its past investments when Salesforce.com (CRM) bought YC company Heroku"
Since the sales price is above 200 million, YC's equity would be worth 12+ million, which likely surpassed the total monetary first-seed investments in every startup they did so far.
Re: Paul Graham's Search for the Next Facebook
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm wondering if "break-even" in this case means "typical VC 10X expected profit on investments"
No. That would be one hell of a creative definition for 'break-even'.
Re: Paul Graham's Search for the Next Facebook
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
No. That would be one hell of a creative definition for 'break-even'.
Look at a Hollywood contract sometime, with such lovely concepts as "triple breakeven" and "rolling breakeven". The creativity in LA isn't just behind the camera!
Re: Paul Graham's Search for the Next Facebook
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
American version is called Shark Tank, and based on the deals the investors offer, it's aptly named. Mark Cuban has signed on to be part of the next season!
Mark Cuban had a TV show, The Benefactor [1], with a similar premise. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Benefactor