61–70 of 96 posts
"We have altered the deal. Pray we don't alter it any further".
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If cost of living is so high, I wonder why they wouldn't invest in a dorm-like living space for founders? I'm not familiar with the area, so I imagine there's reasons for it, but being able to focus on work instead of life-maintenance details seems like it would benefit the organization.
Providing employees with some kind of inexpensive nutrient slurry would also be a great way to help mitigate the high cost of living.
I know this is HN and jokes are shunned, but you wrote "We do not expect this to be the last time we change the deal" and I can't help but think you missed a golden opportunity to write, "We have altered the deal. Pray we don't alter it any further".
You'll be surprised.
And upvoted.
I know this is HN and jokes are shunned, but you wrote "We do not expect this to be the last time we change the deal" and I can't help but think you missed a golden opportunity to write, "We have altered the deal. Pray we don't alter it any further".
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> In this case, why would you be interested in YC? What would it offer you? It's a fair point. The irony is that because our startup is doing well, we'd rather spend our time talking to customers and building the product than pitching to investors. Maybe what we're really looking for is a next-gen take on capital that would look something like this: * Minimal time needed by us to reach a decision on whether they'd li…
Those all sound like reasons to apply to YC. :) We've funded a good number of companies at this point that were farther along when they applied and had millions in revenue (MessageBird, for example, who was just on HN a couple days ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23624854 ). I recommend reaching out to some of those alum and talking to them about their experience.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Rents in San Francisco’s SOMA neighborhood dropped 9% in May https://www.google.com/amp/s/sf.curbed.com/platform/amp/2020... My guess is that the departures will continue as unemployment rates grown and that when federal and state payments run out we will see a further decline. I think companies will soon have to justify why they can afford to have an office with remote as the better (and cheaper option). Other than…
Rents dropped 9% but landlords are also offering 8 weeks free Which really means an annual lease has dropped 25% quite steep, you could probably offer something closer to 38% lower.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
From the beginning, YC was opposed to the incubator model, which that idea would be more aligned with. Even having startups share offices was never something they were interested in. That was partly because they had no interest in managing offices, or managing at all (or offices, for that matter). But there were deeper reasons: the sense that great startups develop in environments of their own creation, a suspicion o…
One of the first things YC partners say to you when you the program starts is: "We are not your employers, we will let you fail." I think that's a core part of how YC works and things like sharing office space or having dorms would degrade that by helping founders to escape some of the responsibilities of their company. For people in YC who are looking for places to work though and want to get out of their apartments…
Our startup is profitable, scaling, and in the single-digit millions of revenue per year. We don't have any investors but are still capital constrained. The default YC valuation of $125k/0.07 = ~$1.8M is way too low for us, nor do we want the requirement of having to meet with other startups once a week since we're already quite busy. Does YC have a "funding offering" for startups at our stage?
This is the wrong way to look at it.
Instead, ask yourself: would you exchange 7% of your company to join the YC community and be able to leverage their resources forever?
The answer should be a resounding yes if you think your company will be > 7.5% more valuable if you join YC [1]. Which it should [2]. The $125K is just the cherry on top and just one of many perks of joining YC (albeit a useful one for companies that have no funding/revenues so they can focus 100% on building their product instead of having to worry about paying for housing/food/servers/SaaS).
The vast majority of us who have gone through YC would've done it even if it wasn't for the monetary investment.
[1] See PG's Equity Equation essay: http://paulgraham.com/equity.html
[2] You'll likely even make up for the 7% almost immediately because you'll likely raise your seed round at a significantly higher valuation (> 7.5% higher for sure) than if you hadn't gone through YC. But it's very likely that your company will intrinsically be worth significantly more than that too.
I know this is HN and jokes are shunned, but you wrote "We do not expect this to be the last time we change the deal" and I can't help but think you missed a golden opportunity to write, "We have altered the deal. Pray we don't alter it any further".