71–80 of 96 posts
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".
This is great for YC, not great for YC backed startups. By giving each company $25K less, they can now place bets on 3,000 more companies. Less money for you, less risk for them. I wonder if their success rate has declined as their batch sizes have gotten larger. YC has become less and less attractive to me over the years. Is it just me?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In this case, why would you be interested in YC? What would it offer you? It seems disappointing that YC's value is no longer qualitatively good advice for early-stage founders and a close-knit community of hackers. Maybe I'm just jaded, but it appears increasingly corporatized every year. Sometimes it feels like YC might as well be a certificate — just a stamp of approval that provides access to a network of investo…
> 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…
Then at the end you focus on demo day which I promise you is the most concentrated and efficient way to meet investors and raise a round on the terms you are looking for (caveat being I don't know how it works remote). Then it's back to grinding on the company. The further along you are by demo day the easier and more efficient your raise will be.
Is that worth 7%? Lots of founders think so. In our batch we had a company that had more than $8MM revenue previously that went on to raise millions on an uncapped note that converted really high. Pretty sure it was worth it to them.
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".
The disclaimer killed the joke.
This is great for YC, not great for YC backed startups. By giving each company $25K less, they can now place bets on 3,000 more companies. Less money for you, less risk for them. I wonder if their success rate has declined as their batch sizes have gotten larger. YC has become less and less attractive to me over the years. Is it just me?
I figured the increase to over 100k is when non-technical people started doing it. They hire people to make their MVP instead of the founders themselves. Or am I wrong about that?
$100K won't buy enough professional services to build, launch, and operate an MVP unless the app is very simple. If it's simple enough that anyone can drop $50K-100K on design services and have your business cloned, it's not a very defensible startup idea. There are occasional exceptions, but typically the founding team must have the majority talent and skills required to launch the MVP.
Using YC’s $125k to hire a few contract engineers to help you reach velocity and deliver a V1 is an incredibly smart move.
Not every YC company is a developer tool or something complex. In fact, looking at the most recent batch I’d say the majority are fairly simple in their technology approaches.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Employers let employees fail all the time, and when that happens the stop giving them money. When a startup fails VCs stop giving them money. The illusion of autonomy motivates some people, but make make no mistake - when you take VC money you are an employee of that VC firm - with low pay, no benefits, no title, no desk, etc.
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.