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What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

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Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#31

Post by barry-cotter »

naringas wrote: post #11
alehul wrote: post #6

> East Coast VCs are much more conservative, which is ultimately bad because it results in less moonshots succeeding. This is really accurate, at least from my experience as someone of a similar age working on my first startup at the time. With cold outreach to VCs in NYC I had zero responses, and only two meetings with BigCos curious about us; they seemed easier to get the attention of. When I reached out to investo…

> East Coast VCs are much more conservative, which is ultimately bad because it results in less moonshots succeeding. "East Coast VCs are much more conservative, which is actually better in a longer term because it results in more stable return rates (less failure)"

> East Coast VCs are much more conservative, which is actually better in a longer term because it results in more stable return rates (less failure).

Returns are power law distributed, not normally. You want to increase your variance, not minimize the chance of the fund not returning anything. VC’s investment thesis is not based on making solid returns that aren’t that risky. It’s a bunch of minimally correlated bets, most of which will return nothing, some of which return 100x their investment or more.

Stripe and AirBnB are the majority of the value of YC’s investment portfolio.

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#33

Post by learnstats2 »

bsenftner wrote: post #24
blocked_again wrote: post #18

> Silicon Valley doesn't care about your background This is BS. You have a much higher chance of rasing money for the same idea if you worked in FAANG than if you worked in Accenture. Same goes to someone who went to Harvard vs someone who went to University of Colorado.

Silicon Valley cares about your age - young entrepreneurs get more attention than older. I think it is because the younger are more manipulable.

Right - 17 year olds are unlikely to have enough experience of business or negotiation to know (for example) what conventions protect themselves from exploitation.

But, on the other hand, can learn that as quickly as anyone else.

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#34

Post by macspoofing »

blocked_again wrote: post #18

> Silicon Valley doesn't care about your background This is BS. You have a much higher chance of rasing money for the same idea if you worked in FAANG than if you worked in Accenture. Same goes to someone who went to Harvard vs someone who went to University of Colorado.

I think it just needs to be properly qualified. OP specifically referenced his age (which I am skeptical about as well).

>You have a much higher chance of rasing money for the same idea if you worked in FAANG than if you worked in Accenture.

You may be right, but do you have any evidence of this, anecdotal or otherwise?

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#35

Post by lhnz »

macspoofing wrote: post #34
blocked_again wrote: post #18

> Silicon Valley doesn't care about your background This is BS. You have a much higher chance of rasing money for the same idea if you worked in FAANG than if you worked in Accenture. Same goes to someone who went to Harvard vs someone who went to University of Colorado.

I think it just needs to be properly qualified. OP specifically referenced his age (which I am skeptical about as well). >You have a much higher chance of rasing money for the same idea if you worked in FAANG than if you worked in Accenture. You may be right, but do you have any evidence of this, anecdotal or otherwise?

  > You may be right, but do you have any evidence of
  > this, anecdotal or otherwise?
It's true everywhere else in the world. I think the burder of proof should be the other way around, and instead you should provide evidence this isn't the case within the YC/VC system?

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#36

Post by mola »

alehul wrote: post #14
naringas wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> East Coast VCs are much more conservative, which is ultimately bad because it results in less moonshots succeeding. "East Coast VCs are much more conservative, which is actually better in a longer term because it results in more stable return rates (less failure)"

I should’ve only quoted the first part of the sentence as relevant to me, but: Better for whom? I agree it could result in better average returns for the firm, but it likely isn’t better for moving society forward as a whole.

How did you get the notion that moonshots move forward the society? Heck large parts the US is 3rd world level I'm infrastructure and education. But US is really good with VC and such.

Sorry, this assumption is just a pipe dream.

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#38

Post by mola »

roenxi wrote: post #21
alehul wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I should’ve only quoted the first part of the sentence as relevant to me, but: Better for whom? I agree it could result in better average returns for the firm, but it likely isn’t better for moving society forward as a whole.

Firms that do not make a solid profit margin are a really bad sign - it means that there is little value add by the firm. If I buy $10 worth of paints (and equipment) then use that to create and sell you a painting for $10, that is society signalling that I really should find something better to do with my time. The raw materials are about as hard to produce as the care anyone has for my work. The value created by me…

It's true, If everything of value has a price tag. That, my friend, is an opinion, not a fact.

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#39

Post by roenxi »

mola wrote: post #38
roenxi wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firms that do not make a solid profit margin are a really bad sign - it means that there is little value add by the firm. If I buy $10 worth of paints (and equipment) then use that to create and sell you a painting for $10, that is society signalling that I really should find something better to do with my time. The raw materials are about as hard to produce as the care anyone has for my work. The value created by me…

It's true, If everything of value has a price tag. That, my friend, is an opinion, not a fact.

While not everything of value has a price tag, everything where the price tag is paid has value.

If people make a habit of matching the two it will not end well. We need outputs to, on average, be greater than inputs or the whole show falls apart.

Re: What I Learned Going Through YC as a 17 Year Old

#40

Post by Schwan »

Puh you can read the unexperiennce in this blog post in every sentence.

And the most weird thing is, that it feels that he sees himself now as an entrepreneur.

He just might not realize that those snowflakes like Uber or Microsoft are what they are snowflakes.

He will learn that either he becomes very quick and disruptive to an specific industry with a lot of luck and a lot of hard work and then he might have a chance in 1 to 1 million to make it big or he accepts that he just gets used by YC Type of people who are willing to risk something their money, but the personal life comes from the entrepreneur with a small chance of real success.

For every Bill Gates is probably a Million and more People who did not make it.

Its still way easier and much safer and much healtier to try to get into FANNG.

Not saying people shoulnd't try but please understand whats going on, you are not that close to becoming Elen Musk, Bill Gates, Suckerburg etc.

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