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Y Combinator Failed Startups

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Re: Y Combinator Failed Startups

#111

Post by o_class_star »

nxmnxm99 wrote: post #74
WoahNoun wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After stealing HomeJoy's customer DB for another start-up, she is now a YC partner... Move fast and break things?

She railroaded our YC interview for having a similar model (albeit in a different vertical) simply because she failed, so naturally we would also fail. Aaron Harris, another failed entrepreneur turned YC partner, has routinely done the same I've heard. We're now 2 years later pushing $2M ARR profitably and about to raise our Series A. YC not taking 7% of our company was the best thing that ever happened to us. YCombi…

YC existed to monetize the reputation Paul Graham earned by writing two very good Lisp books.

YC today: no Paul Graham, and too many right-wingers.

Re: Y Combinator Failed Startups

#112

Post by mdorazio »

andi999 wrote: post #102
gibolt wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a difference between knowing the difference and admitting it. When you run a business from start to scale, you likely know the main failure point, and it is probably a few simple variables.

Well the answer is probably in 95% of the cases 'not enough sales', but it wont tell you anything. Also I believe even in hindsight you dont know what was really the problem (in the sense that you know what could have been done to make it succesful)

Not sure I agree with that. Most astute founders can tell you pretty accurately why they didn't achieve enough sales to offset costs, they're just unlikely to do so for strangers because it usually means admitting at least some amount of self-fault. I know I can give a shortlist for my own failed businesses that's a lot more detailed than "not enough sales".

Re: Y Combinator Failed Startups

#113

Post by mathattack »

WoahNoun wrote: post #32
knes wrote: post #17

How can you make a list of failed yc companies and not mention homejoy? $66m raised, bad operations, bas unit economics, lawsuits and an abrupt shutdown. All of that after being the calley darling for so long.

After stealing HomeJoy's customer DB for another start-up, she is now a YC partner... Move fast and break things?

That’s a heavy duty accusation. Source? Attached is the wired story. https://www.wired.com/2015/10/why-homejoy-failed/

Re: Y Combinator Failed Startups

#114

Post by jjoonathan »

dcolkitt wrote: post #92
twmahna wrote: post #28

Worth noting that the proximate cause of death is often times largely uninformative as to why the startup actually failed. Most failed startups fit into the following timeline: was burning more money than it was making => failed at raising more money => did a round of layoffs / cost cuts to get economics under control => couldn't right the ship and shut down / did a fire sale or acquihire But, the above timeline does…

> But, the above timeline doesn't teach you much about why the company really failed. I for one would like to see this table with the founders' average email response times. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19375483

I'm sure the trend generalizes, but I'd be wary of cargo-culting it because a number of simple and plausible explanations put the causality arrow firmly in the other direction. Failure isn't fun to share, failure implies a need to re-think and strategize, failure means you can't delegate enough of your responsibilities to specialize in appearing quick and decisive to your investors, failure means you aren't in the startup circle anymore and aren't looking to cultivate your relationship with Sam Altman, and so on. Any one of those effects could singlehandedly create the observed trend without implying that quick response times lead to healthy businesses.

Re: Y Combinator Failed Startups

#115

Post by andi999 »

mdorazio wrote: post #112
andi999 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well the answer is probably in 95% of the cases 'not enough sales', but it wont tell you anything. Also I believe even in hindsight you dont know what was really the problem (in the sense that you know what could have been done to make it succesful)

Not sure I agree with that. Most astute founders can tell you pretty accurately why they didn't achieve enough sales to offset costs, they're just unlikely to do so for strangers because it usually means admitting at least some amount of self-fault. I know I can give a shortlist for my own failed businesses that's a lot more detailed than "not enough sales".

Yes, but is the list really true (in an objective sense). I mean why didnt you act on it, or why was it only know afterwards. (Of course the list might contain a lot of unchangable items, but this would mean the startup was impossible)

Re: Y Combinator Failed Startups

#116

Post by jonathankoren »

dustingetz wrote: post #108
twmahna wrote: post #28

Worth noting that the proximate cause of death is often times largely uninformative as to why the startup actually failed. Most failed startups fit into the following timeline: was burning more money than it was making => failed at raising more money => did a round of layoffs / cost cuts to get economics under control => couldn't right the ship and shut down / did a fire sale or acquihire But, the above timeline does…

no explanation is needed for joe founder failing to achieve a $1B outcome. Better to ask why the few succeed and the answer is usually one that could not have even been foreseen.

Not really. That’s a definition of survivorship bias. The answer many times comes down to luck.

https://theconversation.com/huge-success-in-business-is-larg...

Re: Y Combinator Failed Startups

#117

Post by dang »

troughway wrote: post #2

With the eye-raping callout (dark background -> white background switch) half-way through the article on wanting an email address (three callouts within the article in total), I'm shocked you didn't finish the job and put a big fucking modal popup smack dab in the middle as I was scrolling and ask once more.

Would you please stop posting crap comments to HN?

Re: Y Combinator Failed Startups

#118

Post by jonathankoren »

Kind of surprised not to see Homejoy on this list. After failing to understand three sided marketplaces, posting a widely mocked Christmas blog post, Homejoy flamed out, and founder Adora Cheung landed as a partner at YC... for some reason.

Kudos on failing up.

Re: Y Combinator Failed Startups

#119

Post by underwater »

Can't help feeling like this article is doing their sponsor a disservice.

> Here are some of their biggest failures, sorted by funding. [...] NerdPilots

My first thought was "I've never heard of NerdPilots, but they must have been awful" before realising that it was an ad.

Re: Y Combinator Failed Startups

#120

Post by dustingetz »

7twelve wrote: post #71

I have this question on my mind and if someone could explain this sincerely I would be very grateful. Time after time, YC startups seem to engage in practices which are unethical or dark or downright scammy. Be it Homejoy, uBiome, or many others. They seem to employ aggresive marketing tactics. They work under assumption that "law does not apply to us". Although this is true for ultra rich people, why regular seed fu…

start here https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/229FkbLrhat9JLhwQ/does-big-b...
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