101–110 of 127 posts
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I wonder if there is any YC company that failed to even raise Seed Round.
About a third of the batch is unable to complete their round every demo day season.
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YC does play an important role to get connections to VCs but at the end of the day, "YC" is a signal for VCs, not a criteria. VCs spend time looking at the team, the past achievements, the product and most importantly the existing users. They also try to invest in industries that they know about. In our case the team experience was important. We had solved the problem internally at other companies (and the scars that…
To determine this you'd have to track how many companies raise funds and how much they raise (at what valuation) both inside and outside of YC. From my own view on this supported by quite a bit of data I would say that YC is as close as you're going to find to a stamp of approval in the start-up scene, it has a substantial effect on your chances to raise funds and on the amount you will raise when you do.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
To determine this you'd have to track how many companies raise funds and how much they raise (at what valuation) both inside and outside of YC. From my own view on this supported by quite a bit of data I would say that YC is as close as you're going to find to a stamp of approval in the start-up scene, it has a substantial effect on your chances to raise funds and on the amount you will raise when you do.
Actually, Airbyte is a pivot from a first product. And we struggled a lot to raise with the previous product, even though we were fresh out of YC. YC is an indicator but not enough by itself.
Big fan of looking at what YC founders do 1 year out of the program. YC backs companies in large part on founder quality even if the original idea isn't a winner, and I've made quite a few strong bets on YC founders when they needed a reset a bit later. (The good ones keep the original company cap table intact to take care of their pre-reset investors. That's a huge positive signal for me coming in as fresh blood.)
Great post. After just going through a 6 month, pain-filled fund raise for an open source database (big on integration), this is probably the most upsetting thing I have ever read in my life. Far away from Silicon Valley with no flashy credentials, 13 days is an impossible dream. That said, massive kudos to the team for such clear storytelling & delivery.
> Far away from Silicon Valley This could end up helping much more than hurting long-term. Engineering salaries in the Bay Area are insane. Salaries for engineers in the US overall are very high. If you’re in Europe, you can likely afford 2-3x more engineers than your competitors for the same amount of $ raised.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
To determine this you'd have to track how many companies raise funds and how much they raise (at what valuation) both inside and outside of YC. From my own view on this supported by quite a bit of data I would say that YC is as close as you're going to find to a stamp of approval in the start-up scene, it has a substantial effect on your chances to raise funds and on the amount you will raise when you do.
Actually, Airbyte is a pivot from a first product. And we struggled a lot to raise with the previous product, even though we were fresh out of YC. YC is an indicator but not enough by itself.
This deck without the YC stamp would probably not be sufficient for serious investors for a variety of reasons: Missing market size, addressable market, and market growth, doesn't answer the question of "why now"? (whereas why this and why you is answered). It isn't a bad deck but let's be honest here.
* after getting funded by YC. This deck without the YC stamp would probably not be sufficient for serious investors for a variety of reasons: Missing market size, addressable market, and market growth, doesn't answer the question of "why now"? (whereas why this and why you is answered). It isn't a bad deck but let's be honest here.
The pitch deck first and foremost tells a story with the objective to get a VC interested - or not. This is a necessary but not a sufficient step in the process. Think of it as a marketing prospectus or a 'door opener' type of thing.
If a VC is indeed interested they will conduct intensive due diligence and leave no stone unturned.
Great post. After just going through a 6 month, pain-filled fund raise for an open source database (big on integration), this is probably the most upsetting thing I have ever read in my life. Far away from Silicon Valley with no flashy credentials, 13 days is an impossible dream. That said, massive kudos to the team for such clear storytelling & delivery.
My experience from fundraising in London (UK) is similar to yours, we had one co-founder basically work full-time on fundraising for several months.
Step one: join YC. Step two raise seed. Seriously, this deck would likely not have flown without the YC backing and implicit stamp of approval, once you are in YC you'd have to do pretty bad not to raise seed funding.
YC does play an important role to get connections to VCs but at the end of the day, "YC" is a signal for VCs, not a criteria. VCs spend time looking at the team, the past achievements, the product and most importantly the existing users. They also try to invest in industries that they know about. In our case the team experience was important. We had solved the problem internally at other companies (and the scars that…
The YC stamp is a door opener, a necessary condition to get funded, but not a sufficient one.
The primary way YC is beneficial for raising VC money is in the way the force founders to focus on the metrics that matter, say user growth etc. Which happen to be also crucial for VCs.