Y Combinator's Demo Day loses luster • Hacker News Board

Re: Y Combinator's Demo Day loses luster

#51

Post by matsemann » Sat, Sep 04, 2021, 5:05 PM UTC

corin_ wrote: post #41

tptacek wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I learned from several years of operating a consulting business building security teams for startups is that you probably have no intuition for which startups are going to be viable and which aren't. Certainly, the idea that you can evaluate their prospects from how exciting a single-sentence description is turns out to be totally false.

I think you're missing the point of parent comment (or at least the point I'd be making) - it's not that those descriptions make it seem like the business will fail, it's that those descriptions make me not care whether or not they fail. I suspect the person you replied to, like me, isn't disappointed because they want to cheer on a possible unicorn but because they want to cheer on startups that are doing interestin…

Yes, that's what I'm trying to convey. I know YC prioritize differently than me, and that is fine. Just felt like it used to be more aligned before.

Re: Y Combinator's Demo Day loses luster

#52

Post by threatofrain » Sat, Sep 04, 2021, 5:45 PM UTC

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #31

ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #24

Don't expect this lacklustre quality from Axios. The body of the article says nothing.

Par for the course with Axios. Their articles never say anything. They give the appearance of providing information with their bullets points and ‘why it matters’ sectioning, but it’s really the journalistic equivalent of cotton candy.

Axios does provide information, it's just that rather than a long-form essay they distill a story down to a few bullet points. You are obviously going to lose something if you exchange essays with 3-5 bullet points. Nevertheless, Axios is unique in choosing this style.

I don't know how they did it, but Axios emerged out of nowhere and suddenly developed access to the White House, including under the Trump administration.

Re: Y Combinator's Demo Day loses luster

#53

Post by mola » Sat, Sep 04, 2021, 6:44 PM UTC

ignoramous wrote: post #15

mrcwinn wrote: post #4

I might be missing something - it’s early in the morning - but a VC at another investor says Demo Day isn’t that good, and Axios runs with a story saying as much? I think capital is plentiful for quality companies so there are certainly options out there. But from what I can see anecdotally, YC is, now as much as ever, a fantastic opportunity to gain visibility to high-quality investors.

Pretty much. Immad Akhund (pg once claimed immad was the best at fundraising among all yc founders [0]) tweeted that the yc-batch valuations were at an all time high [1]. Y Combinator valuations are up from 1 year ago. Rest of seed market will prob follow. This YC batch: Pre-revenue in non hot market: ~$15m (was $8m) 2nd time founder and pre-traction: ~$20m (was $12m) $30k+/month/revenue or hot market: $25m+ (was $15…

What do these valuations even mean? At most it means that money is dirt cheap now.

Re: Y Combinator's Demo Day loses luster

#54

Post by addandsubtract » Sat, Sep 04, 2021, 10:52 PM UTC

mojuba wrote: post #25

ignoramous wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much. Immad Akhund (pg once claimed immad was the best at fundraising among all yc founders [0]) tweeted that the yc-batch valuations were at an all time high [1]. Y Combinator valuations are up from 1 year ago. Rest of seed market will prob follow. This YC batch: Pre-revenue in non hot market: ~$15m (was $8m) 2nd time founder and pre-traction: ~$20m (was $12m) $30k+/month/revenue or hot market: $25m+ (was $15…

Just realized how no traction can be nicely repackaged as pre-traction . Language matters!

Relevant Silicon Valley scene: https://youtu.be/BzAdXyPYKQo

Re: Y Combinator's Demo Day loses luster

#55

Post by sunil_loanmeet » Sun, Sep 05, 2021, 2:03 AM UTC

I am in the current batch, and I had similar thoughts that author implied in the beginning - large number of Startups in batch , how remote would work , and how remote would affect fundraising .

I feel remote or some kind of hybrid is here to stay since it is better - work in your home country or hometown , no commute needed for office hours , exposure to more VCs via remote , and flexibility to move out of a session if it is not relevant or you are feeling sleepy.

The real downsides are below and our partners shared the same in beginning . 1. Less interactions with your batchmates and random chat on all kinds of topics 2. Exposure to the SF area that most international founders do not have 3. Parties at restaurants - not shared by partners

I love YC, so my opinion might be biased . YC is best and 10X better than anything I know or heard of.

Re: Y Combinator's Demo Day loses luster

#56

Post by aaronbrethorst » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 6:07 AM UTC

threatofrain wrote: post #52

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Par for the course with Axios. Their articles never say anything. They give the appearance of providing information with their bullets points and ‘why it matters’ sectioning, but it’s really the journalistic equivalent of cotton candy.

Axios does provide information, it's just that rather than a long-form essay they distill a story down to a few bullet points. You are obviously going to lose something if you exchange essays with 3-5 bullet points. Nevertheless, Axios is unique in choosing this style. I don't know how they did it, but Axios emerged out of nowhere and suddenly developed access to the White House, including under the Trump administrat…

They were founded by a group of bigshots from Politico. It wasn’t out of nowhere. Punchbowl News is the same way. In 2025, I hope you don’t say they came out of nowhere.