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Applications open for Y Combinator's summer 2012 funding cycle

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Re: Applications open for Y Combinator's summer 2012 funding cycle

#101

Post by mindcrime »

sneak wrote: post #90
mindcrime wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I question what reasons someone would have to be unwilling to move to the Bay Area for 3 months given the amount of founders that claim that YC was the tipping point for their companies. OK, just to give one example... my co-founder is married, and her husband is in graduate school. So either he'd have to interrupt his education to come with her, or he'd have to accept her running off to the opposite side of the coun…

All of life is trade-offs. Aside from that, though: Who can't live alone for 90 days? Seriously? When Virgin America NYC/SFOs are sub-$200 roundtrip?

Yes, life is all about tradeoffs. And I'm not saying we won't ultimately apply... all I'm saying is that it's not necessarily the easy decision some people seem to think it is. Especially for the people who aren't part of the "just out of college, single, no family, few commitments" scene.

I'd like to do YC myself, and being single (although not "just out of college") it would be pretty easy for me to do. But my cofounder has a say in this as well, and I have to respect her position.

Anyway, I was just giving one example of a situation where the decision is a bit complicated.

Re: Applications open for Y Combinator's summer 2012 funding cycle

#102

Post by zupa »

PG: do you feel you burned your hands with those kind of startups not transferred from RFS2008 to RFS2009? ( For others: http://ycombinator.com/ideas.html , http://ycombinator.com/rfs.html )

If I may go specific, does the idea of a web OS make you go "OMG, forget it"?

Re: Applications open for Y Combinator's summer 2012 funding cycle

#103

Post by alpb »

I have several questions. I'm co-founding a global social network startup and our team is of 4 Computer Science senior year students studying and living in Turkey.

Do the startups located outside the US and has no chance to relocate for 8 months can be elected in YC? Is there a chance out there for us do you think?

Re: Applications open for Y Combinator's summer 2012 funding cycle

#104

Post by itmag »

I would like to apply but I feel stumped. I have a bunch of ideas and I'm a very resourceful and personally developed person (heh) with a big network of useful contacts / potential cofounders, but I don't know how to translate that into a compelling pitch.

Someone should start a business that writes these applications for you. :p

Re: Applications open for Y Combinator's summer 2012 funding cycle

#105

Post by Maro »

pclark wrote: post #70
jarek wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you're running a startup I really cannot think of a singular reason as to why you wouldn't apply. Nitpicking: No interest in moving to the Bay Area would seem to be one.

I question what reasons someone would have to be unwilling to move to the Bay Area for 3 months given the amount of founders that claim that YC was the tipping point for their companies.

I think YC is great, but.

YC is not for founders who like to go their own route, who like to figure stuff out on their own, even if it takes more time and is more risky. If you have too much handed to you, you will not learn as much as you would from your mistakes. Also, just based on HN there seems to be an awful lot of groupthink around YC (not the partners I'm sure), which is annoying to lone-wolf types.

Btw. I think your "tipping point" statement has a lot of survivor bias. Was it a tipping point for the ones that ended up going nowhere? Well, not, by definition. And for the ones that did and raised a series A, yes of course it was, but so is raising a series A without YC.

Re: Applications open for Y Combinator's summer 2012 funding cycle

#106

Post by michael_nielsen »

cing wrote: post #92
michael_nielsen wrote: post #86

Would YC ever fund a not-for-profit startup, as a form of philanthropy? Part of the reason I ask is that for-profit and not-for-profit organizations have different kinds of leverage, and for some activities not-for-profits have big advantages. It's striking that some major success stories like Khan Academy and Wikipedia are not-for-profit. I imagine that having a YC-like model applied to not-for-profits might produce…

I don't think a VC would fund a non-profit, even if they were a "Khan Academy" or "Wikipedia", unless it was on a personal donation basis ( http://www.paulgraham.com/darfur.html ). Then again, are always exceptions ( http://www.acumenfund.org/ ).

Any YC partners who wanted to do this could set up a parallel not-for-profit or charity. That organization might benefit from some of the easily scalable benefits of YC (say, providing access to the YC alumni network), but would be independent. It wouldn't even necessarily need to be funded by YC partners - there are foundations which might be interested in partnering with an organization like YC to fund this kind of thing.

Re: Applications open for Y Combinator's summer 2012 funding cycle

#107

Post by michael_nielsen »

sterling312 wrote: post #96
michael_nielsen wrote: post #86

Would YC ever fund a not-for-profit startup, as a form of philanthropy? Part of the reason I ask is that for-profit and not-for-profit organizations have different kinds of leverage, and for some activities not-for-profits have big advantages. It's striking that some major success stories like Khan Academy and Wikipedia are not-for-profit. I imagine that having a YC-like model applied to not-for-profits might produce…

Although non-profits has good tax breaks, it's much more difficult to get funding since it's "non-profit", hence no return for the investor capital. Why not try to create a social enterprise instead? You can still get a bit of tax breaks, AND you can earn profits for yourself and investors.

The term "social enterprise" is used in many ways, and doesn't seem to have a clearly accepted legal definition. Without clarification of what you meant, it's difficult for me to comment directly on your suggestion.

However, with that said, I'd just like to emphasize that I'm certainly not criticising for-profits. I'm saying not-for-profits are different, and have a whole different set of advantages and disadvantages than for-profit enterprises.

Re: Applications open for Y Combinator's summer 2012 funding cycle

#108

Post by kalkat »

alpb wrote: post #103

I have several questions. I'm co-founding a global social network startup and our team is of 4 Computer Science senior year students studying and living in Turkey. Do the startups located outside the US and has no chance to relocate for 8 months can be elected in YC? Is there a chance out there for us do you think?

You have to be there when the program runs. That is a criteria. Otherwise, location should not be a problem, I know of at least one startup here from India with India based co-founders who was part of the program.

Re: Applications open for Y Combinator's summer 2012 funding cycle

#109

Post by alpb »

kalkat wrote: post #108
alpb wrote: post #103

I have several questions. I'm co-founding a global social network startup and our team is of 4 Computer Science senior year students studying and living in Turkey. Do the startups located outside the US and has no chance to relocate for 8 months can be elected in YC? Is there a chance out there for us do you think?

You have to be there when the program runs. That is a criteria. Otherwise, location should not be a problem, I know of at least one startup here from India with India based co-founders who was part of the program.

Probably we won't have that chance. Thanks anyway. YC still rocks.

Re: Applications open for Y Combinator's summer 2012 funding cycle

#110

Post by sterling312 »

michael_nielsen wrote: post #107
sterling312 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although non-profits has good tax breaks, it's much more difficult to get funding since it's "non-profit", hence no return for the investor capital. Why not try to create a social enterprise instead? You can still get a bit of tax breaks, AND you can earn profits for yourself and investors.

The term "social enterprise" is used in many ways, and doesn't seem to have a clearly accepted legal definition. Without clarification of what you meant, it's difficult for me to comment directly on your suggestion. However, with that said, I'd just like to emphasize that I'm certainly not criticising for-profits. I'm saying not-for-profits are different, and have a whole different set of advantages and disadvantages…

That's certainly true. Many models of social enterprises exist and some of them are no more of a regular business that so happens to deal with "social" issues.

I guess the point I was making is that the advantages that a non-profit has ultimately (feel free to correct me, or add new ideas that I neglected) are a) tax incentives, b) helping the world or altruism, and c) zero or very low price for the goods and services offered for most of the customers. Having never really worked in the non-profit sector, aside from working during my years in college, those are the only benefit that I can generalize for non-profits. Both a) and c) can be replicated in for-profit firms. And social enterprise, depending on the sector that it's in, can capture b) as well to an certain extent. Hence as long as the people running the company has the right attitude and has good goals, running a non-profit really isn't necessary.

What were the advantages you were thinking of? I would be very interested to hear your take on it.

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