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Is Y Combinator worth the money?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#21

Post by ahstilde »

dtagames wrote: post #14
aatd86 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe they have learnt that investors due-diligence is about the hard facts and not sentiment? Not everyone is a good story-teller either so to avoid the confounding charm factor, just be as boring and straight to the point as possible? Which should also keep every startup of their batches on equal footing and hopefully mitigate the hype factor? Not defending them, just me brainstorming about what could be plausib…

It's the opposite! Only the good hype-makers and storytellers get early access to investors before demo day. If you're a good huckster, no one finds out about your stats. Even though... YC tells people to be dry and boring and focus on stats. That's his complaint.

YC suggests people tell a story: https://www.ycombinator.com/library/49-a-guide-to-yc-demo-da...

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#22

Post by ianbutler »

I'm surprised they haven't moved back to being in person. That seemed like one of the core benefits to companies, grinding it out with a set of like minded people who can all benefit in one place. Hearing you made a weaker network from YC than you would have liked is concerning, especially when you can find most of YC's wisdom on free videos. Network is one of the primary reasons I had applied and interviewed with YC a few times, both for investor networking and for founder networking and had presumed that was one of their main benefits.

I agree with people here saying YC attempting to scale seems to be hurting the overall experience. Hopefully with their recommitment to early stage companies only, this changes for the better. Their earlier wins set them up as the pre-eminent accelerator and diluting that experience those earlier companies had seems like a bad idea to me.

They have access to metrics I don't have though (obviously) so who knows I may be totally off base.

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#24

Post by sharemywin »

dtagames wrote: post #3

Interesting quote: Even when it came to fundraising, all the YC’s advice came down not to how to raise smarter and more, but to the fact that everyone needs to follow their simple framework, not try to shine too much, not try to choose the right words, wash off all the makeup, put on a gray uniform, and present dry facts—how much money customers already paid you, what the size of the market, if you count all the unit…

I guess it comes down to who is the product and who is the customer.

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#25

Post by hassy »

Did YC S21 which was an all remote batch. my 2c.

YC is 100% what you make of it. It's not a lean back experience.

I did not meet most of the companies in my batch but I've gotten to know many founders through YC that I would not have otherwise. Founders that have been source of advice and support.

Network of clients - yep don't go into YC expecting to sell to other YC cos. It is easier to get warm intros through the network though.

YC advice, office hours specifically - it's what you make of it too. Expecting a group partner to know your space in great detail is unreasonable but if you recognize that they've seen hundreds of companies with similar problems and make use of that pattern matching, you can get very valuable advice. Some of the advice I did not take and did the opposite and it was the right decision. And some advice that I did not take was exactly right, but I only saw it in retrospect months later.

Fundraising - being a YC company definitely opens doors, and also helps protects you from bad actors who have to think twice before fucking with a YC co. Very valuable for any first-time founder. You have someone to sanity-check everything, terms you're not sure about etc. The bump in valuation is real too.

I'd do YC again in a heartbeat.

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#26

Post by ngiyabonga »

I find these two concepts [1, 2] at odds with each other. Not a critique on the author - on the contrary, empathy: I felt the same when applying to YC (did not make a batch).

On one hand, the general impression you get when preparing for your application (via FAQs, Startup School, YC videos, etc) is very much in line with [1] - YC is looking for _very_ early stage.

But once you go through the actual application you feel focus shift towards [2] - metrics and $. That is to say (with admittedly some not-having-been-selected bias), I feel [2] is a significant factor in deciding on applications. So as I weigh in on whether to apply for the next batch, I'm not sure whether a product I've just finished building makes sense for YC and whether I should gamble on attempt #3.

I think it would help both YC and founders if they take some steps to make this clear(er) for potential applicants.

[1] > In general, there is an evident focus on the very early stage without a product. The main theory and advice are about how to figure out what to do, how to build an MVP, how to launch, how to talk to customers, where to find the first 10 customers, how to raise the first money, and so on. Needless to say, for companies with tens or even hundreds of thousands in revenue it won’t be very valuable.

[2] > [...] present dry facts—how much money customers already paid you, what the size of the market, if you count all the units you can sell, what you have actually built and what is working today. And this will always sound bad for anyone, it just can't sound good in the early days.

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#27

Post by thesandlord »

ianbutler wrote: post #22

I'm surprised they haven't moved back to being in person. That seemed like one of the core benefits to companies, grinding it out with a set of like minded people who can all benefit in one place. Hearing you made a weaker network from YC than you would have liked is concerning, especially when you can find most of YC's wisdom on free videos. Network is one of the primary reasons I had applied and interviewed with YC…

S22 and W23 have been in-person, W22 was the last remote batch. In person has been a significantly better experience from what I can tell!

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#29

Post by itsoktocry »

>I’ve seen enough cases when saying “oh, I’m also from YC” didn’t move the needle.

When you're one of a thousand companies every year, why would it? Are YC particularly discerning, or are they optimizing getting as many through the "system" as possible?

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#30

Post by ianbutler »

thesandlord wrote: post #27
ianbutler wrote: post #22

I'm surprised they haven't moved back to being in person. That seemed like one of the core benefits to companies, grinding it out with a set of like minded people who can all benefit in one place. Hearing you made a weaker network from YC than you would have liked is concerning, especially when you can find most of YC's wisdom on free videos. Network is one of the primary reasons I had applied and interviewed with YC…

S22 and W23 have been in-person, W22 was the last remote batch. In person has been a significantly better experience from what I can tell!

I'm super glad to hear that!
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