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Is Y Combinator worth the money?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#111

Post by tptacek »

acecreamu wrote: post #88
cl42 wrote: post #37

I went through YC in S12 and have been investing in YC companies + active on Bookface and YC’s founder matching program. I recommend YC to almost everyone I meet and plan to apply again when/if I am working on a new product company. We’re all adults and we all have agency. Every community is a function of how much you put into it; how much you invest in getting to know others. It feels like the author expected YC to…

As a YC founder, never received a single reply to a couple of emails sent to Garry Tan ;(

Did you expect YC status was going to get you a direct channel to one of the busiest people affiliated with YC?

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#112

Post by tptacek »

acecreamu wrote: post #94
pcthrowaway wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think YC would make sense for a company that doesn't intend to raise money beyond the YC investment? I have an idea for a b2c product I want to build that has a few paths to revenue (and a possible b2b offshoot), as well as acquisition by FAANG (or FAANG-adjacent). Is there something about taking investment from YC that prevents me from turning around and selling it for $2M after building it out a bit more? Al…

Any investor would hate this idea, it's a terrible deal for them, and YC are smart enough to get it out of you. The whole business of VC is to sell later at the higher price. If they give you money at val of 5M+ and you sell for 2M - they are in loss.

The whole business of business is to sell later at a higher price.

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#114

Post by acecreamu »

itsoktocry wrote: post #29

> 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?

> When you're one of a thousand companies every year, why would it?

Exactly, therefore making very questionable the whole "YC network" concept

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#115

Post by weisser »

"You, the founders, should only build a product and talk to customers; everything else is superfluous and a waste of time."

I found it interesting that this seems to be described as bad advice that boxes founders in.

"Hiring is waste of time, paid advertising is waste of time, content is waste of time, talking to investors is waste of time, getting media coverage is waste of time."

The above all seem to be like a waste of time—but the OP is claiming otherwise. Perhaps this speaks to some YC companies being more mature than they used to be when they enter a cohort?

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#116

Post by outericky »

zamnos wrote: post #106
acecreamu wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They are there to give you access to hundreds of exceptional founders Is there anything you can't do on your own? Like finding email and writing? Mentioning that you're from YC in the beginning adds less to the conversion than the actual message you're conveying, imo.

If you have enough of those to send, seems like something easy enough to A/B test. You only have a few sentences before an email recipient marks your email as spam. If one of those mentions your YC batch and that's what keeps their attention for another couple sentences, hey.

As a YC alum, of all the emails i get spammed with, I'll give YC founders are read and a reply. More often than not it's a "sorry can't help" but I will at least give it a look.

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#117

Post by gumby »

itsoktocry wrote: post #36
hassy wrote: post #25

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…

> 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. Sometimes their advice is right, and sometimes it's wrong? That doesn't sound particularly valuable. > Fundraising - being a YC company definitely opens doors, and also helps protects you from bad actors who have to think twice bef…

> Sometimes their advice is right, and sometimes it's wrong? That doesn't sound particularly valuable.

As others have commented, all advice is like that. The person offering it cannot know your precise situation, but just pattern match on what they hear. That's life.

I turn this around the other way: if I am asked for my advice but the asker uses none of it, I don't feel bad, but stop offering advice. I'm clearly not the right person to be helping them.

But the opposite is true too: if the asker takes 100% of my advice then they aren't thinking about their business (or whatever they're asking about). And so I won't offer them any more advice either.

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#118

Post by vmatsiiako »

acecreamu wrote: post #91
seizethecheese wrote: post #59

> Now, with a 500k deal, the amount is more substantial, but in turn, its terms are not super funder-friendly. Imho, the previous 125k deal was better for the founders since once the company gets accepted to YC it can raise easily a lot more money and on better terms. Wait, the additional $375k is an uncapped SAFE. How could a company “easily raise at better terms”?

Add one angel or one early commit of 10k to it and the uncapped SAFE turns into a very bad SAFE. Basically it blocks you from flexibility of building up fundraising moment gradually.

Not true. You can still raise on uncapped SAFEs. This will not trigger the YC MFN safe

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#119

Post by yashap »

The “credibility” value is pretty huge IMO. If you’re a small startup, the assumption from potential customers, employees and investors is that you’re super likely to fail, probably soon. Because YC companies have a strong track record, you instantly gain credibility with potential customers, employees and investors.

It’s worth 7% of the company for most, because it makes it more than 7% easier to hire, sell and find raise, and those 3 things are the most important things for most startups.

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#120

Post by komadori »

b112 wrote: post #7
nonethewiser wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess both perspectives seem completely rational to me. Why shouldn’t Ycombinator care most about viability and why shouldn’t startups care most about vision? Each side needs to cater to the other a bit but ultimately this is just the difference between funders and builders.

When a woman is pregnant, the fetus tries to grow as large as possible, while to womb/woman works to restrict growth. Too much of either is not good, so perhaps the same is true here.

I think the foetus has a vested interest in not growing too large!
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