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Is Y Combinator worth the money?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#141

Post by xiphias2 »

gumby wrote: post #117
itsoktocry wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Whenever I see interviews with YC advisors, they blame mistakes of founders of not taking their advice as the biggest as mistake.

I don't have a strong opinion on this, and I believe YC is worth it, as 7% of nothing is still nothing, so any way a startup can decrease its risks is great.

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#142

Post by kingboss »

ginger2016 wrote: post #110

I didn't go to YC. My impression of YC is from news articles and hacker news. I believe that YC is good only if it helps you raise money. Their advice is not worth it because advice is free on YouTube. Let's take PG; he often gives a lot of general and specific advice; he is a great writer and a fascinating mind. I enjoy reading his articles; they are outstanding, but they aren't any different from the many YouTubers…

If you think PG is a great writer and fascinating mind you absolutely need to expand your horizons.

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#143

Post by hassy »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #132
JohnFen wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sometimes their advice is right, and sometimes it's wrong? That doesn't sound particularly valuable. This is true of literally every source of advice you'll ever encounter. It's not that the advice is right or wrong in an absolute sense, it's that how good the advice is depends on the context of it. So you always have to evaluate the advice according to your own circumstances. Some of it will be appropriate to you…

> This is true of literally every source of advice you'll ever encounter. Right, that's the point. If the main thing you have to say about some advice is a thing that's true about all advice, then that's not a good endorsement.

The main thing about the advice comes immediately before the bit you’re zooming in on. Want to talk to people who have seen hundreds of companies deal with what you’re dealing? YC is great for that.

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#144

Post by dang »

It's true that YC will tell you over and over to (1) work on your product and (2) talk to users. Those are the "make" and "people" in "make something people want".

If you want to focus on marketing tricks / media hype / "content" / that kind of thing, you're going to hear the above repeatedly, since those are neither (1) nor (2). For my part this reflects well on YC. In fact it's a little reassuring to hear that this is what (some) people are complaining about. If you're a YC startup and want to launch on HN (https://news.ycombinator.com/launches) you're going to hear even more of it from me.

I like this part: "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." On the HN side we also push for "just the facts" and urge founders to cut hype and marketing speak. That's as much about the HN audience as core values, but it's nice (and for me a relief) that those overlap.

If building a valuable product, talking to users, and focusing on facts sounds good to you, you should consider applying to YC.

(feel free to discount this to zero based on my bias but I wanted to say it anyway!)

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#145

Post by robocat »

pcthrowaway wrote: post #53
acecreamu wrote: post #2

Happy to honestly answer any brutal questions you have!

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…

YC only invests in companies that aim big, and have a big opportunity. So you would have to lie to get them to invest, and they likely would catch you out lying. http://paulgraham.com/growth.html and http://paulgraham.com/mean.html gives you some idea (also see http://paulgraham.com/articles.html ).

Giving 7%, but getting say 20% extra when you sell, could be financially sensible (depending on your other costs and benefits).

Do you think it is worth lying?

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#146

Post by acecreamu »

tptacek wrote: post #127
acecreamu wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I replied to a comment which stated exactly that, and my point that it's false.

Yeah, I'm just asking if that was your actual expectation going into the program.

Not really, that's why I don't put an evaluation criteria of "how close you going to get with the star founders". It's silly to expect that.

I only expected and discusses the community engagement within the batch, and the power of YC connection between the batches. Both are quite low.

The connection to Brian Chesky or Paul Graham is expected to be ~0 from the start.

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#147

Post by acecreamu »

rexreed wrote: post #84
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…

When you recommend YC, how do you help the people you recommend actually get in to the YC program?

There is a referral program, hey

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#148

Post by BoorishBears »

ethbr0 wrote: post #140
BoorishBears wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This logic just implies YC is more relevant than ever. If there's 10-15 players in the space and you're the one with YC connections... Meanwhile if there are barely any players in your niche you have time to get things wrong and iterate in isolation, no need for the all-or-nothing style of growth

I think parent's (and OP's) point was that YC was more valuable for investing and strategy, but less valuable for finding customers. And since customers are the most difficult part now (because 10-15 players), it adjusts the relative value of something that doesn't help you acquire customers. IOW, the differences between a "build it and they will come" historic era and a "make me care about you" modern one.

I don't agree, the parent's point is directly attacking strategy:

> a lot of YC advice, especially w.r.t. what to prioritize, is from an era of startups about 10-15 years ago.

I'm saying any misalignment in strategy matters less than implied. I spend a lot of time with current and past YC founders these days, and the recurring thought has always been "if you know already know business they're not going to teach you that much".

> it adjusts the relative value of something that doesn't help you acquire customers.

Money is how you acquire customers. From outlasting competitors to advertising to improving your product, it's money that turns into customers. So YC being valuable for investing is tantamount to being valuable for gaining customers.

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#150

Post by mr90210 »

rubenfiszel wrote: post #75

S22, solo founder, open-source infra + internal tools (windmill.dev). As the other ones in this thread have mentionned, YC is what you make out of it. For the fundraising alone, it allowed me to raise - a non US solo founder - at very comfortable terms and on the financial aspect alone it would have been worth it. But most importantly, the hardest part to start a company in my opinion is to keep being motivated. I wa…

I didn’t know YC accepted solo founders.

Congrats! I’ll definitely check your product out.

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