161–170 of 349 posts
At the very bottom, in a post-script: > The constant comparison and growth benchmarking triggered us to look differently at our business and we decided to wind up its operation right after the Demo Day. What happens in this scenario? YC gave them $500K in exchange for 7% of the business, and then they immediately shuttered the business? Did they get to keep the $500K?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not true. You can still raise on uncapped SAFEs. This will not trigger the YC MFN safe
According to the contract, in exchange of 375K USD (+/- salary for 1.5 developer) you agree to this when you sign the MFN: == If the Company issues any Subsequent Convertible Securities with terms more favorable than those of this Safe (including, without limitation, a valuation cap and/or discount) prior to termination of this Safe, the Company will promptly provide YCombinator with written notice thereof, together…
What does this mean in practice?
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…
If someone makes a YC company legitimately happy, then using them with other YC companies would be both natural and a good way to filter out the scammers.
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> 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.
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> 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.
The way I read your post, saying you "can get" very valuable advice immediately followed by saying some advice was wrong undermines that "can" pretty solidly. I'm not just looking at that sentence in isolation.
Could we get an estimate of how much of the advice was right, weighted by how non-obvious each thing was and how much of an impact it would have to follow or not follow?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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.
that you got advice for the particular areas you needed and it was not always bad is actually a pretty major step up from what you’d otherwise be dealing with, in my experience.
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…
What are the specific logistics/semantics of reaching out to a group of "founders" with targeted questions? Is it an e-mail chain? Is there a group chat? Discord? WhatsApp? iMessage?
I feel like if you were to ask 10 different "founders" general questions about "should I do XYZ in business?" (pivot, grow, measure how much you should listen to or ignore existing noisy customers, raise prices, don't raise prices, offer a free tier, don't offer a free tier), aren't you possibly going to get 10 different answers given that business isn't an exact science? Or... is it?
And that something is Goodhart's Law. The longer the game, the more game theory you're dealing with.
I wonder how much of this is a function of the W22 batch being remote. We all know the benefits: The fundraising pop is great, the brand patina helps you hire better talent than you would otherwise, the advice can be useful, especially for first-time founders, you can sell into the YC network, etc. All of this pales, IMO, to the value of the personal connections you make in the program. It sounds like OP, by virtue o…
> All of them are solid, kind, high-quality people, the likes of which you are unlikely to meet in the regular world. This attitude may have something to do with the skepticism we low-quality people out in the regular world may harbor for the Silicon Valley startup sphere
I understand how easily this feeling can arise. It may not be obvious but we spend a lot of energy on HN trying to mitigate it. I don't want a high-status-insider vs. low-status-outsider dynamic on HN.
One thing I'd like to tell you is that as someone who came from little class privilege and a geographically provincial place, and had zero connection to the "Silicon Valley startup sphere" or really any other sphere, YC welcomed me and gave me a shot and a lot of help.
These dynamics aren't simple but I'd like to think (and do think) that YC is still one of the best ladders in the snakes-and-ladders game if you're talented, ambitious, and sincere. And at the same time, there are still lots of obstacles.