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Is Y Combinator worth the money?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#191

Post by robocat »

rexreed wrote: post #82
silverlake wrote: post #5

I always thought the primary benefit of YC was the brand. It's like an Ivy League school for startups. The article suggested it didn't help much. Perhaps going too big has diluted the YC brand?

I actually like the YC as Ivy League school comparison - it has many parallels. Highly selective, has a set regimen ("world view"), has a somewhat high cost of entry ($500k for 7%, not bad tho), and has a fairly exclusive clique that provides value by association that's difficult for outsiders. Given that, is it harder to get into Harvard or YC based on admission numbers?

> $500k for 7%

$125k is for 7%. The other $375k SAFE causes extra dilution when next round or sale occurs.

> Ivy League school comparison

One difference: Harvard graduates 98%, but YC founder’s success rate is say 33% - http://paulgraham.com/die.html - and actual financial success is power law (average $ returns good, median return for founder rounds to $0). Edit: https://jaredheyman.medium.com/on-the-life-and-death-of-y-co...

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#192

Post by blast »

acecreamu wrote: post #98
ychnthrowaway24 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What led you to shut down and not continue and pivot?

Huge % of dilution after going through two accelerators (EF and YC). Would be too much of a burden to drag into a new venture.

Didn't you know that when you took the money?

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#193

Post by hk__2 »

tschesnok wrote: post #177

Wow. In the footnote they mention they shut down right after demo day? Perhaps I'm old school but I always had a huge feeling of indebtedness to my investors. So here they lose all the money within 3 months and write a scathing review to boot? Is it not a two way street?

This is answered in the disclaimer at the top of the post:

> YC are the ones who teach how important is negative feedback for improvement.

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#194

Post by frozenport »

tschesnok wrote: post #177

Wow. In the footnote they mention they shut down right after demo day? Perhaps I'm old school but I always had a huge feeling of indebtedness to my investors. So here they lose all the money within 3 months and write a scathing review to boot? Is it not a two way street?

>> I always had a huge feeling of indebtedness to my investors

With early stage, low capital startups, relationship is more like an employer.

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#195

Post by dang »

notahacker wrote: post #60

Most surprising quote to me was this: If you have some kind of b2c or Enterprise business, all you will get is a knowledge exchange with homies. YC does not have any industrial partners, and YC partners themselves will not do external intros since this is a big part of other accelerators' pitch. Obviously YC can't compete with vertical-focused accelerators for depth of industry knowledge and day-to-day access to corp…

I don't know what "industrial partners" are but "YC partners will not do external intros" is not true, and a weird thing to say since it wouldn't be in their interest.

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#196

Post by ginger2016 »

kingboss wrote: post #142
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.

I am not saying PG is Shakespeare, PG is good in his field of writing, i.e. giving random(but useful) advice to wannabe founders who listen.

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#197

Post by b112 »

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.

Cannot even remotely understand the logic in this getting flagged.

People are upset with the idea, that the mother and the fetus form a feedback loop, to ensure the baby is as large as possible, while still being able to exit the womb??

Yeah, horrible, flaggable idea. Even if one disagrees, what is the logic in flagging? "Ew, ick! Birth!"?!?

Bizarre.

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#198

Post by awwstn »

tschesnok wrote: post #177

Wow. In the footnote they mention they shut down right after demo day? Perhaps I'm old school but I always had a huge feeling of indebtedness to my investors. So here they lose all the money within 3 months and write a scathing review to boot? Is it not a two way street?

next post will be: how i got into YC, shut down my company, and then added x subscribers to my substack by simply trash talking YC

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#200

Post by mcguire »

rsp1984 wrote: post #90

Their logic can be understood: make a good product, and the rest will catch up. But in real life marketing and hype really matters, and when everyone does these things while you naively sit and code, they get an advantage in the market, and you get your cool product. I sometimes get the feeling, also by watching their public content on YT, that a lot of YC advice, especially w.r.t. what to prioritize, is from an era…

Your comment put me in mind of something I saw in 1999 or so; where a local newscast in Austin profiled a local start-up and included:

"We can't discuss what we do because someone else could take the idea and beat us to it."

That was the beginning of the dot-com bust.

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