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The truth is there's massive ageism throughout this industry. It's everywhere --not just SV/SF/west coast, but it's much worse in that region relative to others. I feel it would be best to give you the truth directly.
I've just turned 50, though I've applied to YC many times before, even in my 30s. It would be nice to know the answer to who was the oldest person, but at the same time, why does it matter? We can't deny that ageism exists in the industry, you're not going to let that stop you from building your business, right? Is there a benefit you get from age that younger people don't have? How are you going to leverage that to…
I wanted to leverage my age and experience by not applying and just getting on a building it. But I have a founder who is convinced that you need money first then prototypes.I assured her that there is nothing in her proposition needs any tech that you cannot buy off the self or use bubble.io or something. It really bemuses me as she has bootstrapped a confectionary business to over $100m. Sadly got trashed by the so…
FWIW, when people get into YCombinator, the first lesson they drive home is to talk to users and ship product.
Build tech isn’t on that list.
People young and old, mess this part up.
1. You and your co-founder might have a lot of relevant industry expertise or a productive Rolodex to accelerate sales. 2. Have you built anything or validated the idea in any way?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wanted to leverage my age and experience by not applying and just getting on a building it. But I have a founder who is convinced that you need money first then prototypes.I assured her that there is nothing in her proposition needs any tech that you cannot buy off the self or use bubble.io or something. It really bemuses me as she has bootstrapped a confectionary business to over $100m. Sadly got trashed by the so…
“But I have a founder who is convinced that you need money first then prototypes and that nothing in her proposition needs any tech that you cannot buy off the self.” FWIW, when people get into YCombinator, the first lesson they drive home is to talk to users and ship product. Build tech isn’t on that list. People young and old, mess this part up.
My playbook used to be:
1) Have an idea 2) Identify any customers, Ideally one who is in a terrible emotional distress that they do not have that solution you have come up with. If you cant find one move on to another idea quickly. 3) Ask them if they want your solution - show storyboards. 4) Ask them to pay costs to build it and feed you ramen. 5) Ensure that the software, since they paid next to nothing for it, is yours. 6) Go sell it like Larry to a few more. 7) Show invetsor types once you start growing and getting longer contracts.
The answer is on the homepage of ycombinator.com. > We help founders at their earliest stages regardless of their age. > 52% of YC's billion dollar company founders were under 28 years old and the oldest founder was in their 50s
I think I have solved for n.
n=1
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wanted to leverage my age and experience by not applying and just getting on a building it. But I have a founder who is convinced that you need money first then prototypes.I assured her that there is nothing in her proposition needs any tech that you cannot buy off the self or use bubble.io or something. It really bemuses me as she has bootstrapped a confectionary business to over $100m. Sadly got trashed by the so…
“But I have a founder who is convinced that you need money first then prototypes and that nothing in her proposition needs any tech that you cannot buy off the self.” FWIW, when people get into YCombinator, the first lesson they drive home is to talk to users and ship product. Build tech isn’t on that list. People young and old, mess this part up.
ACTUALLY HUGE KUDOS THANK YOU FOR THAT!!! Yes, exactly what I thought. She would do so well with another person who cares about the retail experience as much as she does. THANK YOU AGAIN!!! :-)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wanted to leverage my age and experience by not applying and just getting on a building it. But I have a founder who is convinced that you need money first then prototypes.I assured her that there is nothing in her proposition needs any tech that you cannot buy off the self or use bubble.io or something. It really bemuses me as she has bootstrapped a confectionary business to over $100m. Sadly got trashed by the so…
“But I have a founder who is convinced that you need money first then prototypes and that nothing in her proposition needs any tech that you cannot buy off the self.” FWIW, when people get into YCombinator, the first lesson they drive home is to talk to users and ship product. Build tech isn’t on that list. People young and old, mess this part up.
That's the perennial mystery of Y :) - how is it even possible to ship product before building the tech?
I've just turned 50, though I've applied to YC many times before, even in my 30s. It would be nice to know the answer to who was the oldest person, but at the same time, why does it matter? We can't deny that ageism exists in the industry, you're not going to let that stop you from building your business, right? Is there a benefit you get from age that younger people don't have? How are you going to leverage that to…
I wanted to leverage my age and experience by not applying and just getting on a building it. But I have a founder who is convinced that you need money first then prototypes.I assured her that there is nothing in her proposition needs any tech that you cannot buy off the self or use bubble.io or something. It really bemuses me as she has bootstrapped a confectionary business to over $100m. Sadly got trashed by the so…
The answer is on the homepage of ycombinator.com. > We help founders at their earliest stages regardless of their age. > 52% of YC's billion dollar company founders were under 28 years old and the oldest founder was in their 50s
One side of this is that startups are hard and demanding a lot of time and energy. Startups with other people’s money who are on a tight time frame to get a return on investment makes startups even more harder and even more demanding. Just by simple physics younger founders are better positioned to win on the demand vector. It’s about probabilities. Now an experienced founder who may have more obligations on their time and energy may still “win” on the demand vector but they have to skin the cat with some other ace up their sleeve that allows them to meet the time compressed demand needs of a startup.
So yea. It’s not about yc it’s about the whole system that thinks a certain way. Human psychology plays a big factor in this as these people in the funding side are no more “smarter” than the the average person and are hence susceptible to the same biases.
I say build something that people are willing to pay for and then bootstrap your way. If it’s a good product or service these same people will line up to you and you have the upper hand when taking their money which allows you to dictate your terms.