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Want to start a startup? Meet all the YC partners in Boston – Apr 20th

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Re: Want to start a startup? Meet all the YC partners in Boston – Apr 20th

#71

Post by ganeshkrishnan »

pierat wrote: post #59
throwaway35777 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Where did you get that impression Probably from Paul Graham: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39756865

I learned a long time ago, that HN and YCombinator were never for me. We were too poor and never part of the elite SV venture capitalism scene, no matter how sharp or crazy the idea. We were never part of that 'scene'. Hell, I even tried to enter the VC scene locally. It was all about blatant lying and redoing Uber than actual innovative and crazy ideas. I even had a 'mentor' say that I should just lie about hockey s…

>I learned a long time ago, that HN and YCombinator were never for me.

It's not you personally and don't take it too hard on yourself. A vast majority of people on this planet won't fit the "founder personality" and thus won't make it.

It's more interesting to bootstrap your own company and if push comes to shove you can look for incubators in your own city and apply for it.

Re: Want to start a startup? Meet all the YC partners in Boston – Apr 20th

#72

Post by ethanwillis »

reaperman wrote: post #56
ethanwillis wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but this is less true of YC than society at large, and it's a big part of YC's business for it to remain so. Are there collected statistics that showcase this?

This might help for creating an initial analysis: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/founders Of 11,162 YC founders who haven't opted out of the directory, the top 9 alma maters account for nearly exactly 20% of founders. 540 - Stanford University 388 - University of California, Berkeley 373 - Massachusetts Institute of Technology 193 - University of Waterloo 187 - Harvard University 144 - Carnegie Mellon Universi…

Very nice work and pretty interesting to see. The comparison for society at large is definitely difficult, but I'm not sure if there's a better one than what you've come up with.

Re: Want to start a startup? Meet all the YC partners in Boston – Apr 20th

#73

Post by ganeshkrishnan »

dang wrote: post #8
stewpy wrote: post #6

We only hire Americans from elite universities, but please come along and waste your time!

Definitely not true! How did you get that impression? I wouldn't be here if it were—my cofounder Scott and I made it to YC from way outside elite circles, US or otherwise. It's really important not to go for these demoralizing assumptions, lest they become self-fulfilling prophesies. Here's some better information: if you can build, can make something people want, and are willing to be coached in the way that YC coac…

I would like to debate you on your assumptions. A class divide is bigger and worse than any other divide. Because there is no push (like DEI) we make innate assumptions about a person depending on their class; hence most of YC fits a certain "personality" which commentators in here are complaining about.

While I am past that complaining stage, it's worthwhile for the VC industry to take a look at that class divide.

> something I wish more people would know is that if you apply to YC and get rejected, you should keep applying. Most YC startups didn't get in on their first try. If you do apply more than once, the key thing is to demonstrate progress since your previous application.

Again, you are right from your perspective but my opinion based on my experience and fellow founders is that if you fail the first time, founders should just move on. Startup founders have this Hollywoodesqe mentality of what a startup is with all the glamour and almost all of them waste time pitching to YC/VC and think they are failure if they don't get accepted.

There needs to be a revamp of startup financing and I think something like startup school is in the right direction.

Re: Want to start a startup? Meet all the YC partners in Boston – Apr 20th

#74

Post by spxneo »

Why run a startup when you can run a business with bank loans to leverage your technical capital, comrades! Wake up from the perils of being yet another cannon fodder, for it is your time and time is our most valuable thing! Our kingdom is near, strike!

Re: Want to start a startup? Meet all the YC partners in Boston – Apr 20th

#75

Post by dang »

blagie wrote: post #53
dang wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good question. Probably? I imagine so. But I doubt the data is public. I'm just talking from my own observations in any case. Edit: i inserted an IMO into my comment to make that clearer

Question: - I am older, established, and have done a number of successful startups in various roles. - I have a family and can't spend a summer in California. - I don't need the seed funding YCombinator provides, but I don't mind it either. I can self-fund a bit However, I'd truly enjoy the experience, and with my next startup, I'd be glad to trade off the equity to be in the YC community. I think I'd learn a lot fro…

There is no target demographic, so I wouldn't think in those terms. Also, last I heard, there wasn't a hard requirement to spend the entire program in California, although most founders do. Your track record with previous startups should certainly help. I'm biased but I'd say go for it!

Re: Want to start a startup? Meet all the YC partners in Boston – Apr 20th

#76

Post by dang »

freefruit wrote: post #19
dang wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely not true! How did you get that impression? I wouldn't be here if it were—my cofounder Scott and I made it to YC from way outside elite circles, US or otherwise. It's really important not to go for these demoralizing assumptions, lest they become self-fulfilling prophesies. Here's some better information: if you can build, can make something people want, and are willing to be coached in the way that YC coac…

Or apply with something they are looking to fund. Then change your idea to what you really want to do when you get in. (This is what Tiktok told me to do)

Oh no—that's a terrible idea. YC partners are going to be far more interested in what you really want to do. Interposing an irrelevant charade will only come across as uncompelling.

Re: Want to start a startup? Meet all the YC partners in Boston – Apr 20th

#77

Post by dang »

throwaway35777 wrote: post #25
dang wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely not true! How did you get that impression? I wouldn't be here if it were—my cofounder Scott and I made it to YC from way outside elite circles, US or otherwise. It's really important not to go for these demoralizing assumptions, lest they become self-fulfilling prophesies. Here's some better information: if you can build, can make something people want, and are willing to be coached in the way that YC coac…

> Where did you get that impression Probably from Paul Graham: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39756865

What specifically? That's a long essay that was only published last week.

Re: Want to start a startup? Meet all the YC partners in Boston – Apr 20th

#79

Post by haltIncomplete »

robertlagrant wrote: post #44
confoundcofound wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would be of great service if YC were more upfront about its biases to applicants. The narrative that YC is an accessible path for anyone seems to contradict the actions taken. Where is the outreach to those outside of elite academic and professional circles?

Everyone has biases. They don't have to enumerate them at all times. What do you actually want?

For YC/HN to peddle fewer platitudes, euphemisms, and equivocations.

At what point does preservation of this hallucinated wealth game become forced conservation of history and get in the way of the “freedom” part?

Why are we socially trained to accept “people say Musk is rich so it must be true?”

It’s all a socialized hallucination backed by government force. It’s kind of a huge joke.

Let’s just get drunk and shoot pistols at the workers feet. At least it’s honest.

Re: Want to start a startup? Meet all the YC partners in Boston – Apr 20th

#80

Post by throwaway35777 »

dang wrote: post #77
throwaway35777 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Where did you get that impression Probably from Paul Graham: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39756865

What specifically? That's a long essay that was only published last week.

Quite a long discussion of how important the "best" universities are to starting a startup. Nothing YC-specific.

> And if you want to start a startup you should try to get into the best university you can, because that's where the best cofounders are. It's also where the best employees are. When Larry and Sergey started Google, they began by just hiring all the smartest people they knew out of Stanford, and this was a real advantage for them.

> The empirical evidence is clear on this. If you look at where the largest numbers of successful startups come from, it's pretty much the same as the list of the most selective universities.

> I don't think it's the prestigious names of these universities that cause more good startups to come out of them. Nor do I think it's because the quality of the teaching is better. What's driving this is simply the difficulty of getting in. You have to be pretty smart and determined to get into MIT or Cambridge, so if you do manage to get in, you'll find the other students include a lot of smart and determined people.

> You don't have to start a startup with someone you meet at university... but universities are the main source of cofounders. And because they're where the cofounders are, they're also where the ideas are, because the best ideas grow out of projects you do with the people who become your cofounders.

> So the list of what you need to do to get from here to starting a startup is quite short. You need to get good at technology, and the way to do that is to work on your own projects. And you need to do as well in school as you can, so you can get into a good university, because that's where the cofounders and the ideas are.

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