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Y Combinator often backs startups that duplicate other YC companies, data shows

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Re: Y Combinator often backs startups that duplicate other YC companies, data shows

#111

Post by dowager_dan99 »

>> The Silicon Valley dream is to build a tech startup that is such a unique idea it alters the commercial universe and turns its founders into billionaires.

The headline is a false assumption. While there are still people who are trying to build off unique ideas to change the world, it seems very few of them are motivated by becoming billionaires. The latter have no intention or particular desire to create a sea change, and actively look to (at best) have a "X for Y" strategy. Even more are "Yet another X".

Re: Y Combinator often backs startups that duplicate other YC companies, data shows

#112

Post by dowager_dan99 »

light_triad wrote: post #94
keiferski wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Airbnb was basically a monetized form of Couchsurfing, not a hotel alternative. It only later turned into a direct hotel competitor. To my knowledge there was no similar service at the time.

Folks had been using alternatives to rent space like HomeAway.com, VRBO.com, BedandBreakfast.com and Craigslist for years. Airbnb won because: - Better design, easy to use, nice pictures they took themselves at first (per PG's advice) - Integrated payments and reviews in a seamless experience - Popularized the idea of sharing a space when the host is there - Offered unique accommodations in urban places - Lots of buz…

>> - Popularized the idea of sharing a space when the host is there

this was not a popular option, and I don't believe was ever intended to be. It also opened the door for VRBO to gain traction explicitly marketing NOT sharing accommodation. The "rent out your spare bedroom" has never been a major component; it was a fake-out to counter the regulatory & licensing complaints they were facing.

Re: Y Combinator often backs startups that duplicate other YC companies, data shows

#113

Post by postit »

To be honest, I would do the same.

If it’s a good idea, maybe the only difference between It’s succeeding or fail is the team executing it.

So in order to maximize the outcome, you double the bet and it’s even better than have someone doing it outside your control

Re: Y Combinator often backs startups that duplicate other YC companies, data shows

#114

Post by mst »

snarf21 wrote: post #67
mst wrote: post #35

If nothing else, having competition helps validate the market. Which is often an advantage to all companies involved - a lot of the time, you're only notionally competing with each other, your main enemy is "people not using a product in that space at all." e.g. for a lot of business SaaS the only enemy worth caring about is Excel. (I've more than once been involved with companies where the "competitors" were all on…

I see it more as more of a hedge. If you believe in the opportunity, placing extra bets makes sense. Uber and Lyft weren't the only ride share companies but sometimes luck wins out and sometimes execution does. Additionally, if one seems to be winning, you just acqui-hire the "loser" in the winner, use that problem space expertise to scale faster AND you still get to claim a higher exit rate even if it was just to yo…

Sure, though I'm not sure that "I see it more as" makes sense in context given -

You're talking about how YC sees it.

I was talking about how it affects things from the companies's point of view when YC does that.

As such, so far as I can see our actual statements about the upshot of the situation are probably both correct :)

Re: Y Combinator often backs startups that duplicate other YC companies, data shows

#115

Post by mst »

zachthewf wrote: post #72
snarf21 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see it more as more of a hedge. If you believe in the opportunity, placing extra bets makes sense. Uber and Lyft weren't the only ride share companies but sometimes luck wins out and sometimes execution does. Additionally, if one seems to be winning, you just acqui-hire the "loser" in the winner, use that problem space expertise to scale faster AND you still get to claim a higher exit rate even if it was just to yo…

Exactly right. Traditional VCs come up with a thesis and then buy 20% of the company they think will be the winner who fits that thesis when they're at like $1M to 10M revenue (series A) YC can instead get ~10% of every plausible winner they come across when they're at $0 revenue

As noted elsethread, I think that almost certainly *is* what's going on; I was explaining why it's probably a good thing from (at least many of) the companies' perspectives too.

Re: Y Combinator often backs startups that duplicate other YC companies, data shows

#116

Post by hiAndrewQuinn »

onion2k wrote: post #7

I think there's something missing from this analysis - YC companies might duplicate one another's products but that doesn't say anything at all about their target markets, route to market, product focus, etc. As an example, my first startup was a requirements management app that, on paper at least, was a copy of IBM DOORS. Except DOORS is a massive enterprise app targeted at companies who are building a new airplane…

Incidentally, if anyone else wants to reinvent IBM DOORS for ~1000-requirements fields, email me. There's a vast market out there for combined hardware/software shops that are in the no man's land of "not designing an entire literal train from top to bottom" and "not just hiding a Raspberry Pi in a trench coat".

Re: Y Combinator often backs startups that duplicate other YC companies, data shows

#117

Post by AlwaysRock »

light_triad wrote: post #49

> YC startups don’t have to be unique. Far from it. Slow news day. YC has made it clear over the years it's almost all about the founders not the idea. It's almost impossible to know if an idea is good at the early stages, and ideas change, startups pivot, often the timing is wrong, and the market unproven etc. More often than not most of what startups do is not unique, otherwise there's no market for it. A new take…

The CEO of YC gave a talk about how you should first assemble a founding team and THEN come up with an idea. The idea seems way less important than identifying founders they want to back.

Re: Y Combinator often backs startups that duplicate other YC companies, data shows

#118

Post by AlwaysRock »

I dont think the headline is all that surprising. YC makes a lot of investments and most start ups fail. They are hedging their bets.

The more surprising thing about this article is that one YC company blatantly copied anothers product. To the point where the founder said they would start over and build their own product.

Re: Y Combinator often backs startups that duplicate other YC companies, data shows

#120

Post by dxbydt »

throwaway894345 wrote: post #87
ActionHank wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steve Jobs or maybe just Apple used to pit teams against each other to develop a solution to a problem and then pick the strongest of the two. It also offers a convenient way to pull investment out early if the doppelganger startup isn't meeting targets. Just get the original startup to buy them out. It's not something that is a negative for YC, but it could be for the startups they back.

Reminds me of how pelicans will raise two chicks and then kick the weakest of the two out of the nest and devote all future resources to foster the stronger of the two. YCombinator as convergent evolution, I guess.

> how pelicans will raise two chicks and then kick the weakest

there is a youtube video ( pls don’t watch ) that gave me nightmares for days on end. i had completely forgotten about those pelicans and now you had to bring it up again in the comments. the little pelican had a broken leg. It was limping, so mom and brother together pushed it out of the nest. Very cruel.

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