Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

YC Graveyard: 821 inactive Y Combinator startups

ycgraveyard.iamwillwang.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 238 posts

Re: YC Graveyard: 821 inactive Y Combinator startups

#31

Post by jjcob »

adastra22 wrote: post #24
riffraff wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do stripe and Airbnb not sound useful? "Need to get paid" and "find accomodation" are among the oldest business models on the internet.

There were plenty of ways to get paid on the internet before stripe. On paper it didn’t look like they were doing anything new. They just did it better. Airbnb… idk. Who wants to rent their house out to total strangers? I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t have thought it would take off like it did.

Airbnb is mostly commercial listings that are basically unlicensed hotel rooms / appartments. I don't think people renting out their personal living spaces is a big part of their income. It's just a story they use to get around regulations.

Re: YC Graveyard: 821 inactive Y Combinator startups

#36

Post by aswegs8 »

robocat wrote: post #27

I'm onehundertpercent pissed off with YC: * The modal win for a founder is $0.00 * PG makes big talk about winner's average returns... Yayyyyy..... However YC gets preferential shares; YC is not aligned with the common shareholders (founders; builders). YC builds a story that they support creators however YC doesn't sit on the same table-side as creators. * I actually believe YC is worthwhile, but I wonder if Ize jus…

Welcome to capitalism. Of course there is an asymmetry between individual founders and one of the, if not the most famous VC firm on the planet. It's an individual decision to determine whether YC is worthwhile. If it wouldn't be, it wouldn't work.

Re: YC Graveyard: 821 inactive Y Combinator startups

#38

Post by threeseed »

ekianjo wrote: post #21

Is YC better than other incubators, percentage wise?

I would imagine so.

a) Almost all of the other incubators are just awful. Either they are predatory, ineptly managed or simply not well capitalised enough to offer a competitive product.

b) YC is able to rest on its laurels i.e. they can/do market how well AirBnb, Stripe etc have done. And so their funnel of talent is by far the best.

c) That said, YC is the worst I've ever seen it. And Garry Tan is mostly to blame although it's been trending downwards for a while. It's now as if Jake Paul ran an incubator: very hype driven, cynical, focused on easily exploitable young 20s males.

Re: YC Graveyard: 821 inactive Y Combinator startups

#39

Post by threeseed »

smt88 wrote: post #5
nikolayasdf123 wrote: post #3

how many YC startups are there? wiki says 4K, so 821/4K = 20%. not too bad. I expected much worse.

It's certainly much worse. It's often difficult to tell when a company is dead unless they announce it. Many other failures (likely most of YC's portfolio) will have died by being acquired for less than the most recent valuation, meaning YC lost money on the deal. These sometimes look like successful exits unless you know the details.

> will have died by being acquired for less than the most recent valuation, meaning YC lost money on the deal

Does YC really lose money on all acquihires ?

Because it seems like most of the batches look to be purpose built for it.

Post reply on HN