Paul Graham: Y Combinator Companies Have Raised Over $1 Billion

Post by brazzy » Thu, Jul 26, 2012, 3:07 AM UTC

Heinleinian wrote: post #23

adambenayoun wrote: post #11

What's interesting is that if 2-3 years ago, ycombinator had the ability to identify and pick winners. I have the impression that in the past year it became the other way around. Y combinator by picking companies are in fact the kingmakers and are creating the winners.

Last I checked you still have to get users/customers to be a winner in business. YC has clout with investors, so their companies are more likely to get investment, but that's not the right measure of who is a winner. The millions of consumers you need as customers (or, if B-to-B, say fortune 500 companies) don't give a damn about the YC stamp of approval. Increased investment only turns into increased "wins" if you u…

Post by tptacek » Thu, Jul 26, 2012, 3:50 AM UTC

pg wrote: post #48

pbreit wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are HNers so dense when it comes to fundraising? No, the treatment doesn't come off at all sounding like profits or income. Yes, fundraising is definitely a point of success. Why do HNers have such a hard time with this? Money is an important resource for growing companies! Sheesh.

I think they're not so much dense as bitter. There's a subset of HN readers who regard startups as a whole as a sort of con game, and are angry that the participants get so much attention. There may not be that many of them, but their anger makes them disproportionately active as commenters and voters.

Post by pbreit » Thu, Jul 26, 2012, 4:52 AM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #63

pg wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they're not so much dense as bitter. There's a subset of HN readers who regard startups as a whole as a sort of con game, and are angry that the participants get so much attention. There may not be that many of them, but their anger makes them disproportionately active as commenters and voters.

I love startups. Worked at them my whole career. At my practice, I've worked with a bunch of YC startups. Uniformly enjoyed the experience. I'm wary of venture capitalists. I've watched them do skeezy things firsthand. More importantly, every time I see people cheerleading some startup for raising 50MM, all I can think is, "that poor team isn't going to be able to exit unless they can beat 150MM". It's very hard to d…

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 26, 2012, 6:38 AM UTC

pg wrote: post #39

skrebbel wrote: post #5

How very Silicon Valley of the author to treat these numbers almost like they're profits, or any reasonable sort of "income" at all. The real question is: how much of that money has already been multiplied tenfold, through exits, IPOs or exorbitant profits?

What on earth did the author say that conflated fundraising with revenues? All he did was compute an average and list some individual amounts raised. Also, a 10x return is the sort of target a VC will have for a series A round. Investors in later stage rounds have lower expectations. And since later stage rounds are much bigger, that means most of the money invested in a successful startup is done with the expectatio…

Post by mibbitier » Thu, Jul 26, 2012, 8:50 AM UTC

skrebbel wrote: post #66

pg wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What on earth did the author say that conflated fundraising with revenues? All he did was compute an average and list some individual amounts raised. Also, a 10x return is the sort of target a VC will have for a series A round. Investors in later stage rounds have lower expectations. And since later stage rounds are much bigger, that means most of the money invested in a successful startup is done with the expectatio…

Essentially, my complaint is exactly that: he just reported the numbers. In a more mainstream financial magazine, I would've expected the author to also do his best trying to find out what those investments are doing . Basically, what I find an interesting question is "Ok, so $1B has been invested in YC companies. How much are those worth now? Of those which exited, how much did they exit for?". Essentially: how heal…