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

Is Y Combinator worth the money?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

341–349 of 349 posts

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#341

Post by robocat »

pcthrowaway wrote: post #215
robocat wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. I have yet to see YC publish figures on founder returns - they mostly talk about the successes. https://jaredheyman.medium.com/on-the-life-and-death-of-y-co... Amazing video on bootstrapping: https://youtube.com/watch?v=otbnC2zE2rw There are funds trying to succeed at the many-small-successes model of investing - personally I am skeptical (from my own experience) because the natural failure rate is so high (be…

> small software businesses asking for money is a loud signal that they are much less likely to be successful at all IMHO Money doesn't seem like the main benefit to going through YC (otherwise there are lots of other investment firms one could approach). The main advantage seems to be the network, connections, and expertise on running a business. Sure, if I had another 30K I'd have an extra year of runway, which can…

Note: Paul Graham writes on theory of 7% equity: http://paulgraham.com/equity.html

The real benefits and costs are hard to measure, the maths is obvious.

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#342

Post by pbadg3r »

hdivider wrote: post #186
rsp1984 wrote: post #90

Their logic can be understood: make a good product, and the rest will catch up. But in real life marketing and hype really matters, and when everyone does these things while you naively sit and code, they get an advantage in the market, and you get your cool product. I sometimes get the feeling, also by watching their public content on YT, that a lot of YC advice, especially w.r.t. what to prioritize, is from an era…

I think we are definitely in a new era. My view: entrepreneurs should take on a little more technology risk. Not just market risk. License IP from federal labs and government agencies -- there is SO much advanced tech sitting on shelves. Do government contracting to fund R&D. Go beyond just software, especially the SaaS kind, because ultimately, software can only make so much difference in society. Investors don't li…

Yeah!! Wrote a blog post about this recently: https://startupspeed.substack.com/p/mental-shifts-for-deep-t...

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#344

Post by rhtgrg »

majani wrote: post #330
rhtgrg wrote: post #46

YC used to be for people who investors wouldn’t normally take a chance on…and imo, it still is. If you have a FAANG attached to your name with multiple years of experience, you can probably find better deals elsewhere. YC has done a relatively good job of scaling themselves, but it has never been a “one size fits all” funding solution, and if you are a founder you’d be wise to consider your options carefully. That be…

> YC used to be for people who investors wouldn’t normally take a chance on…and imo, it still is. It absolutely is not. The recently released Founders Directory[1] shows that YC is practically a big tech company now. Most alumni are from FAANG or Ivy League. This was an inevitable result when YC became the most prestigious accelerator in the West [1] https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/founders

That's why I said in my opinion. Which is to say, in my opinion the opportunity YC presents is more compelling for non-FAANG founders. That doesn't necessarily mean anything for what the demographics actually end up being. I'm sure at least some of those FAANG founders are favoring prestige over a better financial deal.

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#345

Post by robocat »

robocat wrote: post #303
acecreamu wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Add one angel or one early commit of 10k to it and the uncapped SAFE turns into a very bad SAFE. Basically it blocks you from flexibility of building up fundraising moment gradually.

That appears to be an unfair statement. Your problem is that the YC terms are generous, and what you are complaining about is a hypothetical where you trigger a problem by causing an early valuation. If you choose to, you get given $375k by YC, that will usually convert at the price of your future round A valuation, also the SAFE doesn’t have a discount or onerous conditions from YC (YC has zero incentive to stiff yo…

To add, a good critique of YC SAFEs: https://siliconhillslawyer.com/2019/05/01/startups-shouldnt-...

But really what matters is what outcomes have occurred? Although the only way I can think of to know that would be to ask the experiences from a few founders a few years ago that used the YC SAFE.

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#346

Post by aubanel »

acecreamu wrote: post #126
aubanel wrote: post #121

Anyone have similar insights about Entrepreneur First? Btw I still don't understand if during the program they you a salary anyway or only if they end up taking a stake in your company.

In fact I (OP) have, we went through EF before YC. They do give you a stipend regardless whether you make it to the second stage (investment)

Thanks a lot for the info!

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#347

Post by acecreamu »

OP here, I feel the information in my article got outdated too quickly, so wanted to quickly revisit my statements with respect to the current experience (as of 2025):

- I feel the in-person thing makes and breaks the YC magic, people who go through in-person cohorts feel much more connected to their batchmates and partners

- The batches got significantly leaner = more attention to each individual company

- Selling inside YC is a thing again (specifically for AI companies), since everyone around is doing AI and isn't lacking money YC companies basically buy from each other and get to 1M ARR together

- The investment premium is there, with YC startups getting avg cap of 25M comparing to 15M for non-YC startups of similar stage (even with greater traction)

- Bonus: the alumni events and off-site experiences became a nice addition, even for the previous cohorts

Overall, I feel we experienced YC at its lowest, and it's not fair to use it as a reference point. There are still challenges with dilution (MFN) and the alumni experience (you basically lose most of the access), but they definitely listened to the feedback and have made positive changes that founders can already feel.

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#348

Post by RfMnvpF9 »

acecreamu wrote: post #347

OP here, I feel the information in my article got outdated too quickly, so wanted to quickly revisit my statements with respect to the current experience (as of 2025): - I feel the in-person thing makes and breaks the YC magic, people who go through in-person cohorts feel much more connected to their batchmates and partners - The batches got significantly leaner = more attention to each individual company - Selling i…

O.o And why take it down?

Did they not "coerce" you to do that? Some disclaimers is needed - could you tell us that they did not led you to take it down?

earlier in the day I was in McD [market st sf] literally reading your blog post midway, refresh and the whole thing is gone darn! Did you got captured too?

I thought my browser had a bug but No the post is gone! So much for transparency, YC.. simply getting from bad to worse.

@OP you should have updated the blog post with a "2025 Update" textbox as per interwebs custom, instead of pulling the whole damn thing down. https://archive.is/cgKRF:

> don't censure bad [..] YC are the ones who teach how important is negative feedback for improvement

Seriously?

What about:

> pushing everyone through the same pipeline [....] everyone needs to follow their simple framework, not try to shine too much, not try to choose the right words, wash off all the makeup, put on a gray uniform

> this feeling in the air that they want to cram everyone into their framework, and any attempts to go beyond the framework are quickly suppressed

listen to your younger self. Is self censorship now the new normal?

I seriously wonder how many of such dissenting posts have already been clean-scrubbed off the internet

> internal forum called Bookface, but it serves more as an abstract omniscient brain

looks like its real usefulness is to "cover their own reputational risks", to track dissenters and mob against them. Beware!

Re: Is Y Combinator worth the money?

#349

Post by dang »

RfMnvpF9 wrote: post #348
acecreamu wrote: post #347

OP here, I feel the information in my article got outdated too quickly, so wanted to quickly revisit my statements with respect to the current experience (as of 2025): - I feel the in-person thing makes and breaks the YC magic, people who go through in-person cohorts feel much more connected to their batchmates and partners - The batches got significantly leaner = more attention to each individual company - Selling i…

O.o And why take it down? Did they not "coerce" you to do that? Some disclaimers is needed - could you tell us that they did not led you to take it down? earlier in the day I was in McD [market st sf] literally reading your blog post midway, refresh and the whole thing is gone darn! Did you got captured too? I thought my browser had a bug but No the post is gone! So much for transparency, YC.. simply getting from bad…

Please see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44251390.
Post reply on HN