111–120 of 171 posts
YC is perhaps the most innovative angel/accelerator/VC firm in the planet. Despite all the success the firm has had, it is still acting like a startup -- constantly questioning, experimenting, tinkering, and gradually optimizing via careful trial-and-error, based on the real-world results achieved with each batch of companies. Clearly, it's run by hackers.
80k may be a little tight for international founders, as flights and legal fees for visas can be very expensive. Also silly things like paying extra for deposits on rent/bills as you have no US credit history. But otherwise seems reasonable.
$80k would also be hard to do in SF for Americans. I think YC should do something around the Google Fiber initiative in KC - there's already a startup community congealing around the fiberhoods that have already gone live, and you can make it at least 1.5 to 2 years in KC on $80k, given the ridiculously low cost of living compared to SF.
Here are my thoughts about this: 1. You have idea, a plan to validate it and a plan to execute upon different outcomes and different startups require different financing. I am just wondering if YC has clear matrices which shows there is a same optimum financing for early stage startups in all the domains (healthcare, edu, consumer web, etc.) I am just curious about this!!! But then I read the following: " it sometime…
One of the most valuable things about YC is the pressure it puts on a startup: focus or perish, excellence or death. I've really seen this bring out the best in people, including myself. I think that reducing the "free" c-note from $150k to $80k will increase the pressure a little bit, that entrepreneurs will rise to the challenge, and that the overall outcomes will actually be better. Accountability closes the feedb…
80k may be a little tight for international founders, as flights and legal fees for visas can be very expensive. Also silly things like paying extra for deposits on rent/bills as you have no US credit history. But otherwise seems reasonable.
YC gives a measly $600 for travelling expenses for the interviews, but suddenly $80k isn't enough? $4k gets you anywhere in the world, and maybe half the western world is reachable with $1k or less. You're not going to spend a substantial portion of $80k on flights unless you go home and back every weekend.
Immigration costs close to $10-15K if it's a real move. Without a US credit history, you're going to have to put down a lot of deposits just to get basic things done like getting a credit card.
THANK YOU! This makes 250% sense, particularly for "no idea" companies. 150k led to several bad decisions at the beginning, and led to our breakup later on. 80k will be a lot more valuable than 150k, and make startups think more carefully about how to spend money. Perhaps for capital intensive startups that ought to be funded, there can be a separate arrangement. This shows why YC is YC.. it constantly innovates and…
I can't decipher the level of exaggeration. If your company has "no idea", maybe that's where the blame should lie, rather than on having too much money.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
YC gives a measly $600 for travelling expenses for the interviews, but suddenly $80k isn't enough? $4k gets you anywhere in the world, and maybe half the western world is reachable with $1k or less. You're not going to spend a substantial portion of $80k on flights unless you go home and back every weekend.
You don't know what you're talking about. Immigration costs close to $10-15K if it's a real move. Without a US credit history, you're going to have to put down a lot of deposits just to get basic things done like getting a credit card.
80k may be a little tight for international founders, as flights and legal fees for visas can be very expensive. Also silly things like paying extra for deposits on rent/bills as you have no US credit history. But otherwise seems reasonable.
YC gives a measly $600 for travelling expenses for the interviews, but suddenly $80k isn't enough? $4k gets you anywhere in the world, and maybe half the western world is reachable with $1k or less. You're not going to spend a substantial portion of $80k on flights unless you go home and back every weekend.
It's not the end of the world, and the typical YC company will be resilient enough to survive whatever. However it does add up fast (40k easily), it's not something you can avoid, like say buy a less shiny laptop, and reduces your runway in a meaningful way.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I get why it's great for investors, but why is it great for founders? Especially when they could use the time to change plans.
The office hours help all the startups. Decreasing the amount invested helps the successful and borderline startups because it means less of our time is taken up mediating founder disputes in the ones that are exploding. And yes, that was a significant time suck; Jessica says the majority of her time last batch was spent dealing with founder breakups.
(The alternative I would've given that hypothetical VC would've been to pay somebody with professional business mediation or even personal counseling experience to specialize in the part of the problem they were finding painful. This option is admittedly less open to the average VC because they would have to solve the Design Paradox well enough to identify a good mediator/counselor. I have a rant about groups not explicitly recursing on their most important obstacles and trying to solve them on an ad-hoc basis instead focusing strongly enough to start a subproject that can invoke specialization and a person whose explicit responsibility is to solve that problem, but it probably doesn't belong here.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I get why it's great for investors, but why is it great for founders? Especially when they could use the time to change plans.
The office hours help all the startups. Decreasing the amount invested helps the successful and borderline startups because it means less of our time is taken up mediating founder disputes in the ones that are exploding. And yes, that was a significant time suck; Jessica says the majority of her time last batch was spent dealing with founder breakups.
I'm curious what it might do to valuations. Now the startups have 12 months of runway instead of 18-24 months depending on the number of founders. This means that at demo day, investors know they could potentially squeeze startups a bit more because the runway is shorter. Hopefully the sheer competition will mitigate VC propensity to keep telling investors, "Hey come back next month with updated numbers" until the startup is willing to take money at any valuation.