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The YC VC Program

ycombinator.com

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Re: The YC VC Program

#141

Post by trevelyan »

tomhoward wrote: post #87
sjtgraham wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PG how much of this attributable to $150k being too much money? Wasn't the last batch the largest by significant margin? Is it not expected that there will be more failure and therefore more demand on partner time as batch size increases? In another comment, you mention founders scrapping over the carcass of their failed startups; what is it exactly they're fighting over? Surely the money has run out and anything lef…

what is it exactly they're fighting over? Surely the money has run out and anything left should be returned to investors in good faith? I assume he's talking about cases where the founders fall out well before the money has run out. Previously, when there was little (money or IP) left, they'd just go their separate ways and start something new. But with money still in the bank, founders may believe the company still…

I wonder how many of those teams were single-founder projects that took on partners to apply. It is surely very rare for organic teams to experience this sort of drama in three months, no? Or is YC really just that stressful?

Re: The YC VC Program

#142

Post by n00b101 »

robryan wrote: post #127
n00b101 wrote: post #106

$80k is peanuts. Apparently these folks haven't learned the lesson that you get what you get what you pay for! Maybe $80k is enough for some ridiuclous $2 iPhone game or some startup for making a website for adding a single puny feature to an existing social network and having 15 minutes of fame. But $80k is nowhere near enough money to create an Enterprise solutions startup. I laugh at your $80k and the hubdreds of…

You realize some of YCs biggest successes to date such as Dropbox and airbnb only got the maybe from YC, no start fund.

Steve Jobs rejected Dropbox and called it a mere feature, not a business, and then Apple created there own version.

Airbnb ... again, it's just a small business at best.

If I could seed my startup idea with $80k I would bankroll the damn thing myself using my own savings, instead of selling my company down the river on a convertible note for a paltry sum. Yes, I have $80k to blow because I have real experience making real money. No, 80k does not come anywhere close to the investment needed to seed a real business.

Re: The YC VC Program

#143

Post by n00b101 »

gridspy wrote: post #124
n00b101 wrote: post #106

$80k is peanuts. Apparently these folks haven't learned the lesson that you get what you get what you pay for! Maybe $80k is enough for some ridiuclous $2 iPhone game or some startup for making a website for adding a single puny feature to an existing social network and having 15 minutes of fame. But $80k is nowhere near enough money to create an Enterprise solutions startup. I laugh at your $80k and the hubdreds of…

Apple and Microsoft were both making money before they had spent $80k. Apple was selling hobbiest boards, Microsoft the license to DOS. You don't have to build a whole company, just find a market and become sustainable.

Apple was created my making devices on breadboards, that doesn't mean that the next Google/Apple/Microsoft will be able to do the same thing. Times have changed, the barriers to entry are slightly higher. $1MM to seed a company, that's the minimum... unless you are only interested in infantile businesses like glorified classified ads, crappy thow-away games, or one-trick pony "cloud" services... $80k doesn't even get you a hot dog stand!

Re: The YC VC Program

#144

Post by genuine »

As alluded to in the post, I think that the 80k/startup rule is probably not a good one either.

80k might not be enough and "doing more with less" can just as often lead to failure. Case in point is the recent post about the lean startup that only provided the minimum viable product (MVP), but failed to really provide what was needed. If pressure is put on startups to provide a product faster for less, then less of a product will be provided. Granted, YC will provide more support and try not to let such things happen.

I think the funding should be decided on a case-by-case basis instead. Possibly more funding could be given to those with a better idea that have greater need through some sort of point system, and either provide a range of funding from 40-120k without requiring more from the VC's, or provide 80-150k if the VC's are able.

Re: The YC VC Program

#147

Post by davidwhodge »

argumentum wrote: post #140
tatsuke95 wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "This makes 250% sense, particularly for "no idea" companies." 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.

In no way do I blame the money, but it certainly made it easier to make bad decisions. A better way to put it would be that it made us make decisions that shouldn't have had to be made that early. "no idea" doesn't literally mean we had "no idea", we had plenty of ideas. We just hadn't settled on one yet.

I'm curious. Would you mind sharing what kinds of early decisions you made that you wouldn't have with 80k?

Re: The YC VC Program

#148

Post by skdoo »

kami8845 wrote: post #34
pg wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We certainly didn't kick SV Angel out. They're among our favorite investors in fact. It just didn't make sense with their fund size to keep doing these investments. Unlike the other investors, they are what's now called a "super angel" fund, and those are much smaller.

I'm certain there are some companies that need more runway than others. Is it possible for, say, hardware companies to renegotiate for, e.g. 30k per VC rather than the current 20k?

The 150K was crucial for us as a hardware company. But it's hard to find the optimal balance between development speed and burn rate for hardware. Being able to more freely purchase things (components, raw materials, equipment, prototyping services, express shipping) helped us move much more quickly than before. With 80K, we would have adjusted our judgement calls and consequently moved a little more slowly.

Re: The YC VC Program

#149

Post by nikcub »

dmmalam wrote: post #118
ricardobeat wrote: post #97

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.

Visas cost 5-10k per founder. We had to pay an extra month of rent as 'deposit'. You will need to fly in and out of the US several times while the visas get process, as the ESTA is only 3 months. A round trip from LON-SF can be 1k per person, and that's from a hub. I've already got enough miles to be bumped up on my frequent flyer prog. It's not the end of the world, and the typical YC company will be resilient enoug…

Use visa waivers. They let you stay in the US for 3 months at a time and spending $1k on a ticket at the end of each 3 months is cheaper than paying $5-10k upfront for a visa plus additional flights.

If you are worried about the number of times you can enter on a visa waiver, don't - I have entered the USA 50+ times on a waiver and the guys at immigration ask me how I am going and wave me on each time.

This was even more fun before they closed 'The Mexican Loophole', where you could drop out to Mexico for the weekend and get a new visa on the way in. I had a lot of fun weekends in Mexico before they shut that down. You now need to leave the North American continent (they included Central America when people started flying to Belize to get new US entry visa's)

Re: The YC VC Program

#150

Post by onesider »

cs702 wrote: post #76

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.

Its unfortunate there are so many 'sucking up to' responses to the original post.

If PG is smart enough he wouldn't give a Damn to those response. If he is not, he is not worth 'sucking up to'

There is nothing wrong in questioning this change.

To me this is a clear indication of YC has passed its peak. If you are funding people who are going to fight over 80K after their dream company fails, there is something seriously wrong in kind of people that are being funded by the program.

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