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Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s Start-Up Machine

nytimes.com

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Re: Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s Start-Up Machine

#31

Post by 3327 »

socksy wrote: post #16
batgaijin wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the kids that are smart enough to do the next big thing are most likely smart enough to avoid VCs.

That doesn't sound like a compelling reason. If that's true now, that was at least as true before when the terms tended to be even worse for entrepreneurs. What's changed recently?

I don't want to agree but I do. If you had a job out of college and didn't squander your money (as we are assuming the existence of intelligence) bootstrapping a good idea together is very cheap. If they have been at it and the idea is good and solves critical mass problems and other start-up problems within it why should he/she/they go to a VC?

The current stage: VC's come in, or, like to come in when the startup appears to not even need them. If it is already growing, adding users and all thats needed to make that grow exponential is throwing cash at it they love to come in.

Re: Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s Start-Up Machine

#32

Post by braco_alva »

rdouble wrote: post #27
brandnewlow wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I've heard, the video isn't a huge part of the application. They're looking for good startups, not good video producers.

Didn't pg say a while back that the video was the most important part?

I think he was talking about what the founders say in the video, not the quality of the video itself.

Re: Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s Start-Up Machine

#33

Post by tptacek »

argonaut wrote: post #24

The tone and diction of the article really struck me as odd and unusual. 1. The heavy-handed metaphorical comparison of YC to a summer camp: "During that time, campers, or founders, have regular meetings with each of Y.C.’s counselors, or partners," "The director of this camp," " basketball-court-size dining hall," 2. "The Y.C. term culminates with Demo Day, or D Day." N̶o̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶a̶c̶t̶u̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶c̶a̶l̶l̶s̶ ̶i̶t̶…

You mean nobody calls it dday besides Paul Graham, all the time.

There's a convenient little box you can ask for confirmation of that right at the bottom of this very page.

Re: Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s Start-Up Machine

#34

Post by dr_ »

sgrove wrote: post #25
dr_ wrote: post #11

Having made several angel investments, I can tell you my eyes kind of roll when I hear the billion dollar valuation. It's very apparent when a startup has taken the number 1 billion and then just divided it by the potential number of users for its particular product and then by 12 months to come up with the monthly cost of the service. The last investment we made presented numbers that were far more modest, but we kn…

Do you mean TAM instead of valuation? That's a very strange way (if that's the only way) of defining a startup's valuation. Also, surely you wouldn't be angel investing in anything with a valuation anywhere near $1B, you'd never make any money.

Correct, i meant tam, not valuation.

Re: Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s Start-Up Machine

#35

Post by w1ntermute »

outside1234 wrote: post #20
socksy wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't sound like a compelling reason. If that's true now, that was at least as true before when the terms tended to be even worse for entrepreneurs. What's changed recently?

It costs almost nothing to run a company in the cloud and the software infrastructure is so productive that you can realistically bootstrap yourself.

That doesn't pay for development. Even if you have a non-technical cofounder who can pitch in for the development when necessary, you're going to hit a point where it's not enough. And it's not so easy to sell people on joining your company for equity when salaries are so high at large companies.

Re: Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s Start-Up Machine

#36

Post by habosa »

georgecmu wrote: post #26

It’s because of this power law: If a company has a 1 percent chance of being a hundred-billion-dollar company, then it’s worth about a billion dollars Really, is this a power law? Looks to me like a simplistic application of expected value.

Also nobody really has even a 1% chance at becoming a 100B company. There have been very few of those in human history, the odds are << 1% even for a top YC company.

Re: Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s Start-Up Machine

#37

Post by monsterix »

argonaut wrote: post #28
monsterix wrote: post #21

Guess this one looks like a post enthusiasm state but here is what I think is going on lately (Disclaimer: I am an entrepreneur, I feel this, so please take it all with a pinch of salt): It seems that the race to get into a coveted program like YC has become crowded. Almost every other startup that I met during last one year (50 odd in two cycles) had applied to the YC program [premise-A], some gotten the interview […

The ability to communicate is a critical skill in any company. If none of the founders at your startup can write at a basic, clear level - YC applications are no works of literature - and the founders cannot hold a conversation (that tjeu prepared for) in front of a camera (let alone a spontaneous real life conversation), then the founders have no business starting a company that one day might have 5, 10, 20, 50, 100…

True. Not all the points I am suggesting above would be correct. However, how would you (let's say you're running YC) separate a genuine technology startup with great communication skills from a fake one with great communication skills?

Re: Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s Start-Up Machine

#38

Post by cmstoken »

markmccubbin wrote: post #2

This is really great. I worked along side these guys (strikingly) in the same cafe in SF, hacking away for a while before they got into YC. These guys are humble and really doing it right. They took what others just see as a clone of weebly and have added enough USP to prove that it's all execution. They had customers even while sitting in the little Cafe in SF and have growing fast through sheer force of will ! Bigg…

Do you know when Strikingly launched?

Re: Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s Start-Up Machine

#40

Post by rdl »

tptacek wrote: post #33
argonaut wrote: post #24

The tone and diction of the article really struck me as odd and unusual. 1. The heavy-handed metaphorical comparison of YC to a summer camp: "During that time, campers, or founders, have regular meetings with each of Y.C.’s counselors, or partners," "The director of this camp," " basketball-court-size dining hall," 2. "The Y.C. term culminates with Demo Day, or D Day." N̶o̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶a̶c̶t̶u̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶c̶a̶l̶l̶s̶ ̶i̶t̶…

You mean nobody calls it dday besides Paul Graham, all the time . There's a convenient little box you can ask for confirmation of that right at the bottom of this very page.

I've never heard pg actually call it "dday"; I didn't even realize he'd used it in writing on demo day a lot. I honestly would have assumed a reference to WW2 or some kind of military attack if someone said "are you ready for D-Day?" even in a startup context, or maybe a reference to a specific company's launch day, not demo day (by which time most companies have launched)
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