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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

#51

Post by batgaijin »

w1ntermute wrote: post #35
outside1234 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Uh... the next big ideas aren't going to be the first thing out the door. If they are smart they would create something for passive income with low maintainability while working on the real product.

There is a meme where running a startup is like gambling where the only option is going all in, both for participating in the startup and for the ideas they execute. Quit huffing the glue, and pass the glue.

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

#52

Post by bifrost »

This article kind of reminds me of the stories bands and actors used to tell about hollywood. Moving somewhere, living cheap then hitting it big - albeit on a shorter timeframe.

"How can a company that earns no money be worth a billion dollars?" - Hotmail. Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it :)

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

#53

Post by w1ntermute »

batgaijin wrote: post #51
w1ntermute wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Uh... the next big ideas aren't going to be the first thing out the door. If they are smart they would create something for passive income with low maintainability while working on the real product. There is a meme where running a startup is like gambling where the only option is going all in, both for participating in the startup and for the ideas they execute. Quit huffing the glue, and pass the glue.

Uh...you clearly have never worked at a startup with a severe need for more developers. And I'm not talking about the next Instagram. There are legitimate needs for more developers in many startups that are working on real problems.

If you can accelerate the growth of your business by taking VC money and hiring more people, why wouldn't you? Contrary to your first statement, there are plenty of startups in markets that are currently in "landgrab" mode.

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

#54

Post by wiwillia »

mmayberry wrote: post #39

Why did Teespring take $1.3M in funding if they were on pace to make $1M the following month? Why dilute your pool when your figure was just a month away (plus whatever else was saved) anyone have any insight?

Hi there - Walker from Teespring here. Both rdl and earbitscom are right. We took money to give ourselves the cushion we need to scale and aim big, and we raised it from people we believe can make a difference to our business.

I'm writing a follow up to my first blog post (wiwillia.com) where I'll get a little more into the details of why we chose to raise.

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

#55

Post by lanstein »

bifrost wrote: post #52

This article kind of reminds me of the stories bands and actors used to tell about hollywood. Moving somewhere, living cheap then hitting it big - albeit on a shorter timeframe. "How can a company that earns no money be worth a billion dollars?" - Hotmail. Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it :)

You mean HoTMaiL?

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

#56

Post by ewoodrich »

pg wrote: post #44
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 […

"Given that the size of batches have gone up, I do believe that number of sentences exchanged with PG/partners per startup must have gone down." I didn't read this whole comment, but that part at least is false, because we've hired new partners at a higher rate than batches have grown. We now have 5 people doing for 50-startup batches what I used to do alone for 20-startup batches.

A reasonable heuristic. In which case, what was the ratio of sentences read to ignored in this particular instance?

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

#57

Post by rhizome »

w1ntermute wrote: post #53
batgaijin wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh... the next big ideas aren't going to be the first thing out the door. If they are smart they would create something for passive income with low maintainability while working on the real product. There is a meme where running a startup is like gambling where the only option is going all in, both for participating in the startup and for the ideas they execute. Quit huffing the glue, and pass the glue.

Uh...you clearly have never worked at a startup with a severe need for more developers. And I'm not talking about the next Instagram. There are legitimate needs for more developers in many startups that are working on real problems. If you can accelerate the growth of your business by taking VC money and hiring more people, why wouldn't you? Contrary to your first statement, there are plenty of startups in markets th…

If you can accelerate the growth of your business by taking VC money and hiring more people, why wouldn't you?

Brooks' Law, for one thing. I if I was in the situation you describe, I would try more to use the money to buy time, not so much people.

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

#58

Post by argonaut »

monsterix wrote: post #37
argonaut wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Well, unless you lie on your application, your track record (whether it's your academic record, your work experience, things you've built, etc) should speak for itself.

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

#59

Post by omegant »

pg wrote: post #46
aashaykumar92 wrote: post #12

Why are some investors losing interest in YC companies? It's not only noted in this article, but was also a topic of discussion after this past demo day. Is it because YC seems to be investing in less startups 'trying to hit the home run' like Airbnb, Dropbox, arguably Stripe now? To me, it's somewhat confusing because the companies are still solving pretty darn realistic problems and are doing so uniquely. [edit] th…

Because whenever a reporter asks investors at Demo Day for a comment, and they ask themselves "what could I say that would be in my interest to have reprinted?" the obvious choice is "prices are coming down." And it's not true, incidentally. We don't have all the data yet but it's clear valuations remained high last batch.

If they make it a meme, eventually valuations will go down, as VCs will be influenced by the general "mood"(at least a portion of them will).

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

#60

Post by argumentum »

Good article. As a yc alum who's idea(s) didn't succeed (yet), it's pretty much on point on a lot of things.

There is one thing factually wrong, or at least incomplete .. you don't get $100k (formerly $170k) for 7%. You get $11-20k for 2-10% plus $80k (formerly $150k) at an uncapped valuation. Usually that % will be low.

The fundamental epiphany of YC/pg is that that we are no where near the limit on the # of startups .. and that encouraging hackers to become entrepreneurs is a win-win for hackers, investors, users and the world in general. YC will (continue to) be incredibly successful as long as it remains faithful to this.

Also, never knew about pg's fear of flying .. very cool and inspiring thing to learn.

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