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

The New Deal

blog.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 194 posts

Re: The New Deal

#41

Post by karamazov »

Beliavsky wrote: post #11

I have wondered if affluent parents can replicate at least the money part of Y Combinator. $120K is about the list price of two years of Harvard/MIT/Stanford . With a son who loves to program, I have wondered if sending him to a cheaper school and giving him the difference in installments after he graduates is better than paying for a "name" school. It depends on the quality of the cheaper school, of course. And I th…

Off topic, but if your son has the chance to go Harvard/MIT/Stanford, he absolutely should. The difference is primarily in the caliber of the other students, and it makes a world of difference to have such a concentration of talent in one place.

(Note that I'm not saying there isn't talent elsewhere, just that there's an incredible concentration of it in the top n schools.)

Re: The New Deal

#42

Post by suyash »

austenallred wrote: post #5

I'm more excited about the effect this will have in general than the effect it will have on YC companies. The difference for a YC company is that they don't have to give up an extra percentage as they raise their seed round to cover the convertible note/SAFE that they got from YCVC. With no discount, if a YC company raised at a $10M valuation that 80,000 would be worth .8% of the company - not enough to really move t…

I'm sure you know that it's not a 1-1 relationship between YC startup and accelerator startup.

There are major differences between Incubator like YC and other Accelerators: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seed_accelerator

Re: The New Deal

#44

Post by nlh »

This seems great - simple, better terms, higher valuation. Kudos @sama and YC.

Stepping back a bit, it's also a sign of the times -- especially given the tone of the last paragraph, it's clear there's pricing pressure on incubators/accelerators and the competition is heating up a bit. There are more competitors in the space, valuations are rising, and YC is adjusting accordingly. This isn't a good or bad thing per se -- just an observation of a byproduct of capitalism and the realism of the market in 2014.

Re: The New Deal

#45

Post by [deleted] »

cperciva wrote: post #4

I can't help thinking that this seems a little bit unfair. While there's a nominal out for "exceptional cases", it seems to me that a company like Stripe deserves a much higher valuation than a company like Tarsnap... not to mention the difference between companies which are joining YC after they're already established and companies which are merely a twinkle in their founders' eyes. What exactly is the problem being…

[deleted]

Re: The New Deal

#47

Post by arfliw »

suyash wrote: post #42
austenallred wrote: post #5

I'm more excited about the effect this will have in general than the effect it will have on YC companies. The difference for a YC company is that they don't have to give up an extra percentage as they raise their seed round to cover the convertible note/SAFE that they got from YCVC. With no discount, if a YC company raised at a $10M valuation that 80,000 would be worth .8% of the company - not enough to really move t…

I'm sure you know that it's not a 1-1 relationship between YC startup and accelerator startup. There are major differences between Incubator like YC and other Accelerators: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seed_accelerator

YC is not an incubator

Re: The New Deal

#48

Post by rdl »

The old terms weren't bad, but this is unquestionably better: simpler, and higher valuation. Great news for everyone in YC.

I don't know if any other accelerators had the same core + YCVC investment model, so I don't know what changes it will have elsewhere except maybe pushing valuations at the accelerator stage a little closer to the demo day amount. (Still higher than $1mm pre, in all but exceptional cases.)

(Also, WOW. The teespring guys are doing $50k for each non-profit? That is amazing.)

Re: The New Deal

#49

Post by yahelc »

tptacek wrote: post #15
Beliavsky wrote: post #11

I have wondered if affluent parents can replicate at least the money part of Y Combinator. $120K is about the list price of two years of Harvard/MIT/Stanford . With a son who loves to program, I have wondered if sending him to a cheaper school and giving him the difference in installments after he graduates is better than paying for a "name" school. It depends on the quality of the cheaper school, of course. And I th…

They obviously can, the same way that they can offset the dollars by paying for their childrens' living expenses. But $120k is just not a lot of money. The real value of YC is the signal that getting accepted sends to other seed investors.

Which is, incidentally, not dissimilar from the signaling effects of attending Harvard/MIT/Stanford.

Re: The New Deal

#50

Post by ZachPruckowski »

Beliavsky wrote: post #11

I have wondered if affluent parents can replicate at least the money part of Y Combinator. $120K is about the list price of two years of Harvard/MIT/Stanford . With a son who loves to program, I have wondered if sending him to a cheaper school and giving him the difference in installments after he graduates is better than paying for a "name" school. It depends on the quality of the cheaper school, of course. And I th…

Most likely, your kid's startup you dropped $120K into is going to fail. Make sure you consider that case very carefully - what are his chances like at 26 with a less prestigious degree and a failed startup under his belt compared to a Harvard/MIT/Stanford degree plus 5 years in a salaried job that those can get you?
Post reply on HN