YC Stats Winter 2015 • Hacker News Board

Re: YC Stats Winter 2015

#41

Post by dominicgs » Tue, Mar 17, 2015, 5:18 PM UTC

codeonfire wrote: post #25

illdave wrote: post #2

Interesting to note that the average founder age is 30.27 (median is 29). Not that that's old, of course - just that I imagined it'd be younger.

Why would you not assume the opposite? I would assume the most experienced people with the most knowledge, contacts, and money to be in their 40s and 50s.

Warning, I'm about to make a couple of massive generalisations...

I would guess that most 40-50 year olds who already have knowledge, contacts and money don't apply to YC, probably because they don't feel that they need it.

I expect that founders at that age are more likely to be coming from a position of experience within their target industry, i.e. solving a problem that they've seen/experienced. They may not be trying to become "X for Y" but solving problem Z that a limited number of clients will pay good money to have solved.

Older founders may have more to risk, so the "go big or go home" model may not be as attractive to them.

As I said, this is a huge generalisation with a lot of guesswork thrown in. I would love to see some more detailed data so that we could draw some conclusions.

Re: YC Stats Winter 2015

#42

Post by chadkruse » Tue, Mar 17, 2015, 5:18 PM UTC

Anyone happen to know the other two nonprofits besides http://democracyos.org/ ?

Re: YC Stats Winter 2015

#43

Post by lettergram » Tue, Mar 17, 2015, 5:23 PM UTC

pavlov wrote: post #40

solve wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The median age has been pinned to the '84 - '85 age group since the start.

If this is true, maybe there's something particularly interesting about the '84/'85 generation. These people were about 10 years old when the Web happened and 15 years old when Napster and digital cameras took off, so they probably haven't written too many snailmail letters, bought CDs or taken photos on film. Perhaps that gives them a perspective that's more "digitally native" than older people, yet they have more e…

There probably is nothing unique about he '84/'85 generation.

There is an unconscious bias when reviewing applications (especially during interviews) to vote/side with people that look/act/know the same references/same point in life/etc like you. Since previous YC graduates both recommend and (some) decide who gets in, they match what they know.

Re: YC Stats Winter 2015

#44

Post by spcoll » Tue, Mar 17, 2015, 5:24 PM UTC

No stats for Asian founders? It would be interesting to see a complete breakdown of WC W15 entrepreneurs by ethnicity.

Re: YC Stats Winter 2015

#45

Post by foobarqux » Tue, Mar 17, 2015, 5:27 PM UTC

cllns wrote: post #35

Companies with a female founder: 25 (21.93%) Companies with a Black founder: 9 (7.89%) Companies with a Hispanic founder: 6 (5.26%) They should release the stats of the number of people overall, not the number of companies with at least one member who fits into one of those groups. For example, say X% of the people are female, etc.

That wouldn't serve their purposes.

Re: YC Stats Winter 2015

#46

Post by jonlucc » Tue, Mar 17, 2015, 5:28 PM UTC

salusinarduis wrote: post #10

gabegottlieb wrote: post #9

Anyone else surprised at the number of startups in this class? (114) How much individual attention can each startup get?

YC has a sharded structure now. Arguably startups now get more attention than in some of the earlier batches.

Can you explain this a little more? Are there different groups where each group has a mentor or shared resources?

Re: YC Stats Winter 2015

#47

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Mar 17, 2015, 5:28 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: YC Stats Winter 2015

#48

Post by hbhakhra » Tue, Mar 17, 2015, 5:29 PM UTC

someear wrote: post #22

would be interesting to see similar stats for the groups that applied. Both along the company categories and the gender/race breakdown.

Also how many total applications did they receive?

Re: YC Stats Winter 2015

#49

Post by ryanSrich » Tue, Mar 17, 2015, 5:30 PM UTC

codeonfire wrote: post #25

illdave wrote: post #2

Interesting to note that the average founder age is 30.27 (median is 29). Not that that's old, of course - just that I imagined it'd be younger.

Why would you not assume the opposite? I would assume the most experienced people with the most knowledge, contacts, and money to be in their 40s and 50s.

Silicon Valley culture is inherently ageist. The median age is by far the most surprising statistic to me. I would have thought it'd be at least 5 years younger. To me the ageist aspect is part of the idea that only young people should be building products for young people.

This is perhaps an insight into the types of companies YC is funding. They may just have a larger pool of B2B and enterprise companies this session.

Re: YC Stats Winter 2015

#50

Post by mattmanser » Tue, Mar 17, 2015, 5:31 PM UTC

bache wrote: post #19

srinivsn wrote: post #12

What's the difference between B2B vs. Enterprise?

B2B would solve issue's for businesses of any size while enterprise is creating products for the fortune 500.

Enterprise has nothing to do with only 500 companies in the US.

There is no real difference.

Though some might say if you charge thousands and have dedicated salespeople, you're enterprise, even if you sell to a 25 person architect firm. Sales force is definitely though of as enterprise. While basecamp or twilio is more B2B. It's fuzzy, if there even is a difference.