YC Fellowship • Hacker News Board

Re: YC Fellowship

#21

Post by durkie » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 5:14 PM UTC

katm wrote: post #2

Kat from YC here. Sam, Matt Krisiloff and I are happy to answer any questions about the Fellowship. You can also send questions to fellowship@ycombinator.com.

Hi Kat! We're considering applying and wondering if you folks have a conception of companies that would be considered too far along for this program. In our situation, we're have not yet taken investment, but we would definitely love to and still have much to learn about getting ready for that. We're also somewhat beyond the prototype phase, but only to the extent that we're soon shipping a version 1 product to crowdfunding backers. Thanks!

Re: YC Fellowship

#22

Post by pilingual » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 5:15 PM UTC

This is exactly why Y Combinator is the best. This is what leadership is (and what those other accelerators do, is follow the lead).

> but as always we’ll consider solo founders too.

Please be extremely open minded about solo founders. I feel that is one consideration that hasn't been adapted with the changing tech landscape.

Re: YC Fellowship

#23

Post by s73v3r » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 5:16 PM UTC

Any mention of health insurance, or other things like that? One of the biggest reasons people do go to work for large companies instead of starting their own business is things like that. Without them, you're really only targeting the young kids right out of school, most of whom (but not all) don't really need that much in healthcare.

Re: YC Fellowship

#24

Post by larrys » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 5:16 PM UTC

12k gets them first dibs on an individual and/or a team ... a smart idea.

Essentially a variation of Cialdini's "reciprocity" principle (among others..)

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/six-principles-influe...

People are free to do whatever they want with the grant and not go any further with YC but it's obvious that the good will and grant will cause a large percentage of them to not do that.

Re: YC Fellowship

#25

Post by mattkrisiloff » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 5:16 PM UTC

heynk wrote: post #17

The announcement's discussion of 'good founders' led me to view this as supporting individuals, as well as teams. In contrast to YC's stance on only really exceptional solo founders, could this program be more tailored to a solo founder, perhaps still looking for a co-founder?

We're treating it the same way -- solo founders are definitely encouraged to apply, but everything being equal, it's better to have co-founders.

Re: YC Fellowship

#26

Post by sama » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 5:16 PM UTC

heynk wrote: post #17

The announcement's discussion of 'good founders' led me to view this as supporting individuals, as well as teams. In contrast to YC's stance on only really exceptional solo founders, could this program be more tailored to a solo founder, perhaps still looking for a co-founder?

We will be slightly more open to solo founders because we think at this stage you still have a good chance of finding a cofounder.

But the bar will still remain higher for solo founders given all of our historical data.

Re: YC Fellowship

#27

Post by x5n1 » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 5:17 PM UTC

s73v3r wrote: post #23

Any mention of health insurance, or other things like that? One of the biggest reasons people do go to work for large companies instead of starting their own business is things like that. Without them, you're really only targeting the young kids right out of school, most of whom (but not all) don't really need that much in healthcare.

it's 2 months. if you really need it just get travel insurance. that should be do-able in 12k.

Re: YC Fellowship

#28

Post by mattkrisiloff » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 5:18 PM UTC

aswath87 wrote: post #20

mattkrisiloff wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi! Matt here -- I'll be managing YC Fellowship. I'll be answering questions here throughout the day alongside Kat and Sam.

hey Matt, what are key differences b/w the fellowship and the YC incubator?

It's a 12k equity-free grant, it lasts for 8 weeks, you can do it remotely, and it's primarily meant for idea and prototype-stage companies. No dinners and no formal Demo Day, but there will be kickoff and end events in Mountain View where teams will present to the YC community. We'll fly out remote teams for those.

Re: YC Fellowship

#29

Post by j4pe » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 5:18 PM UTC

mattkrisiloff wrote: post #3

katm wrote: post #2

Kat from YC here. Sam, Matt Krisiloff and I are happy to answer any questions about the Fellowship. You can also send questions to fellowship@ycombinator.com.

Hi! Matt here -- I'll be managing YC Fellowship. I'll be answering questions here throughout the day alongside Kat and Sam.

Hi, Matt and Kat. Cool to see the focus on helping more people start companies - I had written off an article bouncing around over the weekend alleging that rich families are the key to entrepreneurship [1]. Maybe it is true, but with enough YC fellowships it doesn't have to be.

Question: my organization is a nonprofit co-op. I know YC recently started accepting nonprofits - what's your opinion on them for YC fellowships?

--

1: http://qz.com/455109/entrepreneurs-dont-have-a-special-gene-...

Re: YC Fellowship

#30

Post by ClueBummer » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 5:19 PM UTC

katm wrote: post #2

Kat from YC here. Sam, Matt Krisiloff and I are happy to answer any questions about the Fellowship. You can also send questions to fellowship@ycombinator.com.

How many teams are you hoping to accept into the fellowship for the first round?