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YC Fellowship

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: YC Fellowship

#281

Post by mwsherman »

hydandata wrote: post #262

For me, the key is that they are even considering remote. I think that really is the part that is needed to get to another 10x. I am not saying remote work is intrinsically 10x better in quality or quantity, I am thinking about it more from the point of view of people who cannot or will not travel, new people that can be reached this way. Take myself for example: I do have this thing that I am working on.. but I also…

Well put. Geography is vastly underestimated as a limiting factor. Not simply for $ – living in the Bay Area is barely feasible for a young person without dependents – but also the many quality-of-life trade-offs that come with a move. I hope this is a successful experiment.

Re: YC Fellowship

#282

Post by nostrademons »

jebblue wrote: post #280
jrowen wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would really love to see an option for people who are not in this group. I'm sure many people would. Your proposal appears to be that YC do this exact program, but with a 200k+ grant instead of 12k. This is obviously not feasible, given that these grants are being awarded for little more than an idea. Founding a startup is a huge risk, there's no way around that. If you're at a point in life where you can't afford…

"This is obviously not feasible, given that these grants are being awarded for little more than an idea." A patent is an idea, sometimes worth nothing and sometimes worth 10's of Billions.

Some would say that the fact that a patent is sometimes worth 10s of billions is a flaw in the current legal system. While true, I don't think YC is in the business of funding patent trolls.

Re: YC Fellowship

#283

Post by acjohnson55 »

sama wrote: post #250
dean wrote: post #232

This is a good idea and a great opportunity for many people. And I think it's fantastic that YC is doing this. However, I can't help feeling it really is intended for young people recently out of school, who have no other immediate financial obligations. I would really love to see an option for people who are not in this group. Let's imagine someone who is married, with a couple of kids and a mortgage. Right away, YC…

There's no question that having a low personal burn rate is an advantage when it comes to starting a startup. That said, there are a lot of alternatives. There are more seed funds now than ever before. One of the reasons we did this program is that we believe there is hole in this part of the market--it feels like there are more people willing to write a $100k check than a $12k check. Practically speaking, we also fe…

I'm really excited about this move. When I was working on my startup, broke, fresh out of grad school, $12k could have been the lifeline we needed. Instead, we had to stop building while we tried to raise funds prematurely, and bled out before we could pick up momentum.

As long as you guys are as selective as you are with the startups you fund, I think we may well see a whole bunch of startups in 5 years that we can trace back to this fellowship. I think this is a great first step to leveling the playing field for those who don't come from / don't have a whole lot of capital, and might just need a shot. Very timely, in light of the recent Quartz article [1].

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

Re: YC Fellowship

#284

Post by ejcx »

I only hope that YCF get's back to those accepted and denied quickly.

I see this as a great program for students and if they wait too long, students may end up in an awkward position where they are unsure whether they should drop out for the semester, without hearing anything back from YCF.

I think it's a great program. $12,0000 is a lot of money to sit in your apartment and hack for 2 months on whatever it is you want. Great idea.

Re: YC Fellowship

#285

Post by mattkrisiloff »

jameshk wrote: post #264
mattkrisiloff wrote: post #238

The application form was getting hit pretty hard -- it's temporarily offline while the Submittable team migrates it to its own server. Should just be a few minutes -- will update when it's back up! Edit: The application servers are back up! Look forward to reading your apps :)

It seems to be back up, but I lost my draft application, which I saved multiple times.

I'm sorry that happened :( I hope you'll still be willing to write it again -- the system should work smoothly now.

Re: YC Fellowship

#286

Post by Schwolop »

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.

Are there any plans to do a normal YC program (7%/$120k) but also be inclusive of remote teams?

0% for $12k is obviously a great deal, but my main stumbling block has always been the loss of income from dropping paid work, and $12k over two months is barely half an engineer's salary - let alone to cover multiple team members.

That said, it may well be enough to make someone like me think "well, at least I won't be earning zero dollars..."

Re: YC Fellowship

#287

Post by danieltillett »

cperciva wrote: post #227

targeted at teams that are very, very early. How about a version of this for companies which have been around for a while? Seriously, it doesn't sound like Tarsnap would fit into this program at all, but I'd love to be able to participate in something "lighter-weight" than YC -- something which, like the YC Fellowship, would allow me access to advice and contacts without taking funding or relocating. Of course, I'm g…

Is Tarsnap a good fit for the VC industry? It is a great product, but it looks to be a much better fit for a bootstrapped lifestyle business? Why would you want to take VC money given all the problems that come with outside investors?

Re: YC Fellowship

#288

Post by Schwolop »

dean wrote: post #232

This is a good idea and a great opportunity for many people. And I think it's fantastic that YC is doing this. However, I can't help feeling it really is intended for young people recently out of school, who have no other immediate financial obligations. I would really love to see an option for people who are not in this group. Let's imagine someone who is married, with a couple of kids and a mortgage. Right away, YC…

I agree for the most part, but it may well be enough to break through some inertia. 12k for a two man team is 3k/month, whereas in full time work most engineers would be making at least 10k/month. I know personally I'd be uninclined to ditch my entire income, but keeping at least a little trickle coming in would mean my savings wouldn't diminish quite so rapidly, and I'd probably be willing to take two months off to see how far it could accelerate my startup.

The real danger is whether follow-up funding could be found fast enough to have people quit their jobs and maintain the momentum achieved during the two month program.

Re: YC Fellowship

#289

Post by rjbwork »

I think this would be a really cool thing to take part in for a couple of months after leaving my current job. Not that I plan on doing that any time soon, but I think it would be the perfect time to do so. Hopefully this succeeds and YC decides to do it on an ongoing basis.

Re: YC Fellowship

#290

Post by jameshk »

mattkrisiloff wrote: post #285
jameshk wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to be back up, but I lost my draft application, which I saved multiple times.

I'm sorry that happened :( I hope you'll still be willing to write it again -- the system should work smoothly now.

Not a problem! :)
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