Y Combinator’s “No Idea” Round Isn’t a Bad Idea, It’s Awesome
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Y Combinator’s “No Idea” Round Isn’t a Bad Idea, It’s Awesome
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Re: Y Combinator’s “No Idea” Round Isn’t a Bad Idea, It’s Awesome
#2So let's say me and a superstar cast of Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk are accepted as a "no idea group".
.... What do we do the next day? What do we work on? I can totally get behind the idea that they're funding the founders and not the idea but there has to be some idea at some point, right? Why not the day before the application instead of the day after?
Re: Y Combinator’s “No Idea” Round Isn’t a Bad Idea, It’s Awesome
#3So let's say me and a superstar cast of Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk are accepted as a "no idea group". .... What do we do the next day? What do we work on? I can totally get behind the idea that they're funding the founders and not the idea but there has to be some idea at some point, right? Why not the day before the application instead of the day after?
I would tell them to focus on a big problem that they are passionate about and have some credibility.
Re: Y Combinator’s “No Idea” Round Isn’t a Bad Idea, It’s Awesome
#4I don't agree. As a person who has applied in the past, a developer and a sole founder, why would I submit my idea with no NDA to basically a think tank of clerical ivy league wunderkind waiting in the wings for a call from PG for a shovel ready project or a "pivot." All this in exchange for a "thanks but no thanks dude!"
I was on the fence before about applying to "incubators" (I know YC is technically not a incubator), but this solved it for me. Ideas are worthless, execution is only slightly more valuable and YC is an idea execution factory. To be honest, it's an enviable position. I do appreciate the transparency.
Re: Y Combinator’s “No Idea” Round Isn’t a Bad Idea, It’s Awesome
#5Pretty sure @kn0thing got into YC essentially with no idea (PG wasn't into the food ordering idea but liked them). Hard to argue that was a mistake.
Re: Y Combinator’s “No Idea” Round Isn’t a Bad Idea, It’s Awesome
#6A fairly tawdry argument in this article.
Dustin said, simply, that you shouldn't become an entrepreneur just for the sake of becoming one. You should have an idea that you're energised about and want to build.
The fact that Zuckerberg had ideas before Facebook doesn't mean that YC's "no idea" round is a good idea.
Zuckerberg was building things and tinkering before Facebook: that's the exact opposite of not having any ideas. Literally, that is the opposite. He had ideas. He worked on them.
Re: Y Combinator’s “No Idea” Round Isn’t a Bad Idea, It’s Awesome
#7I don't agree. As a person who has applied in the past, a developer and a sole founder, why would I submit my idea with no NDA to basically a think tank of clerical ivy league wunderkind waiting in the wings for a call from PG for a shovel ready project or a "pivot." All this in exchange for a "thanks but no thanks dude!" I was on the fence before about applying to "incubators" (I know YC is technically not a incubat…
If ideas were worth so little, wouldn't firms tend to become more monolithic? I feel that ideas are worth more than execution now. It is cheaper and cheaper to execute, but problem solving and creativity, the things that tend to break down atomically into groups of 0-3 founders, are holding their value, or becoming relatively more valuable. I think, personally, that people like to parrot this "ideas are worthless" line but I think that it is conventional wisdom at best and flat wrong at worst. I think "no idea" rounds rely on the fact that investors know that execution risk is getting lower. But finding idea people as atoms is getting harder. If the opposite were true, individual or small clusters of founders would not be so highly valued.
Re: Y Combinator’s “No Idea” Round Isn’t a Bad Idea, It’s Awesome
#8Oh! I think I get it now! I know why people write about YC when they aren't in YC, aren't affiliated with YC, and run businesses that are orthogonal to YC. They want to get to the top of hacker news and maybe get their job advert read by the selective crowd of hacker news:
"We're currently looking for a lead interaction designer. If you think you're up for it, email jobs@yipit.com" -sidebar of author's website
Re: Y Combinator’s “No Idea” Round Isn’t a Bad Idea, It’s Awesome
#9I don't agree. As a person who has applied in the past, a developer and a sole founder, why would I submit my idea with no NDA to basically a think tank of clerical ivy league wunderkind waiting in the wings for a call from PG for a shovel ready project or a "pivot." All this in exchange for a "thanks but no thanks dude!" I was on the fence before about applying to "incubators" (I know YC is technically not a incubat…
If ideas were worth so little, wouldn't firms tend to become more monolithic? I feel that ideas are worth more than execution now. It is cheaper and cheaper to execute, but problem solving and creativity, the things that tend to break down atomically into groups of 0-3 founders, are holding their value, or becoming relatively more valuable. I think, personally, that people like to parrot this "ideas are worthless" li…
Maybe YC should pivot and give founders 7% as a royalty for their idea?
Re: Y Combinator’s “No Idea” Round Isn’t a Bad Idea, It’s Awesome
#10Am I the only one that's tired of the absolutist arguments without any substantive evidence that seem to plague social news sites?
We have no idea if Y Combinator's "No Idea" thing is good or bad. I suspect YC doesn't know either and once they do, unless they let us know how it worked out, we still won't know. No amount of prognostication will answer the question. It's a real pet peeve of mine when people who don't know what they're talking about not only answer questions, but go above and beyond that to answer them definitively.