YC Demo Day, the Morning After
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YC Demo Day, the Morning After
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Re: YC Demo Day, the Morning After
#2This is a great analysis. I would also challenge any of the jaded reporters to dig through their publication's coverage of the Demo Day from Airbnb's class and see how many correctly called it as a "10X" startup. It seemed insane at the time, but brilliant in retrospect.
Re: YC Demo Day, the Morning After
#3I like FlightCar a lot and I have said so previously, if I could invest in only one single company that launched yesterday, it would be this. It is instantly useful.
That said, I can 'understand' the non excitement of the press. Except WeVorce which is arguably a service business, nothing seems to be pioneering. Magical. Crazy. They all seem to be X of this or Y of that. The 'this' and 'that' are what the press might have been looking for. This/that= YouTube, AirBnB, Heroku, Kickstarter etc.
I think the criticism is the downside of the expectations and premium accorded startups coming out of YC.
It is still good though. The founders can put their heads down and focus on their business without having the noise of expectation distracting them. Hopefully, they would prove all the doubters wrong.
Re: YC Demo Day, the Morning After
#4From the WSJ article:
Don Dodge, a startup investor and well-known “developer advocate” for Google, said today’s startups are more focused than ever on revenue—as evidenced by the large revenue-growth charts most of them showed off during the presentations to investors. In prior years, founders focused more on the number of people using their service, he said.
Refreshingly, he said, there are no longer social-networking-related startups. “It’s run its course,” he said. “Now startups are more focused on solving boring problems that make money,” said Dodge, who last year invested in a YC company that helps programmers create mobile apps.
I wouldn't be surprised if he's being tongue-in-cheek by saying 'boring'. Or at least, it's not meant to be negative. Besides, there are lots of boring problems that can be made into interesting and beautiful solutions. For example, Square is made payment processing into an elegant and holistic experience.
Re: YC Demo Day, the Morning After
#5This makes me wonder if there's a perception issue: many of the companies are doing very well and delivered solid presentations, so no one really looks "10x" ahead of the rest. Especially since each company gets only 2:30 and many share the same structure. "This is what we do. Look, we have awesome traction. And we're making a bunch of money. And our growth is very healthy. There's a big potential market to capture. And this is how we see ourselves changing the world." And on top of that, you don't get a very strong sense of product and user experience within that narrow timeframe, sitting in an audience of a few hundred.
My guess is that if the quality distribution was more like what an angel/vc sees outside of YC, it'd be more obvious that that there are some amazing companies in the W13 batch.
Re: YC Demo Day, the Morning After
#6Critics aside, the video in the post cuts too short. It thus misses the message: win the crowd.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGWQ4SwM2fc
Figuring out who "the crowd" is. That's another story...
Re: YC Demo Day, the Morning After
#7> Founders risk everything, move across the country or further, endure endless stress, damage relationships, sacrifice their health...
Why should anyone care about that?
> ...pour their every waking moment into creating something people want
Isn't that the part we should care about?
> and they’re rewarded with a yawn.
Why is that anyone's fault except for the founders'?
Re: YC Demo Day, the Morning After
#8I like FlightCar a lot and I have said so previously, if I could invest in only one single company that launched yesterday, it would be this. It is instantly useful. That said, I can 'understand' the non excitement of the press. Except WeVorce which is arguably a service business, nothing seems to be pioneering. Magical. Crazy. They all seem to be X of this or Y of that. The 'this' and 'that' are what the press might…
I don't think any of your examples would have looked impressive just based on the idea. In all of those cases, the wild growth is what made the company a big story.
Tell the world that your startup will deliver burgers, and nobody will care. Then mention 1 million burgers served per day and you'll be a legend.
Re: YC Demo Day, the Morning After
#9"and they’re rewarded with a yawn."
Let's hope they're rewarded by making a business that creates value and makes them some cash in the process rather than being the tech darling of the next seven days!
Re: YC Demo Day, the Morning After
#10Here's the opening sentence from Anthony Ha's top list for TC. How much more positive can you get?
Y Combinator was tougher to get into than ever this season, and the quality showed on stage.