Why is this top post on hn within one minute of posting?
I'm guessing the speed with which it received its initial few votes. It's a threadbare article with little or no meat on the bone. So it is a little strange.
Carl Weathers
Some thoughts on my first YC Demo Day
11–20 of 36 posts
Re: Some thoughts on my first YC Demo Day
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm guessing the speed with which it received its initial few votes. It's a threadbare article with little or no meat on the bone. So it is a little strange.
It had literally two votes. Anyway looks like I shouldn't have brought this issue up, getting downvoted
Yeah, you're supposed to email hn instead of posting if you think it's an issue.
I've seen 3 point new posts up near the top before so I assumed that's what it was. 2 points top of the page is pretty aggressive tho, it might have been a near instant upvote by someone who was interested in the topic.
Re: Some thoughts on my first YC Demo Day
#13I didn't realize how poorly YC startups were managed until I joined one.
It's mostly a ponzi scheme, where unprofitable companies pass their books off to non-technical investors that love hype.
> 1 slide. 1 minute pitches. 1 speaker.
This is why YC has such poor results. They're more interested in "1 slide" vs actual financials.
> Vertical AI was all over the place. Cursor for X was also prevalent.
No thought leadership at all.
Re: Some thoughts on my first YC Demo Day
#14"2 on 20" Am I understanding correctly? If every YC startup is shooting for a 20 million USD valuation, that's amazing. Even if not all will make it.
Re: Some thoughts on my first YC Demo Day
#15I didn't realize how poorly YC startups were managed until I joined one. It's mostly a ponzi scheme, where unprofitable companies pass their books off to non-technical investors that love hype. > 1 slide. 1 minute pitches. 1 speaker. This is why YC has such poor results. They're more interested in "1 slide" vs actual financials. > Vertical AI was all over the place. Cursor for X was also prevalent. No thought leaders…
YC is very similar to a university. There is a small group of companies that create the reputation on which everybody lives. The results are extremely exponentially distributed. So yes, it makes sense you joining some arbitrary YC startup was a bad experience. The average performance of a YC company is __phenomenal__, the median performance is poor.
Re: Some thoughts on my first YC Demo Day
#16Why is this top post on hn within one minute of posting?
I don’t know how or why, but I have seen this happen many times. Many of my submissions appear at the front within minutes of receiving 2-3 votes. I have no affiliation with YC, nor are my submissions.
Re: Some thoughts on my first YC Demo Day
#17Sounds more like a cattle auction than a place where partnerships are formed to deliver meaningful value to consumers.
This is market efficiency. That's the very definition of delivering meaningful value. The more efficient the capital allocation is, the greater the benefit to the whole market. The only weirdness is that these are companies led by founders with "personalities". That's a weird variable to correct for.
How much more efficient is it to allocate capital to a group individuals who have been educated at institutions that produce an increasingly rigid type of thinker, who are all making the same hype driven products?
Re: Some thoughts on my first YC Demo Day
#18Re: Some thoughts on my first YC Demo Day
#19I didn't realize how poorly YC startups were managed until I joined one. It's mostly a ponzi scheme, where unprofitable companies pass their books off to non-technical investors that love hype. > 1 slide. 1 minute pitches. 1 speaker. This is why YC has such poor results. They're more interested in "1 slide" vs actual financials. > Vertical AI was all over the place. Cursor for X was also prevalent. No thought leaders…
YC is very similar to a university. There is a small group of companies that create the reputation on which everybody lives. The results are extremely exponentially distributed. So yes, it makes sense you joining some arbitrary YC startup was a bad experience. The average performance of a YC company is __phenomenal__, the median performance is poor.
> YC is very similar to a university
No it's not. It's not even remotely comparable.
> There is a small group of companies that create the reputation on which everybody lives
Also called luck. YC investors cannot articulate what made them successful, or else they'd have better results.
Universities have decades of sustained output. They are not comparable.
> you joining some arbitrary YC startup was a bad experience
I am at a YC unicorn. We are one of YC's most successful startups.
> The average performance of a YC company is __phenomenal__
It absolutely is not. It doesn't even beat the SP500. The __vast__ majority of YC companies are unprofitable failures.
You could flip a coin and beat YC.
Re: Some thoughts on my first YC Demo Day
#20"2 on 20" Am I understanding correctly? If every YC startup is shooting for a 20 million USD valuation, that's amazing. Even if not all will make it.
Nobody ever pays too much or too little for a startup. Because either you __really__ make it, or you don't. It is statistically more likely for your YC startup to be worth more than $1 billion, than it is to be acquired in a cash deal for $80mm. It is because of this fact that $2/22mm is not unreasonable. However, most of the hot companies during the batch will fetch $3-4mm/30-40mm valuation. The average raise during demo day is close to ~$3mm, the median <$800k.