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YC without being in YC

42floors.com

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Re: YC without being in YC

#11

Post by tomasien »

aashaykumar92 wrote: post #4

Great post. It was surprising to see this type of post from a YC alum but I guess it has to for legitimacy purposes. I agree with almost all the points, but as someone looking from the outside in, I see YC as the most prestigious fraternity in the tech space. What do I mean by this? I go to the University of Michigan; coming in as an out of stater, I didn't know what to expect but I kept hearing this one piece of adv…

It's important to note that he's not saying the YC Alumni network and the power YC offers for fundraising isn't important, it's just that you can get 80% of what YC gives you BESIDES that without being in YC.

Think about how many companies get to demo day at YC and would, without the YC prestige, raise a TON of money because they've already launched and gotten traction. It's a decent amount. Go through these steps and be THAT company, if you can.

Re: YC without being in YC

#12

Post by dangoldin »

aidscholar wrote: post #2

Can someone explain the mantra "Do stuff that doesn't scale"? Is this another way to say focus on the hard stuff? Then scale later?

I like to view it as in the beginning do as much as you can get to get open-ended discussion with prospective customers. Later on use that learning to build a more scalable/product-focused approach optimized for acquisition/growth.

Re: YC without being in YC

#13

Post by jsonne »

jaf12duke wrote: post #3
aidscholar wrote: post #2

Can someone explain the mantra "Do stuff that doesn't scale"? Is this another way to say focus on the hard stuff? Then scale later?

It's an acknowledgement that the early days of a startup don't need to look like the later days. At 42Floors, we met with every landlord in person and then manually typed in every listing. Obviously, we can't do that at scale, but it was an important step to getting our startup off the ground when no one had yet heard about us. Later on, when we had built up credibility, we built web scrapers and integrated data feed…

I completely hear what you're saying and I'm glad you said it. There's a certain level of understanding your customer that can only come from meeting in person. I'm glad to hear that I'm following the same footsteps that you guys did. We're working to solve the issue of API integration, and there's only so much you can understand about a customers pain point through email or over the phone.

Re: YC without being in YC

#14

Post by gkoberger »

I think one of the biggest things you get from YC is acknowledgement. Most people who apply have jobs or at least more than one idea or project: getting into YC is kind of a confirmation that someone thinks you're on the right track.

Even though the promise of Silicon Valley is anyone can make it, a lot of people still need "permission" to go full time on a start up.

Re: YC without being in YC

#15

Post by tarof »

gkoberger wrote: post #14

I think one of the biggest things you get from YC is acknowledgement. Most people who apply have jobs or at least more than one idea or project: getting into YC is kind of a confirmation that someone thinks you're on the right track. Even though the promise of Silicon Valley is anyone can make it, a lot of people still need "permission" to go full time on a start up.

I think the best way to get the "permission" should not be from any of investors, more from customers.

With many of customers who love your product,you should be able to attract investors or incubators more easily.

Re: YC without being in YC

#16

Post by nostromo »

mindcrime wrote: post #7

On a sort-of semi-related note... has anyone here participated in nReduce? The "Open Source YCombinator" that launched to much fanfare a while back? They seemed to get quite a bit of buzz out of the gate, but I haven't heard much about them lately. Anybody gone through the program and care to write up your experiences and submit here? I, for one, would love to read something like that.

I haven't participated, but a few months ago I went to one of their meetings. I spent most of my time talking with one particular startup I thought was interesting.

To my delight and surprise, they just presented at YC's demo day. :)

Re: YC without being in YC

#17

Post by rowborg »

gkoberger wrote: post #14

I think one of the biggest things you get from YC is acknowledgement. Most people who apply have jobs or at least more than one idea or project: getting into YC is kind of a confirmation that someone thinks you're on the right track. Even though the promise of Silicon Valley is anyone can make it, a lot of people still need "permission" to go full time on a start up.

I think this is absolutely correct. In particular, it gives you a socially acceptable (and externally validated) excuse to ignore many of other commitments in your life for three months so you can get your idea off the ground. It's a lot easier to tell your family that you're going to quit your job and hole up in a cave working on a crazy idea for 3 months if you can hand them a New York Times article on YC and explain that you are going to be a part of that thing they keep reading about.
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