YC Fellowship • Hacker News Board

Re: YC Fellowship

#11

Post by anon1385 » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 5:09 PM UTC

>We understand that $12,000 is not a lot of money, and this won’t make sense for everyone. But for some people, it may be the difference between going to work at a big company and starting the next Airbnb.

Maybe if the founders of AirBnB had been given $12,000 they wouldn't have needed to make money though illegal spamming.

Re: YC Fellowship

#12

Post by cwal37 » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 5:11 PM UTC

This is really interesting, and seems like a great opportunity for people in a position to take advantage of it. Particularly the ability to work remotely. An 8-week relocation could have been a major sticking pint for many groups.

If I wasn't tied down at my job for the foreseeable future I would jump at this chance to go hard on an idea out of my "future/dream projects" design docs folder that I only get to sporadically put time towards.

Re: YC Fellowship

#13

Post by soribsalc » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 5:11 PM UTC

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.

If we have raised funds through a Kickstarter campaign but have no outside investment, are we still eligible?

Re: YC Fellowship

#14

Post by rory096 » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 5:11 PM UTC

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.

Great opportunity, thanks guys. I'll point out that first yc.submittable form is a bit confusing: http://imgur.com/ITk71jN

I guess the "YC Fellowship Application" is a link to it? I wasn't sure where to click besides 'submit' and was a bit afraid it'd submit a blank form and lock me out of a real submission later! (It didn't, of course – the submit button is just an anchor tag pointing to https://yc.submittable.com/submit/44764)

Re: YC Fellowship

#15

Post by sama » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 5:11 PM UTC

TheMakeA wrote: post #4

This seems really close to what YC started as. Why the spinoff?

YC has evolved quite a bit. This seems like a good way for us to scale and to enable more innovation. A lot of companies need the full $120k, but I bet many will be able to make great progress with just $12k.

We thought about trying to combine them, but they seem too different.

Re: YC Fellowship

#16

Post by kevin » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 5:12 PM UTC

ghshephard wrote: post #8

So, I read through the description three times. And I'm puzzled as to what the real differences are between a YC Fellowship, and traditional YC investment. Are the key differences - that the Fellowship is a grant, not an equity investment (for $12K, rather than the larger YC investment), that it lasts for only 8 weeks, and that the Fellowships aren't required to move to the Bay Area?

Yup.

Re: YC Fellowship

#17

Post by heynk » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 5:12 PM UTC

The announcement's discussion of 'good founders' led me to view this as supporting individuals, as well as teams. In contrast to YC's stance on only really exceptional solo founders, could this program be more tailored to a solo founder, perhaps still looking for a co-founder?

Re: YC Fellowship

#18

Post by mattkrisiloff » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 5:12 PM UTC

ghshephard wrote: post #8

So, I read through the description three times. And I'm puzzled as to what the real differences are between a YC Fellowship, and traditional YC investment. Are the key differences - that the Fellowship is a grant, not an equity investment (for $12K, rather than the larger YC investment), that it lasts for only 8 weeks, and that the Fellowships aren't required to move to the Bay Area?

It's also designed for prototype and idea-stage teams in mind. Also, there won't be a traditional Demo Day at the end, but there will be an end event where teams will come to Mountain View to present to YC partners and alumni.

Re: YC Fellowship

#19

Post by fivedogit » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 5:13 PM UTC

This is great. It's the natural evolution of going earlier and earlier into lifecycle of a startup (or even idea).

As a next move, I'd like to see them go "pre-team" and put talented individuals with complimentary skill sets together behind a single idea.

Re: YC Fellowship

#20

Post by aswath87 » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 5:14 PM UTC

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.

hey Matt, what are key differences b/w the fellowship and the YC incubator?