Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

YC Graveyard: 821 inactive Y Combinator startups

ycgraveyard.iamwillwang.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 238 posts

Re: YC Graveyard: 821 inactive Y Combinator startups

#121

Post by ungreased0675 »

zenyc wrote: post #77

I love seeing the 'YC Graveyard' project. It’s a great reminder of the incredible ideas and effort behind each startup, even if things didn’t pan out. We’ve been working on giving some of these inactive startups a second chance by acquiring them and exploring ways to repurpose or revive their tech. If anyone’s been involved with an inactive YC project and wants to chat about what’s possible, I’d love to connect.

I’d love to read more about this.

Looking through the list, my reaction to some was “of course that OpenAI wrapper failed” but others sounded compelling. It’s logical that some of those failed companies have a viable product but failed for other reasons. Maybe combining the IP of similar companies could breed a winner. It’s an interesting concept and I’m curious if it works.

Re: YC Graveyard: 821 inactive Y Combinator startups

#122

Post by persnicker »

slashdev wrote: post #118
persnicker wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Investors' worst nightmare" seems very off. Most SAFE notes give you dividends that are on par with how corporations issue dividends. Assuming there is cash flow, you should be getting dividends. If the dividends are so low that you will never be reasonably paid back you can often negotiate to get out in some form. Very low cash flow only with no growth seems to be the only exception...which I'd guess would only exi…

If there’s enough money to pay the founders salaries, but not so much for dividends, this doesn’t help. There are two direct ways to return money to the founders - salaries and dividends. In the U.S. there is a tax advantage to dividends, over an amount anyway. This is not true of all countries.

Neat edge case! Perhaps SAFE notes or other dividend-paying instruments should account for this by capping executive salaries or trigger dividend payouts at a certain salary dollar amount. Though, admittedly, I've never heard of a founder or executive using their salary instead of taking dividends as an end run around paying everyone their fair share of dividends. It seems possible though.

Re: YC Graveyard: 821 inactive Y Combinator startups

#123

Post by joshdavham »

Perhaps my math is off, but I thought there would’ve been more?

YC has often talked about how the average YC startup ‘dies’ and yet I’m sure they’ve funded at least double the number of startups on this list. Is ‘dying’ also synonymous with ended up becoming a ‘lifestyle business’? Clarity would be appreciated on this!

Re: YC Graveyard: 821 inactive Y Combinator startups

#124

Post by zdragnar »

withinboredom wrote: post #108
CPLX wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I do agree with you, if it took tens of millions of dollars in initial capital to get there, which hasn’t been returned, it’s quite a different thing to the standard small businesses model.

So ... is a restaurant considered a small business? Where do you draw the line on initial investment?

What kind of restaurant takes tens of millions to start? Most estimates I'm aware of are less than 1 or 2 million at the very most.

Re: YC Graveyard: 821 inactive Y Combinator startups

#125

Post by AbstractH24 »

aswegs8 wrote: post #36
robocat wrote: post #27

I'm onehundertpercent pissed off with YC: * The modal win for a founder is $0.00 * PG makes big talk about winner's average returns... Yayyyyy..... However YC gets preferential shares; YC is not aligned with the common shareholders (founders; builders). YC builds a story that they support creators however YC doesn't sit on the same table-side as creators. * I actually believe YC is worthwhile, but I wonder if Ize jus…

Welcome to capitalism. Of course there is an asymmetry between individual founders and one of the, if not the most famous VC firm on the planet. It's an individual decision to determine whether YC is worthwhile. If it wouldn't be, it wouldn't work.

Is it still? Or was that true 10 years ago.

Not sure if I’ve changed or the landscape has.

Re: YC Graveyard: 821 inactive Y Combinator startups

#127

Post by gammarator »

xenospn wrote: post #68
tinco wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They pay themselves 200k/y in a pre-market fit startup? That's insane and I guess on the investors for going over the traditional preseed amounts. Or do you mean that they're zombie startups that make enough to pay the founder 200k/year?

I think a lot of gen z founders see nothing wrong with paying themselves a FAANG salary. My generation, not so much (I’m 45).

Not an expert myself, but I don’t believe $200k/year counts as a “FAANG salary” for anyone with founder-level responsibility.

Re: YC Graveyard: 821 inactive Y Combinator startups

#128

Post by nprateem »

withinboredom wrote: post #108
CPLX wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I do agree with you, if it took tens of millions of dollars in initial capital to get there, which hasn’t been returned, it’s quite a different thing to the standard small businesses model.

So ... is a restaurant considered a small business? Where do you draw the line on initial investment?

10x return

Re: YC Graveyard: 821 inactive Y Combinator startups

#129

Post by CPLX »

withinboredom wrote: post #108
CPLX wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I do agree with you, if it took tens of millions of dollars in initial capital to get there, which hasn’t been returned, it’s quite a different thing to the standard small businesses model.

So ... is a restaurant considered a small business? Where do you draw the line on initial investment?

Depends on what kind of restaurant.

But the point is that a business model that is "profitable" but actually took millions in initial capital and has no provision for debt service isn't an actually profitable business model.

Re: YC Graveyard: 821 inactive Y Combinator startups

#130

Post by dustingetz »

AbstractH24 wrote: post #120
dustingetz wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

preferred shares prevent cookie cutter founder fraud. Founder raises $1M at 10 post. Founder decides to sell 6 months later for 2 mil. Investors get 200k back founder gets 1.8 mil. Now run this math for AI unicorns.

This is a valid concern. But shifting risk entirely to those without preferential shares (typically employees) is also unfair.

different share classes trade at different prices. Employee NSO/ISO strike price at seed stage (i.e. on a SAFE) are typically priced at a FMV of 10% (!!) of the SAFE's postmoney valuation. Also, your use here of the word "fair" has triggered a personal tick of mine so I must direct you to https://quotefancy.com/quote/3709551/Chris-Voss-The-F-word-F...
Post reply on HN