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

Do YC after you graduate: Early decision for students

ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 290 posts

Re: Do YC after you graduate: Early decision for students

#141

Post by tomhow »

defrost wrote: post #128
tomhow wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure but the founders who will generate the greatest returns for investors are the ones who won’t be pushed around by boards. Facebook’s board advised Mark Zuckerberg to take Yahoo’s $1B offer in 2006 [1]. He was 22 years old. He refused, and Meta is now valued at nearly $2T. That’s the kind of founder that the most ambitious startup investors are looking for. [1] https://www.businessinsider.com/an-ugly-truth-mark-zu…

Sure but one example is a point in the cloud of all responses, granted the cloud tips toward a particular part of a large multi variate space. Unless ... your point is that all YC founders are homogeneous interchangeable cyborgs? ( surely not ).

We’re discussing the cynical assertion that YC is looking for founders who will be compliant and subservient to boards. I’m just pointing out that if there is any defining quality in the kinds of founders that an investor like YC is looking for, it’s that they are not compliant and subservient to anyone, including or especially boards :)

When pg and others talk about the qualities they look for in founders, they use terms like “formidable” and “force of nature”.

Re: Do YC after you graduate: Early decision for students

#143

Post by buubblepoop »

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #99
mikert89 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah great they got into the fastest growing companies of all time at the perfect time

It’s not just the companies are growing. If you get an offer from BigTech with cash + RSUs and the stock stays stagnant, you will still be better off statistically than spending 5-7 years of your life at a startup.

YC is not really advocating you to become a worker at a startup. They want you to become a founder. As a founder you don't need to be a huge success for you to be well off. I'm one of 3 founders currently in a bootstrapped company that has done okay. We are approaching end of year 5. This year we will make 700k revenue, 240k profit and 50% yearly growth. Typically this kind of business is not something a VC would consider investing in, but it can still be profitable for the founders.

I'm not very liquid at the moment. My salary is a measly 60k a year. Most of 80k that is my share of the profit will stay in the company instead of go into my pocket, but the 33% ownership in the company is valuable. Very typical valuations for companies in general is 10x profit, which would mean my share of the company is worth 800k. Companies getting strategically acquired can be 20x revenue, which makes my share of the company worth 4.7million.

At FAANG I would have likely made a liquid 300k * 5 = 1.5million, which would allow me to spend more money and enjoy life right now. However, the next 5 years with my company will likely be a lot more valuable. If we manage to grow 30% a year then after 5 years profit will be 900k. That means 300k a year profit share, 3m valuation at 10x profit and 17m valuation at 20x revenue.

Re: Do YC after you graduate: Early decision for students

#144

Post by sungam »

shafyy wrote: post #137
dvrp wrote: post #129

Paul Graham Essay and early YC: live your life, don’t start a company in your 20s. You are young only once. Post Paul Graham YC: reserve your YC spot now. There’s no downside!

Gives me weirdo Thiel vibes who pays (or used to pay) kids to drop out of college and start a company for him.

In fairness, while I’m sure it didn’t work out for all of them, one of these students became one of the youngest self made billionaires in history

Re: Do YC after you graduate: Early decision for students

#145

Post by flkenosad »

sungam wrote: post #144
shafyy wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gives me weirdo Thiel vibes who pays (or used to pay) kids to drop out of college and start a company for him.

In fairness, while I’m sure it didn’t work out for all of them, one of these students became one of the youngest self made billionaires in history

He did it to the smartest kid in our CS class. I feel bad now because I feel like he deserves a degree.

Re: Do YC after you graduate: Early decision for students

#148

Post by brap »

in_cahoots wrote: post #108
koolba wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you work for 10 years in big tech and save your money, you’d have enough for a lifetime of chasing startup ideas.

This is the part I think young people don't understand. My husband and I worked around 16 years combined in tech. We started pretty late, since we both have PhDs, and we're not engineers so we aren't making top of the market. We still had enough money after that time to buy a house, have 2 kids and go on a multi-year sabbatical. And most of this working period was not at FAANGs. If you're young, talented, single and…

People really underestimate how much FAANG pays, all things considered.

If you spent the last 10-15 years as an engineer/manager in FAANG (and these past 5-10 years have been very far from what’s called the “golden age”), and were financially responsible, you’re a multi millionaire, most likely still in your 30s.

If you’re a couple that worked there, well damn you’re not just rich you are wealthy.

I can’t think of a better starting point for founding a startup. Or retiring.

Sacrificing 10 years seems a lot when you’re fresh out of college. But 1. it’s not really a sacrifice since your life is much more comfy than most 2. in the grand scheme of things 10 years is not a lot. You will most likely spend way more time on a failed startup while having the worst time.

Re: Do YC after you graduate: Early decision for students

#149

Post by theplatman »

Maro wrote: post #134

I can't quite put my finger on it, but this announcement gives me bad vibes.

For awhile now I’ve felt like YC has turned into another badge for the type people who are obsessed with prestige. It’s all about checking a box and not about the substance of what they want to do.

This is evident in how disappointed certain people are when they’re rejected from YC. Their startup is merely a vehicle to get into the club.

Re: Do YC after you graduate: Early decision for students

#150

Post by danielfalbo »

dvrp wrote: post #129

Paul Graham Essay and early YC: live your life, don’t start a company in your 20s. You are young only once. Post Paul Graham YC: reserve your YC spot now. There’s no downside!

For whoever wants to re-read one of the articles that mentions the idea, there you go: https://paulgraham.com/before.html#f7n:~:text=You%20can%20do...
Post reply on HN