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Do YC after you graduate: Early decision for students

ycombinator.com

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

#161

Post by ohyoutravel »

flkenosad wrote: post #145
sungam wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

A classmate of mine dropped out to do this. Failed, and ended up picking up later to finish the last two years of college. It really didn’t seem to have slowed them down, and finishing college a few years later (with some startup founders experience) seems to have been overall good. Unfortunately did end up going to Boston Consulting Group from on-campus recruiting, so not a great end to the story, but historically that’s a high-ish paying and hard to get job.

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

#162

Post by mnky9800n »

theplatman wrote: post #149
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.

Better to start our own club then.

All things have a life cycle. Despite what yc wants you to believe, it will come and go. Perhaps it’s becoming a prestige institution in the hopes to increase its longevity.

That being said, belonging to a group is a central component of being a human as we are highly social animals. So it’s not wrong to want to belong to a group and then being sad when you are rejected. It requires a lot of maturity and stoicism to cut your own path. This is somewhat ironic since traditionally founding your own company is considered cutting your own path but I think yc and others have made it much less so. There is a formula now to follow which is why there is now an in group and an out group. Cutting your own path by definition does not include a set formula.

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

#163

Post by mnky9800n »

csomar wrote: post #147
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!

[flagged]

They can make it just like tennis!

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

#165

Post by flkenosad »

cinntaile wrote: post #154
flkenosad wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

He'll receive plenty of opportunities regardless of degree so I don't see why you feel sorry for him.

He would have made a fantastic professor in my opinion. But I think also, certain opportunities just require a degree on a policy level.

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

#166

Post by DonHopkins »

Maro wrote: post #134

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

I have been thoroughly enjoying re-watching HBO's Silicon Valley, appreciating all the little details and sub-plots I missed during my first watching long ago. It's aged so well.

It's telling how many people are afraid to watch that show and detest it because it's just so spot on accurate, and they cringe when they see themselves in its characters and their own lives in its plots.

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

#167

Post by DonHopkins »

_--__--__ wrote: post #17
cassonmars wrote: post #3

Does YC ever intend to revisit doing remote batches again? There's many founders in the country who are just as driven and motivated, but have real-world situations that cannot allow uprooting themselves for several months, two very common ones: - new parents - disabled family members, or are themselves physically disabled The discourse on Hacker News has frequently chastised companies demanding RTO, and some of the…

People in those situations can and should start companies without an accelerator (or at least without this one). The joke around the SF scene is that even a founder with a boy/girlfriend is a sign of a startup doomed to fail, and YC doesn't seem particularly invested in changing that culture.

Unless your girlfriend is your laptop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmFoNXkQTt8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkZ8MAk2oH4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z-_py5WgOM

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

#168

Post by DonHopkins »

cde-v wrote: post #32
barbarr wrote: post #21

To what extent is YC's current strategy a form of "cookie-licking"? I.e. capture a small fraction of every plausible startup created by the next generation of students?

100% at this point. The industry's leading AI for start-up ideas has run out of AI for _____ suggestions. It was pretty obvious they were scraping the bottom of the barrel a month ago when I made this list from their current batch: Acrely — AI for HVAC administration Aden — AI for ERP operations AgentHub — AI for agent simulation and evaluation Agentin AI — AI for enterprise agents AgentMail — AI for agent email infr…

>Verne Robotics — AI for robotic arms

Kiko the Monkey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KaWPYOLuT8

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

#169

Post by DonHopkins »

999900000999 wrote: post #114
Esophagus4 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is partially why the average age of a successful founder is late 30s to early 40s at the time of founding. There’s a lot of focus in the media and in accelerators on the 22 year old with a dream, but it’s nice to have a real adult in charge when the stakes are high. Not to mention, if you have no work experience, you have no idea what problems are worth solving. So you end up with junk startup ideas from the lat…

So it's not too late ! Still, I think you need to be well connected, or already profitable for VC fundraising. Otherwise your just another programmer with hacked together prototype.

Better than just another Idea Guy with an MBA.

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

#170

Post by squigz »

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

I mean... is it self-made if a billionaire helped you?
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