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Y Combinator Traded Prestige for Growth

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Re: Y Combinator Traded Prestige for Growth

#181

Post by edouard-harris »

amirhirsch wrote: post #42
paulgb wrote: post #8

IMHO this post misses the fact that YC becoming a prestige institution is itself a sort of failure mode. You don't want to attract founders who figure YC is a low-risk alternative to grad school that will look good on their resume. It's tough to avoid that outcome while still conferring positive signal to VCs/potential employees, though. I'm sure YC/Garry see something in the PearAI founders' ability to market themse…

YC benefits strongly from network effects; the value for each founder grows superlinearly with more founders. Grow faster!

That's true but there's also a countervailing dilution effect. Hard to know exactly where those two lines intersect.

Re: Y Combinator Traded Prestige for Growth

#182

Post by edouard-harris »

bko wrote: post #162
jedberg wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason they want you to apply is twofold -- the application itself is a good exercise in getting you to think about things you should be thinking about. Honestly even if you have no intention at all of applying to YC you should still fill out the application for yourself, it makes you think about important things. And the second reason is that they get to see as many options as possible, because that's obviously…

I'm convinced those that say "I think its a good exercise filling out an application" have never actually read the application Here are a few questions: "How far along are you?" "What tech stack are you using, or planning to use, to build this product?" "Why did you pick this idea to work on? Do you have domain expertise in this area? How do you know people need what you're making?" "Who are your competitors? What do…

I've read the application. In fact I've filled it out three times, once successfully and twice not. It is indeed an excellent exercise. Among many other things: if you're a first-time founder then it teaches you what's important, and if you're a second-time founder then it reminds you. (Many second-timers do sometimes need to be reminded, myself included.)

Re: Y Combinator Traded Prestige for Growth

#183

Post by blitzar »

qq66 wrote: post #180
KerryJones wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This hits pretty dead center from what I've seen. You really hit home for at #3, that's the type of companies I want to see. If you start such a fund, I'd really enjoy working on that project.

He won't be starting such a fund for awhile, because the two of us are building company to make technology to foster a creative and curious childhood. We would be a good fit for any investors trying to do (3) though :) https://cartwheelcomputer.com/ amal@cartwheelcomputer.com

It does not seem very "viral" or income-generating. I know this is premature at this point, but children don't have much disposable income, is it reasonable to expect to make money off of this?

Re: Y Combinator Traded Prestige for Growth

#184

Post by FactKnower69 »

spamizbad wrote: post #118
octopod12 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The founders showed hustle, as every founder must. nothing wrong with that in my book. But they need adult-guidance on communication. You dont go around twitter boasting about your 270K job etc. They need to show grown up hustle (grit, perseverence, etc). Not high-school (mine is bigger than yours) hustle.

I feel like that "270K job" comment was some sort of cultural signal to Zoomer devs on the FAANG leetcode job grind. I'm in my 40s so it just seems both tacky and unimpressive but maybe for folks half my age it's a meaningful signal towards competency?

270k is on the low end and would indicate incompetency if anything if you're older than mid-20s, esp since it's not like he's taking a pay cut to work in a cool or interesting field (coinbase lmao)

Re: Y Combinator Traded Prestige for Growth

#185

Post by cherryteastain »

jhanschoo wrote: post #143
dgreensp wrote: post #106

Full disclosure, I'm a YC alum whose last start-up was acquired by Google, who applied to this batch and didn't get an interview. YC is not the stamp of quality it once was, to be sure, though it still works as social proof, because investors (especially VCs) want to invest in companies other investors like (or failing that, companies they imagine other investors would like). YC would say that they aren't trying to b…

> It's just hard to convey the sense from the early days of YC that they really didn't care about the return, or the progress so far, or VCs, or fads, or anything. That said, I really was at the right place at the right time and got very lucky. It seems to me that there was an early '10s milieu that enabled YC to behave like it did. Web apps and mobile fundamentally transformed everyday life and communication in very…

> It seems to me that there was an early '10s milieu that enabled YC to behave like it did.

Definitely, it's called ZIRP and QE.

Re: Y Combinator Traded Prestige for Growth

#186

Post by fuzzfactor »

ethbr1 wrote: post #158
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> … yield a big company … I assume that this sort of says it all. Everyone wants “big.” The article talks about brand curation, really. That seems to be a lost art, these days. I worked for a corporation that had one of the most powerful brands in the world (but has taken some real hits). I watched them dilute that brand, and make lots of money, but really get clobbered. They are now regrouping, and, I hope, re-estab…

Strong brand value seems like insurance. You don't think about it when you don't need it, but it bails your ass out of otherwise-impossible situations when you do need it. Everything's fine for uninsured property... until it's not.

I would say you could trade hard-earned goodwill and respect for a number of different things, maybe because it is such an unquantifiable asset.

I think earned leadership can be legitimately exploited where everybody wins up to a point, and if you put your mind to it you can engineer an operation to approach that point more successfully than those who do not.

You could be monetizing your "prestige", at a maximum sustainable level, without drawing down the asset.

OTOH it would be possible to go overboard on the march to maximum monetization, and arrive where the asset begins to dwindle. It may not be such a clear picture since it's so unquantifiable, and dwindling returns as a consequence can be some of the most easily misattributed.

Re: Y Combinator Traded Prestige for Growth

#187

Post by qq66 »

codegeek wrote: post #174
dgreensp wrote: post #106

Full disclosure, I'm a YC alum whose last start-up was acquired by Google, who applied to this batch and didn't get an interview. YC is not the stamp of quality it once was, to be sure, though it still works as social proof, because investors (especially VCs) want to invest in companies other investors like (or failing that, companies they imagine other investors would like). YC would say that they aren't trying to b…

YC's original appeal was for builders/creators who were truly passionate about building a great product that solved a real problem. Dropbox for example at the time. In my opinion, effectiveness of anything dilutes over time especially as you increase volume. There is no way you can maintain the same level of vetting and quality when you have a batch of 50 vs batch of 500+ which is now where YC is. So they must have t…

Supabase is one.

Re: Y Combinator Traded Prestige for Growth

#188

Post by ndiddy »

MOARDONGZPLZ wrote: post #112
candiddevmike wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you tell the difference? Especially when so many YCs seem almost like comical vaporware or shovelware but with a charismatic CEO.

Very true. Saw one recently that literally forked VSCode and Cursor and called it a company with some really shady practices. Not even sure what YC was thinking with that one, but it indeed falls into the category of comical vaporware. How did something like this get funded? They must think there will be a follow through to liquidity event, but no clue how. Maybe YC is playing into the bigger fool theory that someone…

That’s the company that the blog post points to as an example.

Re: Y Combinator Traded Prestige for Growth

#189

Post by KerryJones »

qq66 wrote: post #180
KerryJones wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This hits pretty dead center from what I've seen. You really hit home for at #3, that's the type of companies I want to see. If you start such a fund, I'd really enjoy working on that project.

He won't be starting such a fund for awhile, because the two of us are building company to make technology to foster a creative and curious childhood. We would be a good fit for any investors trying to do (3) though :) https://cartwheelcomputer.com/ amal@cartwheelcomputer.com

This feels like a side tangent, but why have you focused on technology for creative and curious childhood? I.e. Maria Montessori (founder of the Montessori methodology of teaching) did a pretty good job showing that's the natural state of kids, and there's quite a bit in her teachings about the importance of physical things, being outdoors, etc.

There's some pretty strong reasoning that technology might in fact be the problem, and while I'm sure you can make better technology with that focus in mind, it seems like a better approach might not be technology.

Here's a few articles that lead to this point:

https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/honestly-its-probably-the-phon...

https://www.henrikkarlsson.xyz/p/childhoods

Re: Y Combinator Traded Prestige for Growth

#190

Post by KerryJones »

qq66 wrote: post #180
KerryJones wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This hits pretty dead center from what I've seen. You really hit home for at #3, that's the type of companies I want to see. If you start such a fund, I'd really enjoy working on that project.

He won't be starting such a fund for awhile, because the two of us are building company to make technology to foster a creative and curious childhood. We would be a good fit for any investors trying to do (3) though :) https://cartwheelcomputer.com/ amal@cartwheelcomputer.com

This feels like a side tangent, but why have you focused on technology for creative and curious childhood? I'm curious if you have considered the following:

I.e. Maria Montessori (founder of the Montessori methodology of teaching) did a pretty good job showing that's the natural state of kids, and there's quite a bit in her teachings about the importance of physical things, being outdoors, etc.

There's some pretty strong reasoning that technology might in fact be the problem, and while I'm sure you can make better technology with that focus in mind, it seems like a better approach might not be technology.

Here's a few articles that lead to this point:

https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/honestly-its-probably-the-phon...

https://www.henrikkarlsson.xyz/p/childhoods

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