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Why we applied to YC despite having gone through another accelerator

karthikmanimaran.com

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Re: Why we applied to YC despite having gone through another accelerator

#21

Post by conventionalmem »

Posted this on his comment form:

Karthik, disclosure, I was a YC founder.

It doesn’t seem very thoughtful to say never pay more than 3%, full stop. If you get more than 3% value out of the incubator, it’s often a good idea to pay more than 3%. You should make the decision after talking to many people who’ve chosen the incubator, and there are many companies that will say they got much more than 7% benefit out of YC – and also companies that didn’t.

It’d be great if every incubator charges much less than they do today, but I’m doubtful it’s a perfectly competitive market, with stickiness in things like alumni networks and reputation (it does seem like it has some similarities to the education market). Entrepreneurs would obviously benefit from more competition amongst incubators – and maybe you’re right that change is at hand.

I’m sorry that you didn’t get in to YC specifically (and maybe it wasn’t the right idea to apply, if you felt so strongly about how incubators provided so little value) – but I hope you won’t let your disappointment and anger get in the way of thoughtful business decisions, including in cases like future customer rejections.

Anyway, back to building our businesses – good luck with your own!

Re: Why we applied to YC despite having gone through another accelerator

#22

Post by conventionalmem »

volaski wrote: post #3

Now it's not so convincing piece of advice when you say "Never do an accelerator", when you just applied for one and got rejected, is it?

I thought about that as well. I think it may be defensiveness and anger - rather than a logical statement. Those feelings are natural, so I don't fault him - but at the same time, rejection is a part of startups at every turn and I think we have to get over it, and figure out how to use criticism constructively.

YC has always valued persistence - so I'm sad that he applied and wrote that, since he might have been able to get in the next time, and I think YC likely would have helped his ability to recruit and valuation, especially given the changing markets. But regardless, I always have respect for startup founders (esp after 3 years of hard work) - so we should all wish his team luck.

Re: Why we applied to YC despite having gone through another accelerator

#23

Post by mkagenius »

elliotec wrote: post #18

Aside from your confusing logic, it drives me nuts that half my screen is your body shot while I'm supposed to be reading your blog post. Very distracting. Sorry if this is nonconstructive.

your body shot shouldn't occupy more than 3% of the screen ;)

Re: Why we applied to YC despite having gone through another accelerator

#24

Post by sumedh »

elliotec wrote: post #18

Aside from your confusing logic, it drives me nuts that half my screen is your body shot while I'm supposed to be reading your blog post. Very distracting. Sorry if this is nonconstructive.

I had to close the tab because I did not want my colleagues to think why am I looking at this guy.

Re: Why we applied to YC despite having gone through another accelerator

#25

Post by jkaljundi »

mkagenius wrote: post #23
elliotec wrote: post #18

Aside from your confusing logic, it drives me nuts that half my screen is your body shot while I'm supposed to be reading your blog post. Very distracting. Sorry if this is nonconstructive.

your body shot shouldn't occupy more than 3% of the screen ;)

2.9%

Re: Why we applied to YC despite having gone through another accelerator

#26

Post by _kyran »

rdl wrote: post #7
someear wrote: post #4

I assume you plan on raising money? In your case, you would likely get even more than a 6% valuation bump, making YC worth it on that alone. I think there are some key details missing in this post which make it hard to tell why you were in fact rejected. In addition to the accelerator, you've also been going at it for 3+ years, and are only now hitting 1M For B2B, that is unfortunately on the really slow end of thing…

I'm fairly down on Quora, but ~everything https://www.quora.com/profile/Jason-M.-Lemkin has written looks pretty amazing -- I wish he'd write a book or something.

He is in the process of writing a book at the moment.

https://mega.nz/#!ip0WXAZR!ynjFWvnvojT0bmG7maTszjFybuG_Yr1De...

Re: Why we applied to YC despite having gone through another accelerator

#27

Post by zeeshanm »

lazyant wrote: post #14

You missed an opportunity to explain what your startup does, no link in the blog entry, blog only contains that one entry. Also +3 years at it is not a good indicator for getting at YC which as per Sam's post prefers very early startups but good luck anyways.

To play devil's advocate, Airbnb was in business for at least two years already before they got into YC.

Yes, one can argue, times have changed a lot since then as the applicants pool have significantly increased. One other the thing, founders were extremely impressive; so, Airbnb may be an outlier.

Re: Why we applied to YC despite having gone through another accelerator

#28

Post by volaski »

conventionalmem wrote: post #22
volaski wrote: post #3

Now it's not so convincing piece of advice when you say "Never do an accelerator", when you just applied for one and got rejected, is it?

I thought about that as well. I think it may be defensiveness and anger - rather than a logical statement. Those feelings are natural, so I don't fault him - but at the same time, rejection is a part of startups at every turn and I think we have to get over it, and figure out how to use criticism constructively. YC has always valued persistence - so I'm sad that he applied and wrote that, since he might have been abl…

This guy not only tells people not to YC after he applied and got rejected, but also publicly bashes someone (the LA accelerator) who did their best to help him (Doesn't matter if it didn't work out. They did their best to help their portfolio companies and this guy says it was a "gimmick") I wouldn't like to work with this guy

Re: Why we applied to YC despite having gone through another accelerator

#29

Post by conventionalmem »

volaski wrote: post #28
conventionalmem wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought about that as well. I think it may be defensiveness and anger - rather than a logical statement. Those feelings are natural, so I don't fault him - but at the same time, rejection is a part of startups at every turn and I think we have to get over it, and figure out how to use criticism constructively. YC has always valued persistence - so I'm sad that he applied and wrote that, since he might have been abl…

This guy not only tells people not to YC after he applied and got rejected, but also publicly bashes someone (the LA accelerator) who did their best to help him (Doesn't matter if it didn't work out. They did their best to help their portfolio companies and this guy says it was a "gimmick") I wouldn't like to work with this guy

Hard to use that to say he's not a great person to work with. The LA accelerator might have been egregious, and he may be doing a service to other entrepreneurs by publicizing it (there are a lot of incubators today, and entrepreneurs should beware). I do hope in the LA incubator's case that he gave actionable feedback privately long ago.

I totally agree on the cognitive dissonance with bashing YC and saying to never to do it, after getting rejected recently. But I can realize how it might not be a fully rational perspective (he'd probably argue that he's more educated now, and that's why he's changed his mind since applying - my gut is there's some emotions involved, since I can't see a ton of benefit to him to write this so publicly).

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