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YC W20 Online Demo Day moved up due to investor interest

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: YC W20 Online Demo Day moved up due to investor interest

#21

Post by TaylorGood »

AVTizzle wrote: post #15
technotony wrote: post #2

This is smart. If coronavirus is growing by a factor of 10 per week then we are all going to be in lockdown/isolation in two weeks time and probably not focusing on doing seed deals.

My thinking exactly.

Ancillary to this health wave being an exception. Here is what I posted on Twitter earlier: "Business owners with unaligned or rigid products or services unable to adapt are actively sinking. I’ve halted most everything and have never felt so much pressure to iterate for something and the coming months of shifting consumer priorities."

Re: YC W20 Online Demo Day moved up due to investor interest

#24

Post by chrisseaton »

phsource wrote: post #7

I'm glad they're moving Demo Day up. The whole point of YC is to level the playing field for all kinds of founders, and this would help keep the focus on Demo Day rather than the behind-the-scene investor meetings that tend to benefit connected, established founders. Personally, as a YC W19, first-time founder of Wanderlog [1], I didn't do any fundraising before Demo Day. But I heard from friends in the batch about c…

> all kinds of shenanigans

I don’t understand - why do you care if another company fundraises or not? What’s it go to do with you? YC isn’t some kind of competition is it?

Re: YC W20 Online Demo Day moved up due to investor interest

#25

Post by daniel_iversen »

technotony wrote: post #2

This is smart. If coronavirus is growing by a factor of 10 per week then we are all going to be in lockdown/isolation in two weeks time and probably not focusing on doing seed deals.

I'm sure that played a huge part, if not the main reason why the date is moved up. That makes sense.

Re: YC W20 Online Demo Day moved up due to investor interest

#26

Post by barry-cotter »

chrisseaton wrote: post #24
phsource wrote: post #7

I'm glad they're moving Demo Day up. The whole point of YC is to level the playing field for all kinds of founders, and this would help keep the focus on Demo Day rather than the behind-the-scene investor meetings that tend to benefit connected, established founders. Personally, as a YC W19, first-time founder of Wanderlog [1], I didn't do any fundraising before Demo Day. But I heard from friends in the batch about c…

> all kinds of shenanigans I don’t understand - why do you care if another company fundraises or not? What’s it go to do with you? YC isn’t some kind of competition is it?

Think on the margin. If there’s a particularly good batch of startups probably the amount invested will be greater than average but I doubt it will be exactly proportional to quality. In the long run the ecosystem would adjust to higher quality by attracting more funding. But a company only goes through Demo Day once and they’re all competing for the capital of VCs and angels, which capital is probably medium term flexible but isn’t in the short run.

Re: YC W20 Online Demo Day moved up due to investor interest

#27

Post by chrisseaton »

barry-cotter wrote: post #26
chrisseaton wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> all kinds of shenanigans I don’t understand - why do you care if another company fundraises or not? What’s it go to do with you? YC isn’t some kind of competition is it?

Think on the margin. If there’s a particularly good batch of startups probably the amount invested will be greater than average but I doubt it will be exactly proportional to quality. In the long run the ecosystem would adjust to higher quality by attracting more funding. But a company only goes through Demo Day once and they’re all competing for the capital of VCs and angels, which capital is probably medium term fl…

But again what business is it of yours if someone else is faster out of the gate than you? This is like complaining that another company is better at marketing than you. I guess that's bad for you, but not their problem.

Re: YC W20 Online Demo Day moved up due to investor interest

#28

Post by barry-cotter »

arshmand wrote: post #12
maram wrote: post #4

>>They can sort companies by industry and geography, and will be able to export the list of companies to a spreadsheet. 4 days ago I commented here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22506013 “I think YC should add a sheet for us to write our comments/ratings and decision” I shared my experience on how I get bored and excited. Many people reached out since then asking me to share my spreadsheet. This sheet will be…

Would love to see the spreadsheet/notes that you have been taking. Email is in profile. Thanks!

Your email is not in your profile. YC has your email but they don’t share it. Your profile is currently.

> Founder WorkRamp (YS S16). www.workramp.com

Re: YC W20 Online Demo Day moved up due to investor interest

#29

Post by dhhwrongagain »

chrisseaton wrote: post #27
barry-cotter wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think on the margin. If there’s a particularly good batch of startups probably the amount invested will be greater than average but I doubt it will be exactly proportional to quality. In the long run the ecosystem would adjust to higher quality by attracting more funding. But a company only goes through Demo Day once and they’re all competing for the capital of VCs and angels, which capital is probably medium term fl…

But again what business is it of yours if someone else is faster out of the gate than you? This is like complaining that another company is better at marketing than you. I guess that's bad for you, but not their problem.

I guess the premise of his comment is that there is a finite amount of money to be invested across all YC participants each season and that “back room” deals prevent startups that are less connected from having the same opportunity. Demo day could be seen as a way for all startups to compete for that finite investment on equal terms.

That’s not to say that I agree with the premise that it’s a zero-sum game. At the same time I can see eager investors losing interest in hearing from other startups after securing investments in the hot startup earlier on. A lot of startup investing isn’t merit-based, it’s more about hype and gossip than you’d expect.

Re: YC W20 Online Demo Day moved up due to investor interest

#30

Post by frankdenbow »

chrisseaton wrote: post #24
phsource wrote: post #7

I'm glad they're moving Demo Day up. The whole point of YC is to level the playing field for all kinds of founders, and this would help keep the focus on Demo Day rather than the behind-the-scene investor meetings that tend to benefit connected, established founders. Personally, as a YC W19, first-time founder of Wanderlog [1], I didn't do any fundraising before Demo Day. But I heard from friends in the batch about c…

> all kinds of shenanigans I don’t understand - why do you care if another company fundraises or not? What’s it go to do with you? YC isn’t some kind of competition is it?

1) YC may not be, but fundraising is a competition (https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/09/sequoia-is-giving-away-21-...)

2) Herd Mentality: There is subtle signaling if a company being presented right beside you already has 50% of their round closed, vs a company that hasnt received this early interest.

These are not my ideals (I'm a fan of self-funding and sustainable growth), just the reality.

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