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Was Y Combinator worth it?

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Re: Was Y Combinator worth it?

#21

Post by paxys »

pclmulqdq wrote: post #8
1123581321 wrote: post #4

Given the domain name, I was hoping to see some attempt to quantify/aggregate multiple answers. I think nearly any startup would benefit unless the founders entered into business with a strong perspective and network.

I think the real question is whether the benefit is worth the 10%. That's pretty expensive. From a macchiavellian perspective, it does appear that the benefits mostly attach to the founders (unless you are selling products to startups) and the 10% attaches to the company, which suggests that the optimal strategy post-YC may be to fail and start another company. Edit - Obviously I'm not suggesting killing a good compa…

90% of a big number is a lot better than 100% of a small number. If you get benefit out of YC and your company has momentum, killing it and starting fresh on your own is absolutely not the best strategy.

Re: Was Y Combinator worth it?

#22

Post by waithuh »

paxys wrote: post #19

> We, however, were not in this position. Eric and I still had full-time jobs when we were accepted. While we had been meeting regularly for a few months to discuss different ideas, we had absolutely zero traction, no working product, and very little validation. This is the key part IMO. It's easy to give up 10% of what is essentially an idea in your head in exchange for $500K and some legitimacy from a big brand. Th…

YC did so well because they never really asked for the qualifications other investors did and put an end to potential founders deciding that its not worth it/procrastinating

Re: Was Y Combinator worth it?

#23

Post by colechristensen »

joshxyz wrote: post #13
electricduck wrote: post #5

You know, I've been reading Hacker News for god-knows-how-long, and it never occurred to me to look up what Y Combinator even was.

thats what i love about hn. i sometimes think yc is just a front to secure payment for hn servers for many many years.

Isn’t it just like… a couple of servers? As in, entirely fundable by one person who could afford the time to moderate.

Re: Was Y Combinator worth it?

#24

Post by threeseed »

cameroncooper wrote: post #16

Yes, I think YC is almost always worth it. Even as a founder who has raised VC and exited previously I found it to be worthwhile.

This is simply not true.

The optimum path for all startups is to either bootstrap entirely or bootstrap up until the Series A where your negotiation position is the strongest because you know your unit economics and can demonstrate clear product-market fit.

Of course many startups may simply not be able to bootstrap. But equally there are many startups who could but choose the YC/VC track because of cargo culting, naivety or ignorance of all of the issues that it comes with e.g. dilution and the low percentage of startups making it to Series-A.

I would argue that most founders instead of emulating Stripe, Airbnb etc should look to florists, bakeries, ecommerce sites etc and learn the fundamentals for growing a business in a cost-effective and sustainable way. And then decide after they have a successful lifestyle business whether YC/VC will take them to the next level.

Re: Was Y Combinator worth it?

#25

Post by reneherse »

benzible wrote: post #12
elaus wrote: post #6

What a curious product: CSV import as a service (or hosted on premise). Would love to know where they pivoted from (according to the blog post).

Not all that curious... https://flatfile.com If you're building a vertical SaaS and want to support import from a file, and don't want to spend time reinventing the wheel, this could be a big win. This would let new users bring in existing data from another SaaS (that supports CSV export) or where the incumbent is likely to be Excel. The development time it would take to make something like this solid, usable, and fl…

That use case perfectly describes the needs of the SAAS product my team is building. We have tons of domain specific features we want to build, and anything that frees up dev time for that work gets a look.

While I haven't yet seen the pricing for your link or the OP, this seems like a case where there aren't many negative tradeoffs.

Re: Was Y Combinator worth it?

#26

Post by mcpeepants »

colechristensen wrote: post #23
joshxyz wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

thats what i love about hn. i sometimes think yc is just a front to secure payment for hn servers for many many years.

Isn’t it just like… a couple of servers? As in, entirely fundable by one person who could afford the time to moderate.

many, many, many years

Re: Was Y Combinator worth it?

#27

Post by thallavajhula »

>So, for us YC was a no-brainer.

Saved you a click.

If the general consensus is that YC is worth it, then why bother publish something to state the obvious. I'd be more interested in cases or scenarios where the founders felt YC wasn't worth it, which I believe would be very low or non-existent.

Re: Was Y Combinator worth it?

#28

Post by aatd86 »

fasterik wrote: post #15
electricduck wrote: post #5

You know, I've been reading Hacker News for god-knows-how-long, and it never occurred to me to look up what Y Combinator even was.

You mean this isn't a website for lambda calculus enthusiasts?

Wait... This is not lambda-the-ultimate?

Where am I?

Re: Was Y Combinator worth it?

#29

Post by dalbasal »

momothereal wrote: post #18
electricduck wrote: post #5

You know, I've been reading Hacker News for god-knows-how-long, and it never occurred to me to look up what Y Combinator even was.

I feel like I used to see a lot more Launch HN, Y Combinator batches, etc. Or maybe I started tuning them out

No... I'm pretty sure he isn't near as interested in yc anymore.
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