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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

#241

Post by dheera »

bko wrote: post #157
Maro wrote: post #134

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

I think a few things: Wanting to finish school is a negative signal. Also > Also we know that many students spend a lot of time in Fall or during their final year applying for jobs or internships. Early Decision gives students another option: apply to YC and bet on yourself. So now YC is an alternative to searching and apply for jobs? I think if you're marginal on trying to find a corporate job or starting something,…

> Wanting to finish school is a negative signal

No. This sounds like VC trash advice and very bad career advice.

Startup chances of success are 95% case that you do not succeed on the first try.

I'd only recommend dropping out if you see mad traction and revenue and you are on a trajectory to be famous enough that people won't care if you don't have a degree. If you're still a "nobody", it's a really, really bad idea.

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

#242

Post by ascorbic »

AfterHIA wrote: post #198

[flagged]

Your 20s is a great time to be a founder. You have fewer responsibilities so can get by with less income and more easily up sticks to somewhere else. Your opportunity cost as a junior is low. It's a bad time to get a job as a junior too, so this is a good way to get job experience if nobody will hire you. You probably won't succeed (because most startups fail) but you'll learn a lot and probably have a lot of fun.

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

#243

Post by dang »

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!

I'm having a hard time understanding the 'gotcha' quality of this comment and this subthread. There's no inconsistency; PG has always said that people should finish college before starting a startup—I heard him say this over 15 years ago, and he went on about it at length at his most recent YC talk.

Edit: I think I understand the problem now. PG's actual advice has always been "finish college before starting a startup". Somehow somewhere that got distorted into "don't start a company in your 20s", which is certainly not what PG has been saying (the average graduation age is somewhere around 23). https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45372572 quotes a representative passage, and if you read that essay you'll see that he's mostly saying "don't start a startup at 20".

(Edit: I deleted my last sentence which was irritable.)

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

#244

Post by boringg »

throwaw12 wrote: post #222
throwaw12 wrote: post #220

My advice to 20 year olds, don't go to startups, go to big tech while it still pays good salary, build up your wealth, network and how things work at such corporations. Then at mid 30s get hired as Dir/VP of engineering in smaller Series A startup. You will have higher chance to retire early and/or afford yourself to work on things you like later on.

Don't forget why YC wants more young people to work for startups, they benefit from couple of successes and their metric is to increase number of companies they want to invest, which requires more number of cheap engineers/interns giving their life. Your chances of success is lower than YC's chances of success because they invest to many companies in parallel, but you can only work for 1 company

Understanding people and companies incentives doesn't mean that it is inherently bad as you are implying. YC is also investing in a bunch of people and putting money towards new ideas. Lets not forget that innovation is difficult and fraught with failure.

People who want to go that route and feel strongly about it should give it a shot with their eyes open.

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

#245

Post by boringg »

throwaw12 wrote: post #220

My advice to 20 year olds, don't go to startups, go to big tech while it still pays good salary, build up your wealth, network and how things work at such corporations. Then at mid 30s get hired as Dir/VP of engineering in smaller Series A startup. You will have higher chance to retire early and/or afford yourself to work on things you like later on.

Doesn't part of your soul die when you start working for big tech? All that youthful energy and hope to push a potentially meaningless product. Such a sad thing to watch potential and idealism get crushed.

I understand its provocative statement - your play is the risk free life route - perfect for many many people but not everyone. Certainly not people who want to build things that go into the wild.

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

#246

Post by neilv »

nivertech wrote: post #196
skeeter2020 wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you need a way to cause the termination for this to help. IME most things linger in zombie mode forever, they don't explode early.

Full-time cofounder(s) should have the right to fire other cofounders, at least until a formal board of directors is established The problems start when you fire someone with equity closer to the cliff Anyway, I don't get the original post, IMO an MBA is not the kind of degree that is worthy of delaying founding a startup

> Full-time cofounder(s) should have the right to fire other cofounders,

I'd guess there's usually no point in a technical co-founder "firing" their capable business co-founder; it just ends the company.

While the technical person is spending most of their time on technical bits (no matter how much customer-facing product management time you have), etc., the business person is spending most of their time on relationships (investors, partners, customers, etc.). To a large extent, they take those relationships and reputation with them wherever they go next.

Unless the technical cofounder has some very rare and marketable technical expertise that the business people recognize (e.g., some recent big AI invention, or a fancy title at a FAANG), the technical cofounder will probably be considered an ordinary commodity by most.

> IMO an MBA is not the kind of degree that is worthy of delaying founding a startup

My guess is that an MBA from one of the most prestigious programs is usually worth delaying founding a startup. The MBA student can lay some of the groundwork while in the program, get mentoring and connections, and then out-execute many competitors once the student graduates.

The kinds of startups a lot of us have been thinking of are essentially the last 20 years of mostly ZIRP investment scams, but that can't go on forever (current dotcom-bubble-like "AI" hype wave low barriers to acquihire exit notwithstanding). I'd guess more people will have to do viable businesses than our field has in a long time.

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

#247

Post by [deleted] »

AfterHIA wrote: post #206
hnthrowaway121 wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Senior year of college, aren’t we talking 21/22 year olds?

Having had friends that went to a technical high school I have a feeling that there's a subtle suggestion that, "graduates" might refer to talented kids coming out of high school. At any rate suggesting to a young person that they should essentially ruin their life to chase a pipe dream is unethical especially when you benefit financially from making these suggestions.

[deleted]

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

#248

Post by mikestew »

boringg wrote: post #245
throwaw12 wrote: post #220

My advice to 20 year olds, don't go to startups, go to big tech while it still pays good salary, build up your wealth, network and how things work at such corporations. Then at mid 30s get hired as Dir/VP of engineering in smaller Series A startup. You will have higher chance to retire early and/or afford yourself to work on things you like later on.

Doesn't part of your soul die when you start working for big tech? All that youthful energy and hope to push a potentially meaningless product. Such a sad thing to watch potential and idealism get crushed. I understand its provocative statement - your play is the risk free life route - perfect for many many people but not everyone. Certainly not people who want to build things that go into the wild.

Doesn't part of your soul die when you start working for big tech?

I learned more at Microsoft than any of the startups I worked at. I shipped product to more users than at any startup I worked at.

I understand its provocative statement…

Meh, more of an example of “begging the question” than anything else.

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

#249

Post by dang »

solumos wrote: post #138

You should consider placing them into a 1 or 2 year “on the job training” program at another YC company before sticking them in a batch. Maybe you could offer that as a “waitlist” option.

YC has done that over the years and I believe is planning another such program. Not every prospective founder wants to do that, though, so there's a need for both options.
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