Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Welcome Sam, Garry, Emmett, and Justin

ycombinator.posterous.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 49 posts

Re: Welcome Sam, Garry, Emmett, and Justin

#31

Post by rdl »

tomsaffell wrote: post #28
indyT wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that wasn't intended to diminish your personal value or expertise. I think there is a general concern that future YC batches will have less personal involvement from the people that made YC compelling.

As s2009 alumni and current class (s2011) member I don't see any trend to support that concern.

From what I've heard from people in YC, Sam, Garry, and a few other YC alums have been incredibly useful, in addition to the senior YC partners. The only bottleneck has been food distribution at events.

Re: Welcome Sam, Garry, Emmett, and Justin

#32

Post by loganlinn »

inmygarage wrote: post #2

These sorts of additions to the YC team provide a great example of how YC will scale its model. There's so much shared knowledge and know-how among the alumni and that's what will enable YC to create hundreds of companies a year without sacrificing quality.

Funny you mention the word alumni, because it made me think of the operational structure and salability of a fraternity where past members serve the same positions that once served them.

Re: Welcome Sam, Garry, Emmett, and Justin

#33

Post by jurjenh »

inmygarage wrote: post #2

These sorts of additions to the YC team provide a great example of how YC will scale its model. There's so much shared knowledge and know-how among the alumni and that's what will enable YC to create hundreds of companies a year without sacrificing quality.

This kinda looks like an apprentice-ship training system! The master adviser trains up a few keen trainees, these then in turn become masters who train more apprentices etc...

Maybe it IS a pyramid scheme all along! I did have my suspicions with the recent discussion / evaluation of YC performance.

Re: Welcome Sam, Garry, Emmett, and Justin

#34

Post by zaidf »

indyT wrote: post #26
zaidf wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but the value prop of it seems to be diminishing as it grows Just some of the things that have become better as YC has grown... - guaranteed convertible debt money waiting for you after YC - meetings with the best VCs - tailored advice from (more and more) folks who have done it again and again So even in the worst case scenario where your point re: access turns out true(I do not think it is), there are many, many th…

- guaranteed convertible debt money waiting for you after YC - meetings with the best VCs These could easily dry up if the yc batches do not maintain their perceived high quality. I'm not saying it will happen but it must be a concern? - tailored advice from (more and more) folks who have done it again and again This is my point, you can get this advice easily outside of YC.

This is my point, you can get this advice easily outside of YC.

I disagree. There are a lot of experienced people willing to learn about your business and provide you valuable insights but in almost all cases, they have some interest of future gains - such as investing in a future round.

When that is not the case, it is still pretty rare to get someone experienced to really get involved in your business and offer non-generic advice over a prolonged period of time.

Re: Welcome Sam, Garry, Emmett, and Justin

#35

Post by justin »

jurjenh wrote: post #33
inmygarage wrote: post #2

These sorts of additions to the YC team provide a great example of how YC will scale its model. There's so much shared knowledge and know-how among the alumni and that's what will enable YC to create hundreds of companies a year without sacrificing quality.

This kinda looks like an apprentice-ship training system! The master adviser trains up a few keen trainees, these then in turn become masters who train more apprentices etc... Maybe it IS a pyramid scheme all along! I did have my suspicions with the recent discussion / evaluation of YC performance.

A pyramid scheme is a zero-sum game where wealth accrues up the pyramid in exchange for promises of future riches to the new recruits. YC startups thus far have been a positive sum game to the tune of $4 billion. Additionally, new YC companies aren't required to pay anyone for the things YC provides (as opposed to a pyramid scheme).

Re: Welcome Sam, Garry, Emmett, and Justin

#36

Post by netcan »

pg wrote: post #21
edanm wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered taking on far more teams? You're growing from batch to batch, but if you could reach 200 startups by your estimates, why not grow even faster? Is it just a matter of "slow and steady"?

Our growth is entirely a function of the growth in applications. So we don't have much choice about our growth rate. To grow faster we'd have to fund people we thought would fail, and to grow slower we'd have to reject people we thought would succeed. Either would be painful.

Was the borderline rejected application in your 1st or 2nd years indistinguishable form this year's, in terms of quality?

Re: Welcome Sam, Garry, Emmett, and Justin

#38

Post by jdp23 »

Four more guys! That'll really help scale to a more gender-balanced group of companies!

No insult to Sam, Garry, Emmet, and Justin who I'm sure are very talented. But given how Jessica Livingston talks about how hard it's been for Y Combinator to attract female founders and then they do something like this, I really have to wonder how much they're trying to change.

Re: Welcome Sam, Garry, Emmett, and Justin

#39

Post by pg »

jdp23 wrote: post #38

Four more guys! That'll really help scale to a more gender-balanced group of companies! No insult to Sam, Garry, Emmet, and Justin who I'm sure are very talented. But given how Jessica Livingston talks about how hard it's been for Y Combinator to attract female founders and then they do something like this, I really have to wonder how much they're trying to change.

I think you're insulting female founders by suggesting that their decision about whether to apply to something like YC would be determined by the gender of the partners.

Surely male applicants wouldn't be scared off if most of the YC partners were female. Why assume female applicants are any different?

Re: Welcome Sam, Garry, Emmett, and Justin

#40

Post by pg »

netcan wrote: post #36
pg wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our growth is entirely a function of the growth in applications. So we don't have much choice about our growth rate. To grow faster we'd have to fund people we thought would fail, and to grow slower we'd have to reject people we thought would succeed. Either would be painful.

Was the borderline rejected application in your 1st or 2nd years indistinguishable form this year's, in terms of quality?

The quality of the applicants has been slowly increasing. But we are also slowly becoming less credulous.
Post reply on HN