Founders are tackling “boring” problems that generate cash
B = set of all companies that are boring
C = set of all companies that generate cash
B ∩ C = {}
YC Demo Day, the Morning After
31–40 of 67 posts
Re: YC Demo Day, the Morning After
#32I agree with WSJ, and this is the first time I didn't get excited about the companies coming out of YC. But I don't think it's entrepreneur's fault.
Investors are starting to go after companies that generate revenue from the beginning (as a result of the series a crunch?), which shifts the focus on what companies individuals can start if they want to find funding (unfortunately).
Re: YC Demo Day, the Morning After
#33CEO & Cofounder of Refer.ly, formerly 1st employee at Twilio
Interestingly, the first employee of a successful API company targeting engineers was a marketing manager.
Re: YC Demo Day, the Morning After
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
I call bullshit on the claim that there were no tech-oriented companies. One of them is a platform for automating flying drones. Another is a platform for EE circuit design. These are both pretty nerdgasmic if you ask me. edit: oh and how could I forget Thalmic.
Well they did not convince the "tech press" that they were the next Google.
Journalists are ignorant by definition, that's why they ask questions.
Re: YC Demo Day, the Morning After
#35From the WSJ article: Don Dodge, a startup investor and well-known “developer advocate” for Google, said today’s startups are more focused than ever on revenue—as evidenced by the large revenue-growth charts most of them showed off during the presentations to investors. In prior years, founders focused more on the number of people using their service, he said. Refreshingly, he said, there are no longer social-network…
That's exactly it. Revenue. I've heard PG say in numerous interviews that he doesn't want to incubate small companies. He said he wants "the next big thing". Has he changed his mind?
Re: YC Demo Day, the Morning After
#36I don't think "there were lots of good companies, but no standouts" is related to "there were no social companies". The companies I considered standouts in previous batches at Demo Day were not the social ones. (S12: Eligible, Bufferbox, HD Trade, Keychain Logistics, Plivo, BoostedBoards, ...) W12: Exec, Farmlogs, Matterport, PlanGrid S11: Clerky, Parse, Aisle50, meteor, MobileWorks, Sift Science, Science Exchange, R…
Rap Genius seems decidedly social...
Re: YC Demo Day, the Morning After
#37"and they’re rewarded with a yawn." Let's hope they're rewarded by making a business that creates value and makes them some cash in the process rather than being the tech darling of the next seven days!
It looks like YC is actually shifting to investing in products that have a real way of generating revenue this time. I'm not sure if this is a trend in the whole VC community though.
There are great VCs that spot trends before they are big trends and then there are VCs that miss the boat because they invest when things are already frothy. So buzzwords like "social" and "mobile" happen and then "enterprise" becomes a hot story in the tech press after people get sick of thinking social will be the end all be all of VC investing. The things is VCs are going for 100X exits, so something that generates revenue that doesn't have the potential to be big is just as bad for a VC as a social product that probably won't make revenue anytime soon.
Re: YC Demo Day, the Morning After
#38From the WSJ article: Don Dodge, a startup investor and well-known “developer advocate” for Google, said today’s startups are more focused than ever on revenue—as evidenced by the large revenue-growth charts most of them showed off during the presentations to investors. In prior years, founders focused more on the number of people using their service, he said. Refreshingly, he said, there are no longer social-network…
That's exactly it. Revenue. I've heard PG say in numerous interviews that he doesn't want to incubate small companies. He said he wants "the next big thing". Has he changed his mind?
Perhaps the average group going into YC has shifted in their goals. I believe there's a general trend towards focusing more on small-risk small-reward startups, I assume this trend is trickling into SV as well.
Re: YC Demo Day, the Morning After
#39Interestingly, Semantics3 is starting up in a space that we're currently doing quite well in. Seeing the messaging that they're putting forward has given me some better copy ideas, so I guess it's time to get to A/B testing.
And, considering we've sold somewhere in the realm of $xx million last year with a beta product (which has since matured), there is definitely money to be made 'the boring way'.
Re: YC Demo Day, the Morning After
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's exactly it. Revenue. I've heard PG say in numerous interviews that he doesn't want to incubate small companies. He said he wants "the next big thing". Has he changed his mind?
Perhaps the average group going into YC has shifted in their goals. I believe there's a general trend towards focusing more on small-risk small-reward startups, I assume this trend is trickling into SV as well.
It's a common misconception that "big hits" can't have early revenue. I'm not sure why.