Forgot to mention "lucky" part.
Analysis of unicorn startup founders
41–50 of 56 posts
Re: Analysis of unicorn startup founders
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
I live in NYC and have raised capital/am part of social networks of founders in NYC. I have first hand experience with this, I understand the game really well. The schools absolutely are gatekeepers.
are you successful then? what unicorn are we talking about?
I'm saying at the seed stage, in nyc, the funding is like 80% ivy league grads
Re: Analysis of unicorn startup founders
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
In biotech, this is an understatement. PhD's get to develop stuff for years using university funds while on a salary.
And they work slavery hours,6 am to 1am
so? most founders are doing that without pay, without a budget, and (most importantly) without the credibility that comes from the org/lab/prof
Re: Analysis of unicorn startup founders
#44Forgot to mention "lucky" part.
Luck is a matter of time and networking. If you do the right stuff, eventually you will get lucky.
Re: Analysis of unicorn startup founders
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
are you successful then? what unicorn are we talking about?
I'm saying at the seed stage, in nyc, the funding is like 80% ivy league grads
But that doesn't prove your point. Plenty of startup founders raise funding without an Ivy degree, or a degree at all. Most people without a degree, however, don't try to raise funding, whereas more people from 'prestigious' schools see it as an option.
Re: Analysis of unicorn startup founders
#461. Went to a top school Prestigious people are essentially handed capital. This drives most of the funding at the very early stage. A random founder with no connections or background needs an MVP product with real traction, and even then may raise on worse terms than a stanford/harvard grad. Raising venture funding can be thought of as a career path. Its not entrepreneurship. VC backed founders are more similar to he…
In biotech, this is an understatement. PhD's get to develop stuff for years using university funds while on a salary.
That's an entirely different topic
Re: Analysis of unicorn startup founders
#47> No plan B That really hits home for me. I decided to start my current company ( https://ipcopilot.ai ) when I had already been out of work 3 months, I had 4-6 months runway when I left my prior role. Meaning, I had 1-3 months left before I couldn't pay my mortgage when I incorporated my company. My responsibilities were high: 3 kids, wife due with another baby in 60 days, no source of income, and an estimated 45-60…
Intriguing product, definitely something that is a major pain point for inventors.
I do wonder however, I see a couple of the profiles listed show 500+ patents.
Does this indicate that we are now in an era of full fledged "IP spam" or can you argue that inventors have in fact historically been under-rewarded by the difficulty of filing patents? Otherwise that is a lot of patents for someone who isn't building a spacecraft :)
Re: Analysis of unicorn startup founders
#48Re: Analysis of unicorn startup founders
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn't look at that as a "rich get richer" situation. Spend some time with people who attended different calibers of schools, and you'll see that it's not quite so simple to explain, especially when you spend time listening to different peoples' insights about life, and their self discipline. (The kind of insights and discipline needed to start a successful company with VC money.) The schools aren't gatekeepers t…
I live in NYC and have raised capital/am part of social networks of founders in NYC. I have first hand experience with this, I understand the game really well. The schools absolutely are gatekeepers.
Correlation does not imply causation.
I'm being a little cagey because I don't like to generalize in public forums.
In this case, what I'd say is that Ivy League schools both recruit and attract certain people.
> The schools absolutely are gatekeepers.
To put weight behind that statement, we'd need to somehow believe that someone who can attend an ivy league school, when attending a less prestigious school, is substantially less likely to find VC money.
I personally believe that such a person is attracted to an ivy league school, such that I would argue that someone who is likely to raise VC money is more likely to attend an ivy league school. It's not that the schools are the gatekeepers, it's that if they change their admittance criteria, the "minds that think alike" will attend other schools, and then those other schools will get a reputation for their grads gobbling up most of the VC.
IE, a certain kind of person is likely to raise VC, and that certain kind of person is likely to attend an ivy league school: Correlation does not imply causation.
Re: Analysis of unicorn startup founders
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
I live in NYC and have raised capital/am part of social networks of founders in NYC. I have first hand experience with this, I understand the game really well. The schools absolutely are gatekeepers.
Correlation does not imply causation. I'm being a little cagey because I don't like to generalize in public forums. In this case, what I'd say is that Ivy League schools both recruit and attract certain people. > The schools absolutely are gatekeepers. To put weight behind that statement, we'd need to somehow believe that someone who can attend an ivy league school, when attending a less prestigious school, is substa…
Dude just go look at the founders at ycombinator, huge percentage went to top schools. They only interview them for 10 minutes. Without some kind of proof of being able to run a startup (MVP and traction), capital is allocated based on education.