Why Y Combinator is a waste of time

YC, like other angels/VC firms, has a profile they prefer, even if they may not state it explicitly: i.e. teams of at least two people, under 35, writing web-based software, etc.

So just because you don't fit that profile (or you do, but YC rejected you), doesn't mean you will fail.

You are correct, I work in PR. The reason you know this is because I've provided a reasonable level of transparency in my profile. Additonally, I use my real name as my user name becuase I want to be held accountable for what I say.

If I ever lied to a reporter it would end my career. I'm sorry if you felt like I was attacking you, I wasn't. I was debating the merit of your arguements, which is lost now because you continuously edit them.

Public relations has nothing to do with attacking people. The 150 people I work with would be highly offended if I told them that we lie by trade - it is simply not the case.

Do I exaggerate? Yes, but who doesn't? I'd wager the best YC applications contain a degree of hyperbole, because no one wants to get involved with something that isn't exciting.

Finally, words are the simplest way to express logic, so I'm glad we could find some common ground. If you go back and read my original comment you'll see I wasn't attacking you. I wasn't even disagreeing with you. I was simply adding my insight to your original post, which is lost now because you continue to edit or delete what you say. I'm not going to debate this any further with you, because I am starting to feel foolish being dragging into this.

So again, I am sorry if you felt attacked, that was not my intention.

Best wishes,

Clinton

PS - I've taken the liberty of copying and pasting your post below so you won't feel compelled to edit it.

0 points by voiceofreason 10 hours ago | link | parent How DARE you call me a liar? You work in a PR firm, so you use WORDS. I use LOGIC.

The point of my thread was that the author was being a jerk to Paul and should apologize. When I posted the quote where it's clear the author is insulting Paul, you got all uppity about it.

"your initial comment said that the author should apologize for comparing Paul to the musician."

At what point did I deny that I "compared Paul to the musician?" I never claimed I never said that. I simply replied to you and posted his quote you might have missed where the author said "YC is a waste of time" and also says, Paul is a bull who speaks "shit". That's why I said the author should apologize.

The author obviously meant to say Steve instead of Paul, in the intro. I didn't confuse that part of the article like you arrogantly believed. The reason I compared the two is because the user shows disdain and hate for the YC, so much he even confused his friend and Paul's names, when the two had nothing to do with one another.

You work in public relations so you're probably very good at attacking people. You're a liar and exaggerate by trade.

Do you understand it now? Or are you attacking me just because you're a PR person trying to test your training?

YC is a model that was created based on expereince and success. The value of YC funding is not the money, $5-20 k is not hard to save or raise.

It has been encouraging and interesting to hear from so many people, who obviously find a lot of value in VC's approach, offering slight variances based on their personal situation.

It is important to take what is valuable from a model and apply it to your own startup situation. If you can implement the use the best concepts and models from other and apply them to your unique startup, you will reduce the chance of failure and save a ton of time and money.

If you fallow blindly and base your success on one groups acceptance your not an entrepreneur.

"I read YCombinator Startup News. I read that thing that Paul wrote saying that anybody who contributes regularly is going to fare better. That’s shit from a bull! Anybody who is spending time posting on a site that is a collection of links to dream money instead of working on his project is never going to make money. Anybody who cares about “karma” on that site instead of spending time reaching users for his product is an idiot."

I've been checking out these threads for a few days and have started leaving comments because that apparently gives you a better chance. Paul has a lot of tough choices to make and I understand his reasons for using comments as one of the many tools in filtering prospective startups, but I really hope its a small small factor. Sure it proves I read blogged advice and other mumbo jumbo on the subject of startups and am interested in the funding, but it also might indicate that a person has way too much free time or has a serious net addiction (a major development killer). I've been getting ready to kick start my startup this summer for over a month now. During that time I've read a lot of these startup articles, all of Paul's entries, Founders at Work, bought a few other books and searched the net for VC firms and how to get in touch with them. One article at the beginning of the process affected me greatly. When I was making the tough decision to do the startup or take a very appealing job offer I read Paul's article (not to brown nose) "A student's guide to startups" which said the best time to start one is when you're 24, fresh out of grad school, and hopefully have a solid internship behind you. That was something I didn't know and hit me hard because this summer that will be my exact situation. If I hadn't have read it I might have missed my perfect window! I made my decision right then. Every article, book, or resource since however has been repetitive and more draining on my energy to get started than helpful.

My point, and the article's author's point in the quoted paragraph is, use these articles to get yourself inspired and confident about doing this thing and then stop reading and commenting! You're inspired now don't kill it and waste your time with reading more and more of the same crap, go make your own stories. This is most likely my last post here. I hope that doesn't effect my rating :).