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Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s Start-Up Machine

nytimes.com

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Re: Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s Start-Up Machine

#71

Post by crimsonzagar »

ewoodrich wrote: post #56
pg wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Given that the size of batches have gone up, I do believe that number of sentences exchanged with PG/partners per startup must have gone down." I didn't read this whole comment, but that part at least is false, because we've hired new partners at a higher rate than batches have grown. We now have 5 people doing for 50-startup batches what I used to do alone for 20-startup batches.

A reasonable heuristic. In which case, what was the ratio of sentences read to ignored in this particular instance?

Looks like hn_id of monsterix has been banned. Didn't expect this from site admins because what he said above was within quality of discussions normally seen here, and his questions are genuine.

It's kind of sad that admins are unable to take criticism or face real questions and are overreacting to it.

Re: Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s Start-Up Machine

#72

Post by [deleted] »

brandnewlow wrote: post #23
monsterix wrote: post #21

Guess this one looks like a post enthusiasm state but here is what I think is going on lately (Disclaimer: I am an entrepreneur, I feel this, so please take it all with a pinch of salt): It seems that the race to get into a coveted program like YC has become crowded. Almost every other startup that I met during last one year (50 odd in two cycles) had applied to the YC program [premise-A], some gotten the interview […

From what I've heard, the video isn't a huge part of the application. They're looking for good startups, not good video producers.

[deleted]

Re: Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s Start-Up Machine

#73

Post by jules »

braco_alva wrote: post #32
rdouble wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't pg say a while back that the video was the most important part?

I think he was talking about what the founders say in the video, not the quality of the video itself.

I've wonder if the videos aren't a dangerous way to subject yourself to biases. It's well known for example that people judge attractive people more positively. The same probably goes for a good presentation style. Now I'm sure that being attractive or being a good presenter have some predictive value on startup success simply because everybody has these biases, also the people the startup will later make deals with or otherwise interact with. But assuming that the application judges have the same level of bias as the rest of us, since there are many other factors besides attractiveness or presentation style, the bias would be bigger than its predictive value. It would perhaps be an interesting experiment blank out the names of the applicants and to let half of the judges read a transcript of the video instead of watching the video itself, and see if the judgements are different.

Re: Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s Start-Up Machine

#74

Post by sonicaa »

pg wrote: post #44
monsterix wrote: post #21

Guess this one looks like a post enthusiasm state but here is what I think is going on lately (Disclaimer: I am an entrepreneur, I feel this, so please take it all with a pinch of salt): It seems that the race to get into a coveted program like YC has become crowded. Almost every other startup that I met during last one year (50 odd in two cycles) had applied to the YC program [premise-A], some gotten the interview […

"Given that the size of batches have gone up, I do believe that number of sentences exchanged with PG/partners per startup must have gone down." I didn't read this whole comment, but that part at least is false, because we've hired new partners at a higher rate than batches have grown. We now have 5 people doing for 50-startup batches what I used to do alone for 20-startup batches.

> I didn't read this whole comment ...

It is unbelievable to me that PG did not read the whole comment. Nevertheless, this is not a good sign for tech start-ups.

Re: Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s Start-Up Machine

#75

Post by tptacek »

crimsonzagar wrote: post #71
ewoodrich wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A reasonable heuristic. In which case, what was the ratio of sentences read to ignored in this particular instance?

Looks like hn_id of monsterix has been banned. Didn't expect this from site admins because what he said above was within quality of discussions normally seen here, and his questions are genuine. It's kind of sad that admins are unable to take criticism or face real questions and are overreacting to it.

What makes you think he's banned? Doesn't look that way to me.

Re: Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s Start-Up Machine

#76

Post by tptacek »

rdl wrote: post #40
tptacek wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean nobody calls it dday besides Paul Graham, all the time . There's a convenient little box you can ask for confirmation of that right at the bottom of this very page.

I've never heard pg actually call it "dday"; I didn't even realize he'd used it in writing on demo day a lot. I honestly would have assumed a reference to WW2 or some kind of military attack if someone said "are you ready for D-Day?" even in a startup context, or maybe a reference to a specific company's launch day, not demo day (by which time most companies have launched)

All I'm saying is, you see the New York Times call YC Demo Day "D. Day" and then someone says they got it wrong because "nobody" calls it "D. Day" and your first response might be to go check that fact out, since that would be an extraordinarily weird mistake for them to make.

Re: Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s Start-Up Machine

#77

Post by crimsonzagar »

tptacek wrote: post #75
crimsonzagar wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like hn_id of monsterix has been banned. Didn't expect this from site admins because what he said above was within quality of discussions normally seen here, and his questions are genuine. It's kind of sad that admins are unable to take criticism or face real questions and are overreacting to it.

What makes you think he's banned? Doesn't look that way to me.

We work off the same place and that's what he said to me. Will cross check again.

Re: Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s Start-Up Machine

#78

Post by freyr »

crimsonzagar wrote: post #77
tptacek wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you think he's banned? Doesn't look that way to me.

We work off the same place and that's what he said to me. Will cross check again.

I'm unable to log in right now via Firefox but Chrome works fine. Could be related.

Re: Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s Start-Up Machine

#79

Post by CapitalistCartr »

crimsonzagar wrote: post #71
ewoodrich wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A reasonable heuristic. In which case, what was the ratio of sentences read to ignored in this particular instance?

Looks like hn_id of monsterix has been banned. Didn't expect this from site admins because what he said above was within quality of discussions normally seen here, and his questions are genuine. It's kind of sad that admins are unable to take criticism or face real questions and are overreacting to it.

As freyr said, logins are messed up right now.

Re: Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s Start-Up Machine

#80

Post by caycep »

monsterix wrote: post #21

Guess this one looks like a post enthusiasm state but here is what I think is going on lately (Disclaimer: I am an entrepreneur, I feel this, so please take it all with a pinch of salt): It seems that the race to get into a coveted program like YC has become crowded. Almost every other startup that I met during last one year (50 odd in two cycles) had applied to the YC program [premise-A], some gotten the interview […

I think one of the whole point of YC is that it will make connections happen between those who can tell great stories, and those who can't but have great tech?
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