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YC Changes

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: YC Changes

#81

Post by ryanSrich »

anonymoose7191 wrote: post #60

I expect to be downvoted but my YC interview with Michael a couple summers back left a bad taste in my mouth. I'm not really sure he asked more than "how is this a billion dollar company?" multiple times during the 10 minutes. I'm not sure why YC would pay $1k to fly us to Mountain View if that question was that important and wasn't already answered by our application. Hope that was just a fluke though... Good luck Y…

Maybe other factors lead them to believe you had a billion dollar idea, but needed to tweeze it out of you. A VC trying to understand how you'll make a billion dollars is as a legit of a question as you can get.

Re: YC Changes

#82

Post by pb »

mceoin wrote: post #78
pb wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fellowship worked really well for the most part, but our real goal is to 10x or 100x the number of startups that we help, and Fellowship in it's current form couldn't easily do that. The MOOC is essentially Fellowship 2.0 -- we're taking what we learned from Fellowship and then opening it up to the whole world so that anyone can participate.

Do you anticipate seed funding for standout fellowship "graduates", especially those in foreign countries?

Yes, many fellowship companies have gone on to raise money or join the core YC program. Our hope is that the same will be true of the MOOC.

Re: YC Changes

#83

Post by noodles23 »

I hope Paul Buchheit becoming a provost doesn't mean he won't be part of YC going forward.

A little part of me is hoping to have him on our interview panel again to show him how far we've come.

Re: YC Changes

#84

Post by pb »

noodles23 wrote: post #83

I hope Paul Buchheit becoming a provost doesn't mean he won't be part of YC going forward. A little part of me is hoping to have him on our interview panel again to show him how far we've come.

Thanks. I'm definitely still involved, and if anything should have more time to spend with the startups :)

Re: YC Changes

#85

Post by ghshephard »

One question does YC == Y Combinator? In the TLDR, YC Core is renamed to "YC", and YC Group now consists of Y Combinator, YC Continuity, YC Research and the new YC MOOC. But I wasn't 100% clear whether the group Michael Seibel is the CEO of "YC" is the same as the component in the YC Group referred to as "Y Combinator".

It would have been a bit more clear (to me) if the group had been consistently referred to as "YC" if that's the new branding, so I'm guessing there are a lot of others like me who aren't certain as well.

Re: YC Changes

#86

Post by Qworg »

pb wrote: post #79
Qworg wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RE: "We have no connection to most of the companies we fund." This certainly isn't the perception on my part - the flood of posts from previous YC companies who talk about how they had help from other YC companies to polish their pitch makes it seem like current YC companies are definitively connected to previous YC companies.

The handful of blog posts you see here on HN are not representative of the whole batch. The majority of companies that we fund have zero alumni connections. To me, this is actually one of the most important features of YC: the application process is completely open and we fund people from around the world regardless of background. Having graduated from college in Ohio in the 90s I moved here with zero connections and…

An awesome feature certainly. I appreciate the access (and the free teaching we're getting more of soon) :)

While I can't dictate what orgs do, it'd be helpful to see some "we applied with zero connections and got in on our strength alone" posts to balance it out.

Re: YC Changes

#87

Post by exolymph »

reflexive wrote: post #74
zorpner wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll happily call this out as obvious concern trolling. While you are technically correct (as most concern trolling is designed to be), it's obvious to any reasonable person that referring to an "island of cannibals" to an English-speaking primarily Western audience will call up a specific cultural trope that involves people of color. And now I've spent my order of magnitude more effort pointing out your bullshit tha…

> an English-speaking primarily Western audience Fair point, although it hinges on the assumption that HackerNews is mainly of interest to Westerners who are primarily English-speakers. When it comes to casual assertions of racism - most often the one who smelt it, dealt it.

Since you just made an accusation of casual racism, by your own reasoning, you must be casually racist.

> although it hinges on the assumption that HackerNews is mainly of interest to Westerners who are primarily English-speakers.

This is almost definitely true. I would bet money that the majority of HN readers speak English as a first language. Not all, of course, but greater than 50%.

Re: YC Changes

#88

Post by 2arrs2ells »

Qworg wrote: post #59
snowmaker wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YC would like to fund a lot more startups. We're working on this. Also, being connected doesn't help people get into YC. We have no connection to most of the companies we fund.

RE: "We have no connection to most of the companies we fund." This certainly isn't the perception on my part - the flood of posts from previous YC companies who talk about how they had help from other YC companies to polish their pitch makes it seem like current YC companies are definitively connected to previous YC companies.

As a YC alum, I help a few companies polish their pitch every application season. I have no connection to most of those companies - they're just folks with an exciting idea who sent me a compelling email.

My cofounders & I got the same help from folks we didn't know when we were applying to YC. It's a pretty awesome community.

Re: YC Changes

#89

Post by pb »

Qworg wrote: post #86
pb wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The handful of blog posts you see here on HN are not representative of the whole batch. The majority of companies that we fund have zero alumni connections. To me, this is actually one of the most important features of YC: the application process is completely open and we fund people from around the world regardless of background. Having graduated from college in Ohio in the 90s I moved here with zero connections and…

An awesome feature certainly. I appreciate the access (and the free teaching we're getting more of soon) :) While I can't dictate what orgs do, it'd be helpful to see some "we applied with zero connections and got in on our strength alone" posts to balance it out.

I agree it would be good to have more blog posts with that message -- I worry that good founders won't apply due to the mistaken impression that alumni connections are required.

Here's one for you: https://twitter.com/joseluisnuno/status/770711984543244288

Re: YC Changes

#90

Post by elmar »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #37

I realize it's a joke, but it also seems quite unlikely to be true. To me, this is the biggest weakness of YC as an organization: a pernicious belief that what applies within their community applies to all communities. I have to wonder what kind of world Graham sees, if it's one in which all communities would welcome a person like Sam as leader. No disrespect to Sam and his substantial leadership qualities. Edit: It'…

you are assuming that all canibals are people of color, they could be white canibals.
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