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Y Combinator Traded Prestige for Growth

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Re: Y Combinator Traded Prestige for Growth

#81

Post by candiddevmike »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #12
paulgb wrote: post #8

IMHO this post misses the fact that YC becoming a prestige institution is itself a sort of failure mode. You don't want to attract founders who figure YC is a low-risk alternative to grad school that will look good on their resume. It's tough to avoid that outcome while still conferring positive signal to VCs/potential employees, though. I'm sure YC/Garry see something in the PearAI founders' ability to market themse…

What would YC 2.0 look like? How would you build it?

For founders? I'd buy into the network and mentorship maybe, but not with equity. Maybe a subscription or cohort based fee schedule.

Re: Y Combinator Traded Prestige for Growth

#82

Post by meindnoch »

ninetyninenine wrote: post #72

It’s true. With 40k applications and roughly only 100s accepted… they likely only chose pearai because of nepotism. It would be self sabotage if they regularly do this so likely only a few companies are selected this way with pearai being one. The above is a very educated guess on pearai, but whether or not YC engages in nepotism or not is unmistakable to me. They do and there is real corruption in the selection proc…

Saved this post.

Re: Y Combinator Traded Prestige for Growth

#83

Post by hollerith »

authorfly wrote: post #80
sneak wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Startups determine their ability to execute, and thus generate revenue (or promises of same) from appearing “cool” to prospective talent and future investors. Without it, they wither and die.

Eh yes, but half a million in income sure helps you avoid death too, and most of them are moments from death when they apply.

Please don't refer to an investment as "income". It hurts the ears of those of us who know a little accounting.

I have no objection to, "half a million in cash sure helps you . . "

Re: Y Combinator Traded Prestige for Growth

#85

Post by hobofan »

paulgb wrote: post #56
hobofan wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You don't want to attract founders who figure YC is a low-risk alternative to grad school Of course YC would want that (in the short- to mid-term). The only thing YC has to do is produce a portfolio of companies that looks good enough that other VCs invest into that. This is completely disconnected to building viable businesses, as they just don't have to be the ones that are left holding the bag, and as an acceler…

YC doesn’t benefit from founders who are just looking to pad their resume because they don’t follow through to a liquidity event for YC.

Sure, that would be a theoretical failure mode. But that's not really what's happening right now, is it?

YC doesn't look to have a problem of people joining just to get the stamp on the resume and then "half-assing" it after they get into YC. I think that's something that YC is still quite actively selecting against. As long as they are selecting companies that make it to a series ~C (which most founders will stick around for as long as they are on an good-enough upward-presenting) YC can (partially) liquidate at good enough fund performance.

Re: Y Combinator Traded Prestige for Growth

#86

Post by authorfly »

hollerith wrote: post #83
authorfly wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh yes, but half a million in income sure helps you avoid death too, and most of them are moments from death when they apply.

Please don't refer to an investment as "income". It hurts the ears of those of us who know a little accounting. I have no objection to, "half a million in cash sure helps you . . "

I understand that.

However review my last month or so of post history for my views on earned/employment income, unearned income and asset income.

In essence I differentiate between revenue within income, but not income/investment. I don't think taxes should either. Specifically, I think capital gains/intermingling of asset taxes while requiring up to date taxed-upfront employment taxes is one of the worst decisions society ever made.

Re: Y Combinator Traded Prestige for Growth

#87

Post by ninetyninenine »

EarthBlues wrote: post #51

I don’t see how any of the evidence martialed in this article proves the conclusion. There’s a tendency in contemporary online culture to want to condemn the whole person. It’s not enough, it seems, to condemn Altman’s self-serving decisions with OpenAI. We also have to pretend he’s a bungling businessman, whose self-inflicted downfall is imminent. The same pattern can be observed with other public figures. It just d…

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41697929

Hn claims to be largely independent of the YC fund. But we will never know the full truth.

Re: Y Combinator Traded Prestige for Growth

#88

Post by shombaboor »

pj_mukh wrote: post #57

"The issue isn't that PearAI did something illegal—it's that they got funded by YC with nothing more than a codebase copied from another YC-backed company. This shows that (1) YC is willing to fund just about anything, (2) they’re not doing any real due diligence, and (3) they don't particularly care about their existing portfolio companies." This shows a fundamental misunderstanding on how YC functions. YCombinator…

yc is a club looking for members. A lot of the members share similar traits/backgrounds which is why there's sorta this "populist" backlash. It's not meritocracy for ideas or viability.

Re: Y Combinator Traded Prestige for Growth

#89

Post by intelVISA »

buggeryorkshire wrote: post #19

Surprised this doesn't mention meticulous.ai, who seem to spam HN with "we're hiring!" each month but i've never heard of anybody using them, nor do LI show any new employees. Hey Gabriel, what's going on?

With the recent drop of batch quality comes more lifestyle companies and less disruptors. I can't imagine the YC of even 10 years ago funding quite so many zombies 3+ years no product but still holding out for the fabled founding engineer...

A half-decent Schemer in found3rm0de would've built 5 failed MVPs and exactly one unicorn in that timeframe.

Re: Y Combinator Traded Prestige for Growth

#90

Post by jasfi »

pj_mukh wrote: post #57

"The issue isn't that PearAI did something illegal—it's that they got funded by YC with nothing more than a codebase copied from another YC-backed company. This shows that (1) YC is willing to fund just about anything, (2) they’re not doing any real due diligence, and (3) they don't particularly care about their existing portfolio companies." This shows a fundamental misunderstanding on how YC functions. YCombinator…

I think the real pain point you're hitting on there is that people feel like they don't get selected when they deserve to be. While there are those who don't deserve it but get selected anyway.
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