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Paul Graham: Y Combinator Companies Have Raised Over $1 Billion

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Re: Paul Graham: Y Combinator Companies Have Raised Over $1 Billion

#81

Post by pbreit »

tatsuke95 wrote: post #64
pbreit wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are HNers so dense when it comes to fundraising? No, the treatment doesn't come off at all sounding like profits or income. Yes, fundraising is definitely a point of success. Why do HNers have such a hard time with this? Money is an important resource for growing companies! Sheesh.

> "Yes, fundraising is definitely a point of success." Really? When your bank gives you a mortgage, do you deem that a "success"? The fact that there are people who see raising funds as a sort of "end game" is a problem, at least in my opinion. Pets.com, Kozmo.com and Webvan all raised lots of money. So did Enron and Worldcom, in a different way. Success occurss when you produce net economic gains to society.

> When your bank gives you a mortgage, do you deem that a "success"?

Whithout a doubt! No one is saying it's an end game! It's a milestone on the road to large scale success.

Enron and Worldcom were wildly profitable. Is that your point?

Your sentiment is exactly what I'm talking about. If you're going to follow startups or have an interest in business-building, at least learn the basics that funding is necessary and raising it is an accomplishment.

Re: Paul Graham: Y Combinator Companies Have Raised Over $1 Billion

#82

Post by zbuc »

pbreit wrote: post #65
tptacek wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love startups. Worked at them my whole career. At my practice, I've worked with a bunch of YC startups. Uniformly enjoyed the experience. I'm wary of venture capitalists. I've watched them do skeezy things firsthand. More importantly, every time I see people cheerleading some startup for raising 50MM, all I can think is, "that poor team isn't going to be able to exit unless they can beat 150MM". It's very hard to d…

True. But it's also hard to exit at $150m+ without a $50m raise. The lean startups and bootstraps simply don't have big exits like their well-funded counterparts.

Say it with me:

FUCK an exit.

Build something cool and worthwhile instead. FUCK getting a lot of money.

Re: Paul Graham: Y Combinator Companies Have Raised Over $1 Billion

#83

Post by hollerith »

jedc wrote: post #36
adambenayoun wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Raising money isn't any indication for any success but is a nice accomplishment - money coupled with the mentoring and connection from ycombinator could significantly improve the companies odds to succeed. These numbers are vanity metrics but are still indicating a trend - companies going through ycombinator are more likely to raise money than others. I know I would go thru ycombinator - not because of the money I co…

PG originally made the comment in this thread http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4291075 on Seed-DB. I launched Seed-DB earlier today ( http://www.seed-db.com ) where you can find these data points for all companies that have been through seed accelerators.

Did you try to compute (latest-round) valuations?

Re: Paul Graham: Y Combinator Companies Have Raised Over $1 Billion

#84

Post by cpher »

pg wrote: post #48
pbreit wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are HNers so dense when it comes to fundraising? No, the treatment doesn't come off at all sounding like profits or income. Yes, fundraising is definitely a point of success. Why do HNers have such a hard time with this? Money is an important resource for growing companies! Sheesh.

I think they're not so much dense as bitter. There's a subset of HN readers who regard startups as a whole as a sort of con game, and are angry that the participants get so much attention. There may not be that many of them, but their anger makes them disproportionately active as commenters and voters.

It's a "con game" to these folks because all of the strategies for getting VC investment is described as such. And when someone succeeds in winning the "game", these people take it personally. I would call it "resentment" instead.

For me, the dream of entrepreneurship isn't about selling my company to a BigCo (TM), or even getting VC funding. It's about building a business that will sustain my family for years to come. Exactly like businesses in my Chicago neighborhood who start restaurants, or retail shops, etc. I want to build something that I can call my own and not be dependent on an employer's paycheck. And the fear of being pink-slipped because I'm not a "young rock star ninja." I just happen to know software and GIS, etc rather than widgets. And I know it really well.

DHH has talked at length about this trend, and although it's not quite as strong in Chicago as S.V., it's still present. Many people in GenX/Y/etc aren't willing to work their asses off to build a business. Popular media and SV successes only build on this fantasy. This adds to peoples' resentment. It's like the American Dream has morphed from bootstrapping your own small business into something larger, to building something that someone else will pay you F.U. money to take off your hands. Then you can sip Mai-Tais on the beach with half-naked women wandering around. If that's your vision, then Godspeed. But don't assume everyone has that same vision.

I don't mean to sound trite, but that's not the America I grew up with. This entire forum has the undercurrent of the very idea/goal you're complaining about. Building start-ups, but let's glamorize the VC-funded ones that got lucky in the lottery. If this forum was about "bootstrapping companies" into successful small businesses, I think the tone would be very different.

Regardless, I'll keep reading HN, and taking pleasure in those diamonds in the rough that inspire my vision of America.

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