Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Is Y Combinator worth it?

drodio.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 140 posts

Re: Is Y Combinator worth it?

#91

Post by doh »

justinclift wrote: post #86
doh wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe this was meant as a sarcasm, but in a chance that it wasn't here are some extreme cases (these are all different investors): - they asked me to pay for attendance in their seminar that will teach me how to raise money before they consider investing - I got stood up for a meeting with no word from the person. He followed up two weeks later that they are not interested. 3 years later we met at an event thrown…

Ouch. Especially with the one which led you through 9 months of due diligence, then refused to sign. I'm kind of surprised they didn't string you out for a while longer, then offer to buy the entire operation when you were forced to fold. Have seen that done before - on purpose - by a place that knew the value of the operation and figured they could get the whole thing cheaply that way. And did so successfully. :(

You know, I think that was the plan. We were in such a dire financial situation that I believe they were planning to come back with just that. (I say this mostly because these guys were strategics rather than a traditional VC).

However my hurt ego got in place and I refused to take any calls and I blocked all their emails.

Who knows what would’ve happened if I didn’t.

Re: Is Y Combinator worth it?

#92

Post by winphone1974 »

marcinzm wrote: post #51
mediaman wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you disqualify companies that had bootstrapped successfully, were profitable, and did not take any outside money? Not a judging question - I understand the value of a good investor's due diligence and backing in improving the odds of sane leadership. But it's interesting to think how that can impact a successful, self-funded copmany's access to talent.

As someone else said, as an employee my goals align better with investors than with bootstrap founders. I want good salary and equity that will grow rapidly in value and be liquid in reasonable time. I also want some reasonable measure that my equity is in fact growing in value. Even if the company doesn't go liquid in reasonable time with outside investors the chance of them being able to buy my stake at fair market…

IME you're not getting equity but options, which have no ownership or value, no market and restrictions on transfer, exercise and lifespan. No one is going to buy you out in the future, so if there company doesn't make it big they have no value. Established, profitable companies can do profit sharing or use a shadow equity plan that actually rewards you in an ongoing basis. YMMV

Re: Is Y Combinator worth it?

#93

Post by winphone1974 »

NationalPark wrote: post #30
mediaman wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you disqualify companies that had bootstrapped successfully, were profitable, and did not take any outside money? Not a judging question - I understand the value of a good investor's due diligence and backing in improving the odds of sane leadership. But it's interesting to think how that can impact a successful, self-funded copmany's access to talent.

I think there are so few tech companies that are entirely bootstrapped and profitable that you could probably take the time to specially consider one if they made an offer.

There's way more than you think, b they just don't need to spend time on the PR front building a public persona.

They also get the opportunity to take outside money from a position of far greater power for things like paying out strategic early employees vs.v keeping the lights on. I've been involved with 2 companies that took private equity instead of IPOs because of the operational changes that a public listing entails. It takes longer to grow to this point, but the deals were substantially easier and quicker.

Re: Is Y Combinator worth it?

#94

Post by CalChris »

phenkdo wrote: post #6
varbhat wrote: post #2

Gist: Y Combinator is worth it. But, it depends more on you than Y Combinator.

Isn't that true for pretty much everything in life?

Y Combinator is worth it. But, it depends more on you than Y Combinator.

Isn't that true for pretty much everything in life?

Yes, but this is to be contrasted with it not being worth it and that being independent of you. There are many accelerators which would fall into this category.

Re: Is Y Combinator worth it?

#95

Post by NationalPark »

winphone1974 wrote: post #93
NationalPark wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there are so few tech companies that are entirely bootstrapped and profitable that you could probably take the time to specially consider one if they made an offer.

There's way more than you think, b they just don't need to spend time on the PR front building a public persona. They also get the opportunity to take outside money from a position of far greater power for things like paying out strategic early employees vs.v keeping the lights on. I've been involved with 2 companies that took private equity instead of IPOs because of the operational changes that a public listing ent…

Could you share some examples? Every unicorn I can think of took some VC funding. But maybe I'm missing some niche SaaS type companies?

Re: Is Y Combinator worth it?

#96

Post by phjesusthatguy3 »

https://www.ycombinator.com/topcompanies has:

2 legitimate hits (stripe, dropbox)

? WTFs? (Cruise, Ginkobioworks,Flexport,Rappi,Brex)

? losers (AirBNB,Doordash,Coinbase,Instacart,Gusto, Reddit)

I started writing this list up but can't bring myself to finish it because it's so bad.

On the one hand, yes you should apply because people with money will give you some of it. On the other hand, they're not going to help you be successful; you have to do that yourself. YC doesn't seem to have any special insight into how to make your company successful. And they don't seem to be able to pick winners any better than anyone else.

I'd suggest going in with bright lines that you don't want to cross. Let YC tell you what they are willing to give you money for, and don't budge from your principles.

Re: Is Y Combinator worth it?

#97

Post by newman8r »

marcinzm wrote: post #52
msoad wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an engineer I would love to work for a company that makes money and pays me from that money.

Curious, why does it matter if your paycheck comes from VC money or revenue money? In the end the same amount comes to your bank account.

I think 'revenue money' would feel more like you're a part of a organization that functions properly. It's nice to believe that what you're doing is creating real value rather than just draining a bank account.

Re: Is Y Combinator worth it?

#98

Post by 20100thibault »

halfmatthalfcat wrote: post #39
ricberw wrote: post #5

Yes. You have to keep an open mind coming in though — they may challenge your very understanding of your company’s existence. Focus, focus, focus on the right metric, and find PMF before you scale. S20 participant here, so fresh from the program.

How was the remote experience?

Also Interested to hear about it, seems like the distance things kill the networking part...

Re: Is Y Combinator worth it?

#99

Post by gus_massa »

closeparen wrote: post #81
benjaminjosephw wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who would consider building a successful and stable business a failure? Surely not the people that helped build it. Isn't early employee equity compensation more a case of "if the founders make a lot of money from this, I deserve a fraction of that too" rather than being an IOU in place of compensation?

Equity compensation is asking employees to invest their labor in the company. If you’re honest about your intention not to generate any return on their investment and they do it anyway, I guess that’s fine, but it seems more likely that people taking those offers are being misled. Sustainable businesses can buy the labor they need with present cash flows and don’t need to sell people on the possibility of future ones…

And that's why every time someone ask how much salary reduction they must accept because they got a .1% equity, the best answer is $0. (And get the offer in written, just in case.)

Re: Is Y Combinator worth it?

#100

Post by taytus »

newera2016 wrote: post #85
taytus wrote: post #23

I think it is worth it but less every year. I got an email to apply (we got rejected in the past) and I just ignored it. We raised our seed round, in the middle of Texas... there is a lot of capital out there and a lot of amazing investors. The world is much larger than SV.

congrats

Thank you!
Post reply on HN