YC W20 Online Demo Day moved up due to investor interest
blog.ycombinator.com
YC W20 Online Demo Day moved up due to investor interest
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Re: YC W20 Online Demo Day moved up due to investor interest
#2This is smart. If coronavirus is growing by a factor of 10 per week then we are all going to be in lockdown/isolation in two weeks time and probably not focusing on doing seed deals.
Re: YC W20 Online Demo Day moved up due to investor interest
#3I don’t really understand this, doesn’t YC strongly encourage investors, to the point of punishing those who violate, to wait until Demo Day? That way they get to build good market conditions for raising.
Re: YC W20 Online Demo Day moved up due to investor interest
#4>>They can sort companies by industry and geography, and will be able to export the list of companies to a spreadsheet.
4 days ago I commented here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22506013
“I think YC should add a sheet for us to write our comments/ratings and decision” I shared my experience on how I get bored and excited.
Many people reached out since then asking me to share my spreadsheet. This sheet will be very helpful.
Whether YC partners read my comment or not I’m so grateful for this feature.
THANK YOU YC<3
Re: YC W20 Online Demo Day moved up due to investor interest
#5I don’t really understand this, doesn’t YC strongly encourage investors, to the point of punishing those who violate, to wait until Demo Day? That way they get to build good market conditions for raising.
>> doesn’t YC strongly encourage investors, to the point of punishing those who violate, to wait until Demo Day? That way they get to build good market conditions for raising.
I’m not sure what’s your source because the first paragraph contradicts what you are saying “Over the last few days, a large number of investors have accelerated their outreach to our current batch of founders. They are moving quickly to make investment decisions, and we’re going to match their pace and accelerate our schedule by one week. YC W20 online Demo Day will now be on March 16.”
Re: YC W20 Online Demo Day moved up due to investor interest
#6I don’t really understand this, doesn’t YC strongly encourage investors, to the point of punishing those who violate, to wait until Demo Day? That way they get to build good market conditions for raising.
They do in theory but there are countless excel spreadsheets in circulation with a full list of companies way in advance of demo day. If you're not plugged in and arrive at demo day, many VCs have reached out to companies way before you see them present.
Re: YC W20 Online Demo Day moved up due to investor interest
#7I'm glad they're moving Demo Day up. The whole point of YC is to level the playing field for all kinds of founders, and this would help keep the focus on Demo Day rather than the behind-the-scene investor meetings that tend to benefit connected, established founders.
Personally, as a YC W19, first-time founder of Wanderlog [1], I didn't do any fundraising before Demo Day. But I heard from friends in the batch about cold emails, "informal" dinners, and all kinds of shenanigans to get ahold of founders earlier.
Demo Day helps even things out by giving attention to all startups in YC, and not just the companies with connections. Everyone's given the same amount of time on stage, and off stage (in any other year), everybody's milling about in a huge hall. You can't tell who's the recent college dropout, and who's a former co-founder of a co. with a billion-dollar exit.
I can totally see investors really taking the coronavirus/lack of an in-person Demo Day [2] as an excuse to double-up on their outreach, leading to an even more imbalanced process. Good work on the YC Partners' part for short-circuiting this and helping the first-time founders and the traditionally disadvantaged
[1] A trip planner for vacation itineraries: https://wanderlog.com
[2] https://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-w20-online-demo-day-now-on-m...
Re: YC W20 Online Demo Day moved up due to investor interest
#8Should continue to do online demo day in conjunction with live ones. Would be a great way to scale the platform
Re: YC W20 Online Demo Day moved up due to investor interest
#9Why are they giving us details like sorting options on the website, it’s not going to be open to the public is it?
Re: YC W20 Online Demo Day moved up due to investor interest
#10I'm glad they're moving Demo Day up. The whole point of YC is to level the playing field for all kinds of founders, and this would help keep the focus on Demo Day rather than the behind-the-scene investor meetings that tend to benefit connected, established founders. Personally, as a YC W19, first-time founder of Wanderlog [1], I didn't do any fundraising before Demo Day. But I heard from friends in the batch about c…
>and who's a former co-founder of a co. with a billion-dollar exit
I know your point wasn't entirely literal but it made me curious as to how many YC founders are in this position...Kyle with Twitch and then Cruise is the only one that comes to mind.