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Y Combinator-like without funding but with advice, connections, and stock in the startup (what would happen?)
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Re: Y Combinator-like without funding but with advice, connections, and stock in the startup (what would happen?)
#2Since advice and connections are the major benefits of Y Combinator, why not take on many more startups without funding most of them at all?
I suspect that many people would be happy with such an arrangement and Y Combinator may end up making quite a lot more money as well.
Re: Y Combinator-like without funding but with advice, connections, and stock in the startup (what would happen?)
#3Makes sense to me. But my guess is that time would be an issue.
Re: Y Combinator-like without funding but with advice, connections, and stock in the startup (what would happen?)
#4Sound good in principle but there are a lot of people who want advice. You need to find a way to prioritise who would benefit most from your advice and connections. What better way to decide than to ask yourself "Who would I invest in?". Then you're back at the YCombinator model.
If someone can figure out how to make this work then great. I'm not sure YC will work without you narrowing applicants down and giving them money.
Perhaps instead of having a single team who advise founders you could have a self supporting community. Put all the startups in a coworking/barcamp like environment for a summer and tell them to help each other out and to share connections. It would be interesting to see how well they could do on their own. You still have the problem of where they would get money to stay alive without funding.
[sorry if this is incoherent, I'm sleepy. Will edit to make sense in the morning]
Re: Y Combinator-like without funding but with advice, connections, and stock in the startup (what would happen?)
#5While it sure is generous and I'm sure the founders appreciate it, a couple of months worth of rent and ramen noodle money isn't really funding a company. What you describe is already what YC is- it's just making sure that you are available full-time to really do something about the advice and contacts. :)
Re: Y Combinator-like without funding but with advice, connections, and stock in the startup (what would happen?)
#6While it sure is generous and I'm sure the founders appreciate it, a couple of months worth of rent and ramen noodle money isn't really funding a company. What you describe is already what YC is- it's just making sure that you are available full-time to really do something about the advice and contacts. :)
Yeah, given the amount YC gives it's as if they just want to make sure poorer founders won't have to get day jobs in the time they've alloted to impart advice.
Re: Y Combinator-like without funding but with advice, connections, and stock in the startup (what would happen?)
#7I don't think the money is the issue here, which results to many companies being funded because of the relatively low cost for them to bring up to life startups, comparing to VCs.
So, they invest enough money to get u going. Their actual contribution is their network and their guidance, which isw hat consumes their time and what everyone applying wants.
So, the quantity and the limit of the "many people" is relevant to how big YC is and how many people they find worthful to invest.
Re: Y Combinator-like without funding but with advice, connections, and stock in the startup (what would happen?)
#8While it sure is generous and I'm sure the founders appreciate it, a couple of months worth of rent and ramen noodle money isn't really funding a company. What you describe is already what YC is- it's just making sure that you are available full-time to really do something about the advice and contacts. :)
Yeah, given the amount YC gives it's as if they just want to make sure poorer founders won't have to get day jobs in the time they've alloted to impart advice.
That's exactly how we look at it: the most important thing we offer is advice and connections, and the money is just to pay your living expenses so that you can focus entirely on the startup for long enough to get it properly launched.
It always annoys us when people say YC is a ripoff because we want an avg of 6% of a co for $15-20k. One reason we don't argue (much) with people who say that is that we treat the question as a sort of preliminary IQ test in the application process.
Re: Y Combinator-like without funding but with advice, connections, and stock in the startup (what would happen?)
#9Since advice and connections are the major benefits of Y Combinator, why not take on many more startups without funding most of them at all? I suspect that many people would be happy with such an arrangement and Y Combinator may end up making quite a lot more money as well.
Because (a) putting our own money in is a test of our commitment and forces us to pay attention, and (b) a lot of the founders would be distracted by money issues and wouldn't be able to focus on their startups.
Re: Y Combinator-like without funding but with advice, connections, and stock in the startup (what would happen?)
#10Since advice and connections are the major benefits of Y Combinator, why not take on many more startups without funding most of them at all? I suspect that many people would be happy with such an arrangement and Y Combinator may end up making quite a lot more money as well.
Two hypotheses:
1.) Y Combinator's advice and connections are a limited resource. There are only so many phone calls their partners can make in a day. Y Combinator's business is not scalable unless they generate more y combinators.
2.) Y Combinator's application process allows them to invest in startups that are most likely to succeed. If they spread their resources around a larger base of companies, they would be investing in startups less likely to success. With more failures, their return on investment would fall, not rise.