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There doesn't seem to be much gain in comparing yourself to someone else. Invent a new way of doing things and focus on being the best at it. Maybe YC is just

There doesn't seem to be much gain in comparing yourself to someone else. Invent a new way of doing things and focus on being the best at it. Maybe YC is just doing it 10x or 100x better, and everyone else is doing it wrong and doesn't know why. This is not really that unusual of a pattern in other areas.. think about how Google compared to every other search engine back in the day, or how iPhone compared to every other phone when it was introduced. YC seems to focus on things that just make good sense, and keeping it simple: make things people love, (really) help each other, be determined, keep burn rate very low, solve one problem at a time, and keep quality high in order to increase the value of the network. The fact that YC is surprisingly successful seems to be a natural outcome of basic principles. It might be even simpler than that. Be excellent to each other. Looking at their terms on their websites, most accelerators fail at even that.

s_dev 11y ago
If Sam and Paul are honest part of the magic of YC is their because they did the first "successful" accelerator they have a positive feedback loop. Sort of like how Harvard attracts the best because its the best. The best founders want the YC brand and so apply. YC gets the best applications compared to other lower tier accelerators. They are the incumbent now, others would have to innovate hugely to surpass YC.
- paulsutter 11y ago
  Are you saying they could just cancel office hours, and all their events, and just coast from here on out? Cranking out successful companies on inertia alone?
  - ethbro 11y ago
    I don't think he's saying that. He's just observing that if after the initial successes YC had coasted and another not-YC accelerator had coasted, YC would still continue to be more successful as a result of the brand & network effect.
    - paulsutter 11y ago
      If he'd actually read the article he'd know that Sam directly admits they have a positive feedback loop > A lot of the best entrepreneurs in the world want to join YC. There's a ton of evidence (for example, many founder testimonials) that YC has a great deal of authentic value add. So his comment comes across as uninformed sour grapes to me and I stand by my question.

s_dev 11y ago

If Sam and Paul are honest part of the magic of YC is their because they did the first "successful" accelerator they have a positive feedback loop. Sort of like how Harvard attracts the best because its the best. The best founders want the YC brand and so apply. YC gets the best applications compared to other lower tier accelerators. They are the incumbent now, others would have to innovate hugely to surpass YC.

paulsutter 11y ago
Are you saying they could just cancel office hours, and all their events, and just coast from here on out? Cranking out successful companies on inertia alone?
- ethbro 11y ago
  I don't think he's saying that. He's just observing that if after the initial successes YC had coasted and another not-YC accelerator had coasted, YC would still continue to be more successful as a result of the brand & network effect.
  - paulsutter 11y ago
    If he'd actually read the article he'd know that Sam directly admits they have a positive feedback loop > A lot of the best entrepreneurs in the world want to join YC. There's a ton of evidence (for example, many founder testimonials) that YC has a great deal of authentic value add. So his comment comes across as uninformed sour grapes to me and I stand by my question.