5 ms·

1st article relies entirely on startup accelerators for stats, which means 92% of companies that enter startup accelerators fail, which is a totally different s

1st article relies entirely on startup accelerators for stats, which means 92% of companies that enter startup accelerators fail, which is a totally different statistic. 2nd article just links to other articles on fortune which don't have anything to back them up. So I'd be dubious of those figures.

toomuchtodo 11y ago
I'm open to a debate on this. What's the failure rate only of startups that go through YC? "Y-Combinator’s success is undeniable: the program has produced 37 start-ups worth over $40 million each in the past five years. In its first six years, 72 percent of Y.C.’s 249 start-ups raised money after Demo Day, and today, the average value of a Y.C.-financed start-up is $22.4 million. However, these statistics also reveal a grimmer reality: 93 percent of the 511 companies accepted by Y-Combinator have failed. Even more alarming, only 3 to 5 percent of the companies that apply to Y-Combinator are even accepted, meaning that only one in every 200 companies that applies to Y.C. eventually succeeds." Emphasis mine. [+] http://koltai.co/notebook/the-risky-business-of-entrepreneurship-y-combinators-stellar-success-rate-shows-1-in-200-win http://koltai.co/notebook/the-risky-business-of-entrepreneur... EDIT: Please disregard this post. Left for historical purposes. sama notes that the stats are inaccurate. EDIT 2: The citations in that link I mention above are from nytimes and business insider. They might be accurate, if a bit old, but require verification. Treat them appropriately.
- daigoba66 11y ago
  Do all non YC accepted startups fail?
  - toomuchtodo 11y ago
    It appears, from data, that a majority of them do.
- sama 11y ago
  I don't know where that statistic came from but it's nowhere close to accurate. Less than half of the startups we funded in the first 5 years of YC have died. Also, he average valuation of all YC startups through w2014 (i.e. with enough time to have raised a first round) is now over $100MM.
  - toomuchtodo 11y ago
    What were the causes of failures for those YC alums that did fail? (Again, not trying to be combative whatsoever. I'm genuinely curious, if you're able to provide the data without compromising YC from a business perspective).
    - sharpshoot 11y ago
      Think PG has documented this well, but in summary - cofounder disputes - market timing - not continuing to find growth are top 3
  - teacup50 11y ago
    Personally, I'm less interested than the average valuation and more interested in their P&Ls. Of course, that's not the game YC is playing.
  - GrinningFool 11y ago
    Are there any stats for YC-funded startups that have grown to sustained profitability, vs continuing to exist through additional rounds of funding?
    - JonFish85 11y ago
      According to Wikipedia, their best-known funded companies are: Dropbox, Airbnb, Coinbase, Stripe, Reddit, Zenefits, Instacart and Weebly. Dropbox - Not public, probably not profitable Airbnb - Not public, might be profitable, lots of legal questions. Coinbase - Not public, raised $100m+, no idea if it's profitable Stripe - Not public, raised almost $200m, almost certainly not profitable Reddit - Acquired by Conde Nast (private), might be profitable. Zenefits - Not public, probably not profitable, raised ~$500m Instacart - Not public, not profitable, raised ~$300m Weebly - Not public, might be profitable So I'd say their track record isn't great on that front. I don't know of any meaningful ($1bn+) IPOs of YC companies (not to say that they don't exist). The fact that I had no idea what Weebly was until a moment ago probably means it's not one of their success stories. I suspect DropBox will IPO at some point, but after Box's IPO, they have an uphill battle to prove that they won't be the same dud. Coinbase I had forgotten existed, so I'm really curious what their deal is (especially considering their valuation is so high, I wonder if they can support it anymore).
- LargeWu 11y ago
  I can't reply to sama's comment below, for some reason, but I would be interested to hear the median valuation of all YC backed startups. My hypothesis is that number tells a very different story.
  - sama 11y ago
    If we are taking the amount of risk I'd like us to be taking, it should be near 0.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]

toomuchtodo 11y ago

I'm open to a debate on this. What's the failure rate only of startups that go through YC? "Y-Combinator’s success is undeniable: the program has produced 37 start-ups worth over $40 million each in the past five years. In its first six years, 72 percent of Y.C.’s 249 start-ups raised money after Demo Day, and today, the average value of a Y.C.-financed start-up is $22.4 million. However, these statistics also reveal a grimmer reality: 93 percent of the 511 companies accepted by Y-Combinator have failed. Even more alarming, only 3 to 5 percent of the companies that apply to Y-Combinator are even accepted, meaning that only one in every 200 companies that applies to Y.C. eventually succeeds." Emphasis mine. [+] http://koltai.co/notebook/the-risky-business-of-entrepreneurship-y-combinators-stellar-success-rate-shows-1-in-200-win http://koltai.co/notebook/the-risky-business-of-entrepreneur... EDIT: Please disregard this post. Left for historical purposes. sama notes that the stats are inaccurate. EDIT 2: The citations in that link I mention above are from nytimes and business insider. They might be accurate, if a bit old, but require verification. Treat them appropriately.

daigoba66 11y ago
Do all non YC accepted startups fail?
- toomuchtodo 11y ago
  It appears, from data, that a majority of them do.
sama 11y ago
I don't know where that statistic came from but it's nowhere close to accurate. Less than half of the startups we funded in the first 5 years of YC have died. Also, he average valuation of all YC startups through w2014 (i.e. with enough time to have raised a first round) is now over $100MM.
- toomuchtodo 11y ago
  What were the causes of failures for those YC alums that did fail? (Again, not trying to be combative whatsoever. I'm genuinely curious, if you're able to provide the data without compromising YC from a business perspective).
  - sharpshoot 11y ago
    Think PG has documented this well, but in summary - cofounder disputes - market timing - not continuing to find growth are top 3
- teacup50 11y ago
  Personally, I'm less interested than the average valuation and more interested in their P&Ls. Of course, that's not the game YC is playing.
- GrinningFool 11y ago
  Are there any stats for YC-funded startups that have grown to sustained profitability, vs continuing to exist through additional rounds of funding?
  - JonFish85 11y ago
    According to Wikipedia, their best-known funded companies are: Dropbox, Airbnb, Coinbase, Stripe, Reddit, Zenefits, Instacart and Weebly. Dropbox - Not public, probably not profitable Airbnb - Not public, might be profitable, lots of legal questions. Coinbase - Not public, raised $100m+, no idea if it's profitable Stripe - Not public, raised almost $200m, almost certainly not profitable Reddit - Acquired by Conde Nast (private), might be profitable. Zenefits - Not public, probably not profitable, raised ~$500m Instacart - Not public, not profitable, raised ~$300m Weebly - Not public, might be profitable So I'd say their track record isn't great on that front. I don't know of any meaningful ($1bn+) IPOs of YC companies (not to say that they don't exist). The fact that I had no idea what Weebly was until a moment ago probably means it's not one of their success stories. I suspect DropBox will IPO at some point, but after Box's IPO, they have an uphill battle to prove that they won't be the same dud. Coinbase I had forgotten existed, so I'm really curious what their deal is (especially considering their valuation is so high, I wonder if they can support it anymore).
LargeWu 11y ago
I can't reply to sama's comment below, for some reason, but I would be interested to hear the median valuation of all YC backed startups. My hypothesis is that number tells a very different story.
- sama 11y ago
  If we are taking the amount of risk I'd like us to be taking, it should be near 0.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]