8 ms·

The new YC: As it tries to scale from 200 to 2,000 companies

84 points by julianpye 11y ago

julianpye 11y ago
The first batch of YC founders photo is a bit heartbreaking. Aaron next to Sam next to pg and Jessica on the left. The latter batches benefited from the learnings, but this batch must have been so much more personal.
- dineshp2 11y ago
  Agreed. The personal touch would likely have been lost as YC funds more companies. And seeing Aaron in his entrepreneurial days, still makes me tear up. It makes me wonder what might have been possible if not for the tragic ending. "Apparently the world is a ridiculous place".
- doctorcroc 11y ago
  Agreed, and the lack of diversity is also a bit heartbreaking. No women, and no under-represented minorities (as far as I can tell). I'm sure YC has tried to fix that in present classes, but still funny that the stereotype of silicon valley is grounded in real life.
  - jacquesm 11y ago
    You could only make that claim if you knew who applied to YC that first batch and was rejected. Do you actually know or is this simply a way of harping on a subject that is dear to you and is there someone / some group that you feel got left out on purpose?
    - doctorcroc 11y ago
      No, nothing like that - I am removed from any personal feelings. Just observing facts from the picture. I'm getting down-voted, but I don't mean any ill will towards anyone. Perhaps no women or minorities applied to be in the first batch, but then again, that is also an indicator of a social issue - that more women and blacks and hispanics are not engaged in tech. I just wish that tech entrepreneurship drew a more diverse crowd, as that would bring more diverse and necessary solutions for world problems. Not everything can be fixed from the lens of middle class white and asian men.
      - Kurtz79 11y ago
        As important the issue of minorities/gender in tech is, probably people just do not want it to be brought up in every single topic.
        doctorcroc 11y ago
        That's fair, poor context and insensitive to the original reply on my part.
ameyamk 11y ago
Why does YC needs to grow into 2000 companies/ year program? I feel they should tackle it like a University. Stanford does not try to grow 10x from 20k students to 200k students. Part of the appeal is exclusivity (besides of course its hard to scale). I'd rather see YC at 200-300 companies a year - and ensuring these companies continue to grow/ succeed after the batch is over rather than churning out 1000 more.
- wslh 11y ago
  Since nobody can accurately predict which companies will succeed, putting more companies in the pipeline will give you , generally speaking, more companies at the end.
  - stfu 11y ago
    But in the end they are not able to pay the same amount of attention to 2000 startups vs 200. Or having really a hard time providing the same quality team. Does that in the end mean that it doesn't really matter for the success of a YCombinator startup that they can just walk randomly into Paul Graham's office and ask for advice?
    - nzoschke 11y ago
      You are right, it doesn't matter. pg gives general advice to everyone on his blog. So do all the other YC partners. The constant feedback you need to build a successful business comes from you, your cofounders, your team and most importantly your customers. Investors, board members and advisors all help too. But it's the people that live the business day in and day out that make it a success.
    - wslh 11y ago
      > But in the end they are not able to pay the same amount of attention to 2000 startups vs 200. But this is the same issue everyone has when running their business! It is a problem of execution that you need to solve (or failed at) when you scale. Can you say that Google can't pay the same level of attention to their search engine once they started AdWords?
timrpeterson 11y ago
Is the success scaling? My gut says no.
elliotec 11y ago
It seems like market saturation of YC companies will dilute their brand. Better for everyone else I guess.
- andrewchambers 11y ago
  Maybe, but they control who they accept, so if quality drops it is entirely due to the selection process, not due to the number of accepted companies.
  - jacquesm 11y ago
    It could drop too if the applications drop in quality and YC continues to accept companies into their program. The best way to analyze this is to figure out if the ratio of big hits to applicants is dropping relative to the ratio of big hits in a given 6 month period.
Animats 11y ago
Are there that many good ideas?
- SwellJoe 11y ago
  How many technology companies are there in the world?
  - ProAm 11y ago
    That's a completely different question
  - Scarblac 11y ago
    What percentage of those would be helped by VC investment? The vast majority of tech companies are better off staying small and being normal companies.
- smt88 11y ago
  There are many, many more than 2,000 good ideas per year. The problem is that navigating human organizations (societies, markets, etc.) is very difficult. A good idea doesn't turn into a good business without the right combination of talent, timing, location, funding, etc. So the issue isn't that there aren't enough good ideas. The issue is that there may not be enough teams matched with the right circumstances to fill out a successful cohort. But the business model of venture capital isn't to come even close to getting are return from 100% of investments, so the question of whether there are 2,000 good companies a year is totally irrelevant. All YC needs to generate a return is to have 1 or 2.
- jcoffland 11y ago
  It's not really about good ideas anyway. Ideas are cheap. It's about great teams who can execute and those are much more rare.
dschiptsov 11y ago
Technological and manpower dark pool operator.)
Findeton 11y ago
This is great!
rejschaap 11y ago
It is slightly depressing, but on some level it makes sense to increase quantity when quality is going down. There are just too many me-too startups and a lot of time, money and effort is wasted around startups that revolve around marketing and advertising. Probably on fintech too. Playing the number games around those can certainly work. A local start-up incubator is just about finished constructing a second building with a lot of facilities and laboritories for bio-tech start-ups. I feel that is an interesting approach and could be interesting for YCR also.
tim333 11y ago
I wonder how demo day/funding will work. It'd be a bit mind numbing for VCs to watch 2000 presentations.

84 points by julianpye 11y ago

The first batch of YC founders photo is a bit heartbreaking. Aaron next to Sam next to pg and Jessica on the left. The latter batches benefited from the learnings, but this batch must have been so much more personal.

dineshp2 11y ago
Agreed. The personal touch would likely have been lost as YC funds more companies. And seeing Aaron in his entrepreneurial days, still makes me tear up. It makes me wonder what might have been possible if not for the tragic ending. "Apparently the world is a ridiculous place".
doctorcroc 11y ago
Agreed, and the lack of diversity is also a bit heartbreaking. No women, and no under-represented minorities (as far as I can tell). I'm sure YC has tried to fix that in present classes, but still funny that the stereotype of silicon valley is grounded in real life.
- jacquesm 11y ago
  You could only make that claim if you knew who applied to YC that first batch and was rejected. Do you actually know or is this simply a way of harping on a subject that is dear to you and is there someone / some group that you feel got left out on purpose?
  - doctorcroc 11y ago
    No, nothing like that - I am removed from any personal feelings. Just observing facts from the picture. I'm getting down-voted, but I don't mean any ill will towards anyone. Perhaps no women or minorities applied to be in the first batch, but then again, that is also an indicator of a social issue - that more women and blacks and hispanics are not engaged in tech. I just wish that tech entrepreneurship drew a more diverse crowd, as that would bring more diverse and necessary solutions for world problems. Not everything can be fixed from the lens of middle class white and asian men.
    - Kurtz79 11y ago
      As important the issue of minorities/gender in tech is, probably people just do not want it to be brought up in every single topic.
      - doctorcroc 11y ago
        That's fair, poor context and insensitive to the original reply on my part.

ameyamk 11y ago

Why does YC needs to grow into 2000 companies/ year program? I feel they should tackle it like a University. Stanford does not try to grow 10x from 20k students to 200k students. Part of the appeal is exclusivity (besides of course its hard to scale). I'd rather see YC at 200-300 companies a year - and ensuring these companies continue to grow/ succeed after the batch is over rather than churning out 1000 more.

wslh 11y ago
Since nobody can accurately predict which companies will succeed, putting more companies in the pipeline will give you , generally speaking, more companies at the end.
- stfu 11y ago
  But in the end they are not able to pay the same amount of attention to 2000 startups vs 200. Or having really a hard time providing the same quality team. Does that in the end mean that it doesn't really matter for the success of a YCombinator startup that they can just walk randomly into Paul Graham's office and ask for advice?
  - nzoschke 11y ago
    You are right, it doesn't matter. pg gives general advice to everyone on his blog. So do all the other YC partners. The constant feedback you need to build a successful business comes from you, your cofounders, your team and most importantly your customers. Investors, board members and advisors all help too. But it's the people that live the business day in and day out that make it a success.
  - wslh 11y ago
    > But in the end they are not able to pay the same amount of attention to 2000 startups vs 200. But this is the same issue everyone has when running their business! It is a problem of execution that you need to solve (or failed at) when you scale. Can you say that Google can't pay the same level of attention to their search engine once they started AdWords?

timrpeterson 11y ago

Is the success scaling? My gut says no.

elliotec 11y ago

It seems like market saturation of YC companies will dilute their brand. Better for everyone else I guess.

andrewchambers 11y ago
Maybe, but they control who they accept, so if quality drops it is entirely due to the selection process, not due to the number of accepted companies.
- jacquesm 11y ago
  It could drop too if the applications drop in quality and YC continues to accept companies into their program. The best way to analyze this is to figure out if the ratio of big hits to applicants is dropping relative to the ratio of big hits in a given 6 month period.

Animats 11y ago

Are there that many good ideas?

SwellJoe 11y ago
How many technology companies are there in the world?
- ProAm 11y ago
  That's a completely different question
- Scarblac 11y ago
  What percentage of those would be helped by VC investment? The vast majority of tech companies are better off staying small and being normal companies.
smt88 11y ago
There are many, many more than 2,000 good ideas per year. The problem is that navigating human organizations (societies, markets, etc.) is very difficult. A good idea doesn't turn into a good business without the right combination of talent, timing, location, funding, etc. So the issue isn't that there aren't enough good ideas. The issue is that there may not be enough teams matched with the right circumstances to fill out a successful cohort. But the business model of venture capital isn't to come even close to getting are return from 100% of investments, so the question of whether there are 2,000 good companies a year is totally irrelevant. All YC needs to generate a return is to have 1 or 2.
jcoffland 11y ago
It's not really about good ideas anyway. Ideas are cheap. It's about great teams who can execute and those are much more rare.

dschiptsov 11y ago

Technological and manpower dark pool operator.)

Findeton 11y ago

This is great!

rejschaap 11y ago

It is slightly depressing, but on some level it makes sense to increase quantity when quality is going down. There are just too many me-too startups and a lot of time, money and effort is wasted around startups that revolve around marketing and advertising. Probably on fintech too. Playing the number games around those can certainly work. A local start-up incubator is just about finished constructing a second building with a lot of facilities and laboritories for bio-tech start-ups. I feel that is an interesting approach and could be interesting for YCR also.

tim333 11y ago

I wonder how demo day/funding will work. It'd be a bit mind numbing for VCs to watch 2000 presentations.