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What are some counterexamples? I wasn't suggesting that you should only fund founders from top schools, but that you should select for it (which it sounds like
by w1ntermute 11y ago
What are some counterexamples?
I wasn't suggesting that you should only fund founders from top schools, but that you should select for it (which it sounds like you already do).
The pedigrees of some of YC's most successful founders, for anyone who's curious:
* Twitch: Yale, MIT
* Cruise: MIT, Claremont McKenna
* OMGPOP: Princeton
* Heroku: UCSD
* Airbnb: RISD, Harvard
* Dropbox: MIT
* Zenefits: Harvard
It's interesting that Stanford and Berkeley are not represented here, probably because good companies founded by students there can easily get funded without going through YC. It seems like YC's strength lies in drawing elites from the rest of the country to SV.
- sbierwagen 11y agoZenefits?
- w1ntermute 11y agoWhen was the last time you built a billion dollar company? Conrad's resignation doesn't change the fact that he has accomplished a hell of a lot more in his professional life than 99.9% of people ever have or will.
- nostrademons 11y agoReddit was UVA, which is a pretty good school but not really what people think of as "elite". Instacart was Waterloo, also a very good school but not a huge name outside of tech. RethinkDB was Stony Brook University. Mixpanel was an Arizona State dropout.
- w1ntermute 11y agoThanks for the additions. Don't know much about RethinkDB, but as for the others: Reddit is a great example of founders without pedigree. Although it hasn't been too successful as a company, it's created phenomenal value for its users. I definitely spend more time on Reddit than Facebook/Instagram/Snapchat/Twitter combined. I'd say Waterloo is elite in the tech sense, and Apoorva worked at Amazon in fulfillment, so it made a lot of sense in the specific case of Instacart. Mixpanel was being advised by Max Levchin from before they applied to YC. He became their first big customer and helped them with every funding round, and probably put in a good word with YC when they applied[0]. Another YC alum, Amplitude, which is founded by MIT grads, is now giving Mixpanel a run for their money[1,2]. I don't know Suhail or Tim, but I can't imagine the average ASU dropout's experience would be anything like theirs. 0: http://www.businessinsider.com/mixpanel-ceo-suhail-doshi-and-max-levchin-2015-3 http://www.businessinsider.com/mixpanel-ceo-suhail-doshi-and... 1: https://amplitude.com/blog/2016/01/07/mixpanel-power-user-amplitude/ https://amplitude.com/blog/2016/01/07/mixpanel-power-user-am... 2: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10869419 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10869419
- spoinkaroo 11y agoReddit hasn't been too successful as a company? I'd imagine their estimated value is at least 100 million.
- rokhayakebe 11y agoWelcome to HN where $10 million in the bank may feel like a failure.
- tim333 11y agoIt raised at a rumoured $500m valuation in 2014. Only a semicorn.
- GFK_of_xmaspast 11y agoHow is Waterloo not an elite school for people who actually know the field?
- vecter 11y agoWaterloo is considered top tier by people in tech, which is the industry that YC is in.