4 ms·

"It may seem like selling for millions to Google is a foregone conclusion given how brilliant you are, but it’s not. ...If you can trade a little bit of equity

"It may seem like selling for millions to Google is a foregone conclusion given how brilliant you are, but it’s not. ...If you can trade a little bit of equity to nudge up your shot at success by a few percentage points, you should do so." I love this point. Many people I've talked to dislike going the YC route because it's "so little money for the amount of equity they take" as if their idea (which has been a PT thing for over a year and there's still no MVP) is pre-destined to be the next $750MM hit and the sacrificing of 6-8% is a dumb idea. It's what I like to call a false statistic or misleading math. If your startup never goes anywhere then it's pretty much worth $0 even if it's $750MM in your head. PG has a great article about how YC is not about the money (except in the analogous sense that one is funding a poor grad student).

webwright 17y ago
Yaw, I find that to me one of the most common misconceptions (or maybe mis-judgements!) about YC. 6-7% feels like a lot. But when you do the math with 3 founders and a $50m exit, that's basically each of you walking away with somewhere between 10-15m and YC walking away with 3-3.5m. So the YC experience is shedding your personal take by $1m or so before taxes... But very well could make the difference in you succeeding or failing. It could also make the difference in the price tag. The YC brand and the early boost you get from it almost certainly would up the price tag by $3m in that scenario. (NB: it's a bit more complex than that if/when you take a Series A round, offer employee stock options, etc-- but bottom line is that the YC stock isn't going to make big difference. If you exit, you'll likely be freakin' rich)