3 ms·

Ask HN: What % of YC companies were "pro"

9 points by coryl 17y ago

Hi guys, I'm curious to know what % of YC companies or founders (last season lets say) came from professional working backgrounds at successful companies. I've read the bios of some founders. It seems quite a few came from engineering positions at Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, etc. Are there a lot of these guys? Are their companies more successful than guys out of undergrad/grad school?

pg 17y ago
You mean which have some kind of post-school work experience? Certainly the majority. Maybe 80%. Though interestingly some of the biggest successes (e.g. Loopt, Dropbox) were started by people straight out of school. Young founders have more variance. They often flame out, but when they don't they often do really well. For that reason we've made a conscious effort not to get conservative and fund only startups that seem safe. When we first started, we had no choice but to fund risky startups, since those were the only ones that applied. Now that we're better known we get a lot of applications from older, more legit seeming founders. It would be easy to start funding only them and ignoring the 20 year olds, but that would be a mistake. The median 20 year old is going to fail, but the best one is Sam Altman.
- cperciva 17y ago
  [risky startups] were the only ones that applied. Now [...] we get a lot of applications from older, more legit seeming founders Have you seen a shift towards less risk-taking applicants aside from the fact that they are now older and more experienced? Speaking as a complete outsider to YC, it seems to me that the first cohort was in many ways the most successful one; leaving aside the question of whether my perception here is accurate or not (I don't expect you to comment on this any more than I'd expect someone to say which of their children they like the most), I've wondered for a while if Y Combinator becoming "mainstream" has diminished a formerly beneficial applicant self-selection advantage.
  - pg 17y ago
    I believe the median applicant is now a less risk-taking sort of person, because YC now seems a lot less risky of an option. It may well be that the first cohort will be the most successful, but I believe that was a fluke due to small sample size.
- coryl 17y ago
  Thanks for the reply PG. As an investment strategy then, does YC weight a certain amount of risk acceptance per class? Like: 60% (relatively) safe plays 30% risky plays 10% crapshoots Or is it still a "touch and feel" process with co-founders?
  - pg 17y ago
    We're not that organized. It's all based on the individuals. E.g. "They'll probably bail and go back to college in the fall, but they seem really smart, so let's risk it."

9 points by coryl 17y ago

pg 17y ago

You mean which have some kind of post-school work experience? Certainly the majority. Maybe 80%. Though interestingly some of the biggest successes (e.g. Loopt, Dropbox) were started by people straight out of school. Young founders have more variance. They often flame out, but when they don't they often do really well. For that reason we've made a conscious effort not to get conservative and fund only startups that seem safe. When we first started, we had no choice but to fund risky startups, since those were the only ones that applied. Now that we're better known we get a lot of applications from older, more legit seeming founders. It would be easy to start funding only them and ignoring the 20 year olds, but that would be a mistake. The median 20 year old is going to fail, but the best one is Sam Altman.

cperciva 17y ago
[risky startups] were the only ones that applied. Now [...] we get a lot of applications from older, more legit seeming founders Have you seen a shift towards less risk-taking applicants aside from the fact that they are now older and more experienced? Speaking as a complete outsider to YC, it seems to me that the first cohort was in many ways the most successful one; leaving aside the question of whether my perception here is accurate or not (I don't expect you to comment on this any more than I'd expect someone to say which of their children they like the most), I've wondered for a while if Y Combinator becoming "mainstream" has diminished a formerly beneficial applicant self-selection advantage.
- pg 17y ago
  I believe the median applicant is now a less risk-taking sort of person, because YC now seems a lot less risky of an option. It may well be that the first cohort will be the most successful, but I believe that was a fluke due to small sample size.
coryl 17y ago
Thanks for the reply PG. As an investment strategy then, does YC weight a certain amount of risk acceptance per class? Like: 60% (relatively) safe plays 30% risky plays 10% crapshoots Or is it still a "touch and feel" process with co-founders?
- pg 17y ago
  We're not that organized. It's all based on the individuals. E.g. "They'll probably bail and go back to college in the fall, but they seem really smart, so let's risk it."