4 ms·

I agree with the 'it's all ahead of you bit'. BUT - what if someone spent a year or more making a product, got it to MVP, and then took a couple of others on p

I agree with the 'it's all ahead of you bit'. BUT - what if someone spent a year or more making a product, got it to MVP, and then took a couple of others on pre-funding. Most of the vision, concept, and maybe even the trickiest might possibly have been done ... I wonder what his thoughts are on that ...

terravion 10y ago
Then maybe the people that come on at that point aren't actually founders, they're highly equity compensated employees and YC has a whole different set of advice. It is okay to be solo founder, you just need to know that you need to build a team.
- Kinnard 10y ago
  Part of the issue is that the delineation isn't clear, in life or in startup advice.
bachback 10y ago
more important if you can make revenue or not. "getting users" and getting revenue might be completely different things, and it seems to me YC was build mostly around the former, than the latter.
- jomamaxx 10y ago
  YC has a strong focus on revenue it seems. They talk about 'ramen profitable' meaning - squeaking by with enough money to pay basic bills and survive. I think this is great advice specifically because of how it empowers you vis-a-vis investors. It changes the game radically -> no 'desperation'. But they also have this thing after YC 'time to profitability'. Seems they are big on that. Frankly - despite bubble hype, there is something to be said for getting tons of users. If you have tons of users and a 'basic' type of revenue model you could apply that you know will work - even basic ads - then I think it makes sense. LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram - so many just focused on getting tons of users and I think that their valuations were reasonable. An acquirer can roughly calculate how much each user is worth. I think it depends on a lot on the type of business model.

4 ms·

I agree with the 'it's all ahead of you bit'. BUT - what if someone spent a year or more making a product, got it to MVP, and then took a couple of others on p

by jomamaxx 10y ago

terravion 10y ago
Then maybe the people that come on at that point aren't actually founders, they're highly equity compensated employees and YC has a whole different set of advice. It is okay to be solo founder, you just need to know that you need to build a team.
- Kinnard 10y ago
  Part of the issue is that the delineation isn't clear, in life or in startup advice.
bachback 10y ago
more important if you can make revenue or not. "getting users" and getting revenue might be completely different things, and it seems to me YC was build mostly around the former, than the latter.
- jomamaxx 10y ago
  YC has a strong focus on revenue it seems. They talk about 'ramen profitable' meaning - squeaking by with enough money to pay basic bills and survive. I think this is great advice specifically because of how it empowers you vis-a-vis investors. It changes the game radically -> no 'desperation'. But they also have this thing after YC 'time to profitability'. Seems they are big on that. Frankly - despite bubble hype, there is something to be said for getting tons of users. If you have tons of users and a 'basic' type of revenue model you could apply that you know will work - even basic ads - then I think it makes sense. LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram - so many just focused on getting tons of users and I think that their valuations were reasonable. An acquirer can roughly calculate how much each user is worth. I think it depends on a lot on the type of business model.