4 ms·

I think you nailed it when you said exclusiveness: with so many companies per batch, there's less incentive for a startup to be one of the hundreds of companies

I think you nailed it when you said exclusiveness: with so many companies per batch, there's less incentive for a startup to be one of the hundreds of companies in the YC portfolio now over any other VC firm. Yes, YC carries some brand weight still, but with less of the benefits it looked to have had before.

brilliantcode 10y ago
I think the underlying issue is a misalignment of interest between YC and startup founders but not exclusive to YC but to all Venture Capitalists: you are nothing but one of YC's many hedged call options where they have a good chance of recouping the investment where as you really cannot time travel or demand YC pay you for the time wasted. To me YC was a largely branding move. It's fashionable to be able to say "yeah we are YC backed". Too many people in the industry are so caught up with being a "Startup" that they forget that they are just like any other "Businesses" but with far less control over your own destiny and even far less likely to win much money than working at a large company where you have high probability of becoming a millionaire in the same amount of time you spent on your startup. People are biased and self select their dumb luck as insight that gives them an edge which obviously does not translate or is repeatable-take a look at the graveyard, techcrunch won't get any views reporting anything but hyped up PR pieces.
- mwseibel 10y ago
  I'm not sure I understand your point here. I'm currently working very hard with Adora (my co-group partner) to support the companies in our YC group. Advice, office hours, motivation, community build, and general availability. Are you saying that this work is simply a branding exercise? If so now that the application process if over - why am I not on vacation?
  - taytus 10y ago
    Branding for the companies. I guess that what he meant.
  - dilemma 10y ago
    This reply is disingenuous. It is clearly written what he meant: >To me YC was a largely branding move. It's fashionable to be able to say "yeah we are YC backed". Reply to the actual comment instead of setting up a strawman. And, you may want to touch on the other point the parent made, namely incentives being misaligned between YC and startups. Indignation isn't doing the brand any good.
mwseibel 10y ago
Unfortunately (I say unfortunately cause I wish this wasn't true), you are not correct. It is harder to get into YC now than it ever was before. While you are busy looking at the numerator (number of companies in the batch) - you are ignoring the denominator (number of applicants).
- forgotmysn 10y ago
  While the percentage of companies accepted may be shrinking, aren't the size of the batches increasing? Regardless, with every batch that graduates YC, you are effectively splitting the amount of time Partners and Mentors can dedicate to each individual company by an even greater amount. And while YC has added new Partners and Mentors, I'm not convinced that your supply of expertise is growing fast enough to meet the demand that you are creating with each new batch. Then again, maybe you are. I'm sure my perspective isn't the greatest. I don't want to seem overly-critical, I'm still a fan of YC and I continue to recommend it, but I'm not sure the class of '17 will get the same value that the class of '07 did.
  - mathattack 10y ago
    It seems like there is a much larger group of mentors too, so the mentor time per team is probably constant. Also, there's a network effect of YC companies helping others. It's kind of like McKinsey getting added benefit from being the largest strategy consulting firm. More partners to reach out to. (I have no horse in this race - no affiliation with YC or YC funded companies)
  - mwseibel 10y ago
    Well I was in the class of '07 and I can tell you that this is simply not true. Over the past 10 years YC has added many more mentors, there are many more alumni to help you and to seel to, their is significantly more experience behind the advice, and the brand is significantly more powerful.
    - forgotmysn 10y ago
      So you feel that the ROI is greater for companies going through YC now than it was 10 years ago? I suppose it's true that the network of founders has grown significantly, but it's hard for me to imagine that a founder in the class of '17 becoming the head of the YC Accelerator.

brilliantcode 10y ago

I think the underlying issue is a misalignment of interest between YC and startup founders but not exclusive to YC but to all Venture Capitalists: you are nothing but one of YC's many hedged call options where they have a good chance of recouping the investment where as you really cannot time travel or demand YC pay you for the time wasted. To me YC was a largely branding move. It's fashionable to be able to say "yeah we are YC backed". Too many people in the industry are so caught up with being a "Startup" that they forget that they are just like any other "Businesses" but with far less control over your own destiny and even far less likely to win much money than working at a large company where you have high probability of becoming a millionaire in the same amount of time you spent on your startup. People are biased and self select their dumb luck as insight that gives them an edge which obviously does not translate or is repeatable-take a look at the graveyard, techcrunch won't get any views reporting anything but hyped up PR pieces.

mwseibel 10y ago
I'm not sure I understand your point here. I'm currently working very hard with Adora (my co-group partner) to support the companies in our YC group. Advice, office hours, motivation, community build, and general availability. Are you saying that this work is simply a branding exercise? If so now that the application process if over - why am I not on vacation?
- taytus 10y ago
  Branding for the companies. I guess that what he meant.
- dilemma 10y ago
  This reply is disingenuous. It is clearly written what he meant: >To me YC was a largely branding move. It's fashionable to be able to say "yeah we are YC backed". Reply to the actual comment instead of setting up a strawman. And, you may want to touch on the other point the parent made, namely incentives being misaligned between YC and startups. Indignation isn't doing the brand any good.

mwseibel 10y ago

Unfortunately (I say unfortunately cause I wish this wasn't true), you are not correct. It is harder to get into YC now than it ever was before. While you are busy looking at the numerator (number of companies in the batch) - you are ignoring the denominator (number of applicants).

forgotmysn 10y ago
While the percentage of companies accepted may be shrinking, aren't the size of the batches increasing? Regardless, with every batch that graduates YC, you are effectively splitting the amount of time Partners and Mentors can dedicate to each individual company by an even greater amount. And while YC has added new Partners and Mentors, I'm not convinced that your supply of expertise is growing fast enough to meet the demand that you are creating with each new batch. Then again, maybe you are. I'm sure my perspective isn't the greatest. I don't want to seem overly-critical, I'm still a fan of YC and I continue to recommend it, but I'm not sure the class of '17 will get the same value that the class of '07 did.
- mathattack 10y ago
  It seems like there is a much larger group of mentors too, so the mentor time per team is probably constant. Also, there's a network effect of YC companies helping others. It's kind of like McKinsey getting added benefit from being the largest strategy consulting firm. More partners to reach out to. (I have no horse in this race - no affiliation with YC or YC funded companies)
- mwseibel 10y ago
  Well I was in the class of '07 and I can tell you that this is simply not true. Over the past 10 years YC has added many more mentors, there are many more alumni to help you and to seel to, their is significantly more experience behind the advice, and the brand is significantly more powerful.
  - forgotmysn 10y ago
    So you feel that the ROI is greater for companies going through YC now than it was 10 years ago? I suppose it's true that the network of founders has grown significantly, but it's hard for me to imagine that a founder in the class of '17 becoming the head of the YC Accelerator.