4 ms·

Has YCombinator funded any legitimately profitable companies?

unavoidable 16y ago
You know, this is a legitimate question that I don't think has been satisfactorily answered thus far: there have been the numerical analyses about 'successes' which was skewed towards 'success' because there were a lot of YC companies bought out (such as reddit), but are they profitable even for the company that bought them?
patio11 16y ago
Wufoo springs to mind.
- apsurd 16y ago
  and I'd like to think weebly since it really is a pretty darn good value add. But the freemium approach ( you can omit the powered-by links if you know anything whatsoever about HTML, and it's like $30 bucks for a year of hosting) is the only reason why I would like to think rather than am sure about it.
  - drusenko 16y ago
    we don't openly disclose revenue numbers, but we're very profitable. there's lots more to the pro package than just removing the footer link :)
amohr 16y ago
When I interviewed at Airbnb, IIRC, I believe they said they were profitable or close to it. [citation needed]
iamelgringo 16y ago
Yes, but a lot of them don't find it necessary to openly talk about their balance sheets. I'm sure Wufoo and the Weeblies are profitable. Grapevine says that MixPanel is profitable already. AirBnb came out early in the press and said they were ramen profitable and then talked about the advantages of being "pizza" profitable shortly thereafter. I'd be very suprised if Dropbox wasn't making decent money, although they may be focused on scaling rather than maximizing profit. I could be wrong, but at the work at a startup event, a couple of companies said that they were profitable already. Listia, maybe? Don't quote me on this. From talking to YC founders, there's a pretty heavy emphasis to getting ramen profitable as soon as possible to gain leverage in fund raising negotiations. Starving founders tend to give away more equity and get worse terms than founders that can feed themselves and pay the rent. p.s. Nice to talk to you, Zack. How are things?
- zackattack 16y ago
  Things are OK. Thanks for asking. I'm too disorganized, trying to get a half dozen projects going at the same time, so I am planning on hiring a life coach. How are things with you?

You know, this is a legitimate question that I don't think has been satisfactorily answered thus far: there have been the numerical analyses about 'successes' which was skewed towards 'success' because there were a lot of YC companies bought out (such as reddit), but are they profitable even for the company that bought them?

patio11 16y ago

Wufoo springs to mind.

apsurd 16y ago
and I'd like to think weebly since it really is a pretty darn good value add. But the freemium approach ( you can omit the powered-by links if you know anything whatsoever about HTML, and it's like $30 bucks for a year of hosting) is the only reason why I would like to think rather than am sure about it.
- drusenko 16y ago
  we don't openly disclose revenue numbers, but we're very profitable. there's lots more to the pro package than just removing the footer link :)

amohr 16y ago

When I interviewed at Airbnb, IIRC, I believe they said they were profitable or close to it. [citation needed]

iamelgringo 16y ago

Yes, but a lot of them don't find it necessary to openly talk about their balance sheets. I'm sure Wufoo and the Weeblies are profitable. Grapevine says that MixPanel is profitable already. AirBnb came out early in the press and said they were ramen profitable and then talked about the advantages of being "pizza" profitable shortly thereafter. I'd be very suprised if Dropbox wasn't making decent money, although they may be focused on scaling rather than maximizing profit. I could be wrong, but at the work at a startup event, a couple of companies said that they were profitable already. Listia, maybe? Don't quote me on this. From talking to YC founders, there's a pretty heavy emphasis to getting ramen profitable as soon as possible to gain leverage in fund raising negotiations. Starving founders tend to give away more equity and get worse terms than founders that can feed themselves and pay the rent. p.s. Nice to talk to you, Zack. How are things?

zackattack 16y ago
Things are OK. Thanks for asking. I'm too disorganized, trying to get a half dozen projects going at the same time, so I am planning on hiring a life coach. How are things with you?