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"YC is also a startup itself, and (what’s more difficult) must remain one." As an organization centred on fostering creation of startups, YC can claim to makin

"YC is also a startup itself, and (what’s more difficult) must remain one." As an organization centred on fostering creation of startups, YC can claim to making effort to adhere to startup mentality itself. However, as a 12-year old company that has greatly expanded over the years, YC itself isn't a startup and claiming otherwise seems a bit disingenuous. Based on post date (Oct 2017), I assume this was just published (vs a repost from 2005).

tptacek 9y ago
YC (and Paul Graham in particular) have always had a semantic challenge with the word "startup". I agree that their definition can be shifty, opaque, and not especially useful.
akharris 9y ago
"Startup" is more a state of mind than an exact coordinate in age and size. There are brand new companies that wouldn't call themselves startups, and companies worth 10s of billions of dollars that are commonly referred to as such. While we may be 12 years old, we constantly experiment with new ideas, programs, and processes within YC to see whether or not we can get meaningfully better at what we do. That feels like a startup to me.
- j45 9y ago
  Startups are about the ability to constantly innovate. In the early days, everything is new and innovating towards a business model. A lot of people find something and stick with it, instead of continuing to innovate on existing momentum to remain relevant.
Mz 9y ago
I see nothing disingenuous about it. I think it does a good job of capturing the idea that if they get too bureaucratic and set in their ways, that is what they will model and teach and it will undermine their goals by undermining new batches. I homeschooled my sons. I talk to them a lot about such ideas. For example, we talk about how the subtext of a lot of games winds up being stereotypical corporate things like "I hate my boss" and "Life is a completely pointless pursuit of money." That tends to show through, no matter how hard they try to dress it up in wild fantasy settings. You teach what you are. You can't really get away from that.

tptacek 9y ago

YC (and Paul Graham in particular) have always had a semantic challenge with the word "startup". I agree that their definition can be shifty, opaque, and not especially useful.

akharris 9y ago

"Startup" is more a state of mind than an exact coordinate in age and size. There are brand new companies that wouldn't call themselves startups, and companies worth 10s of billions of dollars that are commonly referred to as such. While we may be 12 years old, we constantly experiment with new ideas, programs, and processes within YC to see whether or not we can get meaningfully better at what we do. That feels like a startup to me.

j45 9y ago
Startups are about the ability to constantly innovate. In the early days, everything is new and innovating towards a business model. A lot of people find something and stick with it, instead of continuing to innovate on existing momentum to remain relevant.

Mz 9y ago

I see nothing disingenuous about it. I think it does a good job of capturing the idea that if they get too bureaucratic and set in their ways, that is what they will model and teach and it will undermine their goals by undermining new batches. I homeschooled my sons. I talk to them a lot about such ideas. For example, we talk about how the subtext of a lot of games winds up being stereotypical corporate things like "I hate my boss" and "Life is a completely pointless pursuit of money." That tends to show through, no matter how hard they try to dress it up in wild fantasy settings. You teach what you are. You can't really get away from that.