7 ms·

How Y Combinator Is Remaking Silicon Valley in Its Image

91 points by bjplink 16y ago

fleaflicker 16y ago
Villainous photo selection
adelevie 16y ago
>Besides, acquisitions of young companies tend to be better for everyone involved, as compared to later-stage deals, said Geoff Ralston, who recently sold Lala to Apple. Integrations of billion-dollar companies almost never work, he said. If there was no acquisition of LaLa, we'd all be listening to music for 10 cents a track on our iPhones and Androids. Hopefully they come up with something awesome at Apple.
- usaar333 16y ago
  There's always Grooveshark.
kloncks 16y ago
Opponents of "Pay & Spray" will have a field day with Ron Conway's quote: Archangel Ron Conway, who said he’s put money into 500 companies over the last 12 years, kicked off the day with an optimistic and generous recruiting speech: He said he believes every “entrepreneur who has the guts to start a company” should get funding, and added “I believe the more angels we have in Silicon Valley the better.”
- maxniederhofer 16y ago
  I think the original term is "Spray and Pray" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spray_and_pray http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spray_and_pray).
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
wyclif 16y ago
No quotes from Joshua Schachter. Inexcusable. Where is the commentary from the newer, non-reptilian investors?
kaib 16y ago
pg: “The way of the future is no fixed amount, no fixed closing date, and no lead.” This concept is unfamiliar to me? What does it mean? What compromises a "rolling" financing deal?
- alain94040 16y ago
  Which is exactly what I advocated for in "How my startup went IPO and skipped VC funding" http://blog.fairsoftware.net/2010/06/23/how-my-startup-went-ipo-and-skipped-vc-funding-a-story/ http://blog.fairsoftware.net/2010/06/23/how-my-startup-went-... A rolling deal is when angels keep showing up over time and send you more money, rather than you setting a fixed date saying "on August 1st, I need 10 angels with $100,000 each, or my company is bankrupt".
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
helwr 16y ago
"Archangel Ron Conway" - i liked that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Archangels http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Archangels
india 16y ago
Google is not helping much with this. What are "rolling funding rounds"?
jacquesm 16y ago
Silicon valley is a lot larger than just web start-ups. If and when YC launches something that eventually turns in to the next google or something on that scale it will have a real impact, but for now the big winners have not been created using the YC model. Who knows, maybe one day.
- terpua 16y ago
  I would say Dropbox is on its way.
  - jacquesm 16y ago
    It's one of the more successful ones but for all the hype I haven't signed up and neither has anybody that I know outside of HN. Now I'm probably not the target audience anyway so that's no surprise, but I really can't see something like dropbox being the next google. They have a business model that requires payment for anything but the most trivial uses (which is great, they'll be profitable, but it is a definite brake on growth). Hard to do that soft of thing without charging for it, and as soon as the price goes over $0 the market is much smaller. It's a much bigger decision to pay at all than it is to pay $10 or $20.
    - terpua 16y ago
      Data syncing is a huge problem and its need will only expand. Dropbox is at the forefront of this (i.e. when I think of search -> google, shopping -> amazon, online storage -> dropbox). The consumer space is growing (more devices and users) and the enterprise space is wide open. I can see Dropbox going after Sharepoint et al. You're right, it might not be enough to be the next google but they might come close.
      - jacquesm 16y ago
        With the cost of storage being what it is I seriously question any business model that tries to sell you a plan based on the size of the storage on the other end of a wire. You're basically setting yourself up to have a 'gmail' pulled on your 'hotmail'.
seis6 16y ago
I remember a comment by google people, they said something in the lines that they prefer not to employee many valuable people because they being out are better for IT progress. If YCombinator culture is too strong, it may damage the necessary diversity in people conception of a startup. A good group of people need a lot of small differents groups in order to explore the landscape of startup opportunities. So let's hope that YHacker influence doesn't grow to excessive influence.
harscoat 16y ago
and not only Silicon Valley. While YC is Bay Area based, its ideas (maybe not his program yet) really inspire a bunch of international people too

91 points by bjplink 16y ago

Villainous photo selection

>Besides, acquisitions of young companies tend to be better for everyone involved, as compared to later-stage deals, said Geoff Ralston, who recently sold Lala to Apple. Integrations of billion-dollar companies almost never work, he said. If there was no acquisition of LaLa, we'd all be listening to music for 10 cents a track on our iPhones and Androids. Hopefully they come up with something awesome at Apple.

usaar333 16y ago
There's always Grooveshark.

kloncks 16y ago

Opponents of "Pay & Spray" will have a field day with Ron Conway's quote: Archangel Ron Conway, who said he’s put money into 500 companies over the last 12 years, kicked off the day with an optimistic and generous recruiting speech: He said he believes every “entrepreneur who has the guts to start a company” should get funding, and added “I believe the more angels we have in Silicon Valley the better.”

maxniederhofer 16y ago
I think the original term is "Spray and Pray" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spray_and_pray http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spray_and_pray).
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

wyclif 16y ago

No quotes from Joshua Schachter. Inexcusable. Where is the commentary from the newer, non-reptilian investors?

kaib 16y ago

pg: “The way of the future is no fixed amount, no fixed closing date, and no lead.” This concept is unfamiliar to me? What does it mean? What compromises a "rolling" financing deal?

alain94040 16y ago
Which is exactly what I advocated for in "How my startup went IPO and skipped VC funding" http://blog.fairsoftware.net/2010/06/23/how-my-startup-went-ipo-and-skipped-vc-funding-a-story/ http://blog.fairsoftware.net/2010/06/23/how-my-startup-went-... A rolling deal is when angels keep showing up over time and send you more money, rather than you setting a fixed date saying "on August 1st, I need 10 angels with $100,000 each, or my company is bankrupt".
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]

helwr 16y ago

"Archangel Ron Conway" - i liked that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Archangels http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Archangels

india 16y ago

Google is not helping much with this. What are "rolling funding rounds"?

jacquesm 16y ago

Silicon valley is a lot larger than just web start-ups. If and when YC launches something that eventually turns in to the next google or something on that scale it will have a real impact, but for now the big winners have not been created using the YC model. Who knows, maybe one day.

terpua 16y ago
I would say Dropbox is on its way.
- jacquesm 16y ago
  It's one of the more successful ones but for all the hype I haven't signed up and neither has anybody that I know outside of HN. Now I'm probably not the target audience anyway so that's no surprise, but I really can't see something like dropbox being the next google. They have a business model that requires payment for anything but the most trivial uses (which is great, they'll be profitable, but it is a definite brake on growth). Hard to do that soft of thing without charging for it, and as soon as the price goes over $0 the market is much smaller. It's a much bigger decision to pay at all than it is to pay $10 or $20.
  - terpua 16y ago
    Data syncing is a huge problem and its need will only expand. Dropbox is at the forefront of this (i.e. when I think of search -> google, shopping -> amazon, online storage -> dropbox). The consumer space is growing (more devices and users) and the enterprise space is wide open. I can see Dropbox going after Sharepoint et al. You're right, it might not be enough to be the next google but they might come close.
    - jacquesm 16y ago
      With the cost of storage being what it is I seriously question any business model that tries to sell you a plan based on the size of the storage on the other end of a wire. You're basically setting yourself up to have a 'gmail' pulled on your 'hotmail'.

seis6 16y ago

I remember a comment by google people, they said something in the lines that they prefer not to employee many valuable people because they being out are better for IT progress. If YCombinator culture is too strong, it may damage the necessary diversity in people conception of a startup. A good group of people need a lot of small differents groups in order to explore the landscape of startup opportunities. So let's hope that YHacker influence doesn't grow to excessive influence.

harscoat 16y ago

and not only Silicon Valley. While YC is Bay Area based, its ideas (maybe not his program yet) really inspire a bunch of international people too