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To point 1: YC backs teams not ideas. Smart early stage investors back teams. To point 2: AT Interview stage, from one application form how familiar do you exp

To point 1: YC backs teams not ideas. Smart early stage investors back teams. To point 2: AT Interview stage, from one application form how familiar do you expect someone to be once you've read 500 forms. This is a pretty selfish viewpoint. Once you get into YC and get to know everyone YC (in particular Jessica) works extremely hard for you and care about what you do. Some companies like rescuetime and heroku were well past the idea stage when they did YC. So your comments are a bit of an overgeneralisation.

freax 19y ago
> YC backs teams not ideas. Every team works on an idea. A lot of the last batch are underwhelming: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/14/y-combinator-demo-day-roundup-for-spring-2008/ http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/14/y-combinator-demo-day-r... > AT Interview stage, from one application form how familiar do you expect someone to be once you've read 500 forms If they're flying you in for an interview you're no longer in the pool of 500 forms. If they are asking questions that make it clear they aren't paying attention to the information you've already given them it just goes to show that your grandiose plans are fairly inconsequential to them and they're only tossing their spare change at you. > Some companies like rescuetime and heroku were well past the idea stage Companies that have a lot done already are the ones that are going to run into the mismatch I talked about. Here's this great thing you made; now you're giving ownership to people who don't feel about it the same way. There's not a lot of investment of money, time, or emotion on the part of YC. So it seems to me that the exchange is equity for exposure -- basically you've started off your marketing budget at the 6% that YC takes.
- comatose_kid 19y ago
  I don't think it's fair to assume that YC considers the plans of the teams it accepts to be inconsequential. And to the statement 'now you're giving ownership to people who don't feel about it the same way.' - differing viewpoints about your idea is not a bad thing. Finally, to reduce YC's value-add to 'marketing budget' is incorrect. Do you think that VC's attend demo day because of YC's marketing?
- pg 19y ago
  Here's this great thing you made The mistaken assumption shows in the use of the past tense. The fact that a product's launched doesn't mean it's done. In most startups, most of the work happens after launch.
  - freax 19y ago
    The mistaken assumption is reading things into the statement that aren't there. I'm simply talking about having done something concrete and functional rather than only having a proposal. You're leaping to conclusions by projecting some kind of finality onto that.
tptacek 19y ago
Continuing the reasoning of the original comment: have you funded a lot of early stage companies, or worked with people who do?
- sharpshoot 19y ago
  Actually yes. http://www.libraryhouse.net/web07/speakers/profiles/#sumon_sadhu http://www.libraryhouse.net/web07/speakers/profiles/#sumon_s...
  - tptacek 19y ago
    Neat! Do you agree fully with the SnapTalent article about YC?
    - sharpshoot 19y ago
      I wrote it. I co-founded Snaptalent.
      - hooande 19y ago
        Great job, man. Informative and inspiring
      - tptacek 19y ago
        Wow, and now I feel dumb! I read your bio, but missed the SnapTalent thing.
ubudesign 19y ago
All of these are good points but the reality is something else. you can take whatever yc says on its face value or simply look at the types of companies they take and the common theme in them as well as the types of persons.
- pg 19y ago
  What would you say is the common theme between say Dropbox (http://getdropbox.com http://getdropbox.com) and Songkick (http://songkick.com http://songkick.com)?
  - ubudesign 19y ago
    they both have a certain feel to them. call it web 2.0 web 3.0 :) or just look at the graphics or the language and yes sometimes features too. "Share the love" / "concert-savvy friend" just an example. There are other bits and pieces too. You could say that this is the general trend, what attracts yc, and so on. of course. that would be the value of their vision. I don't have any arguments about that at all. And it's a good think that they can see it. but my argument is that this is the theme of yc. Another thing I've noticed is how features that have been around for a long time (web time), are slightly "modified" (most times more simplified, either for the good reason of simplification, or simply because of lack of technical experience, or in the worst case because of bad copying) many examples of this. but since you brought up dropbox, the first thing brings to my mind is box.net. again I'm not saying anything bad about it. I'm sure its better since I know about box.net and their not that great anyway. but my point is that there are not that many selections that are either new innovative products or an old idea that you could say wow this is how it should be implemented. say Google for example. And, they have common theme to them. no not from the perspective of the consumer or what the products are. I really don't know about how yc views things but the theme of yc is clear. alteast to some degree. either because that's simply the result of their total work and it just produces this, or intention by design to move in this direction or both. if you go to many vc's site and look under their portfolio many times you can find a common theme in their select.
  - rokhayakebe 19y ago
    common theme is "build something people want". i guess you could call that a common philosophy as well.

freax 19y ago

> YC backs teams not ideas. Every team works on an idea. A lot of the last batch are underwhelming: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/14/y-combinator-demo-day-roundup-for-spring-2008/ http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/14/y-combinator-demo-day-r... > AT Interview stage, from one application form how familiar do you expect someone to be once you've read 500 forms If they're flying you in for an interview you're no longer in the pool of 500 forms. If they are asking questions that make it clear they aren't paying attention to the information you've already given them it just goes to show that your grandiose plans are fairly inconsequential to them and they're only tossing their spare change at you. > Some companies like rescuetime and heroku were well past the idea stage Companies that have a lot done already are the ones that are going to run into the mismatch I talked about. Here's this great thing you made; now you're giving ownership to people who don't feel about it the same way. There's not a lot of investment of money, time, or emotion on the part of YC. So it seems to me that the exchange is equity for exposure -- basically you've started off your marketing budget at the 6% that YC takes.

comatose_kid 19y ago
I don't think it's fair to assume that YC considers the plans of the teams it accepts to be inconsequential. And to the statement 'now you're giving ownership to people who don't feel about it the same way.' - differing viewpoints about your idea is not a bad thing. Finally, to reduce YC's value-add to 'marketing budget' is incorrect. Do you think that VC's attend demo day because of YC's marketing?
pg 19y ago
Here's this great thing you made The mistaken assumption shows in the use of the past tense. The fact that a product's launched doesn't mean it's done. In most startups, most of the work happens after launch.
- freax 19y ago
  The mistaken assumption is reading things into the statement that aren't there. I'm simply talking about having done something concrete and functional rather than only having a proposal. You're leaping to conclusions by projecting some kind of finality onto that.

tptacek 19y ago

Continuing the reasoning of the original comment: have you funded a lot of early stage companies, or worked with people who do?

sharpshoot 19y ago
Actually yes. http://www.libraryhouse.net/web07/speakers/profiles/#sumon_sadhu http://www.libraryhouse.net/web07/speakers/profiles/#sumon_s...
- tptacek 19y ago
  Neat! Do you agree fully with the SnapTalent article about YC?
  - sharpshoot 19y ago
    I wrote it. I co-founded Snaptalent.
    - hooande 19y ago
      Great job, man. Informative and inspiring
    - tptacek 19y ago
      Wow, and now I feel dumb! I read your bio, but missed the SnapTalent thing.

ubudesign 19y ago

All of these are good points but the reality is something else. you can take whatever yc says on its face value or simply look at the types of companies they take and the common theme in them as well as the types of persons.

pg 19y ago
What would you say is the common theme between say Dropbox (http://getdropbox.com http://getdropbox.com) and Songkick (http://songkick.com http://songkick.com)?
- ubudesign 19y ago
  they both have a certain feel to them. call it web 2.0 web 3.0 :) or just look at the graphics or the language and yes sometimes features too. "Share the love" / "concert-savvy friend" just an example. There are other bits and pieces too. You could say that this is the general trend, what attracts yc, and so on. of course. that would be the value of their vision. I don't have any arguments about that at all. And it's a good think that they can see it. but my argument is that this is the theme of yc. Another thing I've noticed is how features that have been around for a long time (web time), are slightly "modified" (most times more simplified, either for the good reason of simplification, or simply because of lack of technical experience, or in the worst case because of bad copying) many examples of this. but since you brought up dropbox, the first thing brings to my mind is box.net. again I'm not saying anything bad about it. I'm sure its better since I know about box.net and their not that great anyway. but my point is that there are not that many selections that are either new innovative products or an old idea that you could say wow this is how it should be implemented. say Google for example. And, they have common theme to them. no not from the perspective of the consumer or what the products are. I really don't know about how yc views things but the theme of yc is clear. alteast to some degree. either because that's simply the result of their total work and it just produces this, or intention by design to move in this direction or both. if you go to many vc's site and look under their portfolio many times you can find a common theme in their select.
- rokhayakebe 19y ago
  common theme is "build something people want". i guess you could call that a common philosophy as well.