4 ms·

This strikes me as a very odd class for them to be doing. 1. YC has no problem filling up Demo Day, and I know of even high qualify, professional angel investo

by birken 9y ago

This strikes me as a very odd class for them to be doing. 1. YC has no problem filling up Demo Day, and I know of even high qualify, professional angel investors who don't get the in person invite. So it isn't like they have a shortage of angel investors. If they wanted to have more and more diverse angels at their event, they could just find a bigger venue, which YC seems averse to. 2. Isn't this a big conflict of interest? This is a company teaching me the basics of angel investing who conveniently happens to directly financially benefit if there are more angel investors pumping money into their companies. Now I'm sure the class will be done well because YC generally does that, but I'm surprised YC is even wading into this. Angel investing is either a bad or at best extremely risky way for the average (even rich) person to invest their money in. Hopefully YC has a lot of disclaimers at the beginning of this class about this fact. I'm all for more information being out there, but angel investing is the type of thing where depending on which facts you omit you can make it seem very different from what it is.

ErikVandeWater 9y ago
My first thought is that YC considers 2 to not not be a conflict of interest because of 1. They don't need more funds for their startups; this is just a donation of knowledge to the world to help Angel Investors get more money to the right startups, (presumably) making the world better for everyone.
- hkmurakami 9y ago
  2 is not a conflict of interest because increased capital supply means better terms for their companies. YC's interests lie first and foremost with its own funds (its LPs) and its batch companies. Increasing the competition for dealflow amongst angels does not conflict with _their_ interests. It will however likely suppress returns of existing angel/seed investors, as deal values are inflated. Fwiw the timing of this makes sense. We are seeing reports of the angel/seed market drying up as the wave of post 2010 first time angels have lost their enthusiasm (or capital), and seed fundraising in 2018 is much much harder than in 2015.
kul 9y ago
Commoditize your complement!

by birken 9y ago

ErikVandeWater 9y ago

My first thought is that YC considers 2 to not not be a conflict of interest because of 1. They don't need more funds for their startups; this is just a donation of knowledge to the world to help Angel Investors get more money to the right startups, (presumably) making the world better for everyone.

hkmurakami 9y ago
2 is not a conflict of interest because increased capital supply means better terms for their companies. YC's interests lie first and foremost with its own funds (its LPs) and its batch companies. Increasing the competition for dealflow amongst angels does not conflict with _their_ interests. It will however likely suppress returns of existing angel/seed investors, as deal values are inflated. Fwiw the timing of this makes sense. We are seeing reports of the angel/seed market drying up as the wave of post 2010 first time angels have lost their enthusiasm (or capital), and seed fundraising in 2018 is much much harder than in 2015.

kul 9y ago

Commoditize your complement!