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Would love to see the anti portfolio list of YC.[1] FWIW - We have been rejected 3 times from YC over the last 3 years. We did not take it personally as OP sai

Would love to see the anti portfolio list of YC.[1] FWIW - We have been rejected 3 times from YC over the last 3 years. We did not take it personally as OP said, put our heads down and got working on our startup. After lot of hard work, setbacks and near death experiences, we are now currently growing ~10% MoM and generating millions in ARR. YC or any other investor/accelerator should never be the make or break thing for a startup - it should be your own judgement call on whether you want to continue or not based on market feedback. [1] - https://www.bvp.com/portfolio/anti-portfolio https://www.bvp.com/portfolio/anti-portfolio

loceng 8y ago
Going through the exercise alone, regularly - say twice per year - is extremely valuable, without needing to actually submit or save the answers in the application form they provide. The questions are nicely structured and hit on important points.
- spinlock 8y ago
  I hate ycombinator comments like this. Now I need to go procrastinate by writing a tool where I can go through the YC application every quarter.
  - loceng 8y ago
    Every quarter is a perhaps a bit excessive unless things are changing quickly. If you use a calendar, it takes a few minutes to just add a reminder at certain dates. Or I always just get reminded when I see YC posting about it.
Mononokay 8y ago
BVP's anti-portfolio is absolutely beautiful. It's so difficult to tell a success from a failure. Sequoia, on the other hand . . .
- josephjrobison 8y ago
  Man, BVP’s anti-portfolio is much more impressive than their portfolio. Shows how hard it is to pick a winner early on.
- cbcoutinho 8y ago
  What do you mean? Those companies were all successes
  - Mononokay 8y ago
    Exactly! They failed to see the value in any of them.
    - m-p-3 8y ago
      To be fair it's almost like gambling.
  - imarg 8y ago
    That's the point. An anti-portfolio is the companies they rejected but went on to be successful.
- vthallam 8y ago
  Can't believe Jeremey Levine passed on the dream investments time and again.
- l1n 8y ago
  Interesting that Tesla is on that list: I think it's yet to be sen if they can make it through their current crises.
  - SamReidHughes 8y ago
    They IPO'd.
dahart 8y ago
> Would love to see the anti portfolio list of YC. That would be interesting! I'd also love to see the list of both rejected and accepted applications that failed. BVP's "anti-portfolio" is a list of massive successes they happened to pass on. It wouldn't be as fun to look at the list of actual failures they passed on, or the failures they funded, but that might be even more instructive, right? > YC or any other investor/accelerator should never be the make or break thing for a startup - it should be your own judgement call on whether you want to continue or not based on market feedback. Absolutely! Personally, early on, I made the mistake of thinking that an investor rejection somehow reflected on the viability of my ideas or my business, that they knew something I didn't. Growing past that and realizing that investors mostly don't care about the ideas, nor do they usually even know what's viable before the market responds, was important. It also helped me to realize that looking for money just to survive was bad for me, looking for money to accelerate before I was moving at all was bad for me, and most investors are not the right partners for me, no matter how much money they have. *Edit: BTW, I did once apply and was rejected from YC. With hindsight, I know their call was correct. Not because YC isn't the right partner for me, but because I wasn't ready.
- dtawfik1 8y ago
  >Personally, early on, I made the mistake of thinking that an investor rejection somehow reflected on the viability of my ideas or my business, that they knew something I didn't. Spot on. An idea stage company is a theory. Validation occurs through real users. To become despondent because an investor didn't believe in your theory is not allowing yourself to really test the viability of your project. If users don't buy into your idea then you have a problem, but you have to play the experiment out.
speby 8y ago
Well said because the inverse is true as well. So many of the startups YC has funded either died a relatively short death, stagnated towards a long-death or eventually were acqui-hired in some shape or form. Just because you got into YC simply does not mean that the business you're starting is somehow more or less likely to succeed than one that didn't. At best, you might be able to increase your chances of success but that in no way happens without you pressing your foot on on the gas so hard it almost breaks.

loceng 8y ago

Going through the exercise alone, regularly - say twice per year - is extremely valuable, without needing to actually submit or save the answers in the application form they provide. The questions are nicely structured and hit on important points.

spinlock 8y ago
I hate ycombinator comments like this. Now I need to go procrastinate by writing a tool where I can go through the YC application every quarter.
- loceng 8y ago
  Every quarter is a perhaps a bit excessive unless things are changing quickly. If you use a calendar, it takes a few minutes to just add a reminder at certain dates. Or I always just get reminded when I see YC posting about it.

Mononokay 8y ago

BVP's anti-portfolio is absolutely beautiful. It's so difficult to tell a success from a failure. Sequoia, on the other hand . . .

josephjrobison 8y ago
Man, BVP’s anti-portfolio is much more impressive than their portfolio. Shows how hard it is to pick a winner early on.
cbcoutinho 8y ago
What do you mean? Those companies were all successes
- Mononokay 8y ago
  Exactly! They failed to see the value in any of them.
  - m-p-3 8y ago
    To be fair it's almost like gambling.
- imarg 8y ago
  That's the point. An anti-portfolio is the companies they rejected but went on to be successful.
vthallam 8y ago
Can't believe Jeremey Levine passed on the dream investments time and again.
l1n 8y ago
Interesting that Tesla is on that list: I think it's yet to be sen if they can make it through their current crises.
- SamReidHughes 8y ago
  They IPO'd.

dahart 8y ago

> Would love to see the anti portfolio list of YC. That would be interesting! I'd also love to see the list of both rejected and accepted applications that failed. BVP's "anti-portfolio" is a list of massive successes they happened to pass on. It wouldn't be as fun to look at the list of actual failures they passed on, or the failures they funded, but that might be even more instructive, right? > YC or any other investor/accelerator should never be the make or break thing for a startup - it should be your own judgement call on whether you want to continue or not based on market feedback. Absolutely! Personally, early on, I made the mistake of thinking that an investor rejection somehow reflected on the viability of my ideas or my business, that they knew something I didn't. Growing past that and realizing that investors mostly don't care about the ideas, nor do they usually even know what's viable before the market responds, was important. It also helped me to realize that looking for money just to survive was bad for me, looking for money to accelerate before I was moving at all was bad for me, and most investors are not the right partners for me, no matter how much money they have. *Edit: BTW, I did once apply and was rejected from YC. With hindsight, I know their call was correct. Not because YC isn't the right partner for me, but because I wasn't ready.

dtawfik1 8y ago
>Personally, early on, I made the mistake of thinking that an investor rejection somehow reflected on the viability of my ideas or my business, that they knew something I didn't. Spot on. An idea stage company is a theory. Validation occurs through real users. To become despondent because an investor didn't believe in your theory is not allowing yourself to really test the viability of your project. If users don't buy into your idea then you have a problem, but you have to play the experiment out.

speby 8y ago

Well said because the inverse is true as well. So many of the startups YC has funded either died a relatively short death, stagnated towards a long-death or eventually were acqui-hired in some shape or form. Just because you got into YC simply does not mean that the business you're starting is somehow more or less likely to succeed than one that didn't. At best, you might be able to increase your chances of success but that in no way happens without you pressing your foot on on the gas so hard it almost breaks.