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There's a difference: YC's brand is not based purely on marketing. It's based on the success rate of past YC companies, which is objectively higher than average
by shykes 16y ago
There's a difference: YC's brand is not based purely on marketing. It's based on the success rate of past YC companies, which is objectively higher than average.
From an angel's point of view, YC is a deal refinery. Raw deals come in. High-quality, refined deals come out. Many investors will gladly pay a premium for those, because much of the early risk has been taken out: do the founders get along? Do they crack under pressure? Can they ship something? Can they adapt to changing circonstances?
YC figured out a repeatable, streamlined formula for a process which was previously a black art. They industrialized the gut feeling. And they deserve every bit of recognition they got for it.
- ghshephard 16y agore: "YC figured out a repeatable, streamlined formula for a process which was previously a black art. They industrialized the gut feeling." That's not my understanding. I don't think they have any formula other than "We recognize great entrepreneurs when we see them" - It's not something they can write down in a book and sell to other people - so, in that sense, not industrialized. Still a gut feeling. I could be wrong though - happy to hear otherwise.
- shykes 16y agoYou're leaving out an important part of the equation: the sheer number of deals that went through YC, and the data associated with them. When you know the complete story on 500+ founders, and look at which ones were successful, patterns emerge. These patterns can be used to make better decisions and give better advice. Anybody who's talked to PG will tell you he is a walking database of startup patterns. "I've seen X and Y do this and they failed. Don't do it". I'm sure as YC scales, that database will be externalized to a medium other than PG's brain :) So, yes, there is a formula: it's called data.