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Man, credit where credit is due, this showed a lot of integrity. There was one good solution, it was just a painful one, yet they still did it. Well done YCombi

Man, credit where credit is due, this showed a lot of integrity. There was one good solution, it was just a painful one, yet they still did it. Well done YCombinator! P.S. They make the point that this is an experiment, and I think all of us who join should prove that it is a good one. Nobody rails against applications and qualifying scores like HN peeps (check the comments of any article, ever, about SAT/GMAT/GRE scores for evidence). And since YC choose to go the universal route, standing strong to the HN ethos, I think we can prove that decisions like this do work for the best by being focused, engaged, and building some kickass tech companies.

perdet 8y ago
Agreed. Let's prove to them we can do this.
funnynoodles 8y ago
Disagree
- solarkraft 8y ago
  Why?
  - funnynoodles 8y ago
    Respectfully, you don’t see any reasons this would be a bad idea?
    - w_allDueRespect 8y ago
      Respectfully, what are all of the reasons that this would be a bad idea?
      - ModernMech 8y ago
        username checks out.
    - jackconnor 8y ago
      Whatup funnynoodles, there definitely are reasons this COULD end up bad, which are pretty much just that YC gets stretched too thin. But, honestly, it could also go super well for them. I mean, accelerators are entirely based on the idea of funding a lot of ideas to cherry pick the few good ones. Well, YC just accidentally created a batch of 15,000 ideas they are associated with, which could potentially provide some crazy successful startups. The downside is they lose money, and maybe some of the cohort are unhappy, though as they've told the later group they wouldn't have the same advisory resources, the program degradation feels fairly minimal. Experiment - it could go bad, but it could also go good, we'll see.
    - dang 8y ago
      It's fine to disagree substantively (e.g. like https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17807427 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17807427 did), but not fine to troll the thread like this. Please stop.
- sarabande 8y ago
  I doubt you're being down-voted for your sentiment, rather, that a one-word dismissal is lazy. Tell us why, preferably without a rhetorical question.
  - funnynoodles 8y ago
    I’m 100% being downvoted for my sentiment. That’s literally all it was.
    - SquareWheel 8y ago
      I have zero opinion on this topic. Downvoted for the lazy one-word response. Compare to throwmeoutoft11's comment below.
threeisoneis 8y ago
I disagree. They didn’t do anything except open up the grant application part to everyone (no cost to them) and promise everybody that they would get some credits (probably no cost to them). The course was always able to be audited. What this really does is make clear the desire of the people at ycombinator to open their pre screening program (which is what startup school is, essentially) to more startups. The value to them is clear - they now get more companies that have an initial touchpoint with ycombinator, and they can maybe make money off them or whatever. But they don’t have to scale the thing that was most useful about startup school - that is, the advisors and small groups. For ycombinator this actually is a win win - they can now phase out advisors next round if this is a success and then the course would be very simple to run (and mostly free to create!). The value that they were really providing (advisors, small groups) doesn’t scale for a free program, and with this new method of acceptance they aren’t offering that value to the newly “accepted” startups. For me personally, If I wanted to independently learn the things they teach in startup school, I already had the ability to watch last years lectures and read last years course material. If there are credits, that will be valuable I suppose. But, again, I want to emphasize that ycombinator isn’t giving startups anything of real value here that it wasn’t already giving away (except, I guess, the ability to save face if you had already excitedly told friends that you were in this program).
- dustingetz 8y ago
  This – Every serious founder already audited last years startup school via the youtube and podcast. The content was amazing but I saw this as a way for us who don't live in the valley to network our way into YC. However, a YC branded forum exclusively for active founders seems valuable so lets see what happens.
  - tragicjordan 8y ago
    How valuable can a forum with 15,000 companies (most of which are bad) spamming their services ever offer any real value? If you're lucky to have a good group you might find value, otherwise it's going to be pointless. I'd encourage seeking out other, smaller founder mastermind groups - you'll get much more value there.

perdet 8y ago

Agreed. Let's prove to them we can do this.

funnynoodles 8y ago

Disagree

solarkraft 8y ago
Why?
- funnynoodles 8y ago
  Respectfully, you don’t see any reasons this would be a bad idea?
  - w_allDueRespect 8y ago
    Respectfully, what are all of the reasons that this would be a bad idea?
    - ModernMech 8y ago
      username checks out.
  - jackconnor 8y ago
    Whatup funnynoodles, there definitely are reasons this COULD end up bad, which are pretty much just that YC gets stretched too thin. But, honestly, it could also go super well for them. I mean, accelerators are entirely based on the idea of funding a lot of ideas to cherry pick the few good ones. Well, YC just accidentally created a batch of 15,000 ideas they are associated with, which could potentially provide some crazy successful startups. The downside is they lose money, and maybe some of the cohort are unhappy, though as they've told the later group they wouldn't have the same advisory resources, the program degradation feels fairly minimal. Experiment - it could go bad, but it could also go good, we'll see.
  - dang 8y ago
    It's fine to disagree substantively (e.g. like https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17807427 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17807427 did), but not fine to troll the thread like this. Please stop.
sarabande 8y ago
I doubt you're being down-voted for your sentiment, rather, that a one-word dismissal is lazy. Tell us why, preferably without a rhetorical question.
- funnynoodles 8y ago
  I’m 100% being downvoted for my sentiment. That’s literally all it was.
  - SquareWheel 8y ago
    I have zero opinion on this topic. Downvoted for the lazy one-word response. Compare to throwmeoutoft11's comment below.

threeisoneis 8y ago

I disagree. They didn’t do anything except open up the grant application part to everyone (no cost to them) and promise everybody that they would get some credits (probably no cost to them). The course was always able to be audited. What this really does is make clear the desire of the people at ycombinator to open their pre screening program (which is what startup school is, essentially) to more startups. The value to them is clear - they now get more companies that have an initial touchpoint with ycombinator, and they can maybe make money off them or whatever. But they don’t have to scale the thing that was most useful about startup school - that is, the advisors and small groups. For ycombinator this actually is a win win - they can now phase out advisors next round if this is a success and then the course would be very simple to run (and mostly free to create!). The value that they were really providing (advisors, small groups) doesn’t scale for a free program, and with this new method of acceptance they aren’t offering that value to the newly “accepted” startups. For me personally, If I wanted to independently learn the things they teach in startup school, I already had the ability to watch last years lectures and read last years course material. If there are credits, that will be valuable I suppose. But, again, I want to emphasize that ycombinator isn’t giving startups anything of real value here that it wasn’t already giving away (except, I guess, the ability to save face if you had already excitedly told friends that you were in this program).

dustingetz 8y ago
This – Every serious founder already audited last years startup school via the youtube and podcast. The content was amazing but I saw this as a way for us who don't live in the valley to network our way into YC. However, a YC branded forum exclusively for active founders seems valuable so lets see what happens.
- tragicjordan 8y ago
  How valuable can a forum with 15,000 companies (most of which are bad) spamming their services ever offer any real value? If you're lucky to have a good group you might find value, otherwise it's going to be pointless. I'd encourage seeking out other, smaller founder mastermind groups - you'll get much more value there.