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Agreed. YC has moved "upstream" from the idea stage. Startup growth is a funnel. Idea stage is at the top, and unicorn is at the bottom. The further down the f

by a13n 8y ago

Agreed. YC has moved "upstream" from the idea stage. Startup growth is a funnel. Idea stage is at the top, and unicorn is at the bottom. The further down the funnel you invest, the more likely you are to end up with a unicorn. YC is in the business of investing in startups that become unicorns. YC's brand, and initiatives like Startup School, have gotten them so many more qualified applications. They no longer have to invest in idea stage companies, unless they're insanely promising.

mkagenius 8y ago
> YC is in the business sadly it has become a business. I guess we need a new old YC.
- chirau 8y ago
  It has always been a business
- CPLX 8y ago
  > it has become a business It is, literally, a multi-billion dollar private equity firm.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
dalton 8y ago
I'm the head of admissions at YC and I can assure you that a huge percentage of the companies that we interview and fund are at idea stage. One explanation I have for why it my appear the startups we fund are "far along" at demo day is that the startups moved so quickly during the batch. For example, the startup Inokyo in the current batch recently put out a video of the autonomous store they built in Mountain View: https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/16/inokyo/ https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/16/inokyo/ When we funded this startup 3 months ago it was for a different idea and so they quite literally started from scratch. Startups moving fast should hopefully seem far along by demo day, irrespective of their starting point :)
- adtac 8y ago
  >a huge percentage A hard number would say more than that phrase :)
amitutk 8y ago
YC has moved "downstream"! Upstream is where things emerge and then they travel downstream.
aestetix 8y ago
> YC is in the business of investing in startups that become unicorns. Can you give specific examples of startups they have funded that became unicorns? The only two that come to mind are reddit and airbnb, and both are fraught with criticisms and legal issues over their business practices. Maybe there are more, but that's still an insanely low percentage of the total startups they have funded...
- CPLX 8y ago
  You're missing Dropbox, Coinbase, Gusto, Instacart, Stripe, Twitch, Cruise, and quite a few others that are a little more arguable, like Docker, DoorDash, or even Zenefits.

by a13n 8y ago

mkagenius 8y ago

> YC is in the business sadly it has become a business. I guess we need a new old YC.

chirau 8y ago
It has always been a business
CPLX 8y ago
> it has become a business It is, literally, a multi-billion dollar private equity firm.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]

dalton 8y ago

I'm the head of admissions at YC and I can assure you that a huge percentage of the companies that we interview and fund are at idea stage. One explanation I have for why it my appear the startups we fund are "far along" at demo day is that the startups moved so quickly during the batch. For example, the startup Inokyo in the current batch recently put out a video of the autonomous store they built in Mountain View: https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/16/inokyo/ https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/16/inokyo/ When we funded this startup 3 months ago it was for a different idea and so they quite literally started from scratch. Startups moving fast should hopefully seem far along by demo day, irrespective of their starting point :)

adtac 8y ago
>a huge percentage A hard number would say more than that phrase :)

amitutk 8y ago

YC has moved "downstream"! Upstream is where things emerge and then they travel downstream.

aestetix 8y ago

> YC is in the business of investing in startups that become unicorns. Can you give specific examples of startups they have funded that became unicorns? The only two that come to mind are reddit and airbnb, and both are fraught with criticisms and legal issues over their business practices. Maybe there are more, but that's still an insanely low percentage of the total startups they have funded...

CPLX 8y ago
You're missing Dropbox, Coinbase, Gusto, Instacart, Stripe, Twitch, Cruise, and quite a few others that are a little more arguable, like Docker, DoorDash, or even Zenefits.