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YouWeb, Billion-Dollar Incubator?

40 points by harscoat 16y ago

ciscoriordan 16y ago
"He founded and led two companies, Webvan Group and Business Signatures, which were both sold." Bringing up Webvan and only saying that it sold is like bringing up Ted Kaczynski and only saying that he went to Harvard. This is written like the author is trying to play up YouWeb, but I don't know why he would be motivated to do that.
- samtp 16y ago
  I don't know Peter, but thats a horrible comparison. While the article may be biased, people here on the Y Combinator board should show some respect. Just because he has a different model doesn't make it a threat to Y Combinator.
  - aristus 16y ago
    The OP was talking about omission, not Peter directly. Webvan was a spectacular, legendary failure that destroyed almost a billion dollars of investor wealth, mainly through incompetently aping Amazon's business model without fully understanding it. Not even bothering to hint at that when talking about someone who led the company is a huge omission bordering on a lie. Wikipedia: "Webvan tried to embrace a total customer satisfaction model involving a 30 minute window delivery without considering that many working customers would like their groceries delivered at home at night."
zx76 16y ago
"But basically, if you go by YouWeb’s comparison estimates, Relan has turned $700,000 into around $1 billion in value in just three years, and created close to 200 jobs in the process. To be sure, the $1 billion isn’t all YouWeb’s — Relan didn’t disclose the amount of equity the incubator has in each of its startups." But basically, he hasn't turned "$700,000 into around $1 billion".
jdp23 16y ago
They estimate CrowdStar is worth around $400 to $500 million and OpenFeint around $400 million (using Playfish's and ngmoco's acquistions, each for $400M, as comparables). Are there any YC companies that have similar valuation estimates?
vaksel 16y ago
i notice that their $1 billion dollar valuation is based entirely on things in the game sector. and $100 million dollar valuation for an iPad app seems crazy...ditto for the $100 million valuation for the sibblingz...I dunno their numbers, but their alexa rank is close to 2 million, which is like 5 visits a day. same for the crowdstar and openfeint...sure those are successful, but not $400 million valuation successful. this article sounds like a puff piece to get people interested in youweb.
akozak 16y ago
"Whereas an incubator like Y Combinator looks for applicants who already have a strong startup idea in mind, YouWeb prefers those who don’t. “I’m not looking for the next Facebook, Microsoft or Google,” he says. Instead, Relan is decidedly people-focused. He wants “brilliant technical developers” who are not necessarily passionate about one concept or idea, but about the bigger industry in general. YouWeb then works with young, unproven entrepreneurs to target markets that are “interesting” and create the idea and the company." I thought YC stresses that it's decisions aren't idea-driven?

40 points by harscoat 16y ago

"He founded and led two companies, Webvan Group and Business Signatures, which were both sold." Bringing up Webvan and only saying that it sold is like bringing up Ted Kaczynski and only saying that he went to Harvard. This is written like the author is trying to play up YouWeb, but I don't know why he would be motivated to do that.

samtp 16y ago
I don't know Peter, but thats a horrible comparison. While the article may be biased, people here on the Y Combinator board should show some respect. Just because he has a different model doesn't make it a threat to Y Combinator.
- aristus 16y ago
  The OP was talking about omission, not Peter directly. Webvan was a spectacular, legendary failure that destroyed almost a billion dollars of investor wealth, mainly through incompetently aping Amazon's business model without fully understanding it. Not even bothering to hint at that when talking about someone who led the company is a huge omission bordering on a lie. Wikipedia: "Webvan tried to embrace a total customer satisfaction model involving a 30 minute window delivery without considering that many working customers would like their groceries delivered at home at night."

zx76 16y ago

"But basically, if you go by YouWeb’s comparison estimates, Relan has turned $700,000 into around $1 billion in value in just three years, and created close to 200 jobs in the process. To be sure, the $1 billion isn’t all YouWeb’s — Relan didn’t disclose the amount of equity the incubator has in each of its startups." But basically, he hasn't turned "$700,000 into around $1 billion".

jdp23 16y ago

They estimate CrowdStar is worth around $400 to $500 million and OpenFeint around $400 million (using Playfish's and ngmoco's acquistions, each for $400M, as comparables). Are there any YC companies that have similar valuation estimates?

vaksel 16y ago

i notice that their $1 billion dollar valuation is based entirely on things in the game sector. and $100 million dollar valuation for an iPad app seems crazy...ditto for the $100 million valuation for the sibblingz...I dunno their numbers, but their alexa rank is close to 2 million, which is like 5 visits a day. same for the crowdstar and openfeint...sure those are successful, but not $400 million valuation successful. this article sounds like a puff piece to get people interested in youweb.

akozak 16y ago

"Whereas an incubator like Y Combinator looks for applicants who already have a strong startup idea in mind, YouWeb prefers those who don’t. “I’m not looking for the next Facebook, Microsoft or Google,” he says. Instead, Relan is decidedly people-focused. He wants “brilliant technical developers” who are not necessarily passionate about one concept or idea, but about the bigger industry in general. YouWeb then works with young, unproven entrepreneurs to target markets that are “interesting” and create the idea and the company." I thought YC stresses that it's decisions aren't idea-driven?