4 ms·

What are YC's weaknesses?

by stevenj 15y ago

pg 15y ago
The biggest is probably the meta-weakness of not focusing on any specific market. How much that matters depends on how unusual the market is. Education, for example, is a very unusual market, and Imagine K12 has a unique advantage in the network of schools they have access to.
- stevenj 15y ago
  What makes a market unusual?
  - Dn_Ab 15y ago
    Based on his single example I suspect any market which requires intimate familiarity with and the ability to minimize what bureaucratic ritual dances must be taken before, after and in-between any action.
  - SkyMarshal 15y ago
    Some guesses: * Barriers to entry not commonly seen in the web/mobile space (complex bureaucracy + entrenched players with opposing interests able to grease that bureaucracy, etc.). * Lots of disparate stakeholders that all have to be coordinated and managed (healthcare: govt, taxpayers, patients, doctors/staff, insurance companies. Education: Parents & taxpayers, teachers unions, students, local+state+federal govt.) * The market is not traditionally tech-savy and/or early-adopting. Users have to be actively convinced. Getting traction is even more of an uphill battle. * Anywhere the risks to loss of investment are not transparent or clearly understood. Maybe all markets are like this to an extent, but some moreso than others?
  - a5seo 15y ago
    non-economic decision making government regulation
  - siavosh 15y ago
    I think yc generally does best with consumer products where the founder could put himself int he place of the user. Industry products (good example is health care) has such a high barrier to understanding that someone who hasn't been in the field would have a very difficult time designing a useful tool.
  - puredemo 15y ago
    Government.
- acangiano 15y ago
  In my opinion, some of your biggest strengths are also what leaves room for competitors. For example, you focus on Silicon Valley where you are extremely well connected. Competitors could do very well by simply focusing on less glamorous, but emerging startup hubs. You require people to relocate to Silicon Valley for a few months. This shows commitment from both parties and is a smart choice for you, but it also makes the program inflexible and unsuitable for a great deal of talented, perhaps more experienced people who cannot easily relocate. Your typical candidate is a student who is fresh out of college. Your competitors may capture the value in other demographics which have less flexibility when it comes to relocation, ability to quit their job, and so on. Imagine an Untyped Lambda which offers similar terms to yours, but is also very flexible. You don't have to relocate (you can work remotely). Oh, and you can also apply if you are going to do this part-time, if at the moment you are employed and want to see where the startup goes before quitting your job. You may think that this idea is grounds for a complete disaster, that such candidates might not committed, and so on - but perhaps, just maybe, such a degree of flexibility would lead to all sorts of new talent giving entrepreneurship a honest shot. I'm not advocating that you do all that, but rather that a smart competitor may use it to their advantage.
  - nl 15y ago
    Oh, and you can also apply if you are going to do this part-time, if at the moment you are employed and want to see where the startup goes before quitting your job. To be honest, that doesn't sound like a very promising investment opportunity. YCombinator isn't a charity - they need things to succeed.
    - acangiano 15y ago
      That may be an edge case, but it wouldn't be the first time that someone built a great company out of a side project or an idea developed after work either. My point is that such an investor wouldn't exclude people a priori because they can't relocate to Silicon Valley. Instead it would evaluate each case and select only the most promising investments, including the outliers who happens to have little flexibility at the time of the investment.
- MenaMena123 15y ago
  At the end of the decision making, do you feel many other great startups are being left out, due to the amount of startups you can only choose? Or you feel the others just don't have something going on.
  - pg 15y ago
    We know we have to be missing a few every time, but I would not say many.
    - david927 15y ago
      That's a dishonest thing to say. The truth is that you can't possibly know which companies, if you had funded them, would have become great companies.
      - prpon 15y ago
        If recognition from YC is the only piece that is missing from a startup's puzzle, I would be disappointed if they cannot make it on their own. Many of us are at different levels of competence at being a successful entrepreneur. Many drop off from the startup world altogether, some drop off from applying to YC and endup with a small business, a tiny few will show up as groupons of the world.
      - brlewis 15y ago
        He's answering a "do you feel" question. You can't possibly know if he's being dishonest.
      - pg 15y ago
        One way we know is by seeing how they do afterward. A company that would have been great if we funded them is probably going to do at least ok if we don't.
        david927 15y ago
        I assumed that was your line of reasoning but probably is a big word here. I don't think it's something you can really know in that it's finding proof in a negative, such as when a doctor says to a patient, "The tests didn't find cancer -- you're cancer free!" If Larry and Sergey had done their post-graduate work in Moldova, the world wouldn't have Google. (Remember they shopped Page Rank to places like Yahoo, who didn't want it. As an idea, no one believed in it.) The connections at Stanford gave them access to capital which they otherwise would not have had, which allowed them to prove the concept. Without that funding, Page Rank would be just another dissertation.
sampsonjs 15y ago
Acting like a college admissions board, instead of seeking out and meeting entrepreneurs year round?

What are YC's weaknesses?

by stevenj 15y ago

What are YC's weaknesses?

pg 15y ago

The biggest is probably the meta-weakness of not focusing on any specific market. How much that matters depends on how unusual the market is. Education, for example, is a very unusual market, and Imagine K12 has a unique advantage in the network of schools they have access to.

stevenj 15y ago
What makes a market unusual?
- Dn_Ab 15y ago
  Based on his single example I suspect any market which requires intimate familiarity with and the ability to minimize what bureaucratic ritual dances must be taken before, after and in-between any action.
- SkyMarshal 15y ago
  Some guesses: * Barriers to entry not commonly seen in the web/mobile space (complex bureaucracy + entrenched players with opposing interests able to grease that bureaucracy, etc.). * Lots of disparate stakeholders that all have to be coordinated and managed (healthcare: govt, taxpayers, patients, doctors/staff, insurance companies. Education: Parents & taxpayers, teachers unions, students, local+state+federal govt.) * The market is not traditionally tech-savy and/or early-adopting. Users have to be actively convinced. Getting traction is even more of an uphill battle. * Anywhere the risks to loss of investment are not transparent or clearly understood. Maybe all markets are like this to an extent, but some moreso than others?
- a5seo 15y ago
  non-economic decision making government regulation
- siavosh 15y ago
  I think yc generally does best with consumer products where the founder could put himself int he place of the user. Industry products (good example is health care) has such a high barrier to understanding that someone who hasn't been in the field would have a very difficult time designing a useful tool.
- puredemo 15y ago
  Government.
acangiano 15y ago
In my opinion, some of your biggest strengths are also what leaves room for competitors. For example, you focus on Silicon Valley where you are extremely well connected. Competitors could do very well by simply focusing on less glamorous, but emerging startup hubs. You require people to relocate to Silicon Valley for a few months. This shows commitment from both parties and is a smart choice for you, but it also makes the program inflexible and unsuitable for a great deal of talented, perhaps more experienced people who cannot easily relocate. Your typical candidate is a student who is fresh out of college. Your competitors may capture the value in other demographics which have less flexibility when it comes to relocation, ability to quit their job, and so on. Imagine an Untyped Lambda which offers similar terms to yours, but is also very flexible. You don't have to relocate (you can work remotely). Oh, and you can also apply if you are going to do this part-time, if at the moment you are employed and want to see where the startup goes before quitting your job. You may think that this idea is grounds for a complete disaster, that such candidates might not committed, and so on - but perhaps, just maybe, such a degree of flexibility would lead to all sorts of new talent giving entrepreneurship a honest shot. I'm not advocating that you do all that, but rather that a smart competitor may use it to their advantage.
- nl 15y ago
  Oh, and you can also apply if you are going to do this part-time, if at the moment you are employed and want to see where the startup goes before quitting your job. To be honest, that doesn't sound like a very promising investment opportunity. YCombinator isn't a charity - they need things to succeed.
  - acangiano 15y ago
    That may be an edge case, but it wouldn't be the first time that someone built a great company out of a side project or an idea developed after work either. My point is that such an investor wouldn't exclude people a priori because they can't relocate to Silicon Valley. Instead it would evaluate each case and select only the most promising investments, including the outliers who happens to have little flexibility at the time of the investment.
MenaMena123 15y ago
At the end of the decision making, do you feel many other great startups are being left out, due to the amount of startups you can only choose? Or you feel the others just don't have something going on.
- pg 15y ago
  We know we have to be missing a few every time, but I would not say many.
  - david927 15y ago
    That's a dishonest thing to say. The truth is that you can't possibly know which companies, if you had funded them, would have become great companies.
    - prpon 15y ago
      If recognition from YC is the only piece that is missing from a startup's puzzle, I would be disappointed if they cannot make it on their own. Many of us are at different levels of competence at being a successful entrepreneur. Many drop off from the startup world altogether, some drop off from applying to YC and endup with a small business, a tiny few will show up as groupons of the world.
    - brlewis 15y ago
      He's answering a "do you feel" question. You can't possibly know if he's being dishonest.
    - pg 15y ago
      One way we know is by seeing how they do afterward. A company that would have been great if we funded them is probably going to do at least ok if we don't.
      - david927 15y ago
        I assumed that was your line of reasoning but probably is a big word here. I don't think it's something you can really know in that it's finding proof in a negative, such as when a doctor says to a patient, "The tests didn't find cancer -- you're cancer free!" If Larry and Sergey had done their post-graduate work in Moldova, the world wouldn't have Google. (Remember they shopped Page Rank to places like Yahoo, who didn't want it. As an idea, no one believed in it.) The connections at Stanford gave them access to capital which they otherwise would not have had, which allowed them to prove the concept. Without that funding, Page Rank would be just another dissertation.

sampsonjs 15y ago

Acting like a college admissions board, instead of seeking out and meeting entrepreneurs year round?