4 ms·

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

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.

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.