3 ms·

>In a few years when there are 1000 YC companies it will start to mean a lot less to all those people who have been helping YC companies succeed to date. Harva

by stevenj 15y ago

>In a few years when there are 1000 YC companies it will start to mean a lot less to all those people who have been helping YC companies succeed to date. Harvard, Yale, MIT, Stanford, etc. seem to be doing rather well, as far as higher education goes. And I would imagine those that have partnered with them are doing okay too. Quality matters. >It probably already means a lot less to a VC to hear you're a YC company, because they've met 300 of them. I doubt that. A VC is just trying to pick the next Google. Or the next Google founder(s).

Jd 15y ago
Right on. I think as long as the quality of YC companies remains high, the presence of imitators will of course increase the value of the original, just as in higher ed. Startup incubators may in some ways be easier to replace than universities (Harvard, Brown, etc. are still going strong after 200+ years), but they are subject to similar dynamics, insofar as there is team loyalty and networking benefits (as there obviously are). Personally, I would accept 10% dilution of my company simply to be an YCombinator alumnus since I think the benefits are and will remain that high.
sabj 15y ago
The difference is that startups have a much shorter time horizon on which you can measure success, and their success is measured in different ways. While notoriously difficult to precisely compute, because of the length of time necessary to judge the impact of an 'XYZ Degree,' thorough studies show relatively small or, for many cohorts, almost nonexistent benefits to these kinds of Ivy League educations. For, as in the case of YC, the success is first and foremost attributable to the participants - and whatever other value there may be is easily confounded and exaggerated. The only fair way to establish a comparison is to consider those who were accepted to YC, but chose not to enroll, for whatever reason. This is reasonably clear when X is 1300 students a year, harder when it's less than 100 startups. Anyway, a rather belabored way of saying that the higher education comparison may be accurate... but not necessarily in the way that you think!
byrneseyeview 15y ago
Harvard, Yale, MIT, Stanford, etc. seem to be doing rather well, as far as higher education goes. Not a good example. These schools increase their enrollment very slowly, while other schools have grown massively. As a percentage of total college grads, these schools are more exclusive than they used to be. But the general idea is correct: the value of the YC brand is getting diluted, of course (imagine what it would mean if YC funded just one company per cycle!), but the total value of the brand keeps going up.

by stevenj 15y ago

Jd 15y ago

Right on. I think as long as the quality of YC companies remains high, the presence of imitators will of course increase the value of the original, just as in higher ed. Startup incubators may in some ways be easier to replace than universities (Harvard, Brown, etc. are still going strong after 200+ years), but they are subject to similar dynamics, insofar as there is team loyalty and networking benefits (as there obviously are). Personally, I would accept 10% dilution of my company simply to be an YCombinator alumnus since I think the benefits are and will remain that high.

sabj 15y ago

The difference is that startups have a much shorter time horizon on which you can measure success, and their success is measured in different ways. While notoriously difficult to precisely compute, because of the length of time necessary to judge the impact of an 'XYZ Degree,' thorough studies show relatively small or, for many cohorts, almost nonexistent benefits to these kinds of Ivy League educations. For, as in the case of YC, the success is first and foremost attributable to the participants - and whatever other value there may be is easily confounded and exaggerated. The only fair way to establish a comparison is to consider those who were accepted to YC, but chose not to enroll, for whatever reason. This is reasonably clear when X is 1300 students a year, harder when it's less than 100 startups. Anyway, a rather belabored way of saying that the higher education comparison may be accurate... but not necessarily in the way that you think!

byrneseyeview 15y ago

Harvard, Yale, MIT, Stanford, etc. seem to be doing rather well, as far as higher education goes. Not a good example. These schools increase their enrollment very slowly, while other schools have grown massively. As a percentage of total college grads, these schools are more exclusive than they used to be. But the general idea is correct: the value of the YC brand is getting diluted, of course (imagine what it would mean if YC funded just one company per cycle!), but the total value of the brand keeps going up.