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The cost/benefit of giving up equity or taking VC funding is highly personal, situational decision. The correct answer is "It depends". The folks that YC funds

The cost/benefit of giving up equity or taking VC funding is highly personal, situational decision. The correct answer is "It depends". The folks that YC funds, by and large, have no business experience at all, so it is likely well worth it for them. But you can "go to school" (the school of hard knocks, that is) to learn those things YC brings too. That learning process takes time - time you may not have. Ironically, in a serious downturn you turn out to have plenty of time. Companies like Flickr came out in a fairly relaxed time - nothing much was happening anyway. They actually took their time (Flickr was a side project of a site they called Game Never Ending which was on for a long time ...) By comparison, we are now in a relatively frenzied times, and success is necessarily harder to achieve, so every bit of assistance you can get may be worth it. To visualize the kind of "no body cares" times, look at the business of starting a classy restaurant right about now (with restaurant chains all around folding). You have to be pretty passionate to keep going at it. Funding? Unlikely.

azharcs 18y ago
The folks that YC funds, by and large, have no business experience at all, so it is likely well worth it for them. But you can "go to school" (the school of hard knocks, that is) to learn those things YC brings too. That learning process takes time - time you may not have. I don't fully agree with this, mainly because nobody can teach you business or anything close to business in 3 months. True, YC gives you a gist of how a start up really works and how you need to go through that process but that might not work out for you mainly because there are tons of reasons for success and failure and we hardly know them. To me YC is like an identity, in a world where everyone is same it tries to make you stand out from others. If you want me to compare YC with Hollywood, the position of YC is something like Godfather. Paul Graham is to Hackers what Don Corleone was for Italian immigrants. He pretty much gives you an identity, mentorship and protection for a tiny company share. Think of the Italian Immigrants if they didn't have Godfather, they would have been badly exploited by the system and would have ended up as nobody's. Paul Graham takes the position of Don Corleone and saves Hackers from being exploted in a big bad world of Start ups and Business by being there for you. This is my personal definition of YC. Hence the start of YC Mafia.

azharcs 18y ago

The folks that YC funds, by and large, have no business experience at all, so it is likely well worth it for them. But you can "go to school" (the school of hard knocks, that is) to learn those things YC brings too. That learning process takes time - time you may not have. I don't fully agree with this, mainly because nobody can teach you business or anything close to business in 3 months. True, YC gives you a gist of how a start up really works and how you need to go through that process but that might not work out for you mainly because there are tons of reasons for success and failure and we hardly know them. To me YC is like an identity, in a world where everyone is same it tries to make you stand out from others. If you want me to compare YC with Hollywood, the position of YC is something like Godfather. Paul Graham is to Hackers what Don Corleone was for Italian immigrants. He pretty much gives you an identity, mentorship and protection for a tiny company share. Think of the Italian Immigrants if they didn't have Godfather, they would have been badly exploited by the system and would have ended up as nobody's. Paul Graham takes the position of Don Corleone and saves Hackers from being exploted in a big bad world of Start ups and Business by being there for you. This is my personal definition of YC. Hence the start of YC Mafia.