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Love this article. I had a chance to go through YC S20 and it's been life changing for me. As someone who lives in a non-target city (Charlotte, NC) and with no

by nkotov 5y ago

Love this article. I had a chance to go through YC S20 and it's been life changing for me. As someone who lives in a non-target city (Charlotte, NC) and with no connections to SV and not having a fancy degree, getting into YC opened so many doors for me. As a first-time founder, the 7% that YC takes seems like almost nothing when in return you get access to very valuable information and network. If I was to start a new company again, I'd still apply for YC again.

aerosmile 5y ago
The challenge of a random company posting about their experience at YC is the same as what you'll hear about HBS - it's always anecdotal and tied to the personal outcome of the writer. Are there people who spend a shit ton on HBS and don't return that investment soon enough? Sure. Would it make sense to go to HBS? Depending on where you net out, it can be the best or the worst investment you've ever made. The nice thing about YC is that you're not investing your cash, but equity. If you have the right business/team/timing/execution, then the cost of equity will be high, but you'll do better than you ever expected so it's all good. And if you don't do well, then your equity wasn't worth much to start with, and you essentially got the HBS experience for free without any of the debt.
- samb1729 5y ago
  By HBS do you mean Harvard Business School?
  - aerosmile 5y ago
    Yep
- Apofis 5y ago
  I don't think you can lose with HBS. If you want to talk scaling and on speak eye to eye with VC's and don't think entrepreneurship is a lottery, then a business school always makes sense. This comes with a but... BUT only if you plan to lead or scale your enterprise. It's only what I see from the outside so far, since I'm just getting ready to dip my toes. Ideas are ideas, everyone has one, like a netherhole. The ability to execute is the determining factor.
poorjohnmacafee 5y ago
Definitely understand the appeal for first time founders, and founders who are early in their careers so don't have contacts in the industry they are building products for, but having gone through an accelerator myself, I can't really imagine going through an accelerator a second time. Maybe for second time it still makes it easier to get introductions for b2b customers? But the accelerator I went through also taught a ton of strategies/tools for getting early customers without depending on just other companies in the network using each others products.
- lbriner 5y ago
  I think it is fair to say that YC are not just "an accelerator", they have a massive pool of investors and advisors. I too was in an accelerator but although famous, was nowhere near as potent as YC. Sure, there are things that you get frustrated at (like some 20 year old telling you, at 40, how to do finance, when you would rather be building) but it sounds like the biggest thing is the culture and being prepared to delegate a lot of what you think you know to the way YC tell you to do it. I think a lot of Entrepreneur types don't like being told that their way is not correct!
- corry 5y ago
  There are many reasons - (1) the halo effect for future rounds of funding, not to mention Demo Day itself; (2) access to absolute god-tier advisors in areas that even though you're not a first-timer, you may not have experience with (e.g. you founded a B2B SaaS company before but now are trying a B2C thing); (3) help with hiring (YMMV on this). Also the nature of a highly focused sprint for 90 days to see if something is ready to take-off can be a great forcing function too (maybe on its own that's not compelling enough, but across these various items it seems reasonable to do it again).
fairity 5y ago
> If I was to start a new company again, I'd still apply for YC again. Once you go through YC once, you have access to all the information and alumni community in perpetuity (via Bookface). I think it's natural to want to go through YC again as a form of reciprocation (for all the value you received the first time), but you might find that the value-maximizing route is to take capital from other sources if you go to bat again.
- nkotov 5y ago
  I'd apply not just for that but the access to group partners who know your business in and out is worth a lot to me. There were several instances where I needed advice from people who had experience my group partners helped.

by nkotov 5y ago

aerosmile 5y ago

The challenge of a random company posting about their experience at YC is the same as what you'll hear about HBS - it's always anecdotal and tied to the personal outcome of the writer. Are there people who spend a shit ton on HBS and don't return that investment soon enough? Sure. Would it make sense to go to HBS? Depending on where you net out, it can be the best or the worst investment you've ever made. The nice thing about YC is that you're not investing your cash, but equity. If you have the right business/team/timing/execution, then the cost of equity will be high, but you'll do better than you ever expected so it's all good. And if you don't do well, then your equity wasn't worth much to start with, and you essentially got the HBS experience for free without any of the debt.

samb1729 5y ago
By HBS do you mean Harvard Business School?
- aerosmile 5y ago
  Yep
Apofis 5y ago
I don't think you can lose with HBS. If you want to talk scaling and on speak eye to eye with VC's and don't think entrepreneurship is a lottery, then a business school always makes sense. This comes with a but... BUT only if you plan to lead or scale your enterprise. It's only what I see from the outside so far, since I'm just getting ready to dip my toes. Ideas are ideas, everyone has one, like a netherhole. The ability to execute is the determining factor.

poorjohnmacafee 5y ago

Definitely understand the appeal for first time founders, and founders who are early in their careers so don't have contacts in the industry they are building products for, but having gone through an accelerator myself, I can't really imagine going through an accelerator a second time. Maybe for second time it still makes it easier to get introductions for b2b customers? But the accelerator I went through also taught a ton of strategies/tools for getting early customers without depending on just other companies in the network using each others products.

lbriner 5y ago
I think it is fair to say that YC are not just "an accelerator", they have a massive pool of investors and advisors. I too was in an accelerator but although famous, was nowhere near as potent as YC. Sure, there are things that you get frustrated at (like some 20 year old telling you, at 40, how to do finance, when you would rather be building) but it sounds like the biggest thing is the culture and being prepared to delegate a lot of what you think you know to the way YC tell you to do it. I think a lot of Entrepreneur types don't like being told that their way is not correct!
corry 5y ago
There are many reasons - (1) the halo effect for future rounds of funding, not to mention Demo Day itself; (2) access to absolute god-tier advisors in areas that even though you're not a first-timer, you may not have experience with (e.g. you founded a B2B SaaS company before but now are trying a B2C thing); (3) help with hiring (YMMV on this). Also the nature of a highly focused sprint for 90 days to see if something is ready to take-off can be a great forcing function too (maybe on its own that's not compelling enough, but across these various items it seems reasonable to do it again).

fairity 5y ago

> If I was to start a new company again, I'd still apply for YC again. Once you go through YC once, you have access to all the information and alumni community in perpetuity (via Bookface). I think it's natural to want to go through YC again as a form of reciprocation (for all the value you received the first time), but you might find that the value-maximizing route is to take capital from other sources if you go to bat again.

nkotov 5y ago
I'd apply not just for that but the access to group partners who know your business in and out is worth a lot to me. There were several instances where I needed advice from people who had experience my group partners helped.