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It's not a mystery, they explain it right here: https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/ycs-500-000-standard-deal https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/ycs-500-000-standard

It's not a mystery, they explain it right here: https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/ycs-500-000-standard-deal https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/ycs-500-000-standard-deal

O__________O 4y ago
>> This is the type of deal that we have wanted to offer YC founders for years As someone that cares about founders, rather see 7000 startups get $20k than 240 get $500k; obviously not my choice to make though.
- daviddever23box 4y ago
  Why? Not all startups are able to thrive....
  - O__________O 4y ago
    If there’s material difference in quality of startups in YC now and 10 years again, I am not seeing it. If anything, they had 19,000 applications the batch. If applications are not good enough, then problem is they’re not communicating what they need and a path to anyone proving they’re making progress. Per YC, this proof of progress is the best predictor of founder success. Beyond that, they also claim their alumni network is their greatest asset. Obviously growing it requires quality control, but there’s no reason no to add “levels” to maintain quality within the network. Simply put, there story neither adds up, nor fits their claims. To be it appears they have switch to competing on cash offers, which if true, is a bad signal.
- gus_massa 4y ago
  They can't scale [1] to handle 7000 startups. Their model is not so fire and forget, but to babysit^H provide office hours to the founders and they to give advice. There was a recent article with one of the former presidents of YC and he said that the year ¿2012? was a problem because they had more than ¿100? startups and it was impossible for the advisors to remember all of them and give good advice on the spot. IIRC they later shardered the advisors and startups an lived happy ever after, or something like that. My guess is that the current structure can handle a few hundred startups, but not a few thousands. Also, there is a problem with brand dilution. The #5000 startup in whatever order they are using is probably much worse than the #50, and they want to be known for having only startups that don't suck. [1] Ar least for now.
  - O__________O 4y ago
    80% of startups need the same advice, it can be scaled. Also, one of YC’s competitors is doing just fine scaling and literally charges founders to join a cohort.
    - gus_massa 4y ago
      It's discussed in that article. I just found it "What I’ve learned from users" http://paulgraham.com/users.html http://paulgraham.com/users.html HN discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32911195 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32911195 (519 points | 17 days ago | 332 comments) They agree that startups need the same set of advices, and the benefit of the advisors is that they probably had seen the problem before. But they don't need the same advice at the same time, so the advisor must understand the current problem of the startup and the general situation of the startup and give personalized advice. It's not possible to give all of them the same advice at the same time like in a class.
      - O__________O 4y ago
        Aware they agree, pretty obvious in my opinion if you’ve actually worked with 1000s of startups. As it relates to mentoring, in my opinion, really just three core parts: - Accountability - Problem Solving - Networking/Intros All of these are addressable using software & system, classroom training for mentors, and auditable using voice to text systems similar to how Gong.io does it for sales teams. YC is a software company, they know it too. If they don’t change they won’t last next 10 years.

It's not a mystery, they explain it right here: https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/ycs-500-000-standard-deal https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/ycs-500-000-standard-deal

O__________O 4y ago

>> This is the type of deal that we have wanted to offer YC founders for years As someone that cares about founders, rather see 7000 startups get $20k than 240 get $500k; obviously not my choice to make though.

daviddever23box 4y ago
Why? Not all startups are able to thrive....
- O__________O 4y ago
  If there’s material difference in quality of startups in YC now and 10 years again, I am not seeing it. If anything, they had 19,000 applications the batch. If applications are not good enough, then problem is they’re not communicating what they need and a path to anyone proving they’re making progress. Per YC, this proof of progress is the best predictor of founder success. Beyond that, they also claim their alumni network is their greatest asset. Obviously growing it requires quality control, but there’s no reason no to add “levels” to maintain quality within the network. Simply put, there story neither adds up, nor fits their claims. To be it appears they have switch to competing on cash offers, which if true, is a bad signal.
gus_massa 4y ago
They can't scale [1] to handle 7000 startups. Their model is not so fire and forget, but to babysit^H provide office hours to the founders and they to give advice. There was a recent article with one of the former presidents of YC and he said that the year ¿2012? was a problem because they had more than ¿100? startups and it was impossible for the advisors to remember all of them and give good advice on the spot. IIRC they later shardered the advisors and startups an lived happy ever after, or something like that. My guess is that the current structure can handle a few hundred startups, but not a few thousands. Also, there is a problem with brand dilution. The #5000 startup in whatever order they are using is probably much worse than the #50, and they want to be known for having only startups that don't suck. [1] Ar least for now.
- O__________O 4y ago
  80% of startups need the same advice, it can be scaled. Also, one of YC’s competitors is doing just fine scaling and literally charges founders to join a cohort.
  - gus_massa 4y ago
    It's discussed in that article. I just found it "What I’ve learned from users" http://paulgraham.com/users.html http://paulgraham.com/users.html HN discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32911195 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32911195 (519 points | 17 days ago | 332 comments) They agree that startups need the same set of advices, and the benefit of the advisors is that they probably had seen the problem before. But they don't need the same advice at the same time, so the advisor must understand the current problem of the startup and the general situation of the startup and give personalized advice. It's not possible to give all of them the same advice at the same time like in a class.
    - O__________O 4y ago
      Aware they agree, pretty obvious in my opinion if you’ve actually worked with 1000s of startups. As it relates to mentoring, in my opinion, really just three core parts: - Accountability - Problem Solving - Networking/Intros All of these are addressable using software & system, classroom training for mentors, and auditable using voice to text systems similar to how Gong.io does it for sales teams. YC is a software company, they know it too. If they don’t change they won’t last next 10 years.