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"But the founders in the first batch turned out to be surprisingly good. And great people too. " I'd love to read a "where are they now" post on the first coup

"But the founders in the first batch turned out to be surprisingly good. And great people too. " I'd love to read a "where are they now" post on the first couple batches of founders, along with some quotes from them.

DilipJ 15y ago
I think Reddit is the greatest thing to come out of the first batch.
- prawn 15y ago
  And I always think that if you pitched it to anyone at the time, how many would've laughed in your face?
  - blafro 15y ago
    Can't find a link, but I think I saw somewhere that pg/YC actually pitched reddit to the reddit team because they liked the team but disliked their original idea.
    - prawn 15y ago
      Pretty ballsy either way.
- tomblomfield 15y ago
  And Loopt
ig1 15y ago
Reddit - Acquired by Conde Nast. Kiko - Acquired by Tucows, team founded Justin.tv Loopt - Raised 15million in Series A and B financing, at it's peak was valued at $500m, sold for $40m to Green Dot Simmery - Closed. Founder went back to uni. Infogami - Merged with Reddit. MemAmp - Never launched, one founder (Chris) joined reddit one (Zak) went back to uni. FireCrawl - Never launched, team founded TextPayMe and got acquired by amazon. ClickFacts - YC stake acquired by private investors because YC wasn't a good fit. Company still exists.
- xxpor 15y ago
  Amazon just announced today that TextPayMe will be shut down.
- chubot 15y ago
  Wow, that's phenomenal. In 7 years, out of 8 companies there were 5 acquisitions (and a couple mergers). I'm sure any VC would be ecstatic to have that kind of success rate. Reddit is the most prominent. It's had a huge impact although from what I understand it hasn't done extremely well financially.
  - larrys 15y ago
    "Wow, that's phenomenal." That's quite a halo effect that has prevented you from seeing the true "success rate". Where are you getting 5 acquisitions from? Reddit, Loopt basically made out. Infogami merged with Reddit. That's essentially a save face maneuver and doesn't exactly signal success. Clickfacts - "YC stake acquired by private investors" doesn't sound like that would be a win but a break even. More like "take it off our hands". Kiko - Sold in an ebay auction for 258,000. http://gigaom.com/2006/09/05/tucows-bought-kiko/ http://gigaom.com/2006/09/05/tucows-bought-kiko/ http://tucowsinc.com/news/2006/09/why-we-bought-kikocom/ http://tucowsinc.com/news/2006/09/why-we-bought-kikocom/ I'd give it 2.1 out of 8.
    - cperciva 15y ago
      I don't know what Reddit sold for, but while Loopt's $40M was far down from its earlier $500M, it's still a hell of a lot more than the ~$300k valuation it would have had when YC invested in it.
      - vecter 15y ago
        Loopt raised $32M in funding [1], so a $40M exit is roughly scratch. [1] http://www.crunchbase.com/company/loopt http://www.crunchbase.com/company/loopt
    - rdl 15y ago

DilipJ 15y ago

I think Reddit is the greatest thing to come out of the first batch.

prawn 15y ago
And I always think that if you pitched it to anyone at the time, how many would've laughed in your face?
- blafro 15y ago
  Can't find a link, but I think I saw somewhere that pg/YC actually pitched reddit to the reddit team because they liked the team but disliked their original idea.
  - prawn 15y ago
    Pretty ballsy either way.
tomblomfield 15y ago
And Loopt

ig1 15y ago

Reddit - Acquired by Conde Nast. Kiko - Acquired by Tucows, team founded Justin.tv Loopt - Raised 15million in Series A and B financing, at it's peak was valued at $500m, sold for $40m to Green Dot Simmery - Closed. Founder went back to uni. Infogami - Merged with Reddit. MemAmp - Never launched, one founder (Chris) joined reddit one (Zak) went back to uni. FireCrawl - Never launched, team founded TextPayMe and got acquired by amazon. ClickFacts - YC stake acquired by private investors because YC wasn't a good fit. Company still exists.

xxpor 15y ago
Amazon just announced today that TextPayMe will be shut down.
chubot 15y ago
Wow, that's phenomenal. In 7 years, out of 8 companies there were 5 acquisitions (and a couple mergers). I'm sure any VC would be ecstatic to have that kind of success rate. Reddit is the most prominent. It's had a huge impact although from what I understand it hasn't done extremely well financially.
- larrys 15y ago
  "Wow, that's phenomenal." That's quite a halo effect that has prevented you from seeing the true "success rate". Where are you getting 5 acquisitions from? Reddit, Loopt basically made out. Infogami merged with Reddit. That's essentially a save face maneuver and doesn't exactly signal success. Clickfacts - "YC stake acquired by private investors" doesn't sound like that would be a win but a break even. More like "take it off our hands". Kiko - Sold in an ebay auction for 258,000. http://gigaom.com/2006/09/05/tucows-bought-kiko/ http://gigaom.com/2006/09/05/tucows-bought-kiko/ http://tucowsinc.com/news/2006/09/why-we-bought-kikocom/ http://tucowsinc.com/news/2006/09/why-we-bought-kikocom/ I'd give it 2.1 out of 8.
  - cperciva 15y ago
    I don't know what Reddit sold for, but while Loopt's $40M was far down from its earlier $500M, it's still a hell of a lot more than the ~$300k valuation it would have had when YC invested in it.
    - vecter 15y ago
      Loopt raised $32M in funding [1], so a $40M exit is roughly scratch. [1] http://www.crunchbase.com/company/loopt http://www.crunchbase.com/company/loopt
  - rdl 15y ago