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To me, this tweet seemed much more anti startup trying to grow big than anything anti-YC. Only using the tweet for marketing as mentioned at the bottom. At fir

To me, this tweet seemed much more anti startup trying to grow big than anything anti-YC. Only using the tweet for marketing as mentioned at the bottom. At first, it's against dedicating your life to your startup (which presumably you are already doing or at least want to do) and then states that YC actually has a good success rate for unicorns. Then he talks about doing some brainstorming to find ideas and product market fit, but at least from my perspective YC doesn't advocate for this at all, but rather talking to customers, getting their buy in and then making something that solves customer problems. Aka, not brainstorming at all. And then goes on to say that YC has lots of young people rather than older (more likely to be successful founders). But doesn't do any of the data diligence on percent of founders by age by industry and by YC vs. not. And finally he focuses on saying that only the unicorns were success stories and no one else, while advocating that you should aim for a smaller goal. But doesn't acknowledge any data of companies from YC that aren't unicorns but are still operating, sold for less than a billion, etc. I personally think that looking from the outside that YC is not for everyone and is geared towards the VC route. But if you want those things, then these arguments aren't valid for why you wouldn't apply.

pclmulqdq 2y ago
This sort of became an anti-VC rant, definitely, and also a little unfair to the product YC offers. It's a legitimate product in the market, not a scam, and the 22-year-olds who do it are not getting duped. My biggest issue with YC is that the deal isn't very good. Giving up 7-10% for $500k is pretty crappy for any company that has a decent shot at becoming anything good. That is why I have only ever applied to YC when my company ideas were very speculative. If you already have a network and a decent platform to communicate with people, as well as the motivation to go at it for yourself, you're giving up a huge chunk of the company for a pittance. If you already have the ability to go talk to a VC and an idea/product/company that is good enough to make it into YC, you don't need YC for your company. If you can sell YC on investing in you, you can sell your product. However, it does make sense to do YC right out of college to get the networking benefits and the credibility signal. That's why so many 22 year olds do it. It sacrifices your stake in your first company in exchange for helping you as an individual later in your career.
- boulos 2y ago
  > If you already have a network and a decent platform to communicate with people, as well as the motivation to go at it for yourself, you're giving up a huge chunk of the company for a pittance. But that's literally the point. You suddenly get a huge network that would help you get through the early stages. It's certainly true that many founders would find better terms elsewhere. However, it's also true that most companies fail. So negotiating better terms usually doesn't matter nearly as much as making the company more successful. (The same rationale applies to employee equity grants) Like you said, for people with no connections, whether just out of school or not, it's valuable.
  - mlhpdx 2y ago
    Agreed. YC from my POV is attractive not for the money but the motivation. The peer influence (encouragement, competition, accountability) is what I feel would improve my chances of building something amazing. But I can’t disagree with the Tweet’s argument that what’s good for YC (swinging for home runs) isn’t good for the vast majority of founders (but it is what those founders want, and why the lottery is a thing).
- sokoloff 2y ago
  There are a lot of ideas (virtually all of them) for which I’d give up 2-3% for $0 to go through the YC process and network even if I intended to bootstrap or think of the $500K as getting them the “other” 5% (or an ~$10M valuation).
  - pclmulqdq 2y ago
    Then go for it. I don't know if you've ever applied for YC, but it sounds like fun. I regret not doing it right out of college.
- bko 2y ago
  The biggest thing that sours me on YC is the exclusivity. They gets tens of thousands of apps for something like 300 spots. For all the criticism of artificial scarcity of places like Harvard, why is this different? As peter theil would say, competition is for losers. You shouldn’t participate in games that are zero sum and they shouldn’t pretend they have some kind of carefully thought out scientific method to determine who should get in. Half the companies I see in the batch are dog shit. A third of the companies are “ideas only” which is basically now an Opaque beauty contest. Just opt out and boycott these stupid status games

pclmulqdq 2y ago

This sort of became an anti-VC rant, definitely, and also a little unfair to the product YC offers. It's a legitimate product in the market, not a scam, and the 22-year-olds who do it are not getting duped. My biggest issue with YC is that the deal isn't very good. Giving up 7-10% for $500k is pretty crappy for any company that has a decent shot at becoming anything good. That is why I have only ever applied to YC when my company ideas were very speculative. If you already have a network and a decent platform to communicate with people, as well as the motivation to go at it for yourself, you're giving up a huge chunk of the company for a pittance. If you already have the ability to go talk to a VC and an idea/product/company that is good enough to make it into YC, you don't need YC for your company. If you can sell YC on investing in you, you can sell your product. However, it does make sense to do YC right out of college to get the networking benefits and the credibility signal. That's why so many 22 year olds do it. It sacrifices your stake in your first company in exchange for helping you as an individual later in your career.

boulos 2y ago
> If you already have a network and a decent platform to communicate with people, as well as the motivation to go at it for yourself, you're giving up a huge chunk of the company for a pittance. But that's literally the point. You suddenly get a huge network that would help you get through the early stages. It's certainly true that many founders would find better terms elsewhere. However, it's also true that most companies fail. So negotiating better terms usually doesn't matter nearly as much as making the company more successful. (The same rationale applies to employee equity grants) Like you said, for people with no connections, whether just out of school or not, it's valuable.
- mlhpdx 2y ago
  Agreed. YC from my POV is attractive not for the money but the motivation. The peer influence (encouragement, competition, accountability) is what I feel would improve my chances of building something amazing. But I can’t disagree with the Tweet’s argument that what’s good for YC (swinging for home runs) isn’t good for the vast majority of founders (but it is what those founders want, and why the lottery is a thing).
sokoloff 2y ago
There are a lot of ideas (virtually all of them) for which I’d give up 2-3% for $0 to go through the YC process and network even if I intended to bootstrap or think of the $500K as getting them the “other” 5% (or an ~$10M valuation).
- pclmulqdq 2y ago
  Then go for it. I don't know if you've ever applied for YC, but it sounds like fun. I regret not doing it right out of college.
bko 2y ago
The biggest thing that sours me on YC is the exclusivity. They gets tens of thousands of apps for something like 300 spots. For all the criticism of artificial scarcity of places like Harvard, why is this different? As peter theil would say, competition is for losers. You shouldn’t participate in games that are zero sum and they shouldn’t pretend they have some kind of carefully thought out scientific method to determine who should get in. Half the companies I see in the batch are dog shit. A third of the companies are “ideas only” which is basically now an Opaque beauty contest. Just opt out and boycott these stupid status games