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"This year, we’ll fund more than 500 companies out of 50,000 applications, and almost all of them are related to AI in some way." So, what this means: that in
by mrb 2y ago
"This year, we’ll fund more than 500 companies out of 50,000 applications, and almost all of them are related to AI in some way."
So, what this means: that in 2024, if you want to get VC capital, your startup must be related to AI.
- candiddevmike 2y agoIt's like VR in 2018. I'd love to see a Silicon Valley season for the current tech environment.
- jrockway 2y agoI think 2018 was the year of FinTech, which translates mostly to "altcoins". I was looking for a job in the summer of 2018 and that's what all the ads were for. Ended up working for an ISP though, which was nice.
- pram 2y agoHaven’t seen any “Web 3” shills for a long time, gone right out of style it has!
- jrockway 2y agoEveryone spent the cash they were going to invest into startups on NFTs, I guess.
- reducesuffering 2y agoDidn't stop YC from funding almost 100 of them[0] including signal boosting[1] this obvious scam that blatantly ripped off another's website and company too.[2] [0] https://www.ycombinator.com/companies?tags=Crypto%20%2F%20Web3 https://www.ycombinator.com/companies?tags=Crypto%20%2F%20We... [1] https://x.com/ycombinator/status/1517556338750074881?lang=en https://x.com/ycombinator/status/1517556338750074881?lang=en [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31686140 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31686140
- throw46365 2y agoScroll back far enough on the X timelines of a few AI evangelists/specialists/advisers: oop, there they are. NFTs, Ethereum, altcoins.
- rshah_45 2y agoSeason 9 Erlich: "Oh my god. It's an AI play. That's the frothiest space in the Valley right now. Nobody understands it but everyone wants in. Any idiot could walk into a fucking room, utter the letters A and I, and VCs would hurl bricks of cash at them.”.
- triyambakam 2y agoThat was well done
- rshah_45 2y agoIt's literally a quote from season 4 with VR replaced with AI.
- temp20240604 2y ago[flagged]
- ethbr1 2y agoSeason 9 Erlich = an actual GenAI Erlich Botman.
- sneak 2y agoVR won’t touch every aspect of society and government and corporate operations in five years. AI will.
- ethbr1 2y agoThat's like saying computing will. Yes, but...
- AlexandrB 2y agoI remember people saying the same about blockchain and, a little later, "the metaverse". A prominent, large tech company even changed its name to show its commitment to this promising technology!
- thisgoesnowhere 2y agoI mean there is absolutely no reason to think that AI (broadly) and blockchain are going to follow similar trajectories. I agree that every company becoming an "AI company" is not in the cards. However, I think there is going to be a slow ramp where every startup just throws a few annoying problems at a LLM instead of hiring ML people. And kinda like the internet it's just a tool that you use when appropriate, but the things where it's appropriate will continue to expand.
- mypalmike 2y agoSure, but it was fairly obvious to the critical eye that neither blockchain nor VR/metaverse were likely to have much impact beyond a few niches. Neither solves problems many people actually have. And a lot of the tech world rightly scoffed at the whole Facebook/Meta "transformation". But machine learning has been used for years behind the scenes in things like recommendations and clarification. And LLMs specifically, even in their current infancy, have shown immediate value in some cases (e.g. coding assistants) and obvious potential across a vast number of domains.
- fnalelal 2y ago"Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs, who got a sneak preview, said Kamen's creation was as big a deal as the PC, and that it would change the ways cities were designed. Renowned Silicon Valley venture capitalist John Doerr said it might be "bigger than the Internet" and invested millions in it."
- threeseed 2y agoThe current tech environment is very different from 6 months ago. Now most VCs are actually somewhat cautious about AI largely because they over-invested in companies at ridiculous high valuations and aren't seeing the ROI. Especially with many companies simply not seeing the promised benefits from deploying AI. YC is actually the one that is out of touch with reality.
- dylan604 2y agoHasn't this been true for several years now in practice if not in writing?
- jandrewrogers 2y agoDefinitely not, there are several other topical areas that currently have significant VC appetite. If anything, the enormous amount of social media attention on AI has made it easier to raise VC in other trending areas because all of the low-quality "me too" startups have gotten pulled into the fashionable AI orbit. This has significantly improved the signal-to-noise ratio in these non-AI areas because the legions of trend-jumping founders are all doing AI, the startups that remain tend to be founded by people with substantial investment and expertise in their domain without regard for fashion. This is good for VCs and for founders.
- marcosdumay 2y ago> made it easier to raise VC in other trending areas because all of the low-quality "me too" startups have gotten pulled into the fashionable AI orbit You are trying to say "adding IA to the pitch won't improve a founder's chances", but what you are saying is "granting money to founders that didn't add AI to their pitch improves a smart VC's chances".
- waprin 2y agoWhat’s ironic is that Michael Seibel has discussed many times on the YC podcast that you should avoid building whatever’s hot for VCs because their attention tends to change every year but you’ll be stuck building for a decade. 2020 was remote work, 2021 was web3, now we have the big LLM boom. Honestly it seems there’s a lot of advantages to “riding a wave” and a lot of advantages to being contrarian. But if raising money is your priority I do think you should ride the wave. Being contrarian sounds romantic, but don’t expect funding from people who disagree with you. The most charitable thing I’d say about YCs AI focus is it’s hard to think of a startup idea that couldn’t benefit from AI in some way.
- serial_dev 2y agoOn the other hand, I can see how basically any product can have some useful features backed by AI. I never felt that with web3.
- baxtr 2y agoThat’s because you don’t understand the value of a decentralized blockchain in a zero trust world! /s
- coldpie 2y agoHonestly, I think any person or organization that bought in to the blockchain hype should be barred from making any financial decisions of consequence. If they bought into a scam as obvious as the blockchain crap, they're clearly not capable of holding any real responsibilities.
- baxtr 2y agoLike the idea. Let’s find those people and put their names into a non-permutable distributed blockchain database in the cloud with public access!
- deadwindsails 2y ago> What’s ironic is that Michael Seibel unfortunately Michael is no longer running things and it shows in the lack of long-term vision vs. hypecasting Garry has had this rep for a long time-disappointing to see this changing of guard
- bko 2y agoI love the constant flex of their tiny acceptance rate. "We only accept 1% of applicants. Btw everyone should apply!" The collective man hours wasted on appe every year for what is essentially a lottery is insane.
- xyst 2y agoGary is out of touch.
- thisgoesnowhere 2y agoHe's not just out of touch he's actively pushing pretty horrific shit like the abolition of the state. He also agrees with Balaji about everything and therefore should not be trusted.
- n2d4 2y ago"Abolition of the state"? In the very article this thread is about he pushes for regulation against big tech, that does not sound like it could be achieved by abolition of the state
- thisgoesnowhere 2y agoI wasn't referring to this article.
- yyggvbb 2y agoWell really think about the mindset of someone who collectively hates “the state” do you think that person is going to be honest about their actions? Of course not everything is about yourself over everyone else. This is free speech and not a personal attack.
- light_triad 2y agoIt's the same as selective universities telling every student that they should apply regardless of their chance. It makes sense they would do this since it's completely open. It's not really a lottery, more like a messy matching algorithm for supply and demand. They give everyone a shot since they look at everything, but getting in is not evenly distributed :)
- xyst 2y agoyup, just throw the term AI into your deck and the VC fund grinders will at least give it a second look.
- light_triad 2y agoIt makes sense that startup folks will gravitate to where there's VC interest as they always have (including the fakers and scammers). But regardless of the current hype cycle the same rules still apply: the reasons why you're doing the startup, if you're an expert in the space, whether you can build a 10x solution, your access to early adopters, your unique point of view on the market. AI is just a new set of tools to generate more value for your specific users, if applied in a unique way that makes a significant difference.
- elicash 2y agoOr throw in a random AI feature to satisfy investors.
- noitpmeder 2y agoIs anyone else depressed by that statistic? Is tech now eclipsed for the foreseeable future by AI?
- philipwhiuk 2y agoThey've always followed the buzzword. It was mobile, then cloud, then VR, then blockchain, now AI.
- temp20240604 2y agoNope that doesn’t necessarily follow.
- bowsamic 2y agoYes it does, just purely logically
- temp20240604 2y agoI took the “them” to mean the 50000 in which case it doesn’t. If it is the 500 and the 50000 are not all “AI related” then that tells us something.
- bowsamic 2y agoYeah I took it to mean that the specific 500 they chose of the 50,000 are AI related and that the 50,000 may or may not be