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This makes me curious -- let's say Mark Zuckerberg himself applied to YC with the objectively worst idea you've ever seen on an application. Do you give it a s

This makes me curious -- let's say Mark Zuckerberg himself applied to YC with the objectively worst idea you've ever seen on an application. Do you give it a shot?

pg 14y ago
Of course!
- loganfrederick 14y ago
  This reminds me of one of Warren Buffet's famous quotes: "When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact." Taking this thinking another step, one of the characteristics of good management is probably the ability to avoid bad businesses. If Zuckerberg were to leave Facebook to start another startup, and analysis of the idea makes an investor think it's a bad idea, I'm guessing they would still invest in Zuckerberg based on the assumptions: 1. He knows something you don't. 2. He'd move from a bad idea to a good idea later and it's worth investing in smart businesspeople.
  - staunch 14y ago
    Tablets were a bad business before Apple got involved.
    - grinich 14y ago
      Tablets weren't a business before Apple got involved.
      - Uhhrrr 14y ago
        Go Corp and several successive teams at Microsoft would beg to differ. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GO_Corp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GO_Corp.
        grinich 14y ago
        From that link: Founder Jerry Kaplan says that in its lifetime, the company generated "no meaningful sales". Business => $$$.
  - nostrademons 14y ago
    Reminds me also of one of Marc Andreesen's rules for startup success: 1. When a good market meets a bad team, market wins. 2. When a bad market meets a good team, market wins. 3. When a good market meets a good team, something special happens. Also, Zuckerburg himself has said that the reason he refused all buyout offers for Facebook was "I'm unlikely to have an idea as good as this ever again." That was probably the quote that changed my opinion of him from arrogant douchebag who got lucky to someone who just might have his head screwed on. It displays an interesting level of humility that's largely missing from his public persona.
    - hello_newman 14y ago
      " "I'm unlikely to have an idea as good as this ever again." That was probably the quote that changed my opinion of him from arrogant douchebag who got lucky to someone who just might have his head screwed on. It displays an interesting level of humility that's largely missing from his public persona." You know, Zuck actually seems like a nice guy. Someone I'd love to grab a beer with. He's obviously smart, incredibly humble, (supposedly) easy to work with and doesn't really fit the existing molds of a wunderkind CEO like Jobs or Gates.
    - SatvikBeri 14y ago
      Note that a16z invests in startups at a much later stage than YC does. For YC, the quality of the team may be the most important because they're at a stage early enough to significantly change the market they target. By the time a startup is looking for series A (or later) funding pivots are relatively more expensive.
      - nostrademons 14y ago
        Yeah, I suspect that YC is willing to invest based on team because they figure the idea can easily change anyway. I've heard that one of the points of the YC interview is to weed out inflexible founders that are not willing to radically change their approach. And Andreesen has recommended that "Until you achieve product/market fit, keep the team as small as possible.".
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- EGreg 14y ago
  Wait, do you mean NOW or do you mean when he was 18? :)
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
- tlogan 14y ago
  If possible I would like to ask one more question: let's say Larry Elision applied to YC with the bad idea. Do you give it a shot?
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
- dpritchett 14y ago
  Well heck, he probably didn't have the dev environment set up on his machine. I'll bet it's 90 minutes to find the bug, ten minutes to fix it, and the rest for test+deploy. I can scratch my toes a lot faster than you can - you don't even know where my toes are right now.
eric-hu 14y ago
%s/Mark Zuckerberg/Elon Musk/g 10 years ago, an electric car company would sound like objectively the worse idea to many. Tesla was founded in 2003, the same year that General Motors officially cancelled its EV1 program. Toyota stopped selling its Rav 4 EV. Honda had long since ceased production of the EV Plus. If 3 of the largest car companies in the world tried and failed to make a profitable electric car, what hope did a newcomer with no automaking experience have?

This makes me curious -- let's say Mark Zuckerberg himself applied to YC with the objectively worst idea you've ever seen on an application. Do you give it a shot?

pg 14y ago

Of course!

loganfrederick 14y ago
This reminds me of one of Warren Buffet's famous quotes: "When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact." Taking this thinking another step, one of the characteristics of good management is probably the ability to avoid bad businesses. If Zuckerberg were to leave Facebook to start another startup, and analysis of the idea makes an investor think it's a bad idea, I'm guessing they would still invest in Zuckerberg based on the assumptions: 1. He knows something you don't. 2. He'd move from a bad idea to a good idea later and it's worth investing in smart businesspeople.
- staunch 14y ago
  Tablets were a bad business before Apple got involved.
  - grinich 14y ago
    Tablets weren't a business before Apple got involved.
    - Uhhrrr 14y ago
      Go Corp and several successive teams at Microsoft would beg to differ. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GO_Corp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GO_Corp.
      - grinich 14y ago
        From that link: Founder Jerry Kaplan says that in its lifetime, the company generated "no meaningful sales". Business => $$$.
- nostrademons 14y ago
  Reminds me also of one of Marc Andreesen's rules for startup success: 1. When a good market meets a bad team, market wins. 2. When a bad market meets a good team, market wins. 3. When a good market meets a good team, something special happens. Also, Zuckerburg himself has said that the reason he refused all buyout offers for Facebook was "I'm unlikely to have an idea as good as this ever again." That was probably the quote that changed my opinion of him from arrogant douchebag who got lucky to someone who just might have his head screwed on. It displays an interesting level of humility that's largely missing from his public persona.
  - hello_newman 14y ago
    " "I'm unlikely to have an idea as good as this ever again." That was probably the quote that changed my opinion of him from arrogant douchebag who got lucky to someone who just might have his head screwed on. It displays an interesting level of humility that's largely missing from his public persona." You know, Zuck actually seems like a nice guy. Someone I'd love to grab a beer with. He's obviously smart, incredibly humble, (supposedly) easy to work with and doesn't really fit the existing molds of a wunderkind CEO like Jobs or Gates.
  - SatvikBeri 14y ago
    Note that a16z invests in startups at a much later stage than YC does. For YC, the quality of the team may be the most important because they're at a stage early enough to significantly change the market they target. By the time a startup is looking for series A (or later) funding pivots are relatively more expensive.
    - nostrademons 14y ago
      Yeah, I suspect that YC is willing to invest based on team because they figure the idea can easily change anyway. I've heard that one of the points of the YC interview is to weed out inflexible founders that are not willing to radically change their approach. And Andreesen has recommended that "Until you achieve product/market fit, keep the team as small as possible.".
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
EGreg 14y ago
Wait, do you mean NOW or do you mean when he was 18? :)
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
tlogan 14y ago
If possible I would like to ask one more question: let's say Larry Elision applied to YC with the bad idea. Do you give it a shot?

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

dpritchett 14y ago
Well heck, he probably didn't have the dev environment set up on his machine. I'll bet it's 90 minutes to find the bug, ten minutes to fix it, and the rest for test+deploy. I can scratch my toes a lot faster than you can - you don't even know where my toes are right now.

eric-hu 14y ago

%s/Mark Zuckerberg/Elon Musk/g 10 years ago, an electric car company would sound like objectively the worse idea to many. Tesla was founded in 2003, the same year that General Motors officially cancelled its EV1 program. Toyota stopped selling its Rav 4 EV. Honda had long since ceased production of the EV Plus. If 3 of the largest car companies in the world tried and failed to make a profitable electric car, what hope did a newcomer with no automaking experience have?