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Great article aelaguiz , very thoughtful. I especially like the "no bullshit" part. I'd love to hear more of your thoughts about why you decided to seek out YC
by jt2190 13y ago
Great article aelaguiz , very thoughtful. I especially like the "no bullshit" part.
I'd love to hear more of your thoughts about why you decided to seek out YC in the first place, especially since you'd already had some success with PokerTableRatings.
Also, I was genuinely surprised that your typical experience with Angels is that they focus so heavily on not loosing their initial investment. This strikes me as too risk-averse given the nature of early tech startups. Did you find yourself wasting a lot of time with these folks? Any advice for how to spot/avoid them?
- aelaguiz 13y agoReally I have to say it was an emotional decision. I've been a fan of pg and YC for years and now I actually was free to try it and had a team that was inclined to, so I went for it. Angels are regular people. They are as diverse as any crowd at a mall. I've found that outside of SF they tend to be MUCH more downside conscious. I did waste a lot of time with some angels who turned out to be bad for the ecosystem (willing to toy with entrepreneurs for long periods of time). The best advice (and I live by it) is anything that isn't a yes is a no. That doesn't mean stop trying but that does mean that you focus your energy on stronger leads first. Nobody actually says no, with very few exceptions. It's hard to understand this until you get a few checks closed and then you'll know what a REAL yes feels like.