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The best test of this would be what the customers (yc founders) think. I'm pretty sure most would happily donate 6% to YC for what they do. If you were to thin

The best test of this would be what the customers (yc founders) think. I'm pretty sure most would happily donate 6% to YC for what they do. If you were to think rationally, the only question is whether YC would improve your outcomes by more than 6-7%. If that's true, it should be a no-brainer.

jaredsohn 13y ago
>If you were to think rationally, the only question is whether YC would improve your outcomes by more than 6-7%. If that's true, it should be a no-brainer. I'm questioning the tautology of what you wrote. It is a no-brainer if you don't have other choices. If you do have choices, though, you might not be able to choose to get funded from all of them if the programs might take place at the same time. Also, while accelerators generally don't request much equity, there is a hard limit (unlikely to get hit at this stage) where you need to maintain some equity for the founders and employees.
- argumentum 13y ago
  If you have YC as a choice, there might as well not be other choices (at least in terms of "accelerators"). It therefore isn't a question of should I do YC or (some other accelerator) .. but rather should they do an accelerator period. If that's a yes (you're at the right stage for it) then I'd argue it's pretty much a no-brainer if you get in.
  - jaredsohn 13y ago
    I don't feel this is a proper response to my comment. This thread had been talking about how one should take money from an accelerator if it offers a greater chance of success compared to the dilution it results in; it hasn't compared the merits of YC versus other accelerators at all. Your earlier comment mentioned how rational the decision was, but I'm saying that it isn't rational based on what was written earlier in the thread since other programs weren't taken into account at all. That said, based on my understanding of the accelerator space, I'd probably prefer YC to other options. Some reasons you maybe would prefer something else (guessing) would be if it conflicts with an accelerator that is very domain specific, although I'm not sure if such a situation would happen that couldn't be worked around.

jaredsohn 13y ago

>If you were to think rationally, the only question is whether YC would improve your outcomes by more than 6-7%. If that's true, it should be a no-brainer. I'm questioning the tautology of what you wrote. It is a no-brainer if you don't have other choices. If you do have choices, though, you might not be able to choose to get funded from all of them if the programs might take place at the same time. Also, while accelerators generally don't request much equity, there is a hard limit (unlikely to get hit at this stage) where you need to maintain some equity for the founders and employees.

argumentum 13y ago
If you have YC as a choice, there might as well not be other choices (at least in terms of "accelerators"). It therefore isn't a question of should I do YC or (some other accelerator) .. but rather should they do an accelerator period. If that's a yes (you're at the right stage for it) then I'd argue it's pretty much a no-brainer if you get in.
- jaredsohn 13y ago
  I don't feel this is a proper response to my comment. This thread had been talking about how one should take money from an accelerator if it offers a greater chance of success compared to the dilution it results in; it hasn't compared the merits of YC versus other accelerators at all. Your earlier comment mentioned how rational the decision was, but I'm saying that it isn't rational based on what was written earlier in the thread since other programs weren't taken into account at all. That said, based on my understanding of the accelerator space, I'd probably prefer YC to other options. Some reasons you maybe would prefer something else (guessing) would be if it conflicts with an accelerator that is very domain specific, although I'm not sure if such a situation would happen that couldn't be worked around.