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Reflections On YC Demo Day: How The Seed Market Has Changed

35 points by arnauddri 12y ago

_s 12y ago
For those wanting to dig further, here's a list of all companies (active/exited/dead): http://yclist.com/ http://yclist.com/
- pdq 12y ago
  Good list, but it hasn't been updated in a year.
- jedc 12y ago
  Try Seed-DB (my site) for lists of YC companies and every other accelerator I know about globally: http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators 3700+ companies, >$4Billion in funding, and an investor graph of thousands of investors
  - sdesol 12y ago
    Nice site. There appears to be a bug with the "Cohort Date" column sort for firefox 28 on windows 7. It works in chrome but not firefox.
- bradhe 12y ago
  Wow, http://www.fathomdb.com http://www.fathomdb.com is a YC08 company...and still has just a landing page up. How does that not count as dead?
napoleond 12y ago
This is interesting, but I think it speaks more to which "beachheads" companies are choosing rather than which markets they ultimately target. For example, with consumer vs. enterprise I suspect that when Dropbox did Demo Day they would have been labelled a "consumer" company although the enterprise potential was obviously there. Vertical SaaS is another example--choosing a vertical is an excellent way to start, and it can be enormously lucrative for a small team, but I imagine that "VC-style" exits will usually require branching past it.
- orky56 12y ago
  Great point. It also indicates to investors what startups think is a good starting off point. It makes sense to go after a vertical rather than horizontal since that is more consistent with PG's well strategy (go deep and narrow rather than wide and shallow). Generalizing quite a bit but they are more able to get traction, get subscriptions, and increase LTV early on. The sustainable business model is more mature and a better signal to investors rather than selling only the vision that might happen with more horizontal plays.
resu_nimda 12y ago
Nice analysis, but it's hard to draw conclusions from only two data points. Seems like you have the data for up to 12 demo days and it would be really cool to have someone make some graphs (though maybe this was already done and they were intentionally withheld ;) ).
- unreal37 12y ago
  I agree. A change from 47% to 56% isn't really a dramatic shift, and could represent only 1 or 2 companies difference with such a small sample size. Hard to draw any conclusions at all.
bradhe 12y ago
What's the end game for a YC non-profit? Besides corporate social responsibility, how does a non-profit founded at YC benefit the business ecosystem at large?

35 points by arnauddri 12y ago

_s 12y ago

For those wanting to dig further, here's a list of all companies (active/exited/dead): http://yclist.com/ http://yclist.com/

pdq 12y ago
Good list, but it hasn't been updated in a year.
jedc 12y ago
Try Seed-DB (my site) for lists of YC companies and every other accelerator I know about globally: http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators 3700+ companies, >$4Billion in funding, and an investor graph of thousands of investors
- sdesol 12y ago
  Nice site. There appears to be a bug with the "Cohort Date" column sort for firefox 28 on windows 7. It works in chrome but not firefox.
bradhe 12y ago
Wow, http://www.fathomdb.com http://www.fathomdb.com is a YC08 company...and still has just a landing page up. How does that not count as dead?

napoleond 12y ago

This is interesting, but I think it speaks more to which "beachheads" companies are choosing rather than which markets they ultimately target. For example, with consumer vs. enterprise I suspect that when Dropbox did Demo Day they would have been labelled a "consumer" company although the enterprise potential was obviously there. Vertical SaaS is another example--choosing a vertical is an excellent way to start, and it can be enormously lucrative for a small team, but I imagine that "VC-style" exits will usually require branching past it.

orky56 12y ago
Great point. It also indicates to investors what startups think is a good starting off point. It makes sense to go after a vertical rather than horizontal since that is more consistent with PG's well strategy (go deep and narrow rather than wide and shallow). Generalizing quite a bit but they are more able to get traction, get subscriptions, and increase LTV early on. The sustainable business model is more mature and a better signal to investors rather than selling only the vision that might happen with more horizontal plays.

resu_nimda 12y ago

Nice analysis, but it's hard to draw conclusions from only two data points. Seems like you have the data for up to 12 demo days and it would be really cool to have someone make some graphs (though maybe this was already done and they were intentionally withheld ;) ).

unreal37 12y ago
I agree. A change from 47% to 56% isn't really a dramatic shift, and could represent only 1 or 2 companies difference with such a small sample size. Hard to draw any conclusions at all.

bradhe 12y ago

What's the end game for a YC non-profit? Besides corporate social responsibility, how does a non-profit founded at YC benefit the business ecosystem at large?