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I'm not sure this is a great idea, but I'm no expert (and you, PG, are). Here are my concerns: 1) It seems like it encourages people who are more passionate a

I'm not sure this is a great idea, but I'm no expert (and you, PG, are). Here are my concerns: 1) It seems like it encourages people who are more passionate about having a startup than it does people who are passionate about their particular idea. 2) Is selecting a RFS as your startup's core going to help or hurt an applicant? I suppose this is something we won't know the answer to until after we see the scope of this round's applications (or get a more general approximation for them). If the RFS is popular, you're going to have half your applicants with similar start-ups. Assuming you select your classes such that you have some measure of diversity in your portfolio, then ultimately groups doing a RFS will be at a disadvantage (since they'll be competing against everyone who did that RFS for a few slots, instead of competing generally), and the program's popularity will dwindle. Note that this assumes there are only a handful of RFS options.

dbul 17y ago
1) I think there are several people without ideas but who also want to be polymaths. So they would become wrapped up in whichever RFS they chose. 2) I think the applicant pool is getting large enough that it is worth the risk. pg said the applicant pool was eclipsing 1000. The first round had, what, 220? And most of those companies were successful. If I were to apply, I would stick with one of the 5 ideas that I have brewing, and I think a lot of other people would stick with their ideas too.
- mofey 17y ago
  "most of those companies were successful" - that's not even true
  - dbul 17y ago
    My bad. Leave out that bit of information. Restating what I meant in point 2 is that there is a large applicant pool, and ideas are just one factor. Doesn't YC choose based mostly on the applicants themselves? The idea is hardly relevant. One of the factors in funding "smart" founders I think is that they know when to abandon an idea and select another one.
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dbul 17y ago

1) I think there are several people without ideas but who also want to be polymaths. So they would become wrapped up in whichever RFS they chose. 2) I think the applicant pool is getting large enough that it is worth the risk. pg said the applicant pool was eclipsing 1000. The first round had, what, 220? And most of those companies were successful. If I were to apply, I would stick with one of the 5 ideas that I have brewing, and I think a lot of other people would stick with their ideas too.

mofey 17y ago
"most of those companies were successful" - that's not even true
- dbul 17y ago
  My bad. Leave out that bit of information. Restating what I meant in point 2 is that there is a large applicant pool, and ideas are just one factor. Doesn't YC choose based mostly on the applicants themselves? The idea is hardly relevant. One of the factors in funding "smart" founders I think is that they know when to abandon an idea and select another one.

deleted 17y ago

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