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While I do understand the reasons for Quora wanting to join YC, I can't help but feel bad for the one company who will not get to participate now because of thi

While I do understand the reasons for Quora wanting to join YC, I can't help but feel bad for the one company who will not get to participate now because of this. Maybe I don't understand YC well enough to make this claim but it seems like choosing a less established company would be better for both the company and the partners.

mck- 12y ago
We were invited for an interview a few weeks ago. We didn't get in; the feedback we received was that we should get 10 customers, and reapply in the future. I was always under the impression that YC was an accelerator that funds ideas. We were further along, had a website up with a handful of beta testers and hundreds of early signups. It wasn't enough apparently. My hypothesis is that it makes sense from YC's perspective to be more selective, and pick companies that are more established. They are in a position to do this, given the ever-increasing number of applicants.. alas, the rationale of every investor is to pick companies that will have the highest expected returns..
- bunkat 12y ago
  This was a comment I made a while back. YC is only looking for companies that have already shown growth or meet some diversification goal. There are so many applicants with traction there is no need for them to invest in completely unproven ideas since they can just take a wait and see approach which turns out to be more profitable.
argonaut 12y ago
YC does not set a defined cap on the number of companies they let in each batch. So I don't think there is a crowding out effect.
- bunkat 12y ago
  Of course there is. They have to draw the line somewhere and there is always going to be an applicant that fell just below the line. I doubt Quora will take up as much bandwidth as other startups, but I'm sure it still figured into their calculations of how many teams they could accept.
  - argonaut 12y ago
    That's my point. They don't draw a line in terms of the number of slots. They draw a line in terms of quality.

mck- 12y ago

We were invited for an interview a few weeks ago. We didn't get in; the feedback we received was that we should get 10 customers, and reapply in the future. I was always under the impression that YC was an accelerator that funds ideas. We were further along, had a website up with a handful of beta testers and hundreds of early signups. It wasn't enough apparently. My hypothesis is that it makes sense from YC's perspective to be more selective, and pick companies that are more established. They are in a position to do this, given the ever-increasing number of applicants.. alas, the rationale of every investor is to pick companies that will have the highest expected returns..

bunkat 12y ago
This was a comment I made a while back. YC is only looking for companies that have already shown growth or meet some diversification goal. There are so many applicants with traction there is no need for them to invest in completely unproven ideas since they can just take a wait and see approach which turns out to be more profitable.

argonaut 12y ago

YC does not set a defined cap on the number of companies they let in each batch. So I don't think there is a crowding out effect.

bunkat 12y ago
Of course there is. They have to draw the line somewhere and there is always going to be an applicant that fell just below the line. I doubt Quora will take up as much bandwidth as other startups, but I'm sure it still figured into their calculations of how many teams they could accept.
- argonaut 12y ago
  That's my point. They don't draw a line in terms of the number of slots. They draw a line in terms of quality.