5 ms·

Why YC

83 points by mqt 17y ago

nuweborder 17y ago
Im not a hacker, but I understand. And Im glad that YC is here to support and develop startups like my own. And I hope to have the opportunity to work with YC in the future. My startup is just that. A company that is a tweek or "hack" on various other web ideas that have been developed and maybe even successful, but that I feel have dropped the ball on various aspects of their site's service, and business model. And with the right tweek or hack (my startup, mindUNsigned.com), can capitalize on the competition's turnover, and deliver a game winning dunk at the other end of the court.
- medianama 17y ago
  What does that mean?
  - die_sekte 17y ago
    That feels like Mark V Shaney is active again.
    - nuweborder 17y ago
      No M v S here. All posts are written by me. No use of Markov chain technologies.
  - nuweborder 17y ago
    It means that I've built my startup upon the faults of the competition. My professional experience and MBA education has allowed me to very easily identify opportunity costs. My startup has tweeked the competition's "so-called" attempts, and speaks directly to their opportunities in pricing, available features, usability, user interaction and activity, fun, and site purpose.
    - Randai 17y ago
      Ha ha, with talk like that it had to be a MBA.
      - mroman 17y ago
        (smiling in agreement)
mahmud 17y ago
My first reaction upon hearing the name "Y Combinator" was dismay; oh god, the geeks are trying to be bankers now. I had a vision in my head of paul et al. blowing out their retirement, funding LispOSes and smalltalk-on-chip type projects. P.S. RPG, PG and PG. Any other Lispers with "PG" initials out there besides Gabriel, Greenspun and Paul?
- eru 17y ago
  Around the time I heard about PG's `Y Combinator' I had just rediscovered the Turing fixed-point combinator while playing around with Scheme.
davidw 17y ago
I would be curious to see diffs of these revisions.
- cwan 17y ago
  Ditto - especially for this one. I'd be curious as well to know how this compares to implementation. How many YC investees would have pursued their ideas without YC? Is this a core attribute for YC to invest in an idea? It's interesting though... of all the potential reasons that could have motivated the creation of YC (e.g. alternatively, giving promising ideas a leap forward) the is the one that was chosen. That YC could be the small nudge that pushes smart people to start new businesses and that "we can spring on the world a stream of new startups that might otherwise not have existed."
  - coffeemug 17y ago
    For a lot of hackers, the biggest benefit they get from YC is confidence. It happens almost instantaneously. You're no longer working on a project - you're starting a company. Advice, support network, and introductions are incredibly helpful, but they're nothing compared to confidence. If you already have it, you can certainly succeed without YC (although getting in helps). Theoretically, you can just tell yourself "I will be confident", in which case you can succeed without YC too. But for most people it doesn't work this way. YC gives people the determination to persist against all odds - probably the most useful quality of all. It turns the fear of failure from working against you, to working for you. It's an incredible energy source. I would be very surprised if most successful YC companies did half as well without YC. Not because of the help that YC offers, but because of confidence and determination.
    - catch23 17y ago
      The YC confidence is sometimes even better than VC capital. One of my previous startups raised a round with first round capital, and I was the 4th employee there, but it didn't make us confident like YC does.
    - mahmud 17y ago
nazgulnarsil 17y ago
the number of imitators that YC quickly spawned seems to indicate that this won't just tank (even if YC does itself). It solves a real market inefficiency.
- mahmud 17y ago
  YC is in a position to manage other people's money now, tanking hasn't happened and wont for a very long time. Just look at how fast they have been able to push their startups, like FlightCaster, into the mainstream of tech industry. They have some very influential people listening to them. My bet is on YC branching out of tech startups and perhaps getting into seeding businesses in traditional industries. I would go as far as to say that they're due for a presidential meeting; if the economy doesn't improve, they might even be called in to testify before congress (remember how easy it was for the l0pht to appear in congress?) a government appearance will put them on the spot.
- three14 17y ago
  It does solve a market inefficiency. To me, that highlights a different inefficiency - imagine what a couple of bright YC founders could do in the rechargeable battery market, or the solar cell market - if they only had enough money to enter industries with higher barriers to entry. I can hold out the hope that successful founders will enter other industries with their next startup.
  - pg 17y ago
    As it says in our FAQ, we're happy to fund companies working on stuff that's too expensive to build on just our money. The goal of YC is to build a convincing case for later stage investors. That doesn't have to be a complete, launched product.
    - three14 17y ago
      YC is great. But I would think with all the smart people here, if the market was efficient in fields with high barriers to entry, Tesla Motors would have a few more competitors.
l0nwlf 17y ago
Well, I'm a student and I have some occasional queries which are answered pretty well here. I respect the opinion of YC community as their average geekness level is much higher than the crowd. Am not into startup or something but I still love the opinion of people here. Whenever I need to find a opinion about i go for searchyc. When I needed to buy a laptop or needed a suggestion regarding programming .. YC is always there with a wonderful solution. Plus I get to know the opinion of things happening in current scenario related with IT field. Thankyou YC :D
physcab 17y ago
"We did it because it seems such a great hack."

83 points by mqt 17y ago

Im not a hacker, but I understand. And Im glad that YC is here to support and develop startups like my own. And I hope to have the opportunity to work with YC in the future. My startup is just that. A company that is a tweek or "hack" on various other web ideas that have been developed and maybe even successful, but that I feel have dropped the ball on various aspects of their site's service, and business model. And with the right tweek or hack (my startup, mindUNsigned.com), can capitalize on the competition's turnover, and deliver a game winning dunk at the other end of the court.

medianama 17y ago
What does that mean?
- die_sekte 17y ago
  That feels like Mark V Shaney is active again.
  - nuweborder 17y ago
    No M v S here. All posts are written by me. No use of Markov chain technologies.
- nuweborder 17y ago
  It means that I've built my startup upon the faults of the competition. My professional experience and MBA education has allowed me to very easily identify opportunity costs. My startup has tweeked the competition's "so-called" attempts, and speaks directly to their opportunities in pricing, available features, usability, user interaction and activity, fun, and site purpose.
  - Randai 17y ago
    Ha ha, with talk like that it had to be a MBA.
    - mroman 17y ago
      (smiling in agreement)

mahmud 17y ago

My first reaction upon hearing the name "Y Combinator" was dismay; oh god, the geeks are trying to be bankers now. I had a vision in my head of paul et al. blowing out their retirement, funding LispOSes and smalltalk-on-chip type projects. P.S. RPG, PG and PG. Any other Lispers with "PG" initials out there besides Gabriel, Greenspun and Paul?

eru 17y ago
Around the time I heard about PG's `Y Combinator' I had just rediscovered the Turing fixed-point combinator while playing around with Scheme.

davidw 17y ago

I would be curious to see diffs of these revisions.

cwan 17y ago
Ditto - especially for this one. I'd be curious as well to know how this compares to implementation. How many YC investees would have pursued their ideas without YC? Is this a core attribute for YC to invest in an idea? It's interesting though... of all the potential reasons that could have motivated the creation of YC (e.g. alternatively, giving promising ideas a leap forward) the is the one that was chosen. That YC could be the small nudge that pushes smart people to start new businesses and that "we can spring on the world a stream of new startups that might otherwise not have existed."
- coffeemug 17y ago
  For a lot of hackers, the biggest benefit they get from YC is confidence. It happens almost instantaneously. You're no longer working on a project - you're starting a company. Advice, support network, and introductions are incredibly helpful, but they're nothing compared to confidence. If you already have it, you can certainly succeed without YC (although getting in helps). Theoretically, you can just tell yourself "I will be confident", in which case you can succeed without YC too. But for most people it doesn't work this way. YC gives people the determination to persist against all odds - probably the most useful quality of all. It turns the fear of failure from working against you, to working for you. It's an incredible energy source. I would be very surprised if most successful YC companies did half as well without YC. Not because of the help that YC offers, but because of confidence and determination.
  - catch23 17y ago
    The YC confidence is sometimes even better than VC capital. One of my previous startups raised a round with first round capital, and I was the 4th employee there, but it didn't make us confident like YC does.
  - mahmud 17y ago

nazgulnarsil 17y ago

the number of imitators that YC quickly spawned seems to indicate that this won't just tank (even if YC does itself). It solves a real market inefficiency.

mahmud 17y ago
YC is in a position to manage other people's money now, tanking hasn't happened and wont for a very long time. Just look at how fast they have been able to push their startups, like FlightCaster, into the mainstream of tech industry. They have some very influential people listening to them. My bet is on YC branching out of tech startups and perhaps getting into seeding businesses in traditional industries. I would go as far as to say that they're due for a presidential meeting; if the economy doesn't improve, they might even be called in to testify before congress (remember how easy it was for the l0pht to appear in congress?) a government appearance will put them on the spot.
three14 17y ago
It does solve a market inefficiency. To me, that highlights a different inefficiency - imagine what a couple of bright YC founders could do in the rechargeable battery market, or the solar cell market - if they only had enough money to enter industries with higher barriers to entry. I can hold out the hope that successful founders will enter other industries with their next startup.
- pg 17y ago
  As it says in our FAQ, we're happy to fund companies working on stuff that's too expensive to build on just our money. The goal of YC is to build a convincing case for later stage investors. That doesn't have to be a complete, launched product.
  - three14 17y ago
    YC is great. But I would think with all the smart people here, if the market was efficient in fields with high barriers to entry, Tesla Motors would have a few more competitors.

l0nwlf 17y ago

Well, I'm a student and I have some occasional queries which are answered pretty well here. I respect the opinion of YC community as their average geekness level is much higher than the crowd. Am not into startup or something but I still love the opinion of people here. Whenever I need to find a opinion about i go for searchyc. When I needed to buy a laptop or needed a suggestion regarding programming .. YC is always there with a wonderful solution. Plus I get to know the opinion of things happening in current scenario related with IT field. Thankyou YC :D

physcab 17y ago

"We did it because it seems such a great hack."