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Ask HN: Does YC accept non coders?
What if you hacked together a few things that ended up looking like a startup and ended up giving a profitable first year yet some how you never wrote a single line of Code. Would YC even be interested?
- smt88 12y agoWhy would you be interested in YC? Once you're profitable, you don't need an accelerator. You also need to ask yourself why you need investment. Is it because your profits aren't enough to help you scale? Or is it because you think that a normal lifecycle of a company involves accelerators, seed, A round, etc. etc.? I'm genuinely asking you those questions, by the way.
- kamphey 12y agoAnd here's my genuine reply: I'm interested in YC because I believe the next step of our company is a platform instead of a service. You're right, our profits right now are not enough to scale. We are living comfortably but really would rather rule the world instead of an apartment in L.A. I believe there is no normal lifecycle. Every company/person has their own unique path.
- smt88 12y agoI won't suggest ignoring accelerators only because they give so little equity. At an early stage, it's wrong to think first about equity and then decide who you want to fund you. However, I don't have enough info to say if you're at an early stage or not. If you aren't at an early stage, accelerators won't give you the bang-for-buck that they would for someone else. You should first think about what you need (a certain amount of cash? industry connections? technical people? scaling expertise?) and then contact investors who seem to fit. If you're profitable and you have a take-over-the-world kind of idea, you could get money from pretty much anyone. The problem is that sometimes (not always) being post-revenue hurts your valuation, because it brings take-over-the-world conversations back down to earth. That may be changing these days for all I know, though. Anyway, I'm sorry that none of that is very helpful. When, how, and from whom to get investment is more art/luck than science, and you'll get a different answer from pretty much everyone. You should apply to YC if you think they can help. Couldn't hurt, right? TechStars seems to care less about founders being technical, so that's another route. Edit: One more thing. Raising money takes a minimum of 6 months, and if it's not full-time work, it's pretty close. It may also involve travel. Make sure you budget time/money for the whole process.