I almost didn't read this because the submitted title spelled "meh" to me.<p>But I'm glad I looked. This is hilarious!<p>(And it has nothing to do with YC or YC applicants. The actual title is much better: "Honoring Those We Missed: The Anti-Portfolio")<p>It also makes me feel not <i>quite</i> so bad about some of my own personal mistakes...
Remember folks, the acceptance rate for YC is lower than Harvard. If you didn't skip college because Harvard rejected you, then don't stop doing your startup because YC rejected you. :)
This is hilariously wonderful! At least they have a sense of humor about it. And gives me a lot of hope for my venture and future ones. No one knows a company as well as founders do. Thats why if you still believe in your idea and execution, work on it day and night. Dont be turned off by a few VC rejections. Take their comments in stride and learn from it. Also, remember that most VCs just like most people have personal biases. Maybe you dont fit in the right box yet.
Bessemer has a good sense of humor. They are also involved in Bubbleproof.<p><a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/17/watch-the-first-four-episodes-of-the-silicon-valley-mockumentary-bubbleproof/" rel="nofollow">https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/17/watch-the-first-four-episo...</a>
"As for Compaq, I told him there was no real future in transportable computers since IBM could do it."<p>- This is the point I made in a comment yesterday.
<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15537940" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15537940</a><p>hprotagonist was fretting about the "freight train is barreling down on them in the form of Apple and Google"<p>I said there, and I'll say again here: Waiting for large companies to innovate is like saying "I won't build the Apple II because I'd rather wait for the IBM PC to be invented".<p>I think that big companies are under too much market pressure to really innovate freely. Startups are a good thing, and Y Combinator is helping. If you have an idea, please don't just give up and wait for the market leaders - make a startup and make it real.
It's easy, and possibly even fun to talk about your antiportfolio and how you didn't succeed, when you are already worth hundreds of millions, as they are at this company.
I liked this. My main takeaway though is that these people are ridiculously well-connected. It's difficult for me to imagine having that kind of access to so many top-tier companies (even if they weren't recognized as such at the time). And I'm guessing these companies actively sought them out! It really just seems like a different world.
While it's cool they wrote this and fun to read it's also a good piece for them in the sense that they advertise that they were/are involved in all the "hot deals".
Out if interest I googled YC rejected companies that succeeded. Here's a thread from a year back;<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11229700" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11229700</a>
Note that if YC rejects your pitch, it doesn't mean your company is bad, or the pitch is bad - it just means they don't think you're a good investment for them.
I just got my rejection letter. I suppose I didn't do a good enough job explaining my ideas.<p>Any other rejects interested in a mastermind group?<p>We could network with Slack/Hangout, encourage each other, and arrange our own "Rejects demo day" at end of March.<p>If interested reach out to me.
What this actually means is that VCs have no idea if a company will be successful or not and it's basically luck. The ones that survive are the ones who manage to hit one of their gambles with outsized wins, similar to a roulette table.<p>Why some continue to believe VCs actually know anything or add value is beyond me. Even YC admits as much, saying their best guess is the caliber of the founder, and that there should be at least 2 co-founders. Everything else is a guess.
Subtitled:<p><i>Bessemer Venture Partners is perhaps the nation's oldest venture capital firm, tracing our roots back to the Carnegie Steel empire. This long and storied history has afforded our firm an unparalleled number of opportunities to completely screw up.</i><p>It is extremely funny.
dang: Can the title be changed? I'm not a startup founder so I don't usually read YC-specific stuff, but this article has nothing to do with YC, its actual title doesn't mention YC, and it is funny and of general interest.
So I think for those of us who received the rejection emails right after 10pm were pretty much in the "for sure" stack and for those who haven't received it yet there's still hope.