Ask YC: Attack of the clones; would you take your start-up to a YC Clone?

TechStars, as bizarrely and counter-productively obsessed with YC as they seem to be, has actually produced a couple of winners now. It's not the kind of hit rate that YC has exhibited...or had exhibited at this stage in YC's life. But it, at least, has some measurable success.<p>Given that there are cheaper sources of funding, and most of them have no track record and extremely limited credibility, I would look much deeper...and consider other alternatives. Charles River has an early stage arm that does a lot of deals, for example, and has a good reputation. Angels are another option. While this "new model" of investing is compelling for its high success rate, when executed by YC, it's not necessarily the best way to raise money. We took money from YC and have never had any regrets about it...but I can't think of <i>any</i> other situation where we'd give up that much equity for that little money. But, you'd have to decide that for yourself.

went to one of the YC clones.<p>the biggest problem with these YC clones is two-fold.<p>first, most of the clones' founders have a)either not founded a start-up b)founded a start-up in a completely different field.<p>second, the lack of technical ability isn't the most conducive, to, ya know, doing a start-up in the early stages based entirely on code. ideas from the founders are pretty much fluff, because they don't understand rudimentary concepts of code, what can and cannot be done, how long things could possibly take, etc.

Its like asking whether you would go to a VC instead of sequoia. Of course you would.

Depends on the company - some of the others out there offer very comparitive, if not better, benefits than YC.<p>In terms of money: a YC dollar is worth no more than a dollar found on the street.<p>I guess my answer is yes.

The primary purpose is to lend credibility. As long as the others doing similiar things have credibility to lend, they seem acceptable.<p>Once you have your product and their credibility then you need to wield it carefully to get to your destination.

As a Silicon Valley person, moving to Colorado, Philly, or DC for even a few months doesn't seem very logical.

if no other choice sure why not? Not everyone gets into MIT, so it doesn't hurt to diversify your applications. And in the end run its better to have even a crappy state school over not going to college at all