> We, however, were not in this position. Eric and I still had full-time jobs when we were accepted. While we had been meeting regularly for a few months to discuss different ideas, we had absolutely zero traction, no working product, and very little validation.<p>This is the key part IMO. It's easy to give up 10% of what is essentially an idea in your head in exchange for $500K and some legitimacy from a big brand. That is exactly how an "accelerator" is supposed to work. If you have spent time (sometimes years of your life) and significant money actually building a product, finding a market fit and gathering customers, YC's terms will likely be much harder to swallow.
One thing that makes me sceptical about Y Combinator is their emphasis on in-person meetings and USA-centric approach in general.<p>Firstly, unless you and your co-founders permanently relocate, you could start to burn through that $500k pretty quickly in travel costs. Is relocating to the USA legal for you? Will it cost you more money compared to your current cost of living? Do you have existing staff or facilities that you would be unable to supervise or move?<p>The article mentions how useful to them YC's resources and team were to answer questions about business operations like finance and paperwork. How applicable would these be if you're not registered in the USA, even if not in a particular state? Would YC's advice with, say, employment law, have any value if you were incorporated in Switzerland?<p>The same points would probably apply to the benefits offered by any further early investors that YC could introduce. All in all, after taking away the 'overcoming imposter syndrome', 'answering boring questions' and 'founder community' reasons, it looks to me like an expensive way to get a bit of capital and credibility for those outside of the USA. I would be especially interested to hear from non-American YC founders who would beg to differ.
The value of the YC network is difficult to even price. A Bookface profile alone is more flow on cutting-edge B2B than Oracle gets out of some crazy-senior sales/BD type.<p>You’re going to get in front of any VC even remotely in your sector if you do anything interesting and solidly executed.<p>And if you bust out completely you’re going to be on a first name basis with dozens of people who didn’t and now run highly-connected going concerns.<p>And you sign a highly-standardized, heavily-scrutinized SAFE with very founder-friendly convertibility?<p>Anyone who is meh on that? Must be fucking nice.
Good article. I believe YC provides a fantastic platform for startups, but I've noticed a stronger focus on complex regulations and financial aspects rather than genuine technological advancement. I applied twice, yet others with more effective strategies and personal investments, independent from the tech and knowledge, seemed to be in a better position when it came to applying to YC.<p>Over a decade ago, I emerged from an underprivileged local community and stumbled upon YC's content randomly, without finding the original links or names associated. Googled randomly.<p>I struggle to comprehend why we can't bring together the brightest minds, irrespective of their backgrounds, race, location, or financial status. As evidence, @amasad (YC10) wrote that he couldn't launch with YC in today's environment.<p>In the case of my most recent startup, which I developed in San Francisco, we opted not to pursue YC due to their substantial equity requirements. The time has come for YC to instigate changes, giving priority to technology over politics, and reigniting the technological renaissance of startups.
Given the domain name, I was hoping to see some attempt to quantify/aggregate multiple answers.<p>I think nearly any startup would benefit unless the founders entered into business with a strong perspective and network.
As someone who was recently rejected from YC and still went on to raise >$1m in the last 6 months -- I have mixed feelings.<p>We incorporated in April, started with nothin' and had funding by the end of June.<p>Raising Capital is _very_ time consuming & distracting. I did a bunch of up front work; the first month (April - early May) I had to build designs, meet potential customers, build out profiles, get them to write letters of interest, etc.<p>Then starting mid-may I spent 6 weeks cold emailing and getting intros to as many VCs as I could. I had to have spent 40 hrs writing cold emails, at least 60+ hrs in meetings and obviously many more prep. At the same time, I lined up a team to be hired, lined up more potential customers, developed some of the product.<p>Going into YC, you can apply and skip the 6 weeks drudging around trying to raise. This 100% slowed development to a stand-still and reduced customer engagement. Further, I had to take funding at terms worse than what YC offers. On the other hand, I have a lot of industry experience and was able to instantly hire a good team and we're getting ready to launch in sept (5 months after incorporating & 3 months after funding).
Yes it's helped me handle rejections (starting from 2017 <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kNN6O_C8-9apBDRkl4BsfzcQfahPujdK/view?usp=sharing" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kNN6O_C8-9apBDRkl4BsfzcQfah...</a> ). We're still working on the same project just rebranded (kuky.com) iterating on user feedback & building an organic community that loves what we're doing <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CtR9Lnav1GH/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.instagram.com/reel/CtR9Lnav1GH/?igshid=MzRlODBiN...</a><p>Following YC taught us to make what people love. Not being accepted meant that it took us a little longer as we had to build our own network. In a way I'm actually proud we managed to come so far self funded, Investor check is nice but user love holds far more value for us now.
Thank you for the exciting and interesting read!<p>> 10% is a meaningful chunk of a company. While $500k sounds generous, many startups with traction could easily raise that money on much better terms.<p>How much traction would likely earn the money on much better terms and what would make the terms much better? I've been interested in Y Combinator or raising funds for what I'm working on but I'm still prepping to launch the MVP so there are no users yet. It'd be useful to be able to gauge what types of MVPs and launches or pre-launches may make the cut. Thanks!
How do I get involved in the community? I have no real passion for founding, but could be considered by most to be a "10x developer" I enjoy working on challenging projects, not necessarily coming up with business ideas.
I remember some years ago YC funding was around 15k? Thus the main value was in the validation by YC and prospects of getting noticed by other investors. Do I remember it correctly?
This seems like the right place to ask this. How do I get over focusing on the product in a VC pitch and let my personality shine through? I hear that at the seed stage a lot of VC funds invest in founders, not ideas. The people I grew up around were never enthusiastic about my ideas, so I kind of trained myself to focus on what is when pitching ideas rather than what could be. Problem is now I just sound stifled and almost bored with my startup, like there's no passion behind it, even though I'm working on it like a second job and actually love it.<p>How do I train myself to show excitement again about my ideas to people?
>So, for us YC was a no-brainer.<p>Saved you a click.<p>If the general consensus is that YC is worth it, then why bother publish something to state the obvious. I'd be more interested in cases or scenarios where the founders felt YC wasn't worth it, which I believe would be very low or non-existent.