
YC Is the New HBS - yihlamur
https://twitter.com/yihlamur/status/1191185755860635648
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new_realist
YC’s purpose is not to educate. It is to acquire, at dirt cheap valuations,
slices of every single startup in Silicon Valley, this guaranteeing a few big
winners while the vast majority of these fruit fly startups fail (and are a
waste of time for their founders). A bit exploitative, really.

~~~
jedberg
> YC’s purpose is not to educate

I think education is a core part of their mission. That is why they run
startup school for free and provide almost all of their lectures online for
anyone to have for free. Sure, startup school _can_ lead to deal flow for
them, but I don't think that's the main purpose.

> It is to acquire, at dirt cheap valuations, slices of every single startup
> in Silicon Valley, this guaranteeing a few big winners

I think that's a fair assessment. But is that so wrong? They provide value in
return. Besides the actual cash, they also provide guidance and connections.
So they're not just taking their slice for nothing.

> the vast majority of these fruit fly startups fail (and are a waste of time
> for their founders

Even a failed startup is not a waste of time. At the very least we learned
that the market isn't ready for that product by that team at that time.
Hopefully the founders also learned a lot about business and maybe even
technology along the way.

I'd much rather hire someone who started a failed startup than someone who
worked for BigCo for a couple of years.

> A bit exploitative, really.

To be exploitative, there would need to be an information asymmetry. I'd say
YC is pretty transparent as far as what their share will be and what they will
give you. I don't see how it could be exploitative given that the startup can
see the terms of the deal well in advance.

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ykevinator
Only for the winners. This is serious survival bias.

~~~
symplee
It's ultimately a selection bias for both. If you're in the top X percent to
get accepted to Harvard Business School, you're also the type of person to
have a higher chance of success in general. Same for YC.

The post is calling into question which network can _best_ help a given
candidate (who would have presumably been accepted by both) achieve their
goals.

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simula67
Previously argued : [https://medium.com/swlh/y-combinator-not-lambda-school-
is-un...](https://medium.com/swlh/y-combinator-not-lambda-school-is-
unbundling-education-bd6fdf0c78d7)

~~~
barry-cotter
Byrne’s argument isn’t that YC is a better HBS, it’s that it’s a better
Harvard. You need a Bachelor’s and normally at least two years work experience
to get into HBS, but not Harvard or YC. They both work primarily on selection,
not treatment although there is a real treatment effect. And YC both pays you
money to go there and has an explicit right to some of the products of your
future success whereas Harvard doesn’t have any rights to anything but tuition
fees though they get plenty of donations from alumni.

~~~
wolco
YC usually wants to see you invested as well. So there is the initial seed
costs before you reach YC consideration level.

