
Y Combinator Accepts Record 60+ New Startups For Summer 2011 - acrum
http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/10/y-combinator-accepts-record-60-new-startups-for-summer-2011/
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staunch
This makes YC a lot less interesting to me. Being one of ~150 founders vying
for attention/advice/mindshare of YC is just not very compelling.

~~~
pg
As of last batch, which had 45 startups in it, we were able to give everyone
the attention they needed, as measured by the results (= most observers
thought w2011 was the best batch so far).

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kenferry
That sounds reasonable, but I'm curious if you have data on satisfaction as
reported by the founders? As your reputation grows, you may be getting better
results partially through having higher quality startups, which would cloud
the issue.

~~~
pg
The last couple batches I've started asking each batch at the last dinner what
we need to improve. As of last batch there were no major gripes about not
getting enough attention from us.

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amirmc
I'm curious. What are the major gripes?

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pg
The biggest were about Preview Day, where we introduce the startups early to a
few top investors. We did it too late in the cycle, didn't give startups long
enough to present, and some of the investors were lame. We're not sure if
we'll even keep doing it.

There were also complaints about the food. It's getting better but it's still
not that great.

It's getting crowded in the room after Demo Day. That will be partly
alleviated by a 2x bigger room this summer, and we'll also probably write some
software to let investors register their interest in a startup instead of
assuming they'll connect afterward.

Some of the speakers were boring. There are always a few.

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abstractbill
_None of Y Combinators competitors have anything like that to offer new
entrepreneurs._

Y Combinator competitors would be foolish to try to compete on the money axis
anyway - the cash has always been minimally important. They would do much
better by identifying and focusing on YC's actual weaknesses.

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stevenj
What are YC's weaknesses?

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pg
The biggest is probably the meta-weakness of not focusing on any specific
market. How much that matters depends on how unusual the market is. Education,
for example, is a very unusual market, and Imagine K12 has a unique advantage
in the network of schools they have access to.

~~~
stevenj
What makes a market unusual?

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SkyMarshal
Some guesses:

* Barriers to entry not commonly seen in the web/mobile space (complex bureaucracy + entrenched players with opposing interests able to grease that bureaucracy, etc.).

* Lots of disparate stakeholders that all have to be coordinated and managed (healthcare: govt, taxpayers, patients, doctors/staff, insurance companies. Education: Parents & taxpayers, teachers unions, students, local+state+federal govt.)

* The market is not traditionally tech-savy and/or early-adopting. Users have to be actively convinced. Getting traction is even more of an uphill battle.

* Anywhere the risks to loss of investment are not transparent or clearly understood.

Maybe all markets are like this to an extent, but some moreso than others?

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Cherian_Abraham
So 60+ out of how many?

I must admit. I cant wait to hear the types of startups that made the cut this
time. It would be incredible to know (or scary as hell) to find out if any of
them are in essence, similar to what we want to do (or are in the process of
doing).

YC has made it possible for some really cool technologies come to the
marketplace. And YC has inspired many like me to get off our collective asses
to chase our dreams. Even if what I am currently building does not amount to a
whole lot, the essays of PG has sure inspired me and will in turn inspire a
lot many more who I will be sure to recommend it to.

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abbasmehdi
Yes, I feel naked for telling them every useful insight we had about our
project.

~~~
emmett
I can promise you they barely remember the interview. After so many days with
hours of 10 minute interviews, the chances they will even remember any useful
insight you had is close to nil.

Moreover, YC would never take an idea you told them in an interview and tell
it to another start-up.

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BrandonM
The problem arises when you put these two statements together. Sometimes we
hear a key insight or have an interesting thought and seem to forget it
instantly. In reality, it's often filed away somewhere in our heads, only to
be refreshed later when something similar jogs our memory.

The true danger for a non-accepted startup is for their ideas to be absorbed
into the subconscious memory of the YC advisers, only to bubble up later as a
seemingly-original idea or interesting angle for another startup to pursue.
This kind of accidental "idea theft" is practically guaranteed.

~~~
boucher
Honestly, your idea probably isn't that great. Even if it truly is, these
things tend to have pretty short half lives. By the time it accidentally made
its way to another startup through a YC partner you'll probably have had a lot
of opportunity to already act on it. Or someone else will probably already
have come up with it.

~~~
BrandonM
I'm not talking about "my idea" (I didn't even apply) or the value of ideas in
general. I merely dispute the notion that a YC partner would hear an idea,
forget it, and never make use of it again. I've seen it said several times
over the last few years by defenders of YC and I don't buy it.

The reality is that some people _will_ have genuinely good, novel ideas but
not be accepted (perhaps the applicant didn't seem motivated enough). _Not_
using that idea takes conscious effort; "forgetting" the idea is exactly the
recipe for inadvertently passing it on to someone else.

I'm not contending that it does not make sense to share an idea with YC as
part of the application process. Weighing the financial impact of giving away
the idea (most would contend this is relatively small) against the potential
benefit of getting into YC, submitting an application to YC will often be the
rational decision.

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tomsaffell
Just for argument's sake, let's assume your right - that subconscious idea
leakage is unavoidable. Now ask the question, "how did the entrepreneur come
up with the idea?". The thoughts any any individual has are a function of
their environment (that's the abstracted version of your theory :). There are
lots of people having lots of ideas all the time, many with in similar
environments as the entrepreneur. The net result is that if the entrepreneur
did not allow their idea to 'leak' into YC's consciousness, some other person
in YC's environment would do so within a short period of time. So there is no
loss to the entrepreneur of exposing the idea to YC, aside from a small chance
of a small time shifting of the 'leak' (only if they really are the first
person to expose that idea to YC, which is statistically unlikely).

Simple version: _even if subconscious-idea-leakage exists_ , the likely cost
is vanishingly small, as your idea is unlikely to be new to YC. If it would
have been new, then withholding it only buys you time until the next bright
person exposes the same idea to YC.

If you believed in conscious/active idea leakage the numbers would look
different. I feel confident that no such leakage exists - it over estimates
the caching capabilities of those involved ;)

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abbasmehdi
Newton was not the first person to detect gravity, but he took notice. Guess
what we did? We wrote a paper about "discovering gravity" and instead of
publishing it we passed it on to an assembly line that produces paper-
publishing scientists.

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shawnee_
The more popular and powerful YC becomes, the more it becomes evident that
there's an emerging niche in the market for facilitator-type enterprises doing
what YC does. Something akin to _mentorprising_ ; PG et al are _mentorprisers_
of

I guess this is to be expected as geek culture becomes more mainstream.

~~~
pyrhho
_mentorpreneurs?_

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pauldisneyiv
Most everyone trying to get accepted by YC is familiar with PG, his writings,
and the YC partners experience regarding startups. It's a primary reason many
apply.

Respect that PG and the other founders know how to scale the program and
handle the workload. They have all the experience of running YC, while each of
us has none.

They would be the first to limit their startup count if that needed to happen.

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jmjerlecki
That would put Yuri on the hook for what $9 million this time around?

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johnrob
The interesting bit is that $9 million is a normal amount for one company's
series B round. In this case, that money is going to (in theory) benefit 60
companies. That is a big change that could have a significant impact.

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andrewcooke
is this going to suffer from the same problems as increased class sizes? less
personal mentoring, for example?

i guess you can argue that it increases the pool of connections, but that's a
lower quality (unproved) pool than contacts with established players, no?

~~~
ksolanki
_is this going to suffer from the same problems as increased class sizes? less
personal mentoring, for example?_

Probably NOT. The bar has been higher in recent batches and as a result,
relatively more _established_ companies make it to the batch, as compared to,
say, in 2005 - 2007. This benefits both the companies and YC -- the companies
benefit by the excellent environment and networking opportunities, and YC ends
up making somewhat (again, relatively speaking) safer investments.

~~~
nicholasjbs
YC is certainly getting and accepting applications from more established
companies now, but they're also still funding very, very early stage companies
(i.e., two founders and an idea).

My cofounder and I were in the Summer 2010 batch and fit that description, and
I know of founders in this summer's batch who do as well.

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stygianguest
For a second I thought 60+ was referring to an age. That would be real news.

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ecuzzillo
I don't know if this data is available, but I'd be interested to see what
percentage of this class was incorporated before applying, and what percentage
got incorporated as part of the process.

Also interesting would be what percentage of this class include repeat YC
founders.

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pg
I think there are 7 alumni doing YC again this summer.

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abbasmehdi
Why? I mean under what circumstances would you (a YC alum) rinse repeat?

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pg
When you want to start another startup. You could do that either because the
old startup didn't succeed, or because you got acquired and are now finished
working for the acquirer, or because although the old startup is doing fine,
you decided to leave to do something new. We've had all 3 cases.

~~~
abbasmehdi
It’s unbelievable how candid and forthcoming you are as a business owner (YC
being your business).

Is it wrong to assume that the value of YC diminishes with each additional
serving? And as a follow-up, do you have any third (or even fourth) time
founders?

~~~
pg
I don't know. Obviously some of general stuff we talk about, you'd already
know, if you'd done it before. But on the other hand maybe there are other
advantages you'd be better equipped to extract the second time through. E.g.
if I went back to college now I'd be able to learn a lot more than I did at
the time.

~~~
abbasmehdi
I think I inderstand. I can now imagine it being sort of like watching a
really fast paced and complex movie for the second time. A second viewing may
enable you to peel off deeper layers of complexity (that you might have missed
the first time around). Also, it can never hurt getting the YC stamp on your
venture - again! :-) Thanks for the answer.

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scorbrid
Anyone know what the chances of them taking someone who applied late might be?
We just heard about Y Combinator and applied a couple days ago. Their
information is vague on this only saying that chances are very slim. Probably
more slim now that they are taking 60 off the top.

~~~
rms
Only if you would have been a true stand-out application in the regular round.
Definitely more slim.

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stevenj
I wish I could invest in YC.

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dominostars
Then pull a Yuri

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stevenj
Yuri Milner (as an individual and not via DST-Global), along with SV Angel's
Start Fund, invested in the individual companies that participated in YC --
not in YC directly.

Though Sequoia Capital is a LP in YC.

\- - -

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2156560>

[http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/28/yuri-milner-sv-angel-
offer-...](http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/28/yuri-milner-sv-angel-offer-every-
new-y-combinator-startup-150k/)

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cheez
Not-a-bubble!

Seriously though, there are so many software startups these days. Time to get
into something else?

