

Ask HN: What percent of YC companies had former YC-mafia connections? - dfnord

Just wondering how many of the companies that have been accepted in the last few years (2008+) that were introduced by former YC members. Trying to measure how much of a referral thing it actually is.
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pg
Maybe 10 or 15%.

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dfnord
Thanks for the reply.

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pclark
It isn't like its hard to reach out to YC startups, they are generally, almost
by definition, easy to contact.

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dfnord
Yeah, I know. I meant more like personal, face to face connection. One
conversation on a coffee shop is ok, but 5 emails back and forth, not really
what I meant (not to dismiss the founders who sent 5 emails back and forth to
me, you were really helpful, but this is not what I'd like to measure here).

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jacquesm
I think using the term 'mafia' is pushing it.

Having connections never hurt anybody, I'd assume that having YC connections
doens't hurt either. Being on HN already gives you an 'in' with plenty of YC
alumni and current start-up operators so by that definition pretty much
everybody has a YC connection.

You'd have to be pretty specific about what kind of connection you mean and I
think you should probably try to leave references to criminal organizations
out of it.

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_delirium
In the startup context, I don't see it as having particularly negative
connotations or referring directly to the criminal organization. After the
"PayPal Mafia", it's become a fairly common term for just alumni of a
particular startup/incubator/whatever. See e.g., this aggregator of Boston-
area startup tweets: <http://bostonstartupmafia.com/>

