
Given The Opportunity: Should You Do TechStars or YC? - Ataub24
http://alexstechthoughts.com/post/25432629161/given-the-opportunity-should-you-do-techstars-or-yc
======
pg
"That being said, I think the organizations aren’t directly competing for the
same type of companies to be in their respective accelerator programs."

Actually all the US "incubators" are competing for roughly the same national
(and to some extent international) applicant pool.

In particular it's not true that we specialize in earlier stage startups than
the others.

The only thing that partitions the market is founders' unwillingness or
inability (e.g. due to visas) to move. In some cases the former may be a good
filter; we're not sure yet.

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jasonlbaptiste
Hey, I'm a TS grad from NYC and friendly with both founders from YC and other
Techstars classes. One quick misconception: Only 5 TS cities, none
international, and the "affiliate techstars network cities" shouldn't be
lumped in here. Both YC and TS are different formulas. Here are the two main
things I liked about Techstars:

\- the NYC program has a huge allure to anyone doing media or advertising
focused startups. You're going to get that advantage from the mentors in the
program and the speakers. We wouldn't have gotten where we were without all of
the people in the media/ad industry hearing about us from TS. We're building
for the longhaul in NYC and this helped us rocketboost our way into the
media/ad landscape.

\- TS is very hands on and my guess is that's why it's been kept to 12 or so
companies per class. YC is hands on too, but my guess is it's in a much
different way (either one works, choose your preference). I spent multiple
hours a day with Brad Feld, David Cohen, and Dave Tisch leading up until Demo
Day along with our $5mm round we closed < 30 days after.

Both are awesome programs and I think every entrepreneur should go through TS
or YC if given the chance.

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untog
Location is important. I'm based in NYC, and while I'd love to do YC, the
connections I'd make at TechStars NYC might be of more use to me when I'm
planning to stay in the city permanently.

All hypothetical opinion of course, because I am in neither.

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immad
Many of the most successful companies are way beyond product dev stage. Airbnb
had launched ~6 months before they started YC. There are many other companies
that are launched and gaining traction before they join YC, tikl, colorlovers
are a couple of others that come to mind.

The average age of YCers in my round was 26, and there were people that are
below 21 and above 35 too. I think that has gone up as people now receive
$150k extra and can reasonably survive even if they have other
responsibilities.

If you have the ability to move to Silicon Valley and are accepted in to both
programs I think YC is a no-brainer (though I have done it twice so am highly
biased).

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nchuhoai
I think you are answering your own question, with which I personally agree
with. One question popped up though: which are the yc companies that entered
YC at relatively later stage and were they successful/ beneficial to them to
be in yc?

YCs value is undoubtably incredible for very early stage companies. I
wondering how that value stacks up to later stages

~~~
accountoftheday
I assume this is not really a problem because YC are in some cases prepared to
deviate from their typical equity ask.

~~~
nchuhoai
I wasn't talking about the cost of YC.

As an early stage company you go from 0 to 10mil. If you are already a 1-2
mil, where do you go?

~~~
nirvana
Are you saying that the top YC companies on demo day get funded at valuations
of ~$10M? I can believe that but I wonder if there's any data... for instance
I wonder what the top and average valuation of TechStars companies is at demo
day.

If you've built something worth 1-2M you could go into YC and presumably end
up with a 10-12M valuation at the end. Not the same growth percentage wise but
the same in terms of dollar amount.

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brooksbp
+1 for Boulder, CO

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nirvana
The assumption implicit in this article seems to be that the two programs are
equally available to entrepreneurs. In considering the two programs for my
startup, I don't think this is the case. I haven't been in either program, but
I have been watching both for 5 years it seems.

YC seems to be far more selective, and while the classes are growing each
year, they are not growing as fast as the number of applicants. YC also seems
(rightly or wrongly) to be more focused on 18-23 year olds who are in or just
out of college, who want to do a startup, and who can show the kinds of ...
bonafides that a college student can show (Eg: more academic related.)

In contrast, Techstars is following a franchise model and growing the number
of programs rapidly, and now in fact has a global accelerator network so
expansive there's even versions in Dubai and Tel Aviv![1] TechStars seems more
interested in traction, and founders who have startup experience.

Put another way, YC is very much like a harvard, while TechStars is like a
state college network. There's only one YC but there's a TechStars in every
major town.

This means TechStars is more accessible, even going so far as some of the
smaller programs in the global network which (at least in one case I know of
seem to be) not super choosy. This is quite a contrast to YC which is very
selective and has a close knit network.

They are focused on different market segments in another way. TechStars knows
you might pivot, and all investors say "its about the team" but TechStars
seems more interested in startups that are in progress, while YC is even open
to people who don't have an idea at all. In TechStars you should pivot if you
have to, but in YC a part of the program is reworking what you're doing, and
it seems to be more assumed.

Finally, I think it must be admitted that YC has probably a lot better
potential for raising big money on demo day. Techstars ranges from close to YC
capability for Boston and New York, to nowhere near as strong. (have any
graduates of The Ark, a TechStars affiliate in Arkansas, raised more than $5M?
$1M?)[4]

So, I think the two programs have two very different target markets, and very
different levels of opportunity they provide.

To extend the college metaphor further, you should apply for YC if you're
under 30[2], but you probably should also apply for TechStars as a backup,
given the slim odds of getting into YC. So, this is like applying to Harvard
but also another Ivy League school and your state college as a last ditch
backup. YC would be Harvard, TechStars NY, etc would be the other Ivy League
and TechStars global network would by your state college analog.

Frankly, there are also a lot of contests and other programs. In fact there
are hundreds of programs. We're going to apply for probably a dozen different
things happening this fall. From TechCrunch disrupt to TechStars and
international affiliates.

One thing I've found is there's a shelf life for startups at the incubation
stage. After you've been working on your startup for 6 months to a year you
get to a point where what you really need is angel funding. So, for that first
6 months to a year, you probably should apply for a lot of the early stage
opportunities.

[1]<http://globalacceleratornetwork.com/> (at first I thought it was in Iran
given the way the map looks on the page.)

[2] I know YC doesn't discriminate on age, but it really does seem like they
are looking for people in their 20s. Their application asks for your HN ID for
instance. This is a good thing. Without YC there wouldn't be this kind of
program for recent grads who want to do a startup. When you're an investor you
have to be choosy about your sector. Some insurance company might be a great
investment, but if you don't know how to evaluate insurance companies, then
you would still pass. YC seems well tuned to evaluating younger entrepreneurs.

[3] We're in Startup Chile.

[4] I don't know and it is not a reflection on the goodness or the badness of
The Ark as a program if they haven't had that kind of success. It is more an
example of the different segments of the startup market that they are
addressing.

~~~
pg
_it really does seem like they are looking for people in their 20s. Their
application asks for your HN ID for instance._

We use HN ids to keep track of applicants, not as a filter (it's all one
codebase). There is a link on the application form that lets applicants create
HN ids for any cofounders who don't have one.

As for the age of people we fund, I've never studied this systematically but
it feels like the median age of people we accept is about the same as the
median age of people who apply.

~~~
nirvana
My memory was that (at least at one point) the application mentioned wanting
to read someone's posts to see what kind of a thinker they are. (and also that
it was ok if you didn't have one already.) This is probably a lot less
practical these days than it was in the early days.

The above quoted line would more accurately represent what I was trying to say
if I had written: "YC really seems more geared to people in their 20s."

I apologize for implying bias.

~~~
pg
We don't go read people's comments after they apply (that wouldn't scale
well). It's more that if we see a username we recognize for saying smart
things on HN, we're more likely to invite them to interviews.

~~~
debacle
Have you ever invited someone to apply based on their HN presence?

