

How Y Combinator Is Remaking Silicon Valley in Its Image - bjplink
http://gigaom.com/2010/07/29/how-y-combinator-is-remaking-silicon-valley-in-its-image/

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jacquesm
Silicon valley is a lot larger than just web start-ups. If and when YC
launches something that eventually turns in to the next google or something on
that scale it will have a real impact, but for now the big winners have not
been created using the YC model.

Who knows, maybe one day.

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david927
The YC model is great but I think it's going to continue to be a place that
mainly turns out companies that investors like, rather than what is a hit with
the public at large.

Why? Because of Farmville. Because no one in their right mind could have
predicted Farmville's success. And that's the learning. If you're good, you
might be able to guess singles and doubles, but no one can guess the homeruns.

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trevelyan
I think YC is great. As long as the risk in early stage businesses is
misvalued by the market, it doesn't really matter if they hit singles, doubles
or home runs.

Incidentally, Farmville was not a crazy bet -- the game was a clone of a
Chinese casual game called Happy Farm that was seeing insane traction in
China. The US innovation was hooking it up to the non-transparent mobile
subscription services that Zenga got nailed for later.

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kloncks
Opponents of "Pay & Spray" will have a field day with Ron Conway's quote:

Archangel Ron Conway, who said he’s put money into 500 companies over the last
12 years, kicked off the day with an optimistic and generous recruiting
speech: He said he believes every “entrepreneur who has the guts to start a
company” should get funding, and added “I believe the more angels we have in
Silicon Valley the better.”

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maxniederhofer
I think the original term is "Spray and Pray"
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spray_and_pray>).

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wyclif
No quotes from Joshua Schachter. Inexcusable. Where is the commentary from the
newer, non-reptilian investors?

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india
Google is not helping much with this. What are "rolling funding rounds"?

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helwr
"Archangel Ron Conway" - i liked that

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Archangels>

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adelevie
>Besides, acquisitions of young companies tend to be better for everyone
involved, as compared to later-stage deals, said Geoff Ralston, who recently
sold Lala to Apple. Integrations of billion-dollar companies almost never
work, he said.

If there was no acquisition of LaLa, we'd all be listening to music for 10
cents a track on our iPhones and Androids. Hopefully they come up with
something awesome at Apple.

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usaar333
There's always Grooveshark.

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kaib
pg: “The way of the future is no fixed amount, no fixed closing date, and no
lead.”

This concept is unfamiliar to me? What does it mean? What compromises a
"rolling" financing deal?

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alain94040
Which is exactly what I advocated for in "How my startup went IPO and skipped
VC funding" [http://blog.fairsoftware.net/2010/06/23/how-my-startup-
went-...](http://blog.fairsoftware.net/2010/06/23/how-my-startup-went-ipo-and-
skipped-vc-funding-a-story/)

A rolling deal is when angels keep showing up over time and send you more
money, rather than you setting a fixed date saying "on August 1st, I need 10
angels with $100,000 each, or my company is bankrupt".

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seis6
I remember a comment by google people, they said something in the lines that
they prefer not to employee many valuable people because they being out are
better for IT progress.

If YCombinator culture is too strong, it may damage the necessary diversity in
people conception of a startup.

A good group of people need a lot of small differents groups in order to
explore the landscape of startup opportunities. So let's hope that YHacker
influence doesn't grow to excessive influence.

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fleaflicker
Villainous photo selection

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harscoat
and not only Silicon Valley. While YC is Bay Area based, its ideas (maybe not
his program yet) really inspire a bunch of international people too

