

Considering Applying to Y Combinator? - webwright
http://www.tonywright.com/2010/considering-y-combinator-or-any-seed-funding/

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freshfunk
"It may seem like selling for millions to Google is a foregone conclusion
given how brilliant you are, but it’s not. ...If you can trade a little bit of
equity to nudge up your shot at success by a few percentage points, you should
do so."

I love this point. Many people I've talked to dislike going the YC route
because it's "so little money for the amount of equity they take" as if their
idea (which has been a PT thing for over a year and there's still no MVP) is
pre-destined to be the next $750MM hit and the sacrificing of 6-8% is a dumb
idea.

It's what I like to call a false statistic or misleading math. If your startup
never goes anywhere then it's pretty much worth $0 even if it's $750MM in your
head. PG has a great article about how YC is not about the money (except in
the analogous sense that one is funding a poor grad student).

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webwright
Yaw, I find that to me one of the most common misconceptions (or maybe mis-
judgements!) about YC. 6-7% feels like a lot. But when you do the math with 3
founders and a $50m exit, that's basically each of you walking away with
somewhere between 10-15m and YC walking away with 3-3.5m. So the YC experience
is shedding your personal take by $1m or so before taxes... But very well
could make the difference in you succeeding or failing.

It could also make the difference in the price tag. The YC brand and the early
boost you get from it almost certainly would up the price tag by $3m in that
scenario.

(NB: it's a bit more complex than that if/when you take a Series A round,
offer employee stock options, etc-- but bottom line is that the YC stock isn't
going to make big difference. If you exit, you'll likely be freakin' rich)

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jmtame
The “demo” will be less like Steve Jobs and more like Guantanamo Bay

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pg
That was alarming. We try to make the interview as low stress as possible,
believe it or not. But unfortunately we end up having a lot of questions and
only 10 minutes to ask them.

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dood
I find the 10 minute limit quite odd. I assume you've thought it through, but
it seems to me that the cost of spending a little more time interviewing would
likely pay for itself many times over in better decision making. Especially
after watching your Mixergy interview, where you emphasize how poor you
consider yourselves at choosing who to invest in.

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DTrejo
Thin slicing <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blink_%28book%29>

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Robin_Message
Ah, bless Gladwell. You say thin slicing, I say gut instinct or intuition. I'd
say Gladwell is not worth reading. He takes an obvious, folksy thing, adds a
bit of a twist to it, presents several anecdotes as dramatic stories
illustrating his point, then slaps on some "science" to make it seem like its
true. It's not. He's just making stuff up that sounds plausible but
surprising.

As an example, in Blink he refers to the mostly excellent work of John Gottman
[1]. Gladwell's thesis is in Blink is that by "thinking without thinking",
i.e. intuition, experts make better decisions. Now Gottman has developed a
technique that can predict if a couple will stay together with frightening
accuracy, simply by watching them argue. However, the longer he watches, the
_more_ accurate his prediction are. And it's not an instinctive thing; it's
measuring expressions using a system [2].

Gladwell writes well, and seems believable. That doesn't make him right.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gottman> [2]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facial_Action_Coding_System>

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rriepe
Founders at Work seems like a great book. I'll check that out.

Overall these tips are great. Thanks.

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AlecM
I'll vouch for it. Picked it up a few weeks ago and was sucked right in by
these stories. Great mix of drama, comedy, and wisdom. Read a chapter or two
over on Google Books: <http://bit.ly/dAFbnw>

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100k
I've been writing down some notes for advice for applicants but Tony's article
covers everything I would have said and then some. Great job!

If you're applying or thinking of applying, take what he says to heart.

