

Ask HN: Does YC accept non coders? - kamphey

What if you hacked together a few things that ended up looking like a startup and ended up giving a profitable first year yet some how you never wrote a single line of Code.  Would YC even be interested?
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smt88
Why would you be interested in YC? Once you're profitable, you don't need an
accelerator. You also need to ask yourself why you need investment.

Is it because your profits aren't enough to help you scale? Or is it because
you think that a normal lifecycle of a company involves accelerators, seed, A
round, etc. etc.?

I'm genuinely asking you those questions, by the way.

~~~
kamphey
And here's my genuine reply:

I'm interested in YC because I believe the next step of our company is a
platform instead of a service.

You're right, our profits right now are not enough to scale. We are living
comfortably but really would rather rule the world instead of an apartment in
L.A.

I believe there is no normal lifecycle. Every company/person has their own
unique path.

~~~
smt88
I won't suggest ignoring accelerators _only_ because they give so little
equity. At an early stage, it's wrong to think first about equity and then
decide who you want to fund you.

However, I don't have enough info to say if you're at an early stage or not.
If you aren't at an early stage, accelerators won't give you the bang-for-buck
that they would for someone else.

You should first think about what you need (a certain amount of cash? industry
connections? technical people? scaling expertise?) and then contact investors
who seem to fit. If you're profitable and you have a take-over-the-world kind
of idea, you could get money from pretty much anyone. The problem is that
sometimes (not always) being post-revenue hurts your valuation, because it
brings take-over-the-world conversations back down to earth. That may be
changing these days for all I know, though.

Anyway, I'm sorry that none of that is very helpful. When, how, and from whom
to get investment is more art/luck than science, and you'll get a different
answer from pretty much everyone.

You should apply to YC if you think they can help. Couldn't hurt, right?
TechStars seems to care less about founders being technical, so that's another
route.

Edit: One more thing. Raising money takes a minimum of 6 months, and if it's
not full-time work, it's pretty close. It may also involve travel. Make sure
you budget time/money for the whole process.

