

Ask HN: Is YC really cool with a lifestyle business? - dfabulich

Apropos http://paulgraham.com/swan.html#f1n "it's cool with us if the founders want to sell early for a small amount, or grow slowly and never sell (i.e. become a so-called lifestyle business)"<p>I run a side business that I hope will eventually become a lifestyle business; there must be lots of other HNers in a similar position. I've assumed that since we never intend to be the next Google–or even the next Dropbox–we should never apply to YC.<p>Is YC really open to applicants like me? How could it be rational for YC to accept me instead of yet another wanna-be billionaire who "radiates 'winner'"?
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mlinsey
YC is looking for companies that will be home runs. The essay should have made
that pretty clear!

The footnote you quote is saying is that if a YC company doesn't turn out to
be a home run, but instead becomes a lifestyle business or a small
acquisition, YC will be happy for you and supportive of your decision. This is
because they are nice people who know that these outcomes are meaningful for
the founders, even though they don't really have an impact on YC's bottom
line. But that's not the same thing as deliberately looking for founders who
are trying to build "lifestyle businesses" from the outset - in fact, that's
the opposite of what they're looking for.

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scotto
No one can predict the future - so my advice would be to not go about limiting
your future options. You may be one pivot off from being the next big thing
and YC could help find that. At the very least, YC will help you be a better
entrepreneur.

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Robby2012
Many of YCombinator founders have smart but little ideas, in my opinion you
should always apply because YC is open to all sort of ideas, you don't have to
be a wanna-be billionaire who "radiates" winner, that only happens once in a
long time

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sharemywin
Why are you limited yourself and your goals in the first place? if you had
more money to fund your idea could it become bigger? expand into other areas?

