

Why Y Combinator is a waste of time - helwr
http://www.scribd.com/doc/25132/Why-YCombinator-is-a-Waste-of-Time

======
swombat
This article is dangerous because it mixes truths with falsehoods.

Yes, if you're banking everything on YCombinator, you will fail. You're doing
it wrong. Rethink your approach.

However, if you are doing everything right, _and_ you get into YCombinator
too, you will get a lot of value out of that, and you should squeeze the most
out of it.

YCombinator is a multiplier. You need to have something worth multiplying
first.

~~~
jasonjei
I think it's good to look at YC as a multiplier. You hedge some equity to
lower your risk, as well as gain guidance and advice. I'm self-funding, and I
have a "business" guy co-founder who does all the stuff that bores me (such as
cold-calling, preparing investor whitepapers, building Powerpoint decks) and
possesses qualities I don't have (negotiating, ability to raise money,
extensive network of contacts, knows how to sell), so I didn't go the YC
route, but I'm sure for technical people who don't have the business advice
and consulting, 10% equity is a fair price to pay for PG and crew as well as
decent funding.

I wouldn't discount the article as dangerous, though. If you can get around
its linkbaitedness, it makes a good point that someone concerned about making
great software shouldn't worry about funding: I'm the only programmer on my
project, with two business people and a designer, and already we have built a
Windows middleware piece using XMPP and a Ruby/Rails project to exchange
messages via XMPP. (I'm a Mac user, but our software requires Windows because
it brings a particular Windows app to the Web that I can't quite disclose yet
because I'm in stealth mode.)

For coders who don't have business experience, you're better off going with YC
so you don't get screwed later. For those who have some business acumen, you
might not need the funding or management advice that YC gives. If you're a
coder, you will have to learn to have tight budgets. I saved money for two
years and invested in the stock market to give me the ability to bet it on
this project.

But if you can code, you probably don't need a whole lot of money to keep you
going. Whether or not you're YC, I'm sure you'll make it work if you're
passionate about what you're doing.

~~~
shykes
YCombinator is _not_ a substitute for business skills in the founding team.

------
tdavis
Y Combinator isn't about money. They effectively provide team living expenses
for three months; assuming you're already a competent developer or creative
type, you can save three months living expenses in no time.

Y Combinator is about people. A whole lot of people who have a whole lot more
experience starting companies than you do. And all those people want to help
you succeed, like those before helped them. It's a giant fraternity where
instead of keg stands you get proven advice from people who've done the hard
work of finding the potholes themselves.

If you need to dig a big hole and don't know about a backhoe, you grab a
shovel and start working inefficiently. Y Combinator is the construction guy
who comes by and tells you about the backhoe. And about digging a hole you can
get out of. And about the nearby water line you're probably going to bust
open. He saves you a shit load of time and trouble and helps you grow your
skill set.

Y Combinator not only connects you with smarter entrepreneurs, it connects you
with the best of the startup _world_. Need funding? Need a CEO? Need an invite
to something? YC has you covered. They can't make you drink, but they sure
know where all the water is.

* * *

YC helped me grow as a founder and as a developer. It helped me make the best
friends of my life. When my co-founder tragically died, Paul and Jessica made
sure I could pay the bills—in exchange for nothing (which doesn't scratch the
surface of how much my entire class helped). If I had to do it again, I would.
Every single time.

If you know everybody; if you have a following; if you have ridiculously
talented friends, you probably don't need YC. But everybody isn't you.

------
alain94040
This is coming from maxklein, a "famous" person here (read this if you want to
know who he really is: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1353307>). So it's
surely another social hack. Maybe testing the theory that if you complain
about something, you create more pages views.

~~~
maxklein
The document is 3 years old and posted on scribd, maybe it's not a "social
hack" but just something I felt at the time.

------
DanHulton
Why is a blog-style rant a scribd document?

Nothing terribly interesting in it, either. Apparently Y-Combinator is "The
Man" these days and must be railed against?

Times change _so fast._

~~~
andrewljohnson
I don't think this piece was meant to denigrate YC, though a cursory reading
of it certainly makes it seem that way - the author didn't do a very good job
balancing the link-bait against his true point.

This is just another "get out there and do something" fluff piece, packaged in
an angsty teen way.

------
maxawaytoolong
This link actually crashed my MacBook. WTF, Scribd. Worst YC funded project
ever.

~~~
someone_here
I have never had any website crash any device I have used. Ever.

This sounds like a serious issue with your MacBook and not Scribd's problem.

------
leftnode
It's ironic this is hosted on Scribd, a YC company.

~~~
kno
I don’t see the irony in criticism.

------
JoeAltmaier
Yes, we should all slave for our art, and care about it so much we would
starve rather than give up.

Never mind asking knowledgable people to critique, and if its good enough,
even help you improve it. That would clearly be a waste of time.

------
David
I think the author has some good points about working your idea even if you
don't make YC, though he seems to be making the argument that shooting for YC
at all is a bad idea.

"A lot of people who applied to YCombinator are probably hacks with derivative
ideas and little ability to actually accomplish things. You are probably one
of them. A dreamer who sees external capital as a shortcut towards making
money without actually working for it."

But contrary to the author's view, YC is also very good at analyzing startup
potential. That's how it works -- the business model depends on it. If you
don't get accepted to YC, chances are, there's a problem. Of course, they
can't accept everyone, and presumably the number of applications is increasing
with time, so that problem may be that there are just too many applicants with
good ideas. But rejection from YC is a perfect opportunity to reevaluate your
idea and your potential. The fact is that there are good startup ideas and bad
ones, and being rejected from YC is a hint that you may have a bad one.

If you're still confident and passionate after reevaluating, _that_ is when
you run with your idea anyway.

------
Mc_Big_G
The hardest thing about a startup is marketing. YC basically guarantees that
you will get the exposure you need. In addition, they have vast experience and
will tell you what sucks about your business with no BS and then mentor you in
the right direction. It's disingenuous to discount the worth of those two
factors alone.

------
AndrewWarner
I'm not convinced Max wrote this. Something seems odd here.

~~~
maxklein
I wrote it, but back in 2007 (look at the timestamp on scribd). A long time
ago, and I had other priorities. Post has already been discussed and dissected
and emailed about back then.

------
kno
I am curious as of why this article is loosing this much steam, its rank drop
from the middle of the first page in seconds.

------
points
Reading this on Scribd, wrapped in 4 large adsense units is such a horrible
user experience.

~~~
krakensden
It's still better than the flash version

------
radley
TLDR

~~~
radley
(That was nuanced irony. But hey... Flash bad, HTML5 good, blah blah blah
servers...)

------
kapauldo
What does yc give these days, like 25K?

