

ASK PG/HN: Questions before interview for S11 batch - throaway_s11

1. How much time to accept if we get an offer? If PG calls does the answer have to be on the spot or do we have some time to discuss the terms internally?<p>2. Is DST investing in all the start-ups again? I know that DST has nothing to do with YC but YC has a link on the home page to the techcrunch article from a few months ago and I was wondering if they know what DST is upto. Knowing this is very important for us to be able to make a decision.<p>3. Has anybody negotiated different terms than what were offered by PG?:)<p>I think that this thread can useful to others as well who want to ask questions anon.<p>ps: Anon only because we avoid all publicity abt funding and alerting competition abt status of such things.
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pg
1\. Since we show you all the paperwork in advance, the only thing you don't
know before I call is how much stock we'll ask for. Usually groups can decide
about that on the fly, or even in advance. So most people either tell me yes
or no when I call them, or call back a few minutes later. But we don't have
any deadline for replying, so if groups have some reason they need more time
to decide, we always give it to them. E.g. there was once a startup that we
offered to fund that got an acquisition offer that weekend. They needed weeks
to see if the acquisition was going to happen. (It did.)

2\. It wasn't DST but the Start Fund, which is a separate thing. I believe
those guys are going to invest again, but I can't promise anything, because
it's not for me to promise. A lot of people don't realize this, but YC was not
a party to that deal. It was just between Start Fund and the individual
startups. (We were in favor of it, certainly, but we didn't have any
agreements with anyone.)

3\. In years past I caved a few times when people tried to negotiate with me,
but I haven't recently. I realized I was just doing it out of fatigue at the
end of a long day of interviews. I've also learned from experience that there
is near zero correlation between groups' tendency to negotiate and how well
they end up doing. In fact come to think of it, possibly an inverse
correlation. So it's easy to say no.

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throaway_s11
Thanks. 1 more question. How do you decide how much equity you would expect
for YC's investment? I was on wompt and conovore the other day when all of
this was going down and people were sharing their startups and many seemed
very far along.

They way I see it YC adds the following value:

1\. Operational Help (incorporation, UX, UI etc)

2\. Strategic Advise (PG/JL/HT and others)

3\. Cohort Batch (fun,fun,fun, we we we so excited)

4\. Alumni Network

5\. Demo Day and Access to Investors

Anything else? Thanks.

~~~
pg
We usually ask for 7%. If a startup is unusually far along, sometimes less. We
might ask for more if the group seems super risky (e.g. undergrads, and we
suggest the idea).

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shazow
I'm not PG but I remember some of these answered last year:

1\. You should be ready to accept/decline when you receive the call. You're
not going to get any new information at that point, so your mind should be
made up. (Unless you're under special circumstances that require more time,
but you should let them know about that.)

2\. I don't know.

3\. Terms are not negotiable. (I remember this being written somewhere but I
can't find it right now.)

Please correct me if I'm wrong. I figure unofficial answers are better than no
answers in case the real thing doesn't come along.

