

Ask PG: Would YC fund applicants in close space as a previous startup?  - bdclimber14

How does Y Combinator consider startup applications where the idea is in the same space (yet with key differences obviously) to an already funded company? Is this just an absolute "no" or is it considered independently? I can see 2 situations: One where the applicant aims to develop (or has developed) a product that is a magnitude better than the previous startup, and the other where the applicant isn't a direct competitor, but may be confused as one by those not knowledgable in the industry.
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pg
From <http://ycombinator.com/faq.html>:

Will you fund multiple startups working on the same idea?

Yes. If you fund as many companies as we do it's unavoidable you'll end up
with some overlap. Even if you tried not to accept competing companies, you'd
still get overlap because startups' ideas morph so much. The way we deal with
it is that when two startups are working on related stuff, we don't talk to
one about what the other's doing.

In practice it has not turned out to be a problem, because most big markets
have room for several slightly different solutions, and it's unlikely that two
startups would do precisely the same thing.

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bdclimber14
Thanks, I can't believe I read over that.

