
Any bad experiences with Y combinator? - bluekite2000
Seems like everyone I talked to or post I read loves it. Is there no negative experience? If there is, please share.
======
pg
We surveyed the founders after the last batch. Their main gripes were:

1\. There aren't enough social events, especially early in the cycle. So we're
adding more.

2\. Founders were surprised how harsh our feedback was at times. We may be
able to be more diplomatic. But I think the fundamental problem is that this
is a domain where, so far at least, many participants fail. So if you're
truthful, you're often going to be delivering bad news.

3\. The speakers got swarmed after talks, because there were some founders who
schmoozed with all the speakers as a matter of course, instead of giving
priority to others with specific reasons to talk to that speaker. We have a
plan to fix this.

4\. The acoustics in the orange room are a disaster. When the room's full of
people talking you have to yell to be heard. Kate is having a huge sound-
absorbing curtain made to fix this.

5\. It's too inflexible that office hour slots are exactly 25 minutes.
Different problems need varying amounts of time. So we'll make the slots
adjustable.

6\. Founders wanted a more organized way of getting and sharing feedback about
specific investors, so we're going to build something for that.

7\. We have to start teaching founders about fundraising earlier in the cycle,
because investors are approaching them earlier.

~~~
Aqua_Geek
_2\. Founders were surprised how harsh our feedback was at times. We may be
able to be more diplomatic. But I think the fundamental problem is that this
is a domain where, so far at least, many participants fail. So if you're
truthful, you're often going to be delivering bad news._

Disclaimer: I don't have YC experience.

In school, my classmates and I too often experienced the opposite kind of
feedback: pat on the back, great job, I thought it was fantastic, etc. What
little criticism was given usually came in the format of a "compliment
sandwich."

Although praise is nice, in general I find that being nice to avoid
confrontation or to prevent hurt feelings only promotes complacency and lack
of (personal) growth. Not to mention if you tell me something was great when I
know it sucks, you've lost all credibility with me.

Don't sugar coat it - I have a pretty good general idea of what's working. I
find honest feedback more helpful.

~~~
nicholasjbs
_Don't sugar coat it - I have a pretty good general idea of what's working. I
find honest feedback more helpful._

pg's brutally honest feedback was actually one of my favorite parts of YC.
It's wonderfully refreshing.

------
bhousel
This isn't a place where you would get an unbiased review of the YCombinator
experience.

I have seen some mixed reviews of YCombinator on <http://thefunded.com>. Or
you can search for other sites that compare various funds and accelerator
programs. Each have their pros and cons, and you shouldn't expect any one
program to be perfect for all startups.

~~~
SteveMorin
Well <http://thefunded.com> may not be the most unbiased since it runs
founders institute. Just like this isn't going to be the most unbiased crowd
for YC.

A recent email sent out by them to Alumni of the program claimed over a 192
companies world wide. You should also know that it's a different model and you
pay to be in the program.

Personally I believe in the YC model and think they have a much better
network.

------
dotBen
I've not had a negative experience with YC because I've chosen not to apply,
for a specific 'complaint'/'issue' with the program. Not sure if that falls
within your interest for this request, so apologies if not.

First off, I want to just say thatI think YC is a very good program for
younger developers and/or those who know the problem space they want to
develop in but haven't quite worked out the firm business model.

However, my negative experience with the program is that I think the funding
for the equity you give away is a very poor deal for founders. $20k/$6k a
founder doesn't last long and it seems to me that you could raise similar/more
money on much better terms elsewhere.

Sure, you get the incubator program as the 'meat' of the investment but it's
like saying working at Google is best because you get the wonderful free
lunches... I can get better job + pay elsewhere and sort out the lunches on my
own (read: where 'lunch' is the network, connections, feedback on my startup,
that YC offers... others can provide that too etc).

I'm expecting this will get down voted because most people here are very pro
YC. I am too, I even went to Startup School last weekend. I just wouldn't want
to take funding at YC over other angel and seed routes at a better valuation
(or even better, delay valuation entirely and take a note instead).

~~~
davidbalbert
The money is probably the least valuable thing we've gotten out of YC. When we
came here, we had no network and no connections to the valley. As part of YC,
we've gotten:

1) Contacts - we can sit down with just about anyone we can think of.

2) Alumni - the YC alumni network is pretty huge and the alums have been super
helpful. We've gotten advice, design feedback, encouragement when we were
having darker days, and we've used them as product guinea pigs.

3) Brand name - being able to say "We're a YC company" makes people instantly
pay attention to you.

4) Advice - yc has seen a whole bunch of startups. They were able to to save
us from going down a bunch of bad paths, even when we didn't want their
advice. It's hard to quantify, but I feel like I have a better understanding
of how to build something that people will actually use because of yc.

4) A support structure - Office hours with pg, jl, harj, et al are
indispensable. These are now available to us forever.

Before getting accepted into yc, my cofounder and I had a bunch of discussions
about how much of the company we were willing to give up. We were nervous and
thought the upper bound (around 10%) seemed really high. In retrospect 10%
would have been a totally reasonable price to pay for what we've gotten in
return.

~~~
dotBen
_When we came here, we had no network and no connections to the valley_

Do you think that translates to "YC is more optimal if you are not currently
located in the Valley"?

BTW: what is your startup, it's not in your profile!

~~~
davidbalbert
I think it was even more helpful considering we weren't already in the valley,
but I think most of the benefits apply even if you are already here. This is
from asking much more established co's. FWIW we were coming from NYC.

Our startup is HireHive. Totally forgot to put it in the profile.

------
tlrobinson
I feel like you're going to run into a bit of a selection bias on Hacker
News...

I know many founders of YC companies that ended up not being successful but
I've never heard serious complaints from any of them. Some of them have even
gone on to do YC again.

------
aepstein
The YC experience is what you make of it. They're there to help whenever you
need it/ask for it, and they don't pressure you to do anything you don't want
to do.

------
stealthdude
It would be counter-productive to say anything bad about seed investors who
own 10% of your company, on their news website.

~~~
geuis
Completely the opposite. I've been on HN for several years and am currently
applying to YC with a cofounder. Having had the pleasure of meeting pg this
past weekend I would say that both he and YC are very open to legitimate
criticisms when they arise. YC is all about helping startups to succeed,
because if they do then so does YC.

~~~
pclark
I would like to think if someone were criticizing my baby they'd email me to
discuss first.

------
answerly
I've never heard of a negative YC experience either. I'd guess I've met at
least one founder from roughly 40% of all YC startups. This includes some
companies that have failed or been absorbed into other YC startups.

YC was/is certainly an amazing experience for us.

~~~
tptacek
I can't track it down right now, but there were allusions made on HN awhile
ago about at least one person who wasn't thrilled with the program. I'm pretty
sure there aren't _no_ bad experiences.

That said, I've gotten to talk to a lot of people who have done YC now, and
everyone _I've_ talked to --- against pointed questions from me! --- has been
thrilled with it.

------
_delirium
There was a bit of discussion about a month ago, but nothing really came up:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1688972>

------
serverdude
Did anyone here make it to the interview round and then get rejected? I wonder
what the %age is of folks who make it to the interview stage.

~~~
dzlobin
IIRC, they invited ~90 companies? And given the last few class sizes we know
they accepted ~35?

I could be off so feel free to correct those numbers

~~~
serverdude
Thanx. Any clue how many total applications out of which 90 made it?

~~~
dzlobin
Just gave this estimate in another thread:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1808263>

~~~
serverdude
cool - thanx! The first stage seems like a killer one!:)

------
facebookChina
I guess there are quite a few negative experiences. Esp those that were
rejected by Y Combinator.

I think Y Combinator is over-rated- atleast now (I am attracting downvotes-Go
ahead)

Their startups havent had really big exits, so far.Once they do,things might
change.

~~~
tptacek
If anything, the valuation of a YC session has to have risen over the past
couple years, because the alumni network is so huge. Meanwhile, the YC terms
don't appear to have gotten less favorable. This point pretty much has to be
the opposite of true.

(NB: and I'm a YC skeptic).

~~~
revorad
Why are you a YC skeptic? Is it their investment model or the kind of
companies they fund or something else?

------
BANSAL
I'll not say it's bad experience but not so many responses :(
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1772675>

