
Quora in the next YC batch - _pius
http://blog.ycombinator.com/quora-in-the-next-yc-batch
======
dude_abides
Hard to imagine what's in it for Quora.

\- Network connections? Their CEO is the former CTO of Facebook.

\- Help with fundraising? They raised $80mm at $900mm valuation not more than
a month ago.

I strongly suspect Quora is planning a huge pivot which they feel is ambitious
but doable in 3 months, and YC believes in the value of this pivot; that is
the only plausible explanation I can think of.

~~~
meritt
Direction probably. Quora has floundered for nearly 5 years, burned millions
of dollars and still has a questionable product.

Meanwhile Stack Exchange has been around only a year longer, a fraction of the
funding, and pretty well owns the entire question-answer niche.

~~~
rokhayakebe
There are 20 million programmers in the world, that is the maximum S.O. can
get. There are billions of people looking for just the type of answers you
find on Quora.

Also you go to S.O. to find a specific answer than move on, on Q you stick
around and read other stuff, go back for discovery.

I am not saying which one is more valuable, perhaps S.O. is more monetizable.

~~~
beagle3
That's a strawman. Don't compare Quora to Stack Overflow (which is, indeed,
limited to programmers). Look at the entire Stack Exchange network.

~~~
gbog
Or Wikipedia?

------
hnnewguy
Funny thing, I visited Quora today, for the first time in a while. Years,
maybe:

Googled something, Quora near top results, clicked link, "signup" nag screen,
results blurred out, left page.

I guess I still don't get it. Curious to see what this will be about.

~~~
chriskelley
I rarely initialize my use of Quora by visiting the website - I have found
immense value in the digest emails they send. They are a mix of things they
know I'm explicitly interested in, and generally "interesting" things
(presumably defined by popularity). Probably 90% of the time after receive a
digest email, I open at least 2 or 3 of the links within.

I have tried visiting the site directly and am rarely able to find content as
stimulating as the links they send in the digest emails.

~~~
lmb
I've never signed up to the site, but find this quite interesting. Does that
mean you only consume the content via email or do you click through? Sounds
like a massive headache for Quora in the first case.

~~~
russell_h
You really have to visit the site, the emails only contain snippets of
conversation.

That being said, the emails are brilliant. I don't know how the content is
selected, but almost every time I open one I see something eye-catching enough
that I click through.

~~~
Alex_MJ
Yeah - I second that. Quora is one of the few sites that sends me weeklyish
emails that I haven't unsubscribed from because the content is fantastic. I
always seem to learn something from clicking through it.

It's kind of a bummer that they're needing to pivot and find a way to revenue
- from a non-business, purely consumer perspective I find the site really
enlightening and valuable.

~~~
gbog
Well not feeling the same. At first it was ok but now in the mails I get the
50 answer to "what are good advices for a good life?" And the nth reply on
topic China by a user who regurgitates the western party line that I know
already, in the same time and depth that you'd have in a newbie backpacker bar
near the most spoiled tourist spot in Thailand.

------
johnrob
Keep a link to this for the initial office hours ;)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4503910](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4503910)

~~~
jedberg
PG isn't _always_ right you know. :)

He told the reddit guys that the logo was a distraction and if they _must_
have it it should be at the bottom out of view.

Sometimes he does make a mistake. This previous statement of his could be one
of them.

~~~
GrinningFool
Here, in the very temple of PG, you speak such blasphemy?

;)

------
paul
This is very exciting.

More great companies in YC = more value for the whole YC community!

~~~
dangelo
Thanks for including us!

~~~
razfar
It would be awesome if you could give more info to the community regarding
your decision to join YC!

~~~
johncoogan
I'm itching to know more too, but I'm sure we will all learn plenty in due
time. From the post: "they’re participating in the batch like any other
company". To me, that means Quora will be participating in demo day, and I'm
sure their will be reporter coverage of their pitch. Really excited to see
what's in store!

------
krstck
I want to like Quora, but I hate how pushy they are about forcing you to sign
up to read their content. I thought I'd remembered pg making a similar comment
a while back:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5217449](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5217449)
Maaaaaybe this will encourage them to change?

------
gkoberger
I'd love to hear more about why. It makes sense for YC (and is probably being
treated as a normal investment rather than "Adam filled out a YC application
and did a 10 minute interview"), however I feel like it makes Quora seem weak.

~~~
sama
Clearly makes a lot of sense for us :) I think the other companies in the
batch will get a ton out of this.

I'm hopeful Quora will too--as the YC community grows larger, we can help
companies in lots of ways, including with things like hiring that are
particularly important for later stage companies.

~~~
kkhire
What do you think were the qualities that helped Quora rise above the many
other similar Q&A websites? The layout and UI doesn't really seem too
immersive.

~~~
putlake
Something that Facebook and Quora have in common is that the initial set of
users were cool enough to prime the pump of viral growth. With Quora, you had
awesome people giving answers only they had. Like a startup co-founder talking
about the early days of their now successful venture.

So starting with awesome people creating awesome content helped. Over time,
Quora has done a few things really well: (1) growing the community while
keeping it fairly high brow, (2) their topic taxonomy, and (3) their email
digests.

My problem with Quora is that it's more entertainment than useful. SE/SO is
more functional. Who really cares what are the things about San Diego that
most people don't know?

------
state
I wonder if Quora actually applied, or if the idea was generated outside of
the application process. I'm also pretty curious what the terms of the deal
are (although I don't expect to actually get those details) with the new
standard funding package.

~~~
sama
adam and i talked about it outside of the normal application process

------
ivankirigin
Wow, what a great experiment. How can Quora employees get involved?

What percentage of the company does YC get? Did you even make an investment?
Given their huge fundraising and valuation, getting even 1% and giving them
around $100K both seem odd.

~~~
sama
we did invest. as a general rule, i think investors shouldn't disclose terms,
but if the company wants to, fine w/me.

~~~
mkempe
Hasn't the premise of YC --since the beginning-- been to explicitly state the
investment amount and percentage? This move feels like dilution of both
purpose and brand.

~~~
ivankirigin
Exceptions don't change how open they are. Companies as successful as Quora
joining YC is great for YC and the alumni.

The main reason I'm interested in the ownership amount is that other companies
applying to YC should understand whether their valuation at a recent round is
fair for YC to get, or if even Quora thought 7% is worth it.

If I were to apply to YC with my startup YesGraph (which took a large seed a
year ago), this would be a really important question, especially considering
I'm an alum and already how everything else works.

------
OmarIsmail
This actually makes quite a bit of sense. At the scale that YC is at now,
there are already a few companies worth 10x Quora (Dropbox, Twitch, AirBnB).
I'm sure even at Dropbox et al's scale both Dropbox and YC get a lot out of
the ongoing relationship. Therefore, in these types of mutually beneficial
scenarios why would YC or companies for that matter artificially limit
themselves to only getting into such a relationship during some arbitrary
timeline?

When you think about it, putting such an arbitrary limit doesn't make sense,
and voila you've broken a mental barrier and can now change the rules of the
game. As a founder of a YC company I would absolutely love it if YC becomes
this broad "old boys/girls" network of awesome tech companies. Who actually
cares about what stage the company was at when they joined YC. The more great
companies part of the club, the better!

------
xacaxulu
Hope JesusChristSiliconValley has something to say about this.
[http://jesuschristsiliconvalley.tumblr.com/post/48962035819/...](http://jesuschristsiliconvalley.tumblr.com/post/48962035819/quoraquoraquora)

~~~
noio
Haven't heard a thing from him since
[http://jesuschristsiliconvalley.tumblr.com/post/50931471868/...](http://jesuschristsiliconvalley.tumblr.com/post/50931471868/jesus-
christ-silicon-valley) ..

But yes; that post is all I can think of when I hear Quora.

------
dollaaron
Until Quora stops requiring you to log in to see anything, I'm never touching
the site again (workarounds don't count).

------
3pt14159
Quora needs to change. I get the weekly emails that they make me double click
to get though (the UI here is awful, but it doubles page views) and that is
basically it.

They need to change, which is why I think YC is such a good fit for them. The
deal was probably $1 for 0.1% or something like that. Mostly symbiotic
relationship. Quora needs the reboot cred and YC likes shiny people.

~~~
gedrap
>> make me double click to get though

I really don't like it. At first I thought that a link is broken or something.

~~~
caseyj
oh, I didn't realize it does double click. I clicked the link and it
redirected me to their home page and that's it for me.

------
harryh
It would be interesting the learn the terms of the deal. Presumably it's
nothing like the standard $120k for 7%.

I'm struggling to figure out how this makes sense as a part of the y
combinator investment portfolio.

EDIT: The only plausible thing I can see Quora wanting that Y Combinator has
is access to talent. Is this a recruiting move?

~~~
mrgn
Quora would have to be having an extremely difficult time hiring for it to be
a recruiting move. A Venn diagram of engineers or designers for whom Quora is
more interesting when affiliated with Y Combinator, whom Quora would also want
to hire, but who could not already join most other Y Combinator startups does
not overlap.

~~~
harryh
Ya, I tend to agree with you, but without some sort of recruiting angle I'm
left with nothing. Still scratching my head.

~~~
frabcus
Help pivoting.

------
calbear81
I believe it was made clear that their last raise will be the final round they
will take so whatever they do will need to make the business sustainable in
the long run. My guess is by participating in YC, they can:

\- Find up-and-coming businesses that are tangentially related to Quora's
mission that they can groom and perhaps invest in.

\- Incubate within the YC ecosystem some spin-off businesses that may not fit
well under the Quora brand and what they're doing.

------
antonber
My guess that's what's in it for Quora is the ability to poach talent from YC
startups.

------
ZenPro
I was a frequent Quora user with a relatively well-regarded reputation.

During an Ask to Answer session a user took offence to being proved wrong
about some fact or other and threatened a _retribution_.

Over next few days emails began arriving in my personal inbox which the User
had incorrectly identified as the email of my business clients.

The emails were pure vitriol accusing me of fraud etc telling the "clients" to
jettison me.

I immediately contacted Quora as the information he had access to could only
have come from an Administrator (which I had previously clashed with on the
thread). Quora denied all knowledge but the Administrator refused to engage
with me personally.

At that point I realised it just was not worth the exposure.

------
dredmorbius
Why would YC taint itself with all that pg's quite accurately criticized Quora
for.

Scammy SERP practices and forced user count inflation. Hardly something to
encourage.

------
Wump
Seems like a good move for Quora. They'll get early access to acquihiring
super talented folks at struggling/failing startups. At the least, they can
generate goodwill and word of mouth as a good place to work. Talented people
know talented people, etc.

Not sure about the impact on YC though. It may create an environment of mixed
incentives. Quora's incentive is almost perverse, in that they get the most
value out of YC from failing startups.

------
prayag
Will we see YC doing (specifically leading) later stage or growth stage rounds
now? I think it's great though I do worry about signaling problem for
companies who don't do later stage rounds with YC?

------
rdl
Quora at Summer 2014 Demo Day could be really interesting.

~~~
Patrick_Devine
My first thought was would there be additional pressure to be awesome? Having
already raised $141 million they're worth more than all the other companies
there put together times ten.

~~~
rdl
I'd be willing to make the bet that the valuation of Quora today ($900mm?) is
lower than the peak valuation of at least one YC company founded S12 to S15 by
2020, adjusted for inflation.

------
cmpns8
A well established company with a nice product but no revenue generating
business model partners with a bunch of hotshot entrepreneurs looking for a
startup idea (or pivot) - I wonder if Quora is going to provide a kind of Q&A
based platform which creative startups can leverage, almost like a Quora
branded YC mini-batch.

The startups would have immediate access to Quora's user base and a space to
focus on (Q&A value added services). Quora gets an infusion of fresh ideas
without have to take the risk themselves. Quora could develop some fee based
structure for its platform and look at acquiring the most promising startups.

------
zmitri
If YC becomes Stanford 2.0, Quora seems like an interesting software
collaboration system for all of it's "students." I see the potential
especially since Facebook started out just with "students" too.

------
ChrisNorstrom
This is pretty exciting. It's good to see YC diversifying itself through small
experiments. I'm curious how much money is YC going to invest in Quora? Same
amount as its other startups?

------
mrfusion
It's funny I never thought twice about registering for stack overflow but I
can never bring myself to register for quora. And I always feel bummed I can't
see all the answers.

------
guelo
Definitely seems like something pg would have never done.

------
jw2013
No way they are taking the traditional 7% ~ $120k deal. From Crunchbase they
already got $141M fund, and let us be very conservative and say their
valuation is just $400M. 7% percent of that is 400,000k*0.07 = 28,000k.

I guess Quora will be treated the same as other batch's participants (except I
wonder how many of Quora's employee will be physically in SV), but Quora got
different deal.

~~~
ConnorBoyd
According to their wiki page, Quora's valued at over 900 million after their
most recent round of funding.

------
ryanSrich
Interesting. I wonder if this will aid in finding a business model[1]. Would
love to hear more from someone at YC about what is driving this experiment.

[1] [http://www.quora.com/Quoras-Business-Model-and-
Monetization/...](http://www.quora.com/Quoras-Business-Model-and-
Monetization/What-could-Quoras-long-term-business-plan-be)

------
yeukhon
Quora is awesome but lack of enough users who can actually deliver "answers".
As a student I visit Quora for three things: find out some "secrets" about a
company written by former and current employees, find out secrets about cities
and history and find out just about anything interesting.

StackExchange has a strong, super strong moderation. You can't just start a
random question and not expect someone close it in ten minutes. SE's divisions
makes asking question and finding related questions very difficult. Sometimes
you don't even know where to ask the right question...

If Quora has the active user base that SE has I will sure people will flood
there.

Quora to me is the modern Yahoo Answer but with the hope of quality control.

------
shaohua
7% of Quora for $120k, sounds like a steal. just kidding. there is no way they
get the same term

------
drp4929
How much time Quora founders are going to spend at YC headquarter during the
program ?

------
gedrap
I am more interested in whether Quora will avoid the problems SO is facing.

A year ago or so, the links in the email digest were genuinely interesting.
/r/iama, kind of. Now, many of them is stuff like 'the best thing you have
been told' or 'how does it feel to be in love'. No thanks. If I wanted that, I
would be browsing those instagram-ish images with pathetic captions. Is it
their ML getting something wrong, or a general trend?

I tried to just visit quora.com but found it fairly boring and hard to browse,
so I visit only through the email.

------
tonydiv
Quora being valued at $900M? Heh, I'd believe it when there's some revenue, or
at least some sign of revenue.

I'd have more faith in Quora long term if they were asking for donations like
Wikipedia.

------
ilamparithi
For me Quora is useful in finding alternative sites/software. For example, If
I am looking for a web chat software, I can find most of the available
solutions there. Of course, the information is biased because it is posted by
the respective founders/CTOs. Still I can use that as a starting point for my
research. I do hate that I have to login to read content but share=1 comes to
the rescue.

------
sad_chap
It's probably not their primary consideration, but I'd imagine that this is
really fun and stimulating for the other companies in the batch. Personally I
think startup advice feels most valuable when it's in the form of stories
("Here's our N of 1, you synthesize this with others into a worldview.") And
having a late stage company or two around can only add to that.

------
joshdance
I got an email from a Quora product manager a little while ago asking how I
used Quora and what I liked about it. Seems like changes are coming.

------
fuddle
YC has always been experimental, it worked out well for non-profits. The more
experiments you do the better you can make it work.

------
evolve2k
StackExchange treats me with respect, Quora currently feels like they are
playing the old 'Experts Exchange' game of shady techniques and firewalled
user knowledge.

I hope joining YC they find a more open way to do business. Why should I
answer questions to build their closed knowlege base?

------
michalu
Thread on Quora [http://www.quora.com/Quora-company/Why-did-Quora-join-
the-20...](http://www.quora.com/Quora-company/Why-did-Quora-join-
the-2014-Y-Combinator-batch)

------
melvinmt
I wonder if Quora was part of "The New Deal" [http://blog.ycombinator.com/the-
new-deal](http://blog.ycombinator.com/the-new-deal)

------
benwilber0
I can't imagine there's anything in this for Quora. They just raised $80M last
month! I suspect they're either launching a new product or pivoting
completely.

------
soneca
What a humbly ambitious move by Quora.

They sure aren't happy enough with where they are or heading to; still they
know they need help to change ways.

------
manojit
Quora has a certain negativity in it.

------
kkhire
It'll definitely be a great and encouraging experience for all other companies
in the batch -- working alongside a company with that caliber of funds? That's
awesome.

------
owens99
Sounds like a partnership not an investment.

------
michaelochurch
I think I know what this is about.

It's a neat idea. (My lack of specificity isn't a sign of cynicism; in fact, I
like the idea.)

I'll give a hint: semi-supervised learning.

------
AznHisoka
Le Sigh.

Now PG and his team of suits will use their persuasion to convince a bigger
fool to buy Quora, and let all the investors off the hook. And so it goes.. in
Silicon Valley.

------
sitkack
WTF with ycombinator taking a string of higher valued startups. Smells like
paying for access. Not an incubator. More like paying to sleep with the head
of a horse.

------
grinich
great move

------
tim_sw
could this be a way for quora to evaluate acqui-hires?

------
bifrost
Very cool! I welcome Quora!

------
jonathanjaeger
I still think all the Quora bashing about their signup interstitials is
overstated. They've determined the optimal experience is for people to sign up
to see an answer. I know that seems antithetical to an open and "easy-to-use"
Internet, but this isn't Wikipedia. Quora is about answers but also about
opinions. Their email newsletters, although tweaked recently in a not-so-
favorable way, are still amazing. You get a ton of value becoming a user, but
unless you sign up (or are semi-forced to sign up) you'd never know that.

While I keep saying I'm not sure if it'll be a good business, I love Quora.
They've done something truly unique in the Q&A space and I'm happy they have
so much funding that they'll be around for years to come regardless of whether
it's a "business".

