
YC’s Early Decision makes starting a company easier for graduating students - LindsayAmos
https://www.forbes.com/sites/frederickdaso/2019/09/24/with-early-decision-y-combinator-is-going-back-to-its-roots/#62779b90703f
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75dvtwin
I am reading about economics of specific sub-section of entertainment
industry:

Boy Bands (and girl groups).
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_band](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_band)

Specifically the ones that are 'fully managed' by talent managers or record
producers.

To me it has economic benefits/risks similar to building tech companies with
graduates.

There is a lot stamina, creativity and willingness to experiment, that are not
present in older/more experienced talent pool... And all, relatively on the
cheap.

There are many negatives (copy cats, lack of long term, yet practical vision,
lack of experience in dealing with specific business subdomains, relations
stability and so on).

However, to me this is a valid business model, for certain market segments,
and I fully expect it will spread even more to include participants from well
outside Western culture. (and, perhaps, more healthy competition to the few
VCs that practice this now).

There is a podcast [1] on boy band economics, mostly covering Korean K-Pop.
[https://player.fm/series/series-1504378/what-boy-band-
sensat...](https://player.fm/series/series-1504378/what-boy-band-sensation-
bts-can-teach-us-about-economics)

interesting bits to me, is how culture/brand exports are incorporated into a
larger story (where it is not just an individual band, but they are part of
larger 'brand')

~~~
g0bananas
Can't wait to see the Early Decision NCT Worldwide tour. Maybe in partnership
with CJ Group.

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tempsy
It's incredible to me that graduating college students, many presumably with
student debt and little savings, can even consider taking the financial risk
of starting a company (e.g. forgoing a salary).

~~~
chronic71819
> It's incredible to me that graduating college students, many presumably with
> student debt and little savings, can even consider taking the financial risk
> of starting a company (e.g. forgoing a salary).

When I visited the Stanford campus recently, it seemed like many students had
the opposite of debt: massive savings indicated by personal electric scooters,
Mercedes/Tesla/BMW/Audi in the student parking lots, combined with several
FANG internships, it's fairly common for a CS undergrad to have $100K+ in
savings when they graduate.

Whether it's family money or not, debt doesn't seem to be the big of a problem
for these top students.

~~~
tempsy
You must be kidding...

~~~
mlevental
why do you imagine they're kidding?

~~~
mattmar96
Many students end up with 100k+ dollars in debt. How do you suppose these
stanford kids end up with 100k in the bank?

~~~
nostrademons
Tuition is free at Stanford if your parents make less than $125K. Everything
is free if they make less than $65K. 78% of Stanford students graduate debt-
free.

[https://news.stanford.edu/2016/02/25/tuition-financial-
aid-0...](https://news.stanford.edu/2016/02/25/tuition-financial-aid-022516/)

It's really important to understand that the elite non-profit private
education system functions differently from mainstream higher ed. Elite
private schools are _already_ socialist: they jack up sticker prices for high-
income parents and solicit their wealthy alumni for donations so that lower-
income students who get in can go free. If you get in, you will probably
graduate in fairly decent financial shape, particularly considering that many
local companies give good internships to Stanford students.

The folks you hear about with six-figure student debt figures are typically
products of mid-tier private colleges. These organizations don't have the
endowment or wealthy tuition-payers to be able to subsidize lower-income
students the way elite institutions can, and so they just put everybody in
debt. Then their graduates get out into the working world and are
indistinguishable from any other mid-tier private college graduate, and so
they get indistinguishable (i.e. low) wages.

It really pays to be elite in America.

~~~
sushid
The ones you are talking about are those who earned need based financial aid
for scholastic achievements. If that’s what you mean by “elite” I guess you’re
right in the sense that it’s difficult to manage and they’ve done so, but
that’s a strange way to describe hard working students.

------
ryanwaggoner
OT: I often get annoyed at the virulent anti-advertising stance of many users
here, which I consider to be somewhat hyperbolic, but this is just fucking
ridiculous:
[https://www.evernote.com/l/AALkcX7OpedDuYdYP28rYRX8GJ7iyLuAG...](https://www.evernote.com/l/AALkcX7OpedDuYdYP28rYRX8GJ7iyLuAGw0)

So here you go everyone, clean version of the article with no ads and no
paywall: [https://outline.com/znXUsU](https://outline.com/znXUsU)

