
Arrington: Y Combinator Thinks Small - il
At TechCrunch disrupt Arrington just said that VCs don't like Y Combinator because it sucks up talented entrepreneurs who then think small and don't go for big growth or a big exit. Do you agree? Any YC alums want to comment?
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pg
Professional, independent observers think otherwise. VCs will not do a series
A investment in a company unless they believe it has the potential to be
really big. So far over 20 YC-funded companies have done series A rounds, and
more surely will.

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blintson
I think that's as close to "fuck off Arrington" as pg's gonna get.

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frossie
I think the expression you are looking for is "the proof is in the pudding".

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donaldc
The VCs are not unbiased, objective observers of YC. It may be that some VCs
have that particular issue with YC, or it may be that they don't like YC for
other reasons, and their stated reason is just the professionally acceptable
rationalization they've come up with.

Clearly, some VCs _do_ like YC. Didn't Sequoia invest a few million dollars in
them?

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9oliYQjP
On one side we have Paul Graham who has started two successful businesses in
disparate industries. On the other, we have Michael Arrington who started one
successful business in another industry and launched a complete clusterf*ck of
a partnership in another (CrunchPad). The old saying about "data not being the
plural form of anecdote" applies. But I know which person has a lot more
evidence to suggest that he's an expert about business. In fact, one could
argue that by being a VC, Paul Graham has his hand in a lot more successful
and unsuccessful businesses than Arrington. He could probably teach him a
thing or two about both.

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johnrob
YC is meant to be beneficial to founders. It may not always benefit VCs.
Complaining about it is a bit self centered in my book.

Extreme example: Wealth also prevents quality people from pursuing aggressive
startups (yes, there are plenty of exceptions). And it would be incredibly
self centered to complain that you can't fund entrepreneurs because they're
satisfied with their savings account.

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grease
Large opportunities/businesses are often found at what are considered as the
fringes today. Like PG has said in a talk (on trends in future), seemingly
frivolous stuff could be big tomorrow.

From what I understand, YC encourages its startups to focus on a specific/core
problem - which might misunderstood as thinking small. But thats exactly where
large opportunities can be found.

Also, obviously big ideas (that all agree will show big growth & big exits)
will also be heavily competed by existing established and entrenched players
with a lot more resources (not to mention, other startups). If VCs ignore YC
(and others like it), they do it at their own disadvantage

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sixtypoundhound
And in other news, someone on Hacker News commented that someone who sold out
to AOL in 2010 should, perhaps, think a bit before taking a swipe at someone
who sold out to Yahoo in the late 90's...

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petesmithy
there are big plays in the ~200-company portfolio

