Ask HN: Open discussion on the type of VC you really need

[ryanmnly]

If any other applicants, like me, have been wondering why they weren't picked on Monday and don't think the "Why Not" page is a good enough answer, I figure an open discussion might be useful to all of us.

After that e-mail, I spent a solid 24 hours trying to convince myself that our startup was a bad idea. That way I could hit this first speed bump, walk away, and carry on with my meaningless 9-5 job in my cubicle. Fortunately, I was able to dissuade myself from that option. So why didn't YC see it the same way? What do they know that I don't?

After some soul searching, I think it is the other way around. They don't know what I do know, thus they know it is outside their expertise and not in their best interest. Here's my reasoning: Our startup is 50% based on the technology and 100% based on making the right political connections (Yes, it totals 150%). So even with their proven success guiding the product development correctly, it only affects 50% of the outcome. They can only control half, and we only gain half. It may very well be a poor match.

The application forced us to be aggressive, meet a deadline, and build a reasonably functional demo. I say that is successful in itself. It has also forced us to evaluate what types of investors and contacts we need to be successful. In these reasons alone, I believe YC has helped us as much or more than if we were picked to be funded. My only regret is that I don't have an excuse to move to SF for the summer.

Thoughts?

[pclark]

you have an excuse to move to SF for summer founding a startup.

Why would you even consider giving up after being rejected from YC? Isn't that telling the world you're not sold on your idea?

[ryanmnly → pclark]

I believe in the product. And although I have been involved in startups previously, I've either worked for one or haven't been in a position to found one as serious as this. My personal risk is greater and I naturally question it more.

And you are right, I can still move to SF :).

How about you? Have you already founded a startup? With or without YC or anyone else for that matter? And why?

[pclark → ryanmnly]

How about me. I'm founding a startup with a friend, we've been bootstrapped for 6 months.

We applied for YC, but didn't get in.

We dont need YC -- but it would have been great. We had other offers on the table (good offers, they wanted us to go thru YC and they'd invest with/during/after) -- those offers still stand post rejection so we're going to close very soon. Some of those investors are pretty big names in the tech world, so we're really excited.

If I was to informally tell you the roadmap of our startup it'd be: (now) small round (~$50k) of funding, prove our worth and take a larger round (~$300k) in ~12 months, go from there.

I'm 21, my co-founder is 28. We're young, we haven't done startups before -- we understand its a huge risk, so we're trying to break it down so everyone wins.

I like to think in a year we'll be in exactly the same position as if we had taken YC. We'll see, I really want to email them saying "we just closed Series A, wish we could have worked together, no hard feelings and I'd still love to buy you guys beers"