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Y Combinator has lost its soul: A YC founder's perspective...
The batches and checks are too big and the team is too small making it marginally useful unless youre a b2b saas or dev tool company, and it's filled with tech climbers.
The batches and checks are too big and the team is too small making it marginally useful unless youre a b2b saas or dev tool company, and it's filled with tech climbers.
1. Batches too big or the team is too small. Back in the day it was you and like 20 other companies. but you got the personal attention of people like @paulg @jesslivingston @tlbtlbtlb and a tight knit network of similarly driven people doing shit that was actually new.
Today the batches are huge. They still tell you to be "heads down just building and selling", but the game has changed completely. Its more about getting facetime with partners, building hype, and fundraising strategy than anything else.
2. Check size is too big. When YC started, they gave you like 20k and many founders went into massive credit card debt to stay alive (see @Tracy_Young @bchesky stories).
Having to take considerable financial risk definitely sucked, but it was also was a great filtering function. If you didnt have conviction in yourself or your product theres no way you would have been there. For those who made the leap, it made success the only option.
3. When i went through YC (recently), we had a "masterclass" of sorts on growth with @patrickc & @collision. Once of the first questions they asked the group was "how many of you are consumer companies?"
Like... 2 people raised their hands and everyone else laughed hysterically.
Like... 2 people raised their hands and everyone else laughed hysterically.
A lot of companies start out doing something else, but pivots are a fact of life in the early stages.
You know whats super easy to validate and gain traction with when you're surrounded by 200+ other early stage tech companies? Free SaaS and Dev tools.
IMO YC should ban them.
You know whats super easy to validate and gain traction with when you're surrounded by 200+ other early stage tech companies? Free SaaS and Dev tools.
IMO YC should ban them.
4. YC has become a tech climber MBA/sabbatical.
The bio group has changed things a bit, but there is a huge cohort of YC that is just PMs with 2-3 years of experience in FANG who want a break. Smart, capable nerds, but often lacking what it takes to really challenge anything.
The bio group has changed things a bit, but there is a huge cohort of YC that is just PMs with 2-3 years of experience in FANG who want a break. Smart, capable nerds, but often lacking what it takes to really challenge anything.
It feels like the partners are attached to a late 2000s view of the world where tech is new, risky, and innovative.
Its not. You're funding the people who would have gone into consulting or finance 15 years ago. RPM at Facebook is the new IB @ goldman (and actually pays more)...
Its not. You're funding the people who would have gone into consulting or finance 15 years ago. RPM at Facebook is the new IB @ goldman (and actually pays more)...
Recs: Cut the batch size to like 50. Cut the checks to $25k with the potential for post batch follow on. This may take care of itself, but consider outlawing dev tools/non-vertical saas. Rethink your framework for what a founder should look like.
