Y Combinator's First Batch: Where Are They Now?(thenextweb.com)
thenextweb.com
Y Combinator's First Batch: Where Are They Now?
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/08/05/y-combinators-first-batch-where-are-they-now/?utm_campaign=social%20media&awesm=tnw.to_l2M5&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Spreadus
13 comments
I've been curious about this, is it definitive that YC investments pass through like this, i.e. from Justin.tv to Socialcam and Exec?
Exec and Socialcam ARE YC companies, the investments didn't pass through. Those teams actually did YC, which they maybe wouldn't have (who knows) without Justin Kans first startup.
#1 way to get an interview: recommendations from other YC founders. Not just tepid "I know this person" but "I'm putting $100k down on this team."
Isn't this how all VC deals work?
One of the missing people that this article does not mention is Simon Carstensen, a danish dude that was a co-founder of Infogami. I met Simon in an university class and I knew him for some time before I knew he was part of Y Combinator's first batch :-) Simon traveled back to Denmark after his round finished.
Yes this is called survivorship bias. Only the successful people end up being in these news articles, thus leading people to believe that everyone going through YC ends up successful.
It probably has more to do with the fact that Infogami's other founder has said since the beginning that he was a sole founder, and never once mentioned a co-founder.
What I like best about this news is the long term orientation of it. The more thinking about long value, virtuous cycles, and underlying principles and values, the better for the SF bay tech community.
Excellent idea for an article. I'm surprised I haven't seen such a thing before now.
Would it hurt TNW to link to the mentioned projects?
Another note: the beauty of YC isn't that Paul & co. pick home runs every time -- they don't -- it's that they pick teams that eventually hit home runs. Justin.tv is doing okay, but YC's investment in Justin in 2005 has netted it Socialcam (acquired for $60M) and Exec. YC's investment in Reddit also netted them Hipmunk.
And I'm only scratching the surface here -- YC founders always recruit great people into the YC program.