Most everyone trying to get accepted by YC is familiar with PG, his writings, and the YC partners experience regarding startups. It's a primary reason many apply.
Respect that PG and the other founders know how to scale the program and handle the workload. They have all the experience of running YC, while each of us has none.
They would be the first to limit their startup count if that needed to happen.
Almost all incubators aren't worth the time/equity given up.
My startup applied for YC and (having not made it) will not be pursuing any others. We may apply for YC again, not for the money but the experience and the alumni.
37Signals is not selling Sortfolio to make money - clearly they have enough - but because they believe the product deserves a better home.
I believe they won't accept the highest bid as much as the most interesting offer. I don't mean to say they'll give it away to a small, poor startup group; but I do think their preference would be that the next owner take it to the next level both in terms of direction and financial success.
I'm actually more interested in Sortfolio now than I was before. 37Signals is in a position to be as choosy as they'd like with the future buyer. I wonder who they will choose....
I wonder if we - to a certain degree - might receive better reporting since he is more active on a day-to-day basis in the actual investing. I really have no idea if this would be the case, but it's entirely possible that he might be privy to additional info than he would otherwise.
As for as the open letter...Mike appears to be open about who he's investing with and I would doubt he would want to harm his reputation - or TechCrunch's - by appearing to be biased towards those he has a vested interest in.
Well written letter but perhaps wait until you have examples of the downsides before you write the next. It will carry far more weight.
There are no set of rules all startups should follow. There are however guidelines that ought to be considered, and discussions that absolutely need to be had.
If you believe in the concept, believe in the team, and believe it will be successful, don't sacrifice all of that due to not getting an extra 5% you believe is deserved.
Find what works for your team and build something incredible. Remember you likely are not capable of doing this on your own.
I run a startup providing inventory services to automotive dealerships and make use of the eVox product. Great images.
That being said I would be very careful how your licensing contract is worded with them. You don't want to get burned and most everything in our space is charged on a dealership by dealership basis.
The idea itself is interesting and I like anything that disrupts our industry. Keep working on it and feel free to reach out if you'd like.
I've gotten migraine headaches for the last 8-10 years, and I still do not keep a diary.
My initial reaction is that different migraine sufferers would need to be asked different questions at different intervals. I would recommend:
- Have the user access the app/site when they notice they are having a migraine. At that point ask a battery of questions to see if the "triggers" can be narrowed down. I personally have three triggers.
- Once the user has confirmed a migraine, THEN you should ping the user to see how bad it is, what the current symptoms are, and if is ongoing. I generally have migraines lasting for 3-5 hours with varying symptoms depending on what "stage" I'm in. I have 4 distinct "symptom stages".
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I'm beginning to understand what PG means now when he says YC looks for teams more than ideas. Please do not take that as a knock against this idea - I do not mean in that way. I would be confident in my team and be honest about it's limitations and potential. As someone in the Healthcare IT line of work, there is a TON of space open to an intelligent young team.
My recent co-founders and I applied for YC this summer. While we did not make the initial cut, we did not move forward with applying to other incubators. The reasoning:
- YC provided experience not only from their own start-up success but also from an incubator (though they're really not an incubator) standpoint. Major reason to apply.
- None of the others we found provided something truly special.
Incubators need to find ways to differentiate. If they want to entice the best applications, it is important they offer something of interest outside of office space, some cash and a widely attended demo day.
I'm ready for another program worth applying to, and I do not want it to look anything like YC.
As a non-tech founder, I have a few thoughts as well.
- Respect the tech side. Learn the difference between a language and a framework. Leverage the internet and the power of a library card to educate yourself on at least a few general points.
- Respect the relationship. You don't understand till you're in it; but a partnership is truly a marriage of sorts. You likely would not choose a spouse based on a few brief meetings over the net and an awkward face-to-face. Develop a relationship, see how your work with one another and be genuine.
- Respect the team. Don't force a partnership because you found someone to code in RoR and you heard that was the "right" way to go. Find someone you can truly be a partner with. You may be surprised at the great ideas you can come up with together as oppose to the initial idea.
All that being said; every situation is different, as is every founder. Your mileage can - and will - vary.
Dr. Ian Malcolm: I'll tell you the problem with the business model that you're using here - it doesn't require any discipline to give it away for free. You read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn't earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don't take any responsibility...charging for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could and before you even knew what you had you patented it and packaged it and slapped it on TechCrunch, and now
[pounds table with fists]
Dr. Ian Malcolm: you're giving it away,
[pounds table again]
Dr. Ian Malcolm: you want to give it away!
I commented on yesterdays piece and my thoughts can be seen there.
But....
It did feel like an orchestrated dialog from supporters of Mass. I wasn't surprised to hear they were asking for votes via Twitter. The comments were largely from people involved and they seemed rather defensive.
After viewing the MassChallenge site and perusing the complex application process, I am reminded why I'm not excited about applying anywhere outside of Y Combinator.
I don't care about the money I care about the experience.
Will I learn anything from these people? From the other startups that are accepted? Outside some seed money, what is the upside?
*EDIT
My initial thoughts may have been harsh - and perhaps I'm being a hipster - but I don't get the feeling that this is something truly special/cool. I believe there are talented business people involved, but for me it doesn't appear to be a life-changing event as much as a cash prize.
That being said there is obviously a lot of support from those involved - they represent the bulk of the dialog here.
I started a business in 2007 and quickly found I had the wrong partner. It was a forced partnership on my account and was a mistake, though the company has persevered and is profitable.
Knowing I wanted to found additional startups I always had my eye out for a great partner. I wasn't finding anyone I thought met all the criteria, yet I held fast to my commitment to not make the same mistake again. Ideas came and went but I was determined to not start by myself or with the wrong person.
Last summer I met a guy I could work with. We completed a detailed project and then decided to apply for Y-combinator. Nothing was done by either of us to facilitate finding this relationship - in fact it was almost by chance that we met at all - however it's clear after only 6 months of working together that it works. When it works it works.
My advice is to be patient. Never force the relationship. Network - but do it to meet new people not specifically to find a partner.
My initial response was to dislike the idea of presentations all using the same format - it sounded boring and uninspired. But Demo Day is not for the teams but for the investors and I can't imagine being slammed with dozens of interesting ideas all while trying to choose which to invest large sums of money into. The similar presentation formats likely help the investors stay focused on the idea and the team.
I wonder if this "investor friendly" presentation format evolved from the experience of YC doing this year after year. An example of the Y Combinator partner's experience that Paul sometimes refers to...
Glad you have an opinion on erring on the side of caution- you've stated it - perhaps now you can answer our questions and share your story.