YC is very similar to a university. There is a small group of companies that create the reputation on which everybody lives. The results are extremely exponentially distributed. So yes, it makes sense you joining some arbitrary YC startup was a bad experience. The average performance of a YC company is __phenomenal__, the median performance is poor.
I don’t know how or why, but I have seen this happen many times. Many of my submissions appear at the front within minutes of receiving 2-3 votes. I have no affiliation with YC, nor are my submissions.
Nobody ever pays too much or too little for a startup. Because either you __really__ make it, or you don't. It is statistically more likely for your YC startup to be worth more than $1 billion, than it is to be acquired in a cash deal for $80mm. It is because of this fact that $2/22mm is not unreasonable. However, most of the hot companies during the batch will fetch $3-4mm/30-40mm valuation. The average raise during demo day is close to ~$3mm, the median <$800k.
How much more efficient is it to allocate capital to a group individuals who have been educated at institutions that produce an increasingly rigid type of thinker, who are all making the same hype driven products?
Readit News
It's mostly a ponzi scheme, where unprofitable companies pass their books off to non-technical investors that love hype.
> 1 slide. 1 minute pitches. 1 speaker.
This is why YC has such poor results. They're more interested in "1 slide" vs actual financials.
> Vertical AI was all over the place. Cursor for X was also prevalent.
No thought leadership at all.
No it's not. It's not even remotely comparable.
> There is a small group of companies that create the reputation on which everybody lives
Also called luck. YC investors cannot articulate what made them successful, or else they'd have better results.
Universities have decades of sustained output. They are not comparable.
> you joining some arbitrary YC startup was a bad experience
I am at a YC unicorn. We are one of YC's most successful startups.
> The average performance of a YC company is __phenomenal__
It absolutely is not. It doesn't even beat the SP500. The __vast__ majority of YC companies are unprofitable failures.
You could flip a coin and beat YC.
Maybe I'm wrong but YC mostly starts investing in pre-seed stage, where companies don't have financials.
Seems like a pretty good reason to have more information than 1 slide...
It's a threadbare article with little or no meat on the bone. So it is a little strange.
This page on mobile made me laugh.
But otherwise, makes sense - get rid off all the flash and this is what demo days/etc are about
The more efficient the capital allocation is, the greater the benefit to the whole market.
The only weirdness is that these are companies led by founders with "personalities". That's a weird variable to correct for.