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NYT on Paul Graham's YCombinator Bootcamp

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the something-to-read dept.

prostoalex writes "The New York Times tells the story of Paul Graham's YCombinator - a venture firm that specializes in funding early stage startups that's famour for startup bootcamps conducted twice a year in Silicon Valley and over on the East Coast. YCombinator's boot camps apparently attract a lot of employees out of major software companies, who are still young and want to run a software startup."

9 of 116 comments (clear)

  1. One of the attendees... by tcopeland · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ....Keith Casey, blogged about his trip to Startup School here. There's an interesting note in his post about one of the speakers talking about how nervous CFOs feel about Sarbanes-Oxley.

    Incidentally, Keith also reviewed my book.

    --
    The Army reading list
  2. $6000 for 6%? by Wulfstan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Talk about getting a bargain - if you can't figure out a way of raising that sort of money on your own you really shouldn't be in business.

    Remember, folks, venture capital is like heroin; easy to get hooked on and bloody hard to get off.

    --
    --- Nick, hard at work :->
  3. compared to Phil Greenspun's university by peter303 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Reminds me a bit about the "college" Phil Greenspun started a few years back. It was going to be an "accelerated" version of M.I.T. bypassing the stuff irrelevant to startup computer businesses. It also sound a bit elitest and blowhard.

    Anything that can channel the energy and creativity of smart young men and women into constructive pursuits has my vote. Sometimes people are turned off by formal channels like universities and low level entry jobs and dont realize their potential.

  4. The only one to win is YCombinator by VirtualUK · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That's insane, 6% stock for only $20k investment AND they won't sign an NDA so they're free to take your idea and pass it off to one off to whoever they want. If you're a budding entrepreneur and you can't raise $20K for seed funding you really should stick to being a wage slave.

    1. Re:The only one to win is YCombinator by Senzei · · Score: 4, Insightful
      If you're a budding entrepreneur and you can't raise $20K for seed funding you really should stick to being a wage slave.

      Beyond that they require that you have at least two people on the project, and prefer three. If you and a buddy (or two) cannot raise 20K in funding you seriously should stick to being a wage slave.

      I want to like paul graham, I really do, he just gives me that creepy feeling that I also get from any of the pyramid scheme head honchos I have seen. All his answers are just too easy for me to trust it. Dunno who that says something about.

      --
      Slashdot: Where anecdotes and generalizations can be freely substituted for facts, logic, or intelligence
    2. Re:The only one to win is YCombinator by TerrapinOrange · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If you were a 20 year old kid with 2 cents to his name and an idea in his head, how exactly would you go about raising 20,000? Sure, it's possible. You could max out your (possibly non existent) credit cards and hope for the best. You could hit up rich uncle Joe and try to get a sliver of his fish packing fortune. If you have generous parents, maybe you could keep living in mom's basement, and spend the next 6 month of your life working on business plans, slogging through meetings, and dealing with folks who are far more interested in your age than your idea.

      If you do manage to get the money, then what? Mine uncle Joe's fish packing knowledge to find out how to flip a software company? Tell Visa that you'll be able to make your minimum payment as soon as you can secure your second round of funding?

      Some people would rather write software than deal with business crap, get in debt, or lose their family's money. For those folks, getting 20,000 for nothing more than an idea probably sounds pretty sweet. If things go south, they're no further behind than when they started, and if they get rich, who cares about a lousy 6% to avoid all that hassle? They're still rich.

      Lastly, Google doesn't even know about Jimmy Nobody and his Fabulous Web-o-Matic. You can bet your ass they're looking at Y Combinator's kids though.

  5. credentials? by penguin-collective · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I find the credentials of this group of people pretty weak when it comes to startups; making a lucky sale during the early Internet boom years is not the same as having sustained startup or business experience.

  6. more realistic? maybe by jbellis · · Score: 3, Insightful

    But also a lot harder for paul & co: instead of people willing to move to where you can coach them and live on $2k/month or so, you've got someone who is less able to relocate AND has significantly higher fixed expenses.

    Business 101: if your costs are higher, your return needs to be higher too, or it's not worth it.

    I suspect that paul simply doesn't know how to get 3x the output from 30-somethings that he can get from 20-somethings in return for the higher costs. This is amplified by the relocation issue; _you_ might not think paul's advice is worth relocating for, but _he_ clearly does. And he's doing the investing. :)

  7. Preparation for Exploitation by jsailor · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Ok, start by handing over 6+% of your company.
    If you're good you'll get you business-skill-lacking-self in front of investors. Don't worry, if they like your idea, they'll take care of the legal work for you. Kiss a whole bunch more of your ownership goodbye. Oh wait, you need more money to keep developing, that's where our funding comes in with so many strings attached you'll get dizzy if your patient enough to read the contracts. Don't worry about reading them, however, because the lawyers the VC's set you up with will take care of that. They'll look out for your best interests. Trust them.

    Cookie-cutter contracts and business formation legal work can be purchased from numerous places over the 'net for anywhere between $100 and $1000.

    Sorry for the cynicism, but if you can "make something people want", you can probably attract enough attention on your own. Isn't that what the Internet enables? As others have pointed out, you won't have to move and if you can't get $6k on your own ...