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Comment by asimuvPR | Hacker News Reader

Say I have a technology that's related to autonomous vehicles. It requires hardware and software. How would joining YC increase the odds of the technology being adopted by auto manufacturers? Its not a consumer product and its a technology that aides and improves autonomous operation but does not actually drive the car. It would be nice to hear from anyone from YC or with experience.

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The mentors provide excellent feedback on what you should focus on at any given time, and are great at troubleshooting problems. In addition to that, they have a great network (the YC alumni which includes some self-driving car companies as well as investors) who may be able to connect you directly to the companies you want to work with.

One of the hardest things for people that have never started a company before is to understand just how hard it will be. Having people on your side can make all the difference, if only to improve morale and help you maintain you sanity.

Thank you for the reply. Is there something in YC that is not for pure startups? Something to support R&D with a commercial goal but that do mor necessarily follow the common business path.

I think YC's criterion for getting admitted into the core program is still fitting - do they believe it can become a (ten) billion dollar company? They recently created the Fellowship program to fund more companies at an earlier stage but I don't know too much about that.

It's hard to give you more feedback without knowing more. If you don't want to focus on growth and realistically take VC money, YC might not be for you (these are generalizations, I'd argue Wufoo was a YC success story and they barely took any money at all).

This is great feedback. I will make sure to contact YC and simply ask them. I'm not really interested in VC but the network seems very valuable.

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