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Comment by lzw | Hacker News Reader

If you're managing your money reasonably well, and you're in your 30s, you probably have $15,000 in the bank in cash. I've never applied to YC because I've always had an order of magnitude more cash than YC typically invests.

People right out of college, or early in their careers who know they want to do a startup, and who haven't had the time to put aside this level of capital are the prime target for YC, and they are also likely to be younger.

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A lot of people ask me why I applied to Y-Combinator in my 30's with cash in the bank. For me it was because YC offers big picture perspective on internet companies I could not get for a better price anywhere else. I also guessed that the community would be good to know, like a business school class. Now having been through a YC batch I can say the money provided was the least significant benefit and that the advice and community turned out significantly better than I had ever anticipated.

Which company was that?

Did you succeed at your goals?

To my understanding the point of going to YC is to earn the connections, getting hooked up with really good business lawyer, free PR from TechCrunch, and maybe finding a capable tech co-founder.

$15,000 is just too little money to make fuss about. The free PR alone is probably as valuable as the $15K.

It's also a pedigree, the web/Internet/startup industry equivalent of a Harvard degree. Even if your startup fails, the fact that you got accepted by a program known for screening quality of talent more than quality of the initial idea is valuable.

My understanding is that most people do not apply to YC for the money

And 35 year olds don't apply because they don't want to spend 1-3 years making 30-40k/yr. It's not complicated.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Are you suggesting that older individuals are less willing to take financial risk? I agree with that, but where is your 30-40K number coming from?

Ramen-profitable wages.

I'm still not sure I follow your reasoning. Admission to YC does not guarantee ramen-profitably nor does it preclude the possibility of earning a lot more.

When you think about it though, Plenty of 28-30 year olds take on $100K in debt and forfeit as much or more in lost wages to get an MBA. Through that lens YC and an angel round seems like a great deal relative to the network and opportunity you get.

Very few 35-40 year olds are going to give up 75% of their income for any reason.

Nobody's criticizing YC here though; we're all just making the obvious point that YC trends young because people with established careers in tech make a lot more money in a year than many YC participants will see in several.

On the other hand, a majority of YC companies over the last year or two raise significant funding pretty quickly. A modest angel round can support a spouse/kids/mortgage lifestyle.

I used to be under the impression that one was obliged to take a low salary while employed by or founding an early-stage startup. Your seemingly sincere comment and an anecdote from a friend who was offered a quite competitive salary are starting to change my mind.

Just remember that 100K/yr is "low" to the guys giving you your $10M series A.

I can sum up your odds of pulling down a 10MM A round by saying "you are not going to get a 10MM A round".

I've worked at 3 consecutive startups that each had $10M+ series A rounds...

I'm sorry to have written something that could be misconstrued as saying "there are no startups that get 10MM A rounds", but I was actually making a more subtle point.

I'm really stupid... what was your point?

The general rule is that founders should pay themselves as little as possible. For some people, that's $30K, and for others, it's $100K. Just depends on where one is in life.

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