List of 5 years old YC companies with less then 10 people

ycombinator.com

6 points·wqtz··4 comments

I wouldn’t trust the accuracy of the company size field. I don’t think we ever updated that field as our employee count scaled up or down.

I came across Ninite today and saw that they had 2 employees and was a YC company. It felt quite interesting. They didn't fit the framework of "break things, do stuff" strategy of blitzscaling.

I tried to use "5+ years" as a proxy for survival, but that is a very weak metric as many companies are inactive, had dead domains or the cofounder LinkedIn showing a different story. But the "5+ years" does remove fund raising companies.

Most folks in HN dream of having a solo business with them being the owner-operator. This list provides an interesting database of things that spans from "Boeing for electric planes" to essentially job-boards or newsletters.

What happens when you're profitable but not quite the 10x return or even 3x return?

I have the same question. Atleast a few companies here should be running on a profitable level, because of low overhead costs and smaller scope. But YC did raise the seed round for them and could have even brought in a few seed/angel investors. My assumption is that, these investors are either pressuring them to raise more funds or look for a way to be acquired. But VCs do operate on shorter timelines. I am pretty confused on what the arrangement is.

I would absolutely love to hear what the conversation is between YC and these founders.

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