YC Companies Have More Than 2x the Momentum of 500 Startups, 3x Techstars

daniellemorrill.com

19 points·Udo··4 comments

There seem to be a lot of YC/500 crossovers. I wonder if all of them were 500 first, then YC, or if anyone has done YC and then 500?

AFAIK, there are zero YC/Techstars crossovers.

I noticed that. I'm thinking it might be because TechStars doesn't have a Bay Area franchise, and YC requires founders to move here.

Maybe, but I think it's more than 500 Startups is just a whole lot stronger, particularly in the past 2 years.

Part of that may be that being in SF, at least for part of a company's life, is a huge boost. 500 Startups is really good, maybe better than YC, at recruiting internationally, particularly outside the normal tech network (Latin America, etc.). But they still use the Bay Area advantage.

TechStars NYC might be a viable thing on its own, but it's hard for me to believe that the other cities are really viable for all stages of a company trying to be the next Dropbox or Facebook.

(I do think you can have a substantial non-bay-area presence, but I think you do need some bay area presence, particularly for investors)

A few companies like 9gag and Vayable did YC and 500 the accelerator, but others are just YC companies with 500 as an investor. E.g., you see 500/Techstars crossovers in the list.

There are zero YC/Techstars crossovers because both are accelerators only unlike 500. Both YC and Techstars companies view themselves as having gone to the best accelerator program and it's expensive from an equity standpoint to do multiple accelerators, so it makes sense that there is zero overlap there.

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