Going Through Y Combinator (YC S13): Lessons Learned
blog.zactownsend.com
blog.zactownsend.com
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Don't. If your startup is trying to sell to small businesses, stop asking the business owners on Castro St. They already have more pitches than the VCs on Sand Hill road. They are bombarded with half-baked ideas on how to get more customers, make more money from existing customers, etc.
Long distance calls have been free for a while now: call some other state with no startup culture and pitch to those business owners. They'll be both more receptive and more representative of the overall business population.
Sorry for my lack of clarity here. We weren't pitching customers in Mountain View, we were just walking around a block a few hundred times -- talking and thinking with each other.
What I'm trying to get at is - YC obviously sees some kind of value in Prototype Day, so what is the value and can others replicate that value in some other way?
You can replicate a lot of the value by getting a group of serious founders together and having them spend a day or half a day pitching to each other, with feedback. If you can get a mentor experienced with the process to give you feedback, even better.
The impression I got by reading all the stuff in the tech press, is that almost no one will fund just an idea - even seed funding - you do need to have a working product, and traction and customers, etc.
The other question is : Is it possible to get into YC if you are much older than your mid-twenties or early thirties? I know it is theoretically possible - but are there any YC founders in their forties or even fifties?
In my YC class, I would say the median age was roughly mine: 28. Any number of founders were in their late 30s and 40s.
When we did YC, I was 36. I wasn't the oldest, but it was close. There have been founders in their 40's and even 50's (as far as I know - could be even more).
The problem with older founders... your needs are different (financial burdens, children etc) which makes it more difficult to succeed. As a "kid" you are much more likely to live with 6 other people eating ramen and coding 18 hrs a day.
Fixed that for you.
*(generally speaking, & speaking of myself)
This is an interesting point and one that I've seen multiple people bring up over time on HN. Often as first hand feedback from the person with a family. Financial obligations are more. No doubt. When I started my first company I lived off of a few hundred dollars a month (personally) and put everything else into the company.
And your point about "eating ramen" is too true.
In my experience, founding a company in my 20's, early 30's and doing one again in my late 30's is that finding a big opportunity is equally hard at any age. I don't see that getting any easier. However, what I do differently now is that that I'm infinitely more disciplined. I talk to customers earlier, I spend less time on building a prototype (6 weeks to 12 weeks max), and am willing to kill an idea as soon as I realize that its not going to get me to my goal.
What I'd be interested in seeing are stats on the success of 30+ founders who are on a 2nd/3rd startup vs. 1st time founders who are 30+. My guess is these two groups would diverge widely, but that's just a guess.
Importantly, I find some parts of starting a company much easier at this age.
First, and perhaps most importantly, my wife and I have committed to the startup lifestyle (not a lifestyle business per say, but to pursuing opportunities to grow our net worth). We openly discuss our goals. We have been together through 2 companies, so we know how much of a pain this one will be. We are in agreement that the costs of building a new company are worth the potential to take us to the next level financially. I find this is where many people think that starting a company after marriage is more difficult. However, I have seen that being married can lighten your load as a founder if you and your spouse agree on who will carry what load. One of my friend's had the same conversation with his wife. She's starting a company, and he's pulling a huge load at home. So the same advice works for both men and women.
In terms of distractions, I have way less of them now than when I was younger. Everyone I know is busy with family and kids, so there is little pressure to hang out and waste time.
This is totally personal experience/opinion, but kids have been a boon to my startup work. There's no way to explain it except to say that spending time with my daughters is calming. Stress be damned.
Maybe its just me, but I find the 20 year olds of today exceptionally capable. I am super impressed with how good the younger generations are. They are focused, motivated, capable. I find this beneficial both because I have now have experience, but there is an entire younger generation who are wonderful to speak with, learn from, and work with.
The financial aspects of starting a company now are a world easier. Without diving into detail, its a cake walk now. I don't starve. I know to expect losses on some ideas. I've had enough failures and some successes to know that sometimes ideas and companies fail, and sometimes they succeed.
In summary, your point is well taken. It's definitely different.
I am guessing you guys are in heavy development? because I didn't see how you go from using spreadsheets to using your solution (at least from the code samples). I am guessing people who use spreadsheets to build "apps" aren't typically in a position (skill-wise) to use JavaScript to do anything sophisticated.
Sorry about that. The video is for an older MVP. I pushed the product live last week before attending NodeDay, so I really need to update the video.
The specs are actually written using a small JavaScript file which is then serialized to JSON, which is used to generate the JavaScript.
The best way to experience Exponetial.io is via:
npm install -g exponential
Then just create a login on www.exponential.io and you're ready to go.
If you don't have Node installed, then installation instructions for Mac, Windows and Linux can be found at:
Site note: We're definitely early alpha. So Exponential.io as it stands now is for early adopters who are ok with giving feedback to drive product features. Our target is to hit beta by April 30.
There are tons of problems more common with younger founders, like...
1. Lack of wealth. Funding is glamorous but it sucks to not be able to move forward without convincing someone else to give you money.
2. Lack of industry knowledge. Disrupting a market is hard when you have no first hand experience in it.
3. Lack of relationships. You're more likely to know more people who can help your business, and who will trust and recommend you, as you age.
4. Limited perspective. It's easier to avoid common mistakes once you've already made them.
5. Lack of credibility. Tech startups are a supposedly a young mans game but if you're not doing a consumer internet venture and are selling to businesses you might run into concerns about your credibility. A lot of people will hesitate to buy a service from a 22 year old.
On the other hand some of the assumptions you make about older founders aren't accurate. I'm in my mid 30s, don't have kids and am in a much stronger financial position (6 figures cash in the bank from years of consulting, fiance with 6 figure job) than I was when I was in my 20s. That enables me to invest in my business without having to go begging for investment. If you choose to have a family and run up an expensive lifestyle there's nothing wrong with that but not everyone 30+ has 3 kids, 2 BMW leases and a $800,000 mortgage.
By the way, coding 18 hours per day is not the way to succeed. Any entrepreneur coding 18 hours per day is doing it wrong.
Many founders are in their 40s and some are in their 50s.
If you're a first time founder without significant traction, I think it's very unlikely to get into YC. I can imagine less than 5% of first time founders in the past few years that got into YC didn't have decent traction. Does anyone have numbers on that?
The best advice I've read is that you need at least one of those things. And it needs to be done very well.
Dropbox is the traditional example. IIRC they had a ton of signups and traction before building their product.
The events YC provides are free. Depending on where you live your rent will obviously vary (you can pay $5000/month for an SF apt, or you can share a place in Mountain View for $600/month).
Like Zac said... the $$ invested should more than cover your expenses for the 3 months. Of course, that money is for kicking off your company - not fine dining.
That is so true. You only have houses and more houses, nothing to do other than work 24/7.
After those three months you will have to leave, you can come back on the same type of visa (though it is more likely you are breaching it) but you'll likely be asked more serious questions and if a border agent doesn't like you then you could be out of luck and barred from re-entry.
One of the key things to remember is the penalties for getting caught breaking any visa conditions could essentially get you barred from reentry for life.
So after that first three months you'll probably want a visa that line up with the fact that you're now effectively working in the US.
H-1B, which will require your startup to be up and running and look reputable and they are in short supply.
O, which will require you to show your a respected top of your field type person (i.e. articles written about you, speaking engagements).
E-1, your company must be non-us (which isn't ideal for YC) and a substantial volume (and over 50% of the international trade) of trade must occur in the US.
E-2, 50%+ of the business must be owned by investors in your country (you and your co-founders). Possibly your best bet but you'll need a substantial amount of your wealth (cash,IP (which might effect how you work for your company to set up IP transfer which might not be agreeable with other investors)) committed to the business (100K+) in a non-revocable fashion. Also if the business fails your visa is no longer valid. Risky but probably the most achievable in terms of startups (with regards to getting back in the country doing it quickly and with a high degree of certainty).
L-1 this will require you to have an office in your own country as well, you'll effectively transfer yourself between the two offices. Keep in mind that immigration aren't robots and you'll need to show your not just playing a shell game.
If your canadian(mexican too I believe) TN, basically with an offer of employment from a US company you can work there for 3 years. They'll need supporting details and you'd do well to have the company at a point were you can technically get fired to be credible (i.e. board of directors/you don't own 51% of the company).
Edit: Also visas have intent. i.e. Plan to immigrate or not. If you have a visa with no intent to immigrate and you look like you're planning to immigrate then you can be found to have broken your visa conditions and barred reentry/kicked out. So if you grab a work visa that does not have intent to stay then apply for a visa that only has intent to stay your current visa can be invalidated, you may have to wait until your current visa expire before applying for a more appropriate one.
The go to advice is find an imigration lawyer, they'll have a better idea than you or me on how to set this up.
There are also more options that may open up as your business grows but if you're at the point of considering them you are at the point were you'll have the resources and responsibility to get lawyers to do the majority of the leg work finding/explaining your options.
There may be better news on the horizon: