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by graystevens 2877 days ago
For those that took part in previous years, would this be suitable for those of us running (or thinking of starting..) bootstrapped startups, as solo-entrepreneurs?

I ask because the curriculum looks great, but wondered if the mentoring might be a little more focused towards the more traditional startups looking to progress to VC funding, rather than those of us that are taking things a little slower on our own.
2 comments
a13n 2877 days ago
We're bootstrapped, and we did it last year. I wrote about our experience: https://canny.io/blog/what-youll-get-out-of-y-combinators-st...

I would guess that this is YC's version of freemium. They're giving away a slimmed down version of their product for free, to drive brand awareness / resonance, and attract more qualified leads to their paid (7%) program.

You might not be interested in YC proper, but there's still plenty of great advice, that will probably translate into you having a more successful startup.

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nojvek 2877 days ago
It is amazing how successful YC has been. Is there another well known accelerator that has close to YC’s total valuation of startups?

Also it baffles me that YC has close to 1000 startups that have gone through them but only one “Dropbox” has IPO’d.

I get the feeling that YC’s best days are ahead when things they invested in a decade ago will pay off huge returns.

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rpm33 2877 days ago
> I get the feeling that YC’s best days are ahead when things they invested in a decade ago will pay off huge returns.

Yes. It takes a good 10 years to build / IPO a company. Also they've funded a bunch of companies outside the US / Europe region where IPO markets are not as friendly.

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bob_theslob646 2876 days ago
Are there any benchmarks to how successful a yc company is over another company?

Extremely hard to say when most information is non public. Past performance does not guarantee future results, especially in high interest rate environment.( Low interest environment, everything changes)

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_9hey 2877 days ago
(1) Yes (2) Tight feedback loops are key in keeping momentum, so even if you're bootstrapping you don't want to go too slow
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