Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by ritikm 2206 days ago
> YC once tried an experiment of funding seemingly good founders with no ideas. I think every company in this no-idea track failed.

We were a no-idea company in the S12 batch. We ended up starting Streem [1], which was acquired by Box in 2014 [2] and ended up integrating and becoming Box Drive [3]. While we didn't build an enduring company, I'd say it was a moderate success by some metrics.

YC had two no-ideas in S12 and another one or two in W13 before they shut the track down. Unclear if that's enough data to spot a trend, but YC is smart and likely had other data to back up the decision. Looking back, it was a painful process to go from "no idea" to what eventually became Streem. I don't think I'd ever go and decide to start another company without an idea in the future.

[1] https://lifehacker.com/streem-offers-unlimited-cloud-storage...

[2] https://venturebeat.com/2014/06/16/box-acquires-streem-so-yo...

[3] https://www.box.com/drive
2 comments
ImaCake 2206 days ago
The line about the experiment made me consider if "no ideas" is a symptom or a cause.

Borrowing from epidemiology, I think "no ideas" might be an effect modifier. That is, it is just an intermediate step when going from the exposing factor to the outcome (the outcome, we know, is failing start-ups). It would be interesting to know what the real proximal cause is, or at least a really good proxy for it.

Maybe YCombinator could benefit from the input of a biostatistician or similar statistical expert to design some cohort studies on start ups.

link
fouc 2206 days ago
Didn't ycombinator pick a number of startups with bad ideas or non-ideas and encouraged them to pivot? Or encourage new teams to form around a different idea?

For example Reddit's original team wanted to do a "My Mobile Menu", and also Aaron Swartz pivoted from Infogami to merging with Reddit.

I would almost count this partially under the "no idea" category.

link
nl 2206 days ago
There's plenty of YC Companies that have changed their idea during YC, or pivoted completely during the program (I think Daniel Gross pivoted twice?)

I think YC expects most companies to modify what they are doing during the program.

But all of these things are very different to taking someone on board with no idea at all.

link