[aerosmile]

I like the "don't chase, be chased" recommendation below. But when it comes to how to achieve that, the "get traction" recommendation could have been expanded on just a bit more. So let me try to offer a very similar but slightly modified recommendation: get into YC.

How is "get traction" different from "get into YC"? Instacart and Airbnb will give you a clue. Neither had material traction when they applied to YC, and what worked for them is that their business models and founders made up for that. Once you're in, you still have to execute, but you won't be writing any cold emails to investors anymore.

[oncethere]

YC is probably the easiest way to get VCs to notice you. But given how selective it is, that could be tougher than traction.

Maybe throwing out a third then -- get people in your network to introduce you to VCs. Also hard, but startups just aren't easy I guess.

[carpedimebagjoe]

It's like getting a HBS MBA. Sure, once you have it, it's easy social proof.

YC gives up equity. If you don't have any prior experience, it's good, but not for experienced enterprise founders in b2b saas startups. The latter should make demo videos and blog about their progress once they've exited stealth. While in stealth, they need to approach alpha/beta users, who may well invest and/or m&a.

[halfmatthalfcat]

Both of these recommendations are completely useless to the average entrepreneur.

“Don’t chase, be chased” assumes you have the capital or team to execute. Many startups don’t have both and most successful startups require both. Investment alleviates the former to then help solve the latter.

“Get into YC” is hysterical advice because the % of companies who are accepted into YC is around ~2%. One does not simply “get into YC”.

[aerosmile]

If you think that my advice was hysterical, then look at the failure rates of all startups that get founded - it's hysterically high. So my apologies if I can't just give you a magic bullet.

Some context around the 2% - that's the average figure that encompasses a wide range of quality of applications. Everyone is applying to YC these days, to the point that a material number of those applications is an instant no. So if you 1) have a killer business plan, 2) have put in 10,000 hours into your craft as an entrepreneur, and 3) have a working demo with some customers and early metrics, you're likely dealing with just the top 30% or so of the applications. At this point, you're closer to a 7% admission rate, and your odds keep improving as you keep applying (because a lot of other people don't, and that's all tracked), so your net effective chance is closer to 10%. I don't know about you, but if someone told me "here's a path to the riches, and there's a 10% chance that it'll work for you," I would jump at it!

[d_silin]

The problem with YC is they get so many applications that they can't accept even all of the really good ones.

So my advice, get accepted into any startup accelerator/business incubator. That alone helps with traction with VCs.