[staunch]

YC doesn't have anything like a monopoly on great startups. If investors can't find their own great startups they don't deserve to be successful as investors.

What all SV investors should be worried about is crowdfunding. Most of them don't have anything to offer beyond money and that doesn't count for much if users pay millions in advance.

Oculus took VC money but you can bet it was on incredibly advantageous terms due to their millions in kickstarter revenues. A16Z was merely the strongest among the weak and paid for the privilege of investing.

The fact that Oculus was immediately acquired for billions by a company Marc Andreessen sits on the board of is not necessarily a good outcome for the world. A fully crowdfunded Oculus may never had chosen that route.

[ig1]

Except a16z was their Series B investor, Oculus raised their Series A from a bunch of mid-tier VCs which implies it wasn't a hugely competitive round hence probably wasn't on particularly favourable terms.

By the time a16z invested Oculus had John Carmack as CTO and they already demoed to huge interest at E3. It was already a much later stage company by that point.

[staunch]

Their Series A was $16M at a likely ~$100M valuation. Incredibly successful by any standard and only possible because of crowdfunding.