Ask HN: How Effective is YC? (For Research Project)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2958784

by dhalp • 15 years ago

6 3 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I am writing a research paper answering the question: "of companies that have participated in the Y-Combinator process, what has made some companies jump into a high level of success, while others have just remained at a mediocre success level? Moreover, what defines a high level of success within the startup industry?” I am hoping to interview as many founders as will let me, as well as stir some discussion about this question on HN itself.

staunch2• 15 years ago

YC's big offerings are advice, investor connections, and press attention. My guess is that the outcome of YC companies can be summarized as something like:

    product execution * market opportunity * utilization of YC offerings

Dropbox and Airbnb are A+, A+, A+. Everyone else is some lower grade in at least one area.

dhalp• 15 years ago

Thanks, You mention these three "categories" that I could possibly grade companies on. That sounds rather interesting. How would you suggest I get data or a system to grade these?

Also, do you really think that Dropbox and Airbnb are the only A+ companies? dont you think that companies not worth a billion dolars can still have been successfull in all categories and maybe just didnt have as large of a market to tap into?

staunch2• 15 years ago

I actually meant Airbnb/Dropbox were A+ on Product/Market/YC utilization not the three things YC does for you.

As for how to create interesting research maybe you could setup a simple survey and let HN users grade YC startups in some way like this. I bet the results would be at least interesting.

Ask HN: How Effective is YC? (For Research Project)

Related Stories