Startup School: Every Company That Applied Is Now Accepted

Re:Startup School: Every Company That Applied Is Now Accepted by mindcrime on Tuesday August 21, 2018 @10:13AM (#17809740)

I get that, but there was still some form of vetting - enough to disqualify 2/3 of candidates.

But that's just the thing... nobody actually knows if that level of vetting is meaningful... it may perform no better than chance in terms of identifying "good" startups (however you define that). This experiment will actually be very interesting exactly in that it will help YC see if their vetting IS as good as they think it is.

please build a mastermind group that requires an MRR of at least $15k. I'd pay good money to be a part of that

Sure, having a $15K MRR shows something about a company, but why do you think that is the best criteria to identify founders/companies to network with?

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Re:Startup School: Every Company That Applied Is Now Accepted by tragicjordan on Tuesday August 21, 2018 @12:01PM (#17810791)

Having $15k MRR means you actually are a company. What value am I going to get from people who haven't even gotten to that point yet?

It's a pretty good barometer for success - 99% of founders don't get to that point.

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Re:Startup School: Every Company That Applied Is Now Accepted by mindcrime on Tuesday August 21, 2018 @12:20PM (#17810958)

What value am I going to get from people who haven't even gotten to that point yet?

Who knows? Why do you think only people who have gotten to $15K MRR can offer value?

I agree it's something of a signal, but I'd personally consider that a very weak signal. shrug

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Re:Startup School: Every Company That Applied Is Now Accepted by tragicjordan on Tuesday August 21, 2018 @01:17PM (#17811628)

You don't see the difference in value between someone who has built a company that's making nearly $200k a year vs someone who hasn't?

In that case, we fundamentally disagree, and this discussion is fruitless.

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Re:Startup School: Every Company That Applied Is Now Accepted by mindcrime on Tuesday August 21, 2018 @02:23PM (#17812296)

$200K a year is shit though. Just because somebody can get to that level doesn't mean they're going to tell you anything useful for getting to $500,000,000 / year. That's why I say it is a signal, but it's a very weak signal.

There's also the problem that you don't know the value of the hypothetical "person who hasn't gotten to $15K MRR" yet. If they started their company 2 weeks ago, they probably have an MRR of $0. Does that mean that they have nothing of value to tell you? That depends on a lot of other variables.

Anyway, you're probably right... we probably just have fundamentally differing world-views. I lean towards the "you can learn something for everybody" mindset, and try to late-bind judgment on people's value as advisers until the last possible moment.

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Re:Startup School: Every Company That Applied Is Now Accepted by mLuby on Tuesday August 21, 2018 @11:56AM (#17810722)

MRR is a decent criterion because it means the market is responding favorably to their product (and it's not vaporware).

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