Re:Scaling YC
by justinboogaard on Tuesday March 23, 2021 @05:13PM
(#26560477)
I think status has as much value as what someone is willing to give you for it. If the YC “Badge” is a currency that opens doors based on its perceived status, that feels like a helpful bonus to founders. I agree that if someone is in YC for status, that trait alone is likely not sufficient to help them create a successful company. However if someone is able to get a meeting with a VC because of their enrollment in the program (or a PM with a larger company to discuss a partnership, etc) that seems helpful and worth preserving.
That being said, it’s not clear to me that YC is lowering it’s acceptance rate. By accepting companies from all around the world, it’s pool of potential applications exponentially increases. If YC accepts 100 more companies from 10,000 more applicants that still feels like a pretty exclusive acceptance rate.
What could be going on is that people are comparing the batch sizes now to the batch sizes in the past and assuming the same rate of company applications. I’m not sure if YC publishes their application data, but without it I think it’s tough to say based on batch size alone whether or not YC is statistically becoming easier to get into.
People should apply to YC because they believe it would them them build a successful startup, not because they want prestige. If expanding YC leads to a decrease in prestige (alongside an increase in real value to startups, as Jared explained above), that's a win for everybody: more business-builders get access to YC, YC gets to fund more successful companies, and status-seekers can find something else that will look better on their resume.
In this sense YC is very different from the elite colleges whose brand depends on their exclusiveness. The upper bound on YC's expansion is how much startup opportunity exists in the world.