Re:Ask PG: What is a good size for a YC idea?
by alaskamiller on Monday September 17, 2007 @03:30PM
(#55860)
is there a way, any way, for us plebeians to have a look at the presentations done on demo days?
I doubt we'd make them public, since (a) most of the startups haven't launched yet by that time and (b) even the ones that have tend to describe future plans they'd rather not have get into the hands of competitors.
Re:Ask PG: What is a good size for a YC idea?
by brlewis on Monday September 17, 2007 @04:11PM
(#55878)
One option would be to record them, then let the startups themselves decide whether to distribute the videos or not.
Re:Ask PG: What is a good size for a YC idea?
by paul on Monday September 17, 2007 @05:32PM
(#55909)
That's a good idea, though the startups could just repeat the presentation later in front of a camera, which might be a better idea (they can do multiple shoots, etc).
Re:Ask PG: What is a good size for a YC idea?
by Tichy on Monday September 17, 2007 @06:12PM
(#55922)
While it sounds like a good idea, that seems unlikely to work. Why would they put in the extra effort? I think it would be one of those good ideas that get postponed indefinitely.
Re:Ask PG: What is a good size for a YC idea?
by SwellJoe on Monday September 17, 2007 @06:34PM
(#55929)
Yes on all counts. I wouldn't want our Demo Day presentation disseminated because it kinda sucked. And I wouldn't do it again, because when I next present I expect a big fat check to follow within a month or so. But maybe I'm just lazy.
Re:Ask PG: What is a good size for a YC idea?
by alaskamiller on Monday September 17, 2007 @08:56PM
(#55989)
How can there not be any value in this? If not for the practice at least for the fanatical viewing this particular audience will do. And I'm also surprised at how little the companies communicate their product idea or vision. But maybe I'm focusing on the wrong thing.
Re:Ask PG: What is a good size for a YC idea?
by paul on Tuesday September 18, 2007 @02:30AM
(#56155)
I tend to agree. People may be underestimating the benefit that the increased awareness would give. Serendipity is powerful because "random" people often know the "right" people.
Re:Ask PG: What is a good size for a YC idea?
by brlewis on Tuesday September 18, 2007 @12:11PM
(#56335)
The two ideas aren't mutually exclusive. Some presenters might do better in front of an audience, some might find they can do better the second time around. You could mix footage to redo certain parts, etc.
Parakey got in, and their problem set sounded really big...but I didn't understand what they were talking about most of the time, so I may have misunderstood. They also had a leg up, by being Blake Fucking Ross and Joe Fucking Hewitt.
Versionate is a big project, but they were well-started by the time of application.
Octopart is a big project. They faked it until they made it, and did so beautifully (their presentation was among the best on Demo Day for WFP07).
Loopt is a big set of problems, most of them non-technical, and pg considers it the best thing out of YC to date (and I see why...Sam's kicking ass).
Zenter was hard. But they broke the rules and pretended like it was easy and actually produced something that mostly worked in a few months.
So, yeah, while the majority of YC companies are pretty small ideas that can be executed by a very small team, many success stories (or success stories in the making) out of YC have been big ideas.