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32 Comments
- cr4ft, on 10/11/2007, -3/+39CALLING ALL GEEKS
Do not invest your own time in this crap. If you have a brilliant idea you'll get A LOT more than $10,000 (which is what they're offering) for 5-6% from venture capitalists or angel investors
Not to mention, who's going to stop these guys from "denying" an idea and then using it themselves? - whiteboy, on 10/11/2007, -3/+38So they give $5000/founder + $5000 to the start up which is barely enough to cover lodging/food. Then in return they get 5 to 6 percent of the company? I'd rather work for a summer and tell them to ***** off.
- cr4ft, on 10/11/2007, -1/+23Forgot to add, I love this part of the article:
"When Graham calls the winners, the founders have only five minutes to accept. "If people turn us down," he says, "as far as we're concerned they've failed an IQ test.""
Right, so you get put under pressure and have only 5 minutes to decide. If it was such a great investment-to-equity ratio, why wouldn't they give you more time?
It's because they know it's a stupid idea on behalf of the entrepreneur(s) - aryo, on 10/11/2007, -1/+12cr4ft:
totally agree. 10K for 5-6% of the share is pretty ridiculous.
i think 'ethiopian idol' would be more appropriate to compare the program to than 'american idol'.
(no offense against ethiopians) - tritiumpie, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9The best idea of all of them is Y Combinator...
Take young (and only young) entrepreneurs with very good ideas who are too naive to know that they are being offered peanuts for a percentage of their hard work.
Brilliant! - kidd3ckz, on 10/11/2007, -4/+12IDEA STEALERS!
- reevolutn, on 10/11/2007, -2/+10well, atleast they got the token web 2.0 names down
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6Does this bootcamp run OS X and XP too?
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6NONE of these companies are the next "billion" dollar companies. The first company that came in the slideshow was Auctomatic -- they are RELYING on eBay to stay in business for their business to succeed.
A billion dollar company built on top of eBay's platform? Heh heh heh... - xtraa, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4I have a vision.. I see a trashcan. ...and in about 12 months.. a big 404 will appear.
- madgamer01, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4I'd probably agree with most of these comments if it weren't for Reddit already proving that the model works for both the founders and Y! Combinator. So any rumors about "idea stealing" and "undervalued" are deemed irrelevant if everyone is A) happy with the deal, and B) significantly profitable.
I will agree that most of the companies they fund will fail, but hey, that's the business. It's not anymore the system's fault than it would be in a normal investment situation. - vonskippy, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2More then half those photo's will preclude those jerks from any future venture funding.
The age of looking geek-chic burst with the last bubble - and it AINT coming back this time around. Venture capitalists might not be the smartest people on the planet, but they're not going to get sucked in by the "hey man - look how geeky cool we look" ***** PR again.
Those wanna-be "developers" need to grow up and fast. - inactive, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3From their website:http://ycombinator.com/faq.html
Will you sign an NDA? How do I know you won't steal my idea?
No, we won't sign an NDA. No venture firm would at this stage. The informal commitment to secrecy on our application form is more than any VC would make.
In this connection you may want to read the first section of How to Start a Startup on the value of mere ideas. - thefreshbeats, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Yeah, and "American Idol" works for the executive producers and the winners.
If you'd consider bringing an idea here, just quit. You don't have anything good. - kidd3ckz, on 10/11/2007, -6/+7we're all losers...
- ell0bo, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I was thinking that too... but I just graduated... and darn if I have a clue where the heck these guys where. I started my own site (check my profile, hate comment spamming), doing almost the same thing as these guys during my last semester of college. Wish I had run into them, I've been looking for someone to team up with. Don't wanna dis them, but I never heard of them, and then again they probably never heard of me either.
- squarelover, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1The funding that these startups earn is not nearly as important as the connections that Y-Combinator gives you. It's much more than the approx $15k. Free legal help, free PR, and an instant in to present to the largest VCs and angels in silicon valley. You also get industry expert advice from some of the most successful dotcom entrepreneurs. And this all happens within a matter of two months. I'd like to see many other startups do this on their own in two months, especially if you have never created a startup before.
Joining YC doens't mean you have to take money from a VC, many end up receiving investments from angels. It all depends on what your market and business model is.
People who think that the only way to make any kind of revenue on the internet today is with advertising, obviously has no understanding about how the internet market works at all. Just because you don't like the ideas or won't use their services doesn't mean that someone else won't. The internet is growing in different ways than it did before, and there is a place for many more services. - drusenko, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Considering that success at a startup is mostly pass/fail, why would you want to reduce your chances of success?
- Finovski, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1This is probably why +80% of VC ventures fail... the good ideas shy away from VCs like this!
- etnu, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Look everyone, a VC without the "C" part!
Any company with an idea that's actually worthwhile will be able to get way more from real VCs. If you have to resort to these guys, your product is already doomed. - thefreshbeats, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2WARNING: Do not take your business ideas to these guys... even with an NDA, they will steal good ideas... it's that simple.
Buried as SPAM (yes, MSNBC writes a ton of spam articles) - resta6, on 01/12/2009, -1/+1after seeing the companies, that $10,000 for 5% of equity is too generous for most of them
- mrtonyc, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0It should be called Ya Idiot because the $5 grand rip off is only the beginning. VCs want 80%, control of the company and you're soul. If you have a great idea, go out and make the idea make money. That is the proof that it's a great idea. Cash flow is king and once your idea is earning money you don't need investors. Take my advice and maintain control.
- mannymix03, on 10/11/2007, -8/+7did anyone else think this was about apple bootcamp using some next gen operating system, or am i just a loser :(
- bladejin, on 10/11/2007, -1/+0Did you just call us respectable digg users "GEEKS?" I'm offended.
- ersatzphi, on 10/11/2007, -6/+5Penn State, good to see these guys representing my alma mater.
- gamebittk, on 10/11/2007, -5/+2"we're all losers..."
Speak for yourself... - HerrEisenheim, on 10/11/2007, -6/+1Well then cash-in now. I think selling pet food over the internet is a good idea. It failed once, so why can't it fail again? It doesn't matter, because either way you can get rich.
We really are asking for it. Eventually the seed money dries up, and then all these loss generating websites with no substantial revenue model collapse. It's a bit different his time around, because the de-facto revenue model backup is to just sell ads, but even that can only do so much. - strangewill, on 10/11/2007, -6/+1@HerrEisenheim:
The same reason it will fail is the same reason that say, a dog food only store, a meat store, a bread store, etc. get easily pushed out of the way by supermarkets.
I do not want to waste time (and money) having to go to a ton of sites, pay individual shipping and handling charges, just to get a small amount of things. - BalsamLane, on 10/11/2007, -8/+1Sorry, you have to right click and "copy link location as" and paste in a new tab. ***** internets.
http://www.reelwavs.com/movies/sounds/full_metal_jacket/drillinstructor.mp3
I suck at interweb. - BalsamLane, on 10/11/2007, -9/+1http://www.reelwavs.com/movies/sounds/full_metal_jacket/drillinstructor.mp3
Good times. - PresidentGas, on 10/11/2007, -12/+1http://digg.com/world_news/Japanese_Graveyard_PIC
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