Ditto - especially for this one. I'd be curious as well to know how this compares to implementation. How many YC investees would have pursued their ideas without YC? Is this a core attribute for YC to invest in an idea?
It's interesting though... of all the potential reasons that could have motivated the creation of YC (e.g. alternatively, giving promising ideas a leap forward) the is the one that was chosen. That YC could be the small nudge that pushes smart people to start new businesses and that "we can spring on the world a stream of new startups that might otherwise not have existed."
For a lot of hackers, the biggest benefit they get from YC is confidence. It happens almost instantaneously. You're no longer working on a project - you're starting a company. Advice, support network, and introductions are incredibly helpful, but they're nothing compared to confidence. If you already have it, you can certainly succeed without YC (although getting in helps). Theoretically, you can just tell yourself "I will be confident", in which case you can succeed without YC too. But for most people it doesn't work this way.
YC gives people the determination to persist against all odds - probably the most useful quality of all. It turns the fear of failure from working against you, to working for you. It's an incredible energy source. I would be very surprised if most successful YC companies did half as well without YC. Not because of the help that YC offers, but because of confidence and determination.
Slava, you didn't need anybody's endorsement to feel competent my friend. You're a first rate hacker, Startup or not. Good luck with rethinkdb, get industry contacts, work on the "suit" image and you should be fine. You're destined to greatness.
The YC confidence is sometimes even better than VC capital. One of my previous startups raised a round with first round capital, and I was the 4th employee there, but it didn't make us confident like YC does.
Comments
I would be curious to see diffs of these revisions.
The originals are available at http://web.archive.org/web/20060718121809/paulgraham.infogam...
In this case, the intro para just became less specific.
Ditto - especially for this one. I'd be curious as well to know how this compares to implementation. How many YC investees would have pursued their ideas without YC? Is this a core attribute for YC to invest in an idea?
It's interesting though... of all the potential reasons that could have motivated the creation of YC (e.g. alternatively, giving promising ideas a leap forward) the is the one that was chosen. That YC could be the small nudge that pushes smart people to start new businesses and that "we can spring on the world a stream of new startups that might otherwise not have existed."
For a lot of hackers, the biggest benefit they get from YC is confidence. It happens almost instantaneously. You're no longer working on a project - you're starting a company. Advice, support network, and introductions are incredibly helpful, but they're nothing compared to confidence. If you already have it, you can certainly succeed without YC (although getting in helps). Theoretically, you can just tell yourself "I will be confident", in which case you can succeed without YC too. But for most people it doesn't work this way.
YC gives people the determination to persist against all odds - probably the most useful quality of all. It turns the fear of failure from working against you, to working for you. It's an incredible energy source. I would be very surprised if most successful YC companies did half as well without YC. Not because of the help that YC offers, but because of confidence and determination.
Slava, you didn't need anybody's endorsement to feel competent my friend. You're a first rate hacker, Startup or not. Good luck with rethinkdb, get industry contacts, work on the "suit" image and you should be fine. You're destined to greatness.
Haha, Slava in a suit. snort
The YC confidence is sometimes even better than VC capital. One of my previous startups raised a round with first round capital, and I was the 4th employee there, but it didn't make us confident like YC does.