Author, Investor, Speaker, Mentor
Y Combinator CEO Sam Altman just released a fascinating set of statistics about the firm. The numbers are pretty stunning; Y Combinator’s 940 companies are now worth more than $65 billion. That’s an astonishing mean value of $69 million…and recall, that Y Combinator buys into those startups at a sub-$1 million valuation. Now that’s a … Continue reading The Odds Are Always Against Startups
In his recent essay on “Startup Investing Trends”, the always insightful Paul Graham referred to the VC cosmological constant: http://bit.ly/13kaUV5 “There’s a rule of thumb in the VC business that there are about 15 companies a year that will be really successful. Although a lot of investors unconsciously treat this number as if it were … Continue reading The VC Cosmological Constant
Paul Graham has a great essay out in which he explains his view of both Y Combinator and the startup ecosystem. As usual, it’s a thoughtful essay with a lot of great points. But what I’d like to focus on are the numbers he provided on YC’s portfolio: http://bit.ly/13kaUV5 “Y Combinator has now funded 564 … Continue reading Y Combinator’s Startup Math
Henry Blodget is a smart journalist who knows how to drive pageviews. He certainly got me to click through when he picked the headline, “DEAR ENTREPRENEURS: Here’s How Bad Your Odds Of Success Are” http://read.bi/17yADel Blodget riffs on a tweet by Paul Graham to estimate the odds of startup success: “Graham says that 37 of … Continue reading The Real Odds That Your Startup “Succeeds”
I love this HackerNews item on the key questions you’d use when programming a Paul Graham bot to dispense startup advice. Here are the questions/phrases: “Who needs it?”“Who uses it?”“Who *really* needs it?”“What problem does this solve?”“Does that problem *really* need to be solved?”“What is the worst problem in your life?”“In any given day, how … Continue reading Paul Graham’s Office Hours Questions