Before YC, startup funding was truly wild west with too many term sheets with bad deals for founders. So kudos to YC for setting standards for founder-friendly term sheet and continuously pushing funding amount up. Some of the things I wish were different:
* Eliminating the whole "batch" concept. Ideas don't tend to born at YC deadlines. There should be a way to continuously accept applications as they arrive.
* Moving away from CA as center: Being in CA costs way too much for startups. I think startups should come to CA for hiring (may be) and then go away to places were things are dirt cheap, distractions are minimal and internet is fast. This alone can extend runway for many startups by an order of magnitude.
* Less discrimination against old veterans: PG had once mentioned that he typically doesn't prefer people who have worked for 10 years at BigCo because a true founder would have left long ago out of frustration. I think this is misguided line of thinking in many dimension. Even if it was somewhat true, it would be hard to rigidly generalize on entire population.
> * Less discrimination against old veterans: PG had once mentioned that he typically doesn't prefer people who have worked for 10 years at BigCo because a true founder would have left long ago out of frustration. I think this is misguided line of thinking ...
Great point - I have thought of doing a startup. I am even "worse" in terms of experience, 20 years at big companies, in various leadership roles the last 10 years - no I'm not a vp or president.
But I could even self fund my company for a few years. Being in Seattle I probably have less connection with startups than in SF, but I have even worked for two! I did do some early stage funding for a friend's company that eventually failed. As an experienced person who has been fortunate, I could actually work for free for a few years, and could provide early funding for my company. I can actually tolerate risk - how come this isn't an area of attraction for vc funding?
* Eliminating the whole "batch" concept. Ideas don't tend to born at YC deadlines. There should be a way to continuously accept applications as they arrive.
* Moving away from CA as center: Being in CA costs way too much for startups. I think startups should come to CA for hiring (may be) and then go away to places were things are dirt cheap, distractions are minimal and internet is fast. This alone can extend runway for many startups by an order of magnitude.
* Less discrimination against old veterans: PG had once mentioned that he typically doesn't prefer people who have worked for 10 years at BigCo because a true founder would have left long ago out of frustration. I think this is misguided line of thinking in many dimension. Even if it was somewhat true, it would be hard to rigidly generalize on entire population.