15 comments

[ 653 ms ] story [ 255 ms ] thread
Congratulations to Xobni and Y Combinator!! Great job guys :)
Congratz cuys! Looking forward to the launch party!
Wow, quite a lot of money to raise for a YC company, isn't it? Vinod Khosla is a million percent more knowledgeable than I, so obviously they've got it going on at Xobni. But why a $4M first round?
"But why a $4M first round?"

The inside scoop is that Vinod sneezed when he was opening his wallet and that's the pocket money he had on him.

Really though I think it's probably so they don't ever have to take another round before they're profitable or exit.

I love this explanation. So okay, I'll give the Xobnis a congratulatory finger-wag.
That doesn't make sense for the founders, though.

It would be in their interest to take as little money as possible early on, so that they give up less of the company's equity.

Then - later when the business model has proven itself - and the valuation is higher - take on additional capital.

You'll be giving up much more equity if you take a million in funding in the first round, instead of the third.

We did it so that we can hire a dream team of hackers. All interested hackers please apply: jobs@xobni.com
I met Adam yesterday and he seems to be doing what he needs to be doing. Good luck to you guys!
Congrats, vlad, you actually got his name right this time :)

You're a riot! --star

Wow, that is an amazing amount, I will be very interested to see what they can accomplish with this amount, I checked out their site and it makes me very hopeful!
So are we going to go back to the days where startups are judged based on how fast they burn through their cash?

This seems like an extraordinary amount of money.

I KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN!!!

At startup school, at the end, Adam was giving some advice of making a bold statement at the start, then scaling it down telling you how you're going to get there. That was great salesmanship, and GREAT advice. Most of what I heard during startup school and from talking to other entrepeneurs was vague ideas, just a jumble of thoughts.

In business, presentation counts for alot. Don't forget this. Ever.