Although I agree with many points of the article, let's review YCombinator funded projects and we'll see they are no joke.
It all depends on the needs of the project.
The promotion that some projects may get from being in an accelerator can be enough for some. For other it will be the little or big seed money they receive. Other will learn things that wouldn't have learnt otherwise.
And for the majority, as it always happen in business, it will be useless even if they happen to have the best mentors.
To me it seems odd that the goal of an accelerator is to get a startup funded. This just perpetuates short-term pressure to get a company sold within a 7-10 year window so investors can achieve their IRR projections and get another round from their LPs.
Maybe there needs to be an accelerator that focuses on creating singles or doubles rather than homeruns. If the end goal was to build a sustainable and profitable business that took a long-term view, then perhaps this would be better for the entrepreneurs themselves, who are after all, the heroes in the story.
> Maybe there needs to be an accelerator that focuses on creating singles or doubles rather than homeruns.
The thing is that most new businesses fail anyway. Batshit crazy businesses fail at a higher rate, but some of them pay out so insanely highly on the investment that the overall outcome is slightly better than more sedate investment options.
Mind you, lots and lots of investors will go for the middle-of-the-road stuff. We just don't talk about it much. There's not much drama in "local citizen opens new franchise restaurant with bank loan", except for the local citizen.
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[ 5.4 ms ] story [ 24.3 ms ] threadIt all depends on the needs of the project.
The promotion that some projects may get from being in an accelerator can be enough for some. For other it will be the little or big seed money they receive. Other will learn things that wouldn't have learnt otherwise.
And for the majority, as it always happen in business, it will be useless even if they happen to have the best mentors.
Maybe there needs to be an accelerator that focuses on creating singles or doubles rather than homeruns. If the end goal was to build a sustainable and profitable business that took a long-term view, then perhaps this would be better for the entrepreneurs themselves, who are after all, the heroes in the story.
The thing is that most new businesses fail anyway. Batshit crazy businesses fail at a higher rate, but some of them pay out so insanely highly on the investment that the overall outcome is slightly better than more sedate investment options.
Mind you, lots and lots of investors will go for the middle-of-the-road stuff. We just don't talk about it much. There's not much drama in "local citizen opens new franchise restaurant with bank loan", except for the local citizen.