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Yes but YC cannot force a team to “launch”

Many teams will stay in a perpetual loop of product development because they feel it’s not ready. YC has no control over this and are outspoken about this death spiral.

In one video Siebel reminisces about how many startups will reach out for help when they’re 30 days from running out of cash, instead of 6 months or a year earlier. At this point with no traction it’s too late to course correct.

https://youtu.be/C27RVio2rOs

⬐ timparsa

That's very interesting. I did not know that was the case.

I've thought about how the reasons VC is so important can be ranked:

1. Validation is antidote to founder burnout 2. Collaboration improves iteration. 3. Money covers founder and startup expenses.

The money isn't the most important thing in my experience.

I think there's a big opportunity to shift the validation/collaboration to early stages and for more founders and the result will be more and better and bolder startups.

I'm pretty sure there's a giant unlock connecting founder vision, community, and VC.

The classic YC advice is "make something people want." This video dives into how that looks in practice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C27RVio2rOs

The guiding principle is simple, but in practice it can be hard and complex.

⬐ roguas

Generally, you can go and "invent" business. But if you really do struggle there is another route, not as glorious.

Make something cheaper, its also a good starting point for a lot of "inventive" startups (Spacex is spacex, cause they are cheaper than others). However you don't have to be inventive, just do similar/same thing but cheaper.

⬐ ilrwbwrkhv

I think a more succinct point would be to identify someone with a hair on fire problem. That I feel is more concrete. They do talk about this a bit later but I feel this is the starting point.

⬐ amelius

> The classic YC advice is "make something people want."

Ok, I want to make compilers. People want them but don't want to pay for them ...

⬐ adrianN

Make a compiler that supports a modern language for an obscure chip that is used in industrial machines that is also compatible with the dialect that the vendor's compiler speaks.

⬐ fxtentacle

I'm a paying customer of the Intel Compiler Suite. And I have been for many years. And I'm well aware that Intel is f-ing over AMD with vendor flags. But there simply is no alternative to MKL.

So if you release something competitive to TBB+MKL for AMD, then you're in business ;) But be warned, it's like millions LOC and 500MB of pure compiled binaries to get to that level of functionality.

I don't think you hit product market fit, though. It should be pretty obvious. If you had, and the market was as big as you say, then people would be flocking in just by word of mouth. I would suggest to iterate on product, talk to your users, get some good metrics on usage, etc. There's great content about that at the YC YouTube channel.

https://youtu.be/C27RVio2rOs https://youtu.be/FBOLk9s9Ci4 https://youtu.be/0LNQxT9LvM0

⬐ dopeboy

By this logic, all startups that have achieved PMF have only done so via word of mouth / organic growth. This is false.

There are a class of startups that do grow this way to PMF (Dropbox, slack- typically multiplayer tools). The rest do so via traditional sales and marketing (mulesoft, launchdarkly - enterprise saas).

Here's one of my favorites. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C27RVio2rOs

It's really good!

⬐ mmmmkay

Thanks!

⬐ narven

Awesome, love it, can I go back to 2018?