[HN Gopher] Introducing a16z START
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Introducing a16z START
Author : picture
Score : 59 points
Date : 2022-04-18 21:49 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (a16z.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (a16z.com)
| Optimal_Persona wrote:
| I9g a16z S3T ...f2y
| staunch wrote:
| Out of dozens of fairly lame attempts by others, this may very
| well end up becoming the most serious competitor to YC so far.
|
| It'll all come down to who they get to run it, how well they run
| it, and if they can consistently get the attention of founders.
| A16Z certainly has the brand and money to make a real go of it.
|
| I wonder if they know what makes YC special and if they can offer
| the first head-to-head alternative.
|
| (The 404'ing "more information" link isn't a great way to start
| though :D)
| gordon_freeman wrote:
| their application seems pretty simple to fill out (in some
| cases requiring less than 100 words of description) unlike YC
| app so I assume they want to funnel interest from as many
| founders as possible before deciding which apps to pick to
| fund.
| staunch wrote:
| Which _could_ be their first mistake. YC gets a lot of signal
| by requiring people to clearly answer so many questions. YC
| 's questions are really good and it wouldn't have been a bad
| idea to wholesale copy them like some other's have. Not least
| of all because then founders could apply quickly using copy-
| paste.
|
| I suspect someone could out-compete YC just by obtaining the
| YC application data and funding on that basis alone,
| eschewing the interview process entirely as it very possibly
| introduces more noise than signal. It'd take some guts
| though, kinda like starting YC in the first place took guts.
| t_mann wrote:
| Kinda funny to see this promoted on a site hosted by Y
| Combinator.
| seizethecheese wrote:
| Well, it's certainly of interest for those here.
| binarynate wrote:
| Based on the info available, here are some of the differences
| between the new a16z START program and YC:
|
| - No standard deal (looks like a16z will negotiate equity
| separately with each startup)
|
| - _Potentially_ double the check size (up to $1M compared to the
| standard YC $500k deal)
|
| - Much smaller batch sizes (currently 11 in START, compared to
| 319 in YC W21)
|
| - The obvious: different network connections, mentors, and track
| records
| bspear wrote:
| A16Z's superpower is branding and getting their name out there.
| Their fund returns are well below Sequoia & co
| eganp wrote:
| $1M in seed funding, but at what valuation? I hope the terms are
| near market.
| Xeoncross wrote:
| > our team has received over 1,000 applications and welcomed 11
| START entrepreneurs into the a16z family
|
| 1% chance eh? Welp, I'll never be exclusive enough to make it
| through
| devoutsalsa wrote:
| Keep in mind that most applications are not impressive & are
| dismissed without much thought. Only a few are even interesting
| enough for a second meeting. If you're interesting & you know
| it, your odds are better than you think.
| throwaway_1928 wrote:
| "If you were the president of Harvard or Stanford and you
| wanted to get a lynch mob of students, alumni, and faculty to
| come after you, what you should say is something like this: We
| live in this much larger, more global world. We offer this
| great education to everybody. So we're going to double or
| triple our enrollment over the next 15 to 20 years. And people
| would all be furious, because the value of the degree comes
| from massive exclusion. And what you're really running is
| something like a Studio 54 night club that's got an incredibly
| long line outside and a very small number of people let inside.
| It's branded as positive sum, everybody can learn, but the
| reality is that it is deeply zero sum." [1]
|
| [1]
| https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/07/peter-t...
| krsrhe wrote:
| ceeplusplus wrote:
| These acceptance rates are misleading. A lot of those
| applications probably have no MVP and founders have no skills.
| If you filter to only those people who 1) have a product with
| some degree of traction or interest and 2) people who have
| qualified backgrounds, either in previous startups or FAANG or
| something else that gives them credibility, I think you'll find
| the acceptance rate is a lot higher.
| current_thing wrote:
| One of the four investment themes: "American Dynamism: Investing
| in founders and companies that support the national interest".
|
| Haha. No thanks.
|
| Are there any seed funds that invest in "supporting human
| progress"?
| seizethecheese wrote:
| A patriotic American might say that supporting the national
| interest actually does support human progress. There's plenty
| of evidence against that, but some evidence for it might be the
| immense number of people pulled from poverty under to the
| American rules-based international order.
| current_thing wrote:
| A pacifist European might balk at the a16z brand and support
| companies funded by a less nationalistic VC, exit their
| liquidity pools in crypto etc.
| andrewstuart wrote:
| Anyone got a guess what the terms might be - how much quity they
| want, if the terms are likely to be onerous?
| nrmitchi wrote:
| I've seen this shared all over today, but no where have I seen
| any terms/valuation shared.
|
| Does anyone have more information?
| EGreg wrote:
| How is this different than their other funds meant for startups?
| carmen_sandiego wrote:
| It's AH so... more hype when they want to advertise it?
| staunch wrote:
| Accepting applications from absolutely anyone "over the
| transom" is the biggest innovation behind YC's success. It's
| not a small thing, and something major VCs have historically
| refused to take seriously.
| binarynate wrote:
| It's interesting to see a16z launch an early-stage accelerator
| only a couple of weeks after Sequoia announced a similar program:
|
| https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/20/sequoia-arc-outliers
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