Y-Combinator says:
If by August your startup seems to have a significant (say 20%) chance of making you rich, which of the founders would commit to working on it full-time for the next several years?
TechStars says:
If after the summer the business appears to be viable, which of the founders will commit to working on the business full time for several years?
The other questions are similarly similar. I guess that should make life easier for anyone planning to apply for both programs. I wonder how many teams will do that?
Personally, I'm very curious to see how successful TechStars is in cloning the Y-Combinator model. Maybe we will see programs like this springing up around the world. I believe that we are getting an early glimpse of the future of education and investing. The programs will need to evolve of course, but perhaps companies like Y-Combinator will come to form something like an alternate university system. Is that what Steve Yegge was thinking in his (somewhat cryptic) "Wizard School" post?
Update: In case it's not already obvious, these questions originated with Y-Combinator (which has been around a lot longer than TechStars). Archive.org has the older versions of the YC application, such as this one from March 2005. As they say, imitation is the highest form of flattery.
How can contact you. I need to share some ideas privately. Please consider the same.
ReplyDelete-
Mahesh
S/w Engg
Bangalore,
India.
I noticed both here and in your interview in Founders at Work, your notion of 'a long time' might be shorter than mine. I think of YCombinator as relatively young...only 2 years. But I guess in the tech world, 2 years changes a lot of things.
ReplyDeleteWould you post the slide showing your data for drive access vs memory access from Startup School?
ReplyDeleteI think I missed an implication of it at the time.