Disqus - Latest Comments for jedc

Re: Copying Y Combinator – WHY and HOW

Juan — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:09:11 -0000

Thanks Jed for your answer!

I've read it all, and I understand your point about focusing on a determined field, I'll need to research more on that.

Is difficult to understand how, in spite of globalization and the democratization of opportunities we are living, there are still things that depend on location, and that once someone takes the head, is difficult to catch them up.

Anyway, as I've said before, your work is a great source of information for me. Thanks for open it to everybody!

Juan

Re: A Marc Andreessen blog archive

jedc — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:57:02 -0000

I'll see... not sure how that all works with Posterous. (All the rest of my blogs are Wordpress self-hosted...)

Re: A Marc Andreessen blog archive

jedc — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:56:14 -0000

Thanks... that's a favorite post of mine, too. :)

Re: A tale of two entrepreneurial cities

jedc — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:46:51 -0000

Unfortunately, this is where I have to say I really don't know. Not that they don't exist... just that it's been too many years since I've lived there to have the information.

Re: A tale of two entrepreneurial cities

jedc — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:05:11 -0000

Thanks, Mark. I agree with your post... we need to accept and encourage disagreement and the challenging of assumptions to build a better community!

Re: Copying Y Combinator – WHY and HOW

jedc — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:00:31 -0000

Yes, the accelerator's raw percentage ownership stake decreases, but the absolute value of their ownership stake in dollars still rises. (See the column in the same spreadsheet with the value assumptions.)

Even though the accelerator is getting diluted, the value of the company is rising faster than the decline in ownership stake. So a hit company does well for everyone. :)

Re: Copying Y Combinator – WHY and HOW

Genny — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:43:16 -0000

It makes a lot of sense, thanks for clearing that up for me.

I though that, if the company's value increases, the accelarator's share decreases, which didn't make much sense :) But it's all clear now, thanks again.

Re: Copying Y Combinator – WHY and HOW

jedc — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:36:01 -0000

Hi, Genny.

This is a good question, and has to do with general dilution of ownership stake.

Accelerators all invest in (typically) the very first round of funding for a particular ownership stake, generally about 5-10%. (YC's median is 6%) What's important is that they do no other funding of the company.

Successful companies generally go on to have more and more rounds of funding. Since accelerators don't put any additional money in, their ownership stake is reduced with each new funding round. I assumed that as a company becomes more successful they go through more rounds of funding (which isn't always the case), which means the accelerators have the lowest ownership stakes in the most successful companies.

I hope that makes sense!

Re: First Round Capital, NYC, and Our “Born Again” Startup

jedc — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 10:08:50 -0000

Congrats! Sounds like a great move.

Definitely interested in hearing more about your lessons learned and the continuing evolution of Path101.

Re: Copying Y Combinator – WHY and HOW

jedc — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:13:32 -0000

Chris, do you mean IdeaLab, the one founded by Bill Gross? If so, I didn't consider them.

If you read my paper, you'll see that I specifically addressed the seed accelerator model that Y Combinator pioneered. Y Combinator seeks out, funds, and supports new businesses from across the world, investing money and time for a stake of the business. If you look at IdeaLab's site, they specifically state: "Idealab is not accepting outside business proposals for review." As it's a completely different model, I didn't address it.

My personal thoughts on IdeaLab is that it is very difficult to get their model correct, and is largely dependent on the people involved. In fact, I'd say it's very rare that that model is consistently successful. But I might be a bit of a pessimist...

Re: Accelerate NY

jedc — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 08:21:38 -0000

Hi, Nate. It's great to see some discussion leading from my paper. (And I'm glad the data I compiled is useful.)

I've been thinking and chatting about similar issues with people in Cambridge. (UK, that is.) While it's much, much smaller than NYC, Cambridge has a truly remarkable concentration in hard tech/science/health. People there are just trying to deal with some of the UK cultural issues as well as breaking down silos that have been established over the years.

Earlier this summer I started the Cambridge Tech Meetup, taking a lot of inspiration from the New York Tech Meetup. It's been an interesting experience; would love to chat sometime about how NYTM is run.

Re: Copying Y Combinator – WHY and HOW

jedc — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 07:54:43 -0000

Thanks, Marc.

Your Google map is a great resource. I used a slightly more restrictive "filter" as to what I considered a seed accelerator for the purposes of my paper, but it's good to see the wider variety of programs available.

Re: Any programming n00bs want to learn Python with me and Julie?

jedc — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:19:40 -0000

Definitely keen to join in. I taught myself some beginner-level Ruby recently, but would be interested in learning Python.

Perhaps at some point have a competition to code some sort of application, judged by an "expert" willing to spend some time looking over entries? I've always found that competition sharpens the mind... :)

Re: The Best Deal In Startup Land

maeozkan — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:59:51 -0000

Great! Thank you very much. I am downloading it right now.
(Barbara is co-chair of our management company. She has been very helpful.)

Re: Copying Y Combinator – WHY and HOW

jedc — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:47:08 -0000

Well, I would read my paper for a more complete opinion.

If you're looking to copy Y Combinator in Argentina, you can certainly do it. But it's not terribly compelling if that's all it is. The best Argentina startups will look to go to Y Combinator or other program to maximize their chances of success, so you'll generally have a lower quality of startups. While it might be successful depending on your goals, it won't be as good as it could be.

Instead, focus on what you can provide that's interesting and unique. What people do you have as advisors? As potential mentors and investors? What can you focus on that would bring startups from all over the world to Argentina for your program? Perhaps there's something about technology usage in developing countries that can only be learned within one, so any company looking to expand will want to attend.

It's really a matter of what you want from starting southcombinator.

Again, I hope that helps. But I would read the full paper for more detailed advice. :)

Re: The Best Deal In Startup Land

jedc — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:40:13 -0000

Hi! I recently posted my paper (and the underlying data sources) here:
http://blog.jedchristiansen.com/2009/09/21/copy...

The paper is on Scribd, so you can read/download it as you like.

(I see Lady Judge is part of your team... my business school is named after her husband!)

Re: The Best Deal In Startup Land

maeozkan — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:31:56 -0000

Jedc, I would love to see the paper as well. Could you send it to me as well, please? My email is mae at goldenhornventures dot com. Thank you very much!

Re: Copying Y Combinator – WHY and HOW

mauricebv — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:03:17 -0000

Hi Jed,

Plus cool, I will follow your blog to stay up to date. Let me know when you need an extra set of hands ;-)

Cheers,

Maurice

Re: Copying Y Combinator – WHY and HOW

jedc — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 15:58:05 -0000

Hi, Maurice.

I do plan on keeping the list of seed accelerators and the list of the companies they've funded live. If I ever get too busy to keep them live I'll definitely ask for help. :)

Cheers,
Jed

Re: Copying Y Combinator – WHY and HOW

jedc — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:17:57 -0000

Interesting point.

I saw a line on Twitter today from someone at Seedcamp: "When I first set it up, I was stupid. Then, briefly, I was a genius. Finally, it had been obvious." The same assumptions seem to be in play... in hindsight, Y Combinator fills an obvious need.

But I understand PG has good relationships with the people at fbFund REV... even speaking to them during the program. I don't think that's the case with the others.

Re: The Best Deal In Startup Land

jedc — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:32:09 -0000

Hi, Steve. I was the one who put the YC, Seedcamp, TechStars, etc. data together... thanks for mentioning it so many times here!

It's not 100% complete for YC, but is virtually complete for the rest. But even for YC it's probably 90%+ correct (except for valuations, which are my personal guesses.)

Re: The Best Deal In Startup Land

jedc — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:26:21 -0000

Hi, Fred. I put together that spreadsheet with YC, Seedcamp, TechStars, etc. as part of my master's thesis on the rise of these types of programmes. I'm blogging my results (and the full paper) shortly. Will definitely send you the link once it's up.

So far, YC and TechStars in particular look successful. Both look like they've already made their money back in the companies that have already exited, and YC in particular has a handful of companies that could be real home runs, even after all the dilution.

Re: Consumer Centric Health Care

GeekMBA360 — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:18:27 -0000

This is a very good point. And I had first-hand experience.

My kid was sick, and we called 911. The local hospital is 10 miles away, while the Children's hospital is about 15 miles away. We'd prefer to go to Children. But, apparently a key principle of emergency care is to go to the closest hospital for treatment before going to a further, but more specialized hospital.

So, we end up with two ER room visit. Initially we were treated by the closer, local hospital. Then, they sent us to Children's hospital for final diagnosis.

I think ER visit and some other medical visits are different from your typical consumer goods -- there are time, urgency, etc. in addition to price point.

Re: Consumer Centric Health Care

jedc — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:17:25 -0000

For an acute, true emergency, yes. But if you're the one deciding (and not an ambulance crew), it might not be that simple.

Real human decisions are quite complex. In your scenario, what if the hospital closest to you is just an average hospital, but another hospital one mile further away has a world-class trauma center? What if that's half a mile further away? How would that change if your insurance covered everything at either center, versus a particular cap on expenses? (And how sick are you, really?)

If price is a factor in a decision, a consumer will consider it, even in an emergency.

Re: Cambridge Tech Demo Night - 10 September - CALL FOR DEMOS

jedc — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:15:21 -0000

But a fax is just single-channel! He specifically mentioned "Multi-channel"...