Is Y Combinator worth the money? Brutally honest review of W22 batch experience
Did YC S21 which was an all remote batch. my 2c.<p>YC is 100% what you make of it. It's not a lean back experience.<p>I did not meet most of the companies in my batch but I've gotten to know many founders through YC that I would not have otherwise. Founders that have been source of advice and support.<p>Network of clients - yep don't go into YC expecting to sell to other YC cos. It <i>is</i> easier to get warm intros through the network though.<p>YC advice, office hours specifically - it's what you make of it too. Expecting a group partner to know your space in great detail is unreasonable but if you recognize that they've seen hundreds of companies with similar problems and make use of that pattern matching, you can get very valuable advice. Some of the advice I did not take and did the opposite and it was the right decision. And some advice that I did not take was exactly right, but I only saw it in retrospect months later.<p>Fundraising - being a YC company definitely opens doors, and also helps protects you from bad actors who have to think twice before fucking with a YC co. Very valuable for any first-time founder. You have someone to sanity-check everything, terms you're not sure about etc. The bump in valuation is real too.<p>I'd do YC again in a heartbeat.