Don't Play Their Game
I’ll give a serious take on why YC/Speedrun are horrible ideas for people who want to build a great business:
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You should raise capital to add fuel to the fire, not for the prospect of a [diluted] brand and some chump change magically create the kindling of a business. This lie inverts the entrepreneurial mecca, you’re essentially putting a chicken before the egg.
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Risk is paramount to the success of a startup, meanwhile YC is structured to reduce risk. You should drop out to build “The Company”, the majority of founders now drop out because the “The Stamp” built them.
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Success is a derivative of front loading pain and suffering. Money is the easiest part of building a software company. The hardest part is getting that money from your customers. Get the customers first, the money then flows freely from these retards with pension funds as their LPs. This is related to the risk caveats associated with accelerators but translates more broadly to all financing.
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You’ll be surrounded by losers. Think about the people you know from high school, the people from college, most of them are losers (relative to your ego). YC is no different. Having a community or feeling a sense of belonging and safety amongst the sf crowd is how you lose. You only win by doing it alone. It sounds like a larp but seriously fuck the launch videos and fuck the fundraise announcements, go do this shit in a cave in Afghanistan.
I could add 50 more reasons why it’s a terrible game to play. I don’t even give a shit if YC returns their fund 10x over or collapses entirely, this one goes out to the people who really want to create something.
Striver culture is 100% adjacent to what we now call the woke mind virus. It’s 2016 but this time it’s saunas instead of troons.