An Inside Look at Y Combinator
3 year old seed fund Y Combinator has funded over 80 companies and seen a handful through to Series A round funding or successful exits. Given the amount of money that Y Combinator invests in each startup (in the order of $10-20k), it would be hard to classify their oft emulated model anything but a success. Though many of Y Combinator's alumni have blogged about their experiences, what it's like to be one of the few companies selected to live in Cambridge, MA or Mountain View, CA each year remains something of a mystery to anyone who hasn't lived it.
Starting this week, Michael Parkatti and Mike Marrone will be keeping a weekly diary of their experiences as one of the 22 teams selected for Y Combinator's summer session in Cambridge, Massachusetts at the Globe and Mail web site. Canadian natives, Parkatti and Marrone hope to launch their YC project later this summer.
"Beyond merely documenting what I observe around me, I hope to provide an honest reflection of what's it's like to create free enterprise from its most humble tenements," wrote Parkatti in the opening diary.
The two Mike's both left what they refer to as "fairly comfortable employment" to pursue their dream of starting a web company through the Y Combinator program; Parkatti left a Canadian startup, and Marrone left Yahoo! "I suppose you could characterize it as a feverish search to find my true professional identity," says Parkatti of his resume.
It's easy to tell that Parkatti and Marrone are smart people. This one is definitely being added to my RSS reader (or at least, it would be if the Globe and Mail site offered an RSS feed of it -- unfortunately, they don't appear to).
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Hey,
thanks for the write-up!
Parker's diary was a little vague, and I just wanted to mention that I never left Yahoo! for YC specifically, but rather just to pursue any number of interests. YC's application just happened to roll around at the same time... I can definitely say that getting into YC is not something we could have planned for!
I did a kiko video at Ycomb in 2006.
http://bizcast.typepad.com/clients/2006/08/inside_scoop_on.html
Looks like Mr. Parkatti is blogging over at http://www.socialbias.com/ -- I'm going to subscribe over there so that I can follow the story, since the Globe and Mail doesn't offer any way to subscribe to their story thread. Mr. Marrone, do you have a blog as well?
Great stuff Alan.
Where are you doing this blogging? You are going to loose me. This is the second time I have seen this story, saw the M & G one yesterday. How do we read the Feed? Common guys, get with the program!