Some thoughts on my first YC Demo Day
13 comments
·June 27, 2025pyb
"2 on 20" Am I understanding correctly? If every YC startup is shooting for a 20 million USD valuation, that's amazing. Even if not all will make it.
mkagenius
Why is this top post on hn within one minute of posting?
sillyfluke
I'm guessing the speed with which it received its initial few votes.
It's a threadbare article with little or no meat on the bone. So it is a little strange.
ge96
Carl Weathers
mkagenius
It had literally two votes. Anyway looks like I shouldn't have brought this issue up, getting downvoted
sillyfluke
Yeah, you're supposed to email hn instead of posting if you think it's an issue.
I've seen 3 point new posts up near the top before so I assumed that's what it was. 2 points top of the page is pretty aggressive tho, it might have been a near instant upvote by someone who was interested in the topic.
soared
https://billchambers.me/about/
This page on mobile made me laugh.
But otherwise, makes sense - get rid off all the flash and this is what demo days/etc are about
chickenzzzzu
Sounds more like a cattle auction than a place where partnerships are formed to deliver meaningful value to consumers.
orsorna
If you aren't already connected beforehand these rituals are a waste of time.
echelon
This is market efficiency. That's the very definition of delivering meaningful value.
The more efficient the capital allocation is, the greater the benefit to the whole market.
The only weirdness is that these are companies led by founders with "personalities". That's a weird variable to correct for.
I didn't realize how poorly YC startups were managed until I joined one.
It's mostly a ponzi scheme, where unprofitable companies pass their books off to non-technical investors that love hype.
> 1 slide. 1 minute pitches. 1 speaker.
This is why YC has such poor results. They're more interested in "1 slide" vs actual financials.
> Vertical AI was all over the place. Cursor for X was also prevalent.
No thought leadership at all.