Tag Archives: Disrupt NYC

Entrepreneurs Can’t be Wishy-Washy

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“There are some people who just get what they want in the world. If you want to start a startup you have to be one of those people. You can’t be passive and wishy-washy,” – Paul Graham

During the second day of TechCrunch Disrupt NYC, Paul Graham sat down for a chat with Charlie Rose.  Paul Graham is the founder of Y-Combinator, a popular incubator and launch pad for early stage startups.  One interesting tidbit any entrepreneur considering Y-combinator should take note is the current acceptance rate at YC. It’s around 3%, which may be just slightly better than traditional VC fundraising.  I assume this number to get even smaller as YC gets more popular.  Also noteworthy, here’s who they look for:

… we’re not looking for people who did what they were told in life.

Here’s the Best Way to Increase Your Company’s Value

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Have a co-founder.

On stage today at TechCrunch Disrupt NYC, prolific Angel investor Ron Conway spoke on what makes Great entrepreneurs Great.  They interviewed almost 500 CEO’s from their portfolio companies and found some interesting nuggets of wisdom.  Here is a big one: having a co-founder greatly increases your exit.  Companies with exits (or the potential of an exit) in the $25m range, single founders made up only 16%.  Even more interesting, exits of $500m+ (or the potential of an exit) , single founders only made up 11% of the group.  A full 89% of the group were companies with 2 or more founders.  This does not surprise me.   Larry and Sergey (Google).  Steve and Steve (Apple).  Bill and Paul (Microsoft).  Jerry and David (Yahoo).  David and Bill (HP).

Founders – life looks better with a friend along for the ride.