← Back to context

Comment by timdorr

13 years ago

Kickstarter is for products, YC is for businesses.

(More or less, I'm not saying it's black and white)

10 comments

timdorr

Reply
splatcollision  13 years ago

Ah, but business should be product-based...

  • timdorr  13 years ago

    That's certainly true, but the two aren't mutually exclusive. Kickstarter will get you the funds to go out and build a cool product, but it won't tell you how to generate a model that's sustainable, teach you how to go to market, or even tell you if there's an available market at all.

    • 6ren  13 years ago

      Kickstarter tells you there's no market by not funding your project: it's a MVP. But KS seems hard unless you're already well known.

  • chc  13 years ago

    Eh, product-focused, maybe. Being completely based on a single, unproven product is not really a great way to run a business, at least from Y Combinator's viewpoint.

mceachen  13 years ago

Although you can argue that a "product does not make a business," many businesses start off with a single product.

Kickstarter is great way to determine if there is commercial viability for an product, but only within the early adopter customer segment -- and that's about it.

YC primarily looks for teams they like. The description of the product idea in the application is indicative of the team's ability to communicate (which is critical), and the actual idea may give a glimpse into the judgement of the team, but a good number of teams (including mine) pivoted pretty dramatically during our time in YC.

Steve Blank, who spoke to our batch, says that a startup is a temporary organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. Understanding this, and understanding when to pivot, was one of the most critical teachings made by YC.