Comment by yayitswei
1 year ago
YC did not have prestige in their early years (Jessica mentions they had to beg their friends to come to demo days). Yet people were dropping out of Harvard to join. So it seems prestige is not necessary for success and in fact may be a negative signal.
It was very prestigious by ~2007, but only within a much smaller niche of programmers nerds.
So it was prestigious, but it wasn't seen as a profitable investment before it made its first dollar.
It wasn't. If you told someone you dropped out of Harvard back then they would think you were making an odd choice. That said, it was never very risky since Harvard will take you back if you drop out, but it was at least unusual.